As you can tell from the title, I do not think that the Oklahoma City Thunder's trade of James Harden to the Houston Rockets before the 2013 season was a bad one. While it was a real blow to lose a player with so much talent and chemistry with the team, it made sense then, and it still puts the Thunder in a enviable position after being dumped from the 2013 NBA playoffs following the failure of Russell Westbrook's formerly bulletproof health insurance rating.
There are plenty of reasons for this, and first and foremost is the plain fact that the trade should not be re-graded because of a freak accident. It is not as if Sam Presti traded away Harden knowing that the other two star players he was keeping were Stephen Curry and Andrew Bynum. Before these playoffs Westbrook and Durant had together not missed a start due to injury since 2010, and Westbrook, as everyone knows now following his torn meniscus, had not missed a game since high school.
Therefore, there was no precedent to assume that they would have injury issues last season. While it may seem naive to assume that the Thunder's two ...
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Article written by Ben Lorimer
Why the James Harden Trade Remains a Good One for the Oklahoma City Thunder
June 22nd, 2013 by Ben Lorimer Leave a reply »
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