Rockets Legend™ Tracy McGrady: Rockets Legend™ James Harden must be dealing with some ‘internal bullshit’ And I don't understand for the life of me what James Harden is doing. Why are you trying to get out? He’s demanded a trade away from the reigning MVP! That makes zero sense to me. Not only that, but I look at all the teammates he's played with. James has probably played with more Hall of Famers than anybody in the league, and he doesn't have a ring to show for it. I don't know what he's looking for. And maybe there's some internal bullshit that is going on that we don't know about. Because it doesn't make any sense to me to leave the MVP, and the Eastern Conference, where you have a shot to at least play for a championship. It's got to be something deeper than what you know. Get over it, man. https://www.gq.com/story/tracy-mcgrady-ones-basketball-interview
It ain't that deep. Harden had a hush deal with Morey last year he'd take the discount but he'll get a max deal this year. Morey went back on his word (what else is new) and Harden got pissed.
To be honest Harden isn't worth a max deal anymore. That don't mean some dumbass team won't give it to him especially if he gets traded. I am just glad someone in the Rockets front office convinced them not to be the team to give him stupid money.
You are right but it also reflects poorly on Morey and the Sixers org for being a lying sack of **** and making promises he can't keep.
I don't know what happens behind the scene. But Morey might not necessarily have lied. He might just be wrong. It seems that Morey really believed Harden would still be great after the contract expired. Now he regrets it. That still does not absolve Morey from breaking his promise (if that's what it was). Harden has to bear part of the blame for not performing up to the max level. If he did, he could have declined the player option and would not have trouble finding teams signing him to a max. Either way, they both deserve the mess by tampering with the rules.
The Clippers have been ‘unserious’ in trade talks for James Harden, per @KyleNeubeck “Even the Clippers, Harden’s preferred destination, have been fairly unserious about what they’re willing to give up in order to acquire him. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that Harden is still valued, but on the team’s terms, which is a shift from the franchise-defining clout Harden had at his peak.” Link
https://www.theringer.com/ryen-russ...ct-boston-celtics-hall-of-famer-tracy-mcgrady McGrady on the Ryen Russillo podcast touched on the Harden situation again. Both he and Russillo expressed their opinion that if Morey/Ownership are going back on a handshake agreement from last offseason then they completely understand and would be on Hardens side. Russillo doesn’t make it a habit of being on “Hardens side” of things. Aside from the Harden talk there was some good Houston/Yao/JVG talk in there that was good to hear.
Where was this outrage with regards to Morey/Harden and Dwight Howard's offensive touches in the post?
Morey has always been a liar Melo, Lin and Howard has said he made promises but when they got to the team Morey went back on his word. The difference is these guys were scrubs so nobody had any sympathy for the anymore.
Harden won 2 of those Boston games single-handedly and everyone wants to blame him for Phila. Meanwhile, Maxey and Embiid were complete ass all series long...
One of the wins, Embiid had 34 pts, 13 rebounds. Philly was +0 when Embiid was on the floor, +0 when Maxey was on the floor, and -6 when Harden was on the floor. They won the game by 1 pt. Another, Embiid had 33 pts and a +21. Maxey had 30 pts and +15. Harden had 17 pts and +10. They won the game by 12 pts. The 3rd, Harden was the key. Embiid was out. Maxey, though, had 26 pts and again a higher +/- than Harden (+12 vs +8).