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James Harden is a Net and according to reports from Brooklyn, Houston – and Philadelphia, the Nets ‘willingness to forgo so many draft picks and the Rockets’ desire for Victor Oladipo secured the victory for Brooklyn.
Additionally, a Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey report reveals that the 76ers thought they were becoming Harden, but the Rockets were so happy with the Nets offer they never even asked Philly to counter. Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle, who would have been key elements of a 76ers offer, “were even informed by their agents on Wednesday of a planned trade,” Pompey reported.
Harden, an eight All-Star and both a former MVP and sixth man of the year, was the centerpiece of the consummate trade on Wednesday afternoon. The Nets were ultimately forced to give up three first rounds, the right to trade four more first rounders as well as Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince and Rodions Kurucs in the deal, receiving only Harden in return. To make up for a problem with LeVert’s physique, the Nets had to add $ 2.6 million in cash to complete the four-team trade.
As had been assumed on several occasions, the Rockets weren’t interested in any of the young Nets players, but rather wanted Brooklyn to acquire a star for them … and add choices to it. Oladipo was that star.
The deal, by all reports, came to an end quickly and the Nets and 76ers were asked to make offers shortly before the deal was closed. Sean Marks, speaking with Michael Grady on Friday, said the process leading to the deal only started “two to three weeks ago” and then accelerated earlier in the week.
“We’re always in touch with a variety of different teams,” Marks told the YES Network reporter. “I think on the James Harden front we could have had a conversation two or three weeks ago. It was really nothing. It really accelerated in the last 48 hours before the exchange, when conversations were going on, you know, very frequently. “
Rafael Stone, Rockets general manager, told reporters in Houston on Sunday that he liked the “flexibility” the Nets offered.
“What’s super exciting about this deal is that it gives us flexibility,” Stone said. “In the NBA, choices, especially high choices, are the best currency. Everyone loves them. Everyone appreciates them. So it was awesome. Organizationally, it has given us the flexibility to enter into different types of agreements as they arise, this year, next year, whatever.
“Then we were able to integrate Victor Oladipo, with Rodi (Kurucs) and Dante (Exum.) But Victor is a guy who really fascinates us. We think he’s very talented. This is not insignificant from our point of view. “
Judging from his comments, Stone predicts that in the future the Nets will have to rebuild themselves and their picks and trades will become more valuable pieces. Specifically, Brooklyn has relinquished first-round picks in 2022, 2024, and 2026 as well as the right to swap picks in 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027. None of the picks are protected. The Rockets also get the Bucks’ 2022 first round from the Cavaliers.
Marks admitted that including all of those picks was no easy decision, but said the experience of the past five years – including the successes in scouting and developing the Nets – has allowed him to stand feeling convinced that the success of the organization can be “sustainable” in the long term.
“Whether we’ve done this trade or not, the goal of this organization is to go out there and find players that fit your timeline of what you’re trying to do and what you’re trying to accomplish and do. ‘help develop them. and everything, ”Marks said.
“So it is again an incredible opportunity that we have in front of us. It’s not like we don’t have a choice. When we got here there just wasn’t any. Whereas now we have them. they’re just, you know, tied to swaps and so forth, but there are different ways to keep building that and come up with something that hopefully is sustainable for a long time.
Two-time All-Star and former Most Improved Player Oladipo was instrumental in Stone’s rating of the trade.
“I think it’s (pretty much) good, for him, for us, for everyone,” Stone said. “But you hope it’s a perfect marriage. He is an extremely talented player. He’s a two-way player. He performed at an extraordinarily high level. He obviously suffered a significant injury. He is back. He’s already really, really good. In her own mind and in ours, there is still room to grow, which is really exciting.
“For him and for us, it’s a really exciting time where we can see how it works and hopefully it just works gangbusters and we go from there.
However, the Rockets will have to re-sign Oladipo this summer. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer after earning $ 21 million this season. The Rockets will have the rights to the birds of Oladipo.
Stone said Harden’s recent criticism of the Rockets was not a determining factor in trade negotiations. The Rockets general manager, in his first season after a long tenure as the team’s general counsel, said Harden spoke to the organization of a trade shortly after the Rockets eliminated in the “bubble. Orlando and Daryl Morey and Mike D ‘Antoni stepped down as team president and head coach in the fall. Morey is now president of the 76ers, D’Antoni, assistant to Steve Nash on the Nets. Harden, in his comments on Friday, said the same.
“With regard to Houston, after the bubble and that loss, I wanted to re-evaluate my career, the team and the direction the organization was taking,” said Harden. “You look up and down at GM leaving Mike D’Antoni leaving to reassess our staff to see if we have enough to compete with the best teams in this league.
“Over time with free agency and everything, I felt like we didn’t stand a chance.”
Reports that Harden wanted a Brooklyn trade surfaced over the summer as Nets Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving joined Harden and others for practice sessions at the Academy outside of Los Angeles.
Harden, in his discussion with reporters two days ago, said Durant and Irving’s presence in Brooklyn was part of his decision to seek a trade with the Nets, as was recruiting D’Antoni to be the coordinator. offensive team.
“It was part of it,” Harden said of D’Antoni being in Brooklyn. “Mike is an amazing coach and has been doing it for a very long time. Mike is a mailman and being comfortable with him, with Kevin, knowing Kyrie, and just those four pieces over there made it easy. They being in Brooklyn, it was obvious.
Stone Sunday and Harden Friday said the relationship between the two sides was more amicable than reported and the process was working as best it could under the circumstances.
“James is a great player, period, period. And the eight years he was here, his work ethic was incredible, ”Stone told reporters. “The flip side is that our goal remains the same. We are in a good position to develop something really special. I think the flexibility we have organizationally is really interesting and I hope we can do some very, very good things with it.
Stone was not discussing competing offers from other teams or identifying which teams had expressed interest in Harden. However, Pompey, who has long beaten the Sixers writer, suggested there were talks between the 76ers and the Rockets until Brooklyn and Houston made the deal with Indiana and Cleveland.
Pompey wrote that Philly’s offer centered around Simmons, Thybulle and two first-round picks, but Tyrese Maxey, the 76ers’ prized rookie, was not included and was not a show like others. had written it.
The two teams were heavily engaged in discussions, but the Rockets essentially left the 76ers in a bind. Citing a “league source,” Pompey wrote to the Rockets “never called the Sixers back for a counter-offer until they struck the successful four-team deal that sent Harden to Brooklyn.”
In fact, Pompey reported, the Sixers believed the deal for Harden was done, adding: “The team won’t come out and say it, but Morey has gone to great lengths to find the 2018 MVP (Harden). Simmons and Thybulle were even informed by their agents on Wednesday of an expected trade.
Pompey also hinted that the 76ers were motivated to pursue Harden after the then under-staffed Nets firmly beat Philly on January 7.
Marks, summing up his thinking on trading, said the decision was not easy in large part because of the players he had to give up. At the same time, the Nets general manager said getting Harden was a big ‘opportunity’ because both ‘he wanted to be here’ and his relationship with Durant. “.
“So you have to weigh everything these guys brought – the fiber that they were a part of and the fingerprints that are all over here,” Marks told Grady. “Then, you say, we have the opportunity here to add some franchise-level talent to James Harden who wants to be here, who wants to be a part of it and who already has a pre-existing relationship with one of our star players.
“These are things, to be quite frank, that we couldn’t shy away from and that achieved our organizational goals, where we wanted to be for the next several years.”
Marks also shouted at his owner.
“Joe Tsai has been nothing but supporting in all forms and modes of how we’re trying to build this. And it is awesome. To see his conviction to win, his conviction to do something that has never been done in Brooklyn before. I know he’s thrilled to bring fans back to this building, Barclays, etc. To be frank, the borough deserves it.
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