Harden adds Cs to preferred trade destination list

[GreenEnvy]

Any deal starts and ends with Brown. How many other pieces/assets it takes is a mystery.

Personally, I wouldn’t do it for Harden. He not only hasn’t proven himself in the playoffs, he’s a notorious choke-artist. I believe Tatum has the mettle do handle the big stage, but if he can’t on a given night, I don’t trust Harden one iota.

[cltc5]

We blew a 17 point lead.  We need more scoring

[RodyTur10]

New proposal:




Celtics end up with:

Smart/Harden/Brown/Tatum/Thompson

Teague/McLemore/Young/R.Williams

Pritchard/Langford/Green/Ojeleye and 2 open roster spots (O'Quinn + buy-out?) and 5.5M to spend below the tax cap.

[Birdman]

I don’t want Harden on this team..he be toxic

[Darth_Yoda]

Any deal starts and ends with Brown. How many other pieces/assets it takes is a mystery.

Personally, I wouldn’t do it for Harden. He not only hasn’t proven himself in the playoffs, he’s a notorious choke-artist. I believe Tatum has the mettle do handle the big stage, but if he can’t on a given night, I don’t trust Harden one iota.

Harden demanding out causing a fuss and huge distractions and tanking his calue will not cost brown.

I dont think anyone offers that much

[NKY fan]

Let the sixers have him for Tobias. The more this drama goes the lower Hardens value becomes.
Will make things very interesting in the East .
Sixers will implode with harden and Dwight .. also harden and Simmons are not a great fit. Luxury tax will also be a giant problem for them.

[CsBanner18]

New proposal:




Celtics end up with:

Smart/Harden/Brown/Tatum/Thompson

Teague/McLemore/Young/R.Williams

Pritchard/Langford/Green/Ojeleye and 2 open roster spots (O'Quinn + buy-out?) and 5.5M to spend below the tax cap.

I’ve been thinking of something pretty similar:

To BOS: Harden, PJ Tucker

To CHI: Kemba Walker, Langford, Robert Williams, future pick

To HOU: Zach Lavine, Lauri Markkanen, Aaron Nesmith, Carsen Edwards, two 1sts, & two 2nds, TPE for Tucker


ALSO: The Celtics can do all of this while only using $7.9M of their TPE on Tucker. They could incorporate the remaining $20.6M of the TPE in order to strengthen the return for HOU. For example:

To BOS: protected 2nd

To ORL: Eric Gordon

To HOU: Evan Fournier (on an expiring)


In this scenario, the Celtics trade the TPE for Evan Fournier. The Magic then take that TPE and use it on Eric Gordon. Lastly, the Rockets send Boston a protected 2nd for Fournier. I believe the trade would take at least 19 days to be completed due to trade rules?

Final return for Harden: Zach Lavine, Evan Fournier, Aaron Nesmith, Lauri Markkanen, Carsen Edwards, two TPEs (one for Eric Gordon, one for PJ Tucker) & PICKS


Not sure if CHI is getting enough for Markkanen, but they would need to be compensated accordingly for this to be possible.

[Ogaju]

I’m sure Houston has zero interest in Kemba, which is the only trade that makes sense.

Came here to post this as well. I'd only be interested in trading Kemba and future picks along with stuff like Langford, RW3, Edwards. Basically anyone not named Brown, Smart, Tatum, Theis, Thompson, or Teague.

Smart/Teague
Harden/Nesmith
Brown/Semi
Tatum/GWilliams
Theis/Thompson

But it won't happen like that. So. I am not interested in trading for Harden.

that is a terrible small ball lineup.  try

Harden/Teague
Brown/Smart
Tatum/Nesmith/Langford
Theis/Grant Williams/Semi Ojeleye
Thompson/Robert Williams/TPE

[Birdman]

Really don’t need Harden..get Kemba healthy & Teague is the perfect vet backup.. just need a vet SG like Eric Gordon & another backup big like Ersan

[Ogaju]

Why are a lot of people selling Kemba as broken goods?  How do we know he won't come back just as good pre injury?

