Haters gonna hate.
Go Rockets!!!!!!!!!!! I think they could sneak in as a 7th or 8th seed this year. I think Harden/Lin are a good guard combo, I think their play styles will mesh pretty well. Harden and Westbrook were counter productive a lot of times, and I even think Westrbook struggles to mesh with Durant at times as well. I think OKC is definately a weaker team now, Harden offers a lot more then Kevin Martin does. Harden was running the offense when Durant/Westrbook took a breather and did pretty well at it and offers a greater variety of skill sets that helped them out. Sure Lamb and the draft picks helps the future, but you have to build one team that is at its prime in its window for a span of 3-4 years to be a contender, not just be a really good team for 6-7 years.
Harden did dissapear in finals, but really? Because a guy didn't play great against the best team in the league it wipes out everything about his caliber of play.... He is 23 years old, still very young.
I also think its funny you guys are knocking the "max" deal so much. Yet he was offered $55 million. So you guys are going ape s**t over what, $3-$4 million more over 4 years? Thats dumb IMO to criticize it so much when the player is just getting paid about a $1million more per year.
Edit: I think Harden made the demand for max mostly to get out of OKC and become a starter. I think all the publicity he got last year gave him a taste of beign a star and he wants to become one. Ever since Harden came to ASU he has always been huge on being different then everybody else and creating his own legacy. So I'm not surprised he did this.
[ Edited by SunDevilNiner79 on Oct 29, 2012 at 11:51 AM ]