The Oklahoma City Thunder are still looked at as one of the best teams in the Western conference despite losing in the second round of the playoffs last season, but after trading away James Harden to the Rockets before the start of the year in 2012, the team may have made a mistake that they never will recover from.
Harden was traded as the team was dealing with a contract issue and basically the Thunder decided to send away a potential NBA superstar over some dollars and cents. The team also made a huge mistake by signing Serge Ibaka to an extension before taking care of Harden, in what I like to call the Albert Pujols-Matt Holiday situation, which saw the Cardinals give an extension to Holiday before locking up Pujols, basically writing his exit ticket to LA. Now of course Pujols is old and looks old so they made the right call, but at the time the Cards still wanted to keep him.
What makes the Harden trade even worse for the Thunder are two major things: one, the team now has Dwight Howard and look like true contenders for a title, and two, the team desperately needed Harden last season in the playoffs and it showed. The team was completely lost once Russell Westbrook went down in Game 2 against, of course, the Rockets and with him out for the series, the offense had no flow and Kevin Durant could not stay comfortable because he constantly had to find his own shot and he also had to bring up the ball on most important possessions as well, basically taking him out of the play.
The loss of Westbrook in the playoffs left the Thunder a one man show and their chances of making it to the finals went to basically zero once they lost Westbrook. That definitely would not have happened if Harden was still on the team, as he could have been brought up to the starting lineup and looking back now, there is no doubt that he could have been a second scorer for the team when the needed it. There are so many bad aspects to this trade it's hard to fathom and organize in a coherent way, so I'll just keep vibing on it. Sam Presti is a very smart GM and since he came from San Antonio he has the pedigree to make a decision like this...BUT..you drafted this guy, helped turn him into a budding star and then just as your core has its best season and it about to go into the next one you...trade him?
Doesn't make too much sense. One thing that has been amazing about the thunder is the fact that they have so much home grown talent and now that they have rid themselves of Harden to avoid signing a max contract they have Durant, Westbrook and..Ibaka? Last season he averaged 7.7 rebounds and 13 points and did not do too much to help in the second round against Memphis, compared to Harden, who scored over 25 points with nearly five rebounds per game.
The last little wrinkle and it's amazing that there is enough before this that makes the trade look bad: look what the Thunder got in return! Basically nothing at this point.
OKC sent Cole Aldrich and forwards Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward to Houston with Harden and they got in return: Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick.
Now if some of those picks turn out to be something amazing, that's great, but Lamb is not Harden and now that Martin has left and signed for the Wolves, what do the Thunder really have to show for the trade? A second round loss to the Grizzlies that EASILY could have been helped by Harden and now they don't even have Martin to fall back on. Lamb will need to turn into a hell of a player for this deal to even out.