Originally Posted by
The Giant
They didn't think they could afford all three. It was trade Harden, or watch him walk for free. Ironically, that's what ended up happening with Durant.
What are you talking about?? This is the NBA. The salary cap was peanuts compared to what it is today. You are talking about a few million more and they still wouldn't have scratched the luxury tax. The move was purely financial and it was stupid. This is from ex coach Scottie Brooks...
"I think that’s an easy question. You look at all the great teams. The Golden State Warriors have three All-Stars. The Miami Heat had three All-Stars. The Boston Celtics had three All-Stars. The Houston Rockets, when I played, only had one All-Star. I got screwed that year, didn’t get an All-Star bid that year. But (Hakeem) Olajuwon was an All-Star. Easy to say, but it didn’t happen. It’s all hypothetical. James is a great player. "The thing that I love about James, he loved his role. He loved coming off the bench, he loved working with that second unit. Him and Nick (Collison) had a great bond on the court and off the court. When James made that USA Basketball, he knew that he belonged and that following year before he was traded, he was one of the best players. And he did not want to start. We tried to start him a few times because Thabo Sefolosha got hurt. I think we started him like two games and he came to me after each game and said ‘Coach, Coach, Coach, please, please, please get me back in my same role. I like the second unit.’ That says a lot about him. Because he was a great player, is a great player. "But it didn’t work out. For whatever reason, they couldn’t get it done. We moved on as a team. It was tough. I thought our guys did a great job of picking up the pieces mentally. We were drained when it first happened. But I thought my staff and our team did a great job of showing leadership and fighting on and we ended up winning 60 games that year."