BECAUSE he has a chronic knee problem, and that is not a good thing for a basketball player.

[ozgod]

I may be the outlier here but I absolutely don't want him, for the following reasons:

• the cost is going to be high. There's no way they will not want one of the Jays, and we will probably have to throw in Smart and some picks as well. As a frame of reference AD ended up costing the Fakers Ingram, Ball and Hart and three draft picks. Fakers were willing to give all that up because they knew he was going to be a Faker for life and the poster boy after LeBum's retirement. Houston will want more than that for Harden, he's a 3x scoring champion and MVP

• ball-dominant iso-heavy divas don't really fit the Celtics system. We already had one iso heavy diva and it didn't work out too well. If we went Harden I think we would have to change our coach as well as I don't think they will be compatible

• most importantly, I think he wants to end up in Brooklyn in the players-are-coaches-team that Artist and Burner are creating, and he would probably just be a 1.5 year (or even 1 year if he doesn't get traded till the end of the year) rental for us. I think his agent is just putting out there the names of teams that have the assets to afford him. I would hate to lose Smart and Brown for a year and a half of Harden. Sure Kawhi was a 1 year rental that worked out but he only cost the Raptors DeRozan who they were going nowhere with anyway so it was low risk for them
  

Harden's a generational player, but I don't know that his heart would be set on Boston if he did get traded. I feel we would be a transit lounge for him. So he's not our generational player.

Now if they take Kemba as the centerpiece of the trade, then I'd be more willing to consider it. But they won't, so it's moot.

What system are you watching? We're iso heavy whenever games get tight, and we have an iso heavy player on our team right now in Tatum.

Everyone's iso heavy when games get tight and you need someone to get a bucket. Doesn't mean it's good to be iso heavy all the time. And while I agree Tatum's definitely an iso heavy player his usage is a lot lower than Harden's, and he's not even in the top 10 in the league when it comes to frequency of iso plays:



And if you look at usage Harden's usage is even higher than Jordan's was during his 1997-98 season:



None of this is intended to suggest that Harden is a bad player. I mentioned in my post above he's a generational player. I just don't think he's our type of generational player. I think Stevens wants his team to play a certain way, with the ball constantly moving, players cutting to the basket, drive and kicks. We don't always do it but I think that's a failure of execution rather than the lack of a guiding principle in the offense. Now it's certainly possible that Harden can adapt his game, he's a great player and great players can adapt, as KD did when he moved to GS. But I'm not sure if he can sacrifice to the extent that he might need to, that KG and Ray Allen were able to and that Kyrie was unable to. I think it's more likely that either Stevens, or whoever ends up being the coach, will end up redesigning the offense to take advantage of Harden's unique scoring skills. And I'm not sure I would like that, personally.

BUT...it's ultimately all about the cost. If we can get him without giving up the Jays or Smart, I'll certainly be willing to take the risk for 1 or 2 years to see if it works out. But it won't happen because Houston won't take that deal, not when there are players like Simmons or Embiid in play for Harden.

[Ogaju]

Really don’t need Harden..get Kemba healthy & Teague is the perfect vet backup.. just need a vet SG like Eric Gordon & another backup big like Ersan

Kemba will get healthy, I do not know if that means he can take the pounding necessary for a basketball PG.

[IDreamCeltics]

I'm sorry, why do we need Harden again?   

We already excel in the regular season and fall short in the playoffs...

[mef730]

I'm sorry, why do we need Harden again?   

We already excel in the regular season and fall short in the playoffs...

Yeah, I don't need him shedding all over the parquet.

Mike

[GreenFaith1819]

Look if Jaylen Brown can even SNIFF what he did against MIL for the entire season I'd give serious pause on trading him.

James is still a better player than him but Jaylen was AWESOME the other night....and will be awesome for this season as he (and Jayson) gets more touches.

Love James Harden and his game but again I love what Jaylen is showing me....AND Jaylen's YOUTH.