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  • Who should the Rockets straight Harden or Westbrook?

  • Well, my list.

  • Time to blow the whole damn thing up.

  • Listen, Russell Westbrook has already gone, okay?

  • He's not coming back.

  • He was.

  • He requested the trade.

  • I know Russell Westbrook.

  • He's done OK.

  • And if you If you're James Harden, you cannot stay there and get and wait to see what you're gonna get back in return.

  • Because it's not gonna be someone that's gonna put you in a title contention or someone that's gonna that they're gonna get equal value that bring in back for Russell Westbrook.

  • That's gonna help you win the championship.

  • So it's time to blow the whole thing up.

  • Look, both of these guys are at the point of their career where they have accomplished everything individually.

  • For all the accolades they got, the MