James Harden finally gets what he wants - he's moving to Brooklyn

I just spent a while pondering how much I dislike the Brooklyn Nets mostly because of their choices of ghetto trash jerseys. I have spent the last month kind of deriding James Harden over his childish millionaire attitude towards his team in the Houston Rockets who were paying him 74 million a year.

I think it is only fitting that these two things would come together in one of the most monumental trades the NBA has ever seen.


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I don't know exactly what lead to the Rockets finally caving to Harden's demands but the fact that he was constantly bashing his own team, his fellow players, as well as the coaches and management in post-game interviews and press events certainly could be one of those factors. There was also some talk about there being some difficulties in the locker room as Harden was playing to improve his own stats and wasn't really trying to help the Rockets to win games. Harden would probably claim that this was because there was no one to pass to or something arrogant like that but now I guess none of that speculation really matters because the deal is done.

Brooklyn is banking a LOT on this trade though and if Harden doesn't perform the way they are hoping once he arrives in Brooklyn, things could be bad for the Nets for a very long time into the future because they traded so much away in order to get him.

Not only are the Nets going to need to spend a ton of money annually to keep Harden, who is definitely not going to be getting a pay cut but they also traded away their first round draft picks in 2022, 2024, and 2026 as well as their unprotected pick swaps in 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027. Let that sink in for a minute... If this addition of one player doesn't make them the superteam they are hoping for, it will be at least 5 years before they can make any meaningful changes to their lineup.

This wouldn't be the first time that a team has spent way more than they probably should have in an effort to bring their team to the forefront, but 76ers put together what looked like a monster of a team in the past 2 years at great expense only to underperform an get eliminated from the playoffs in the first round.

With Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving, there is no denying that the Nets have some absolutely impressive offensive weaponry, but something I think people need to keep in mind is that half of basketball is defense, and these guys aren't that. In this trade the Nets also lost center Jarrett Allen, who can be considered (i do) to be one of the best defensive players in the paint in all of the NBA.

Having an explosive offense is meaningless if you can't keep the ball out of the net on your own end of the court.

No doubt this will make the Nets one of the most exciting teams to watch in the NBA and even though I hate Harden's attitude, he is a joy to watch on the court. Already the pundits are stating that Brooklyn will be the number one team in the East. I hope for their sake, and the sake of their fans, that this pans out well for them.



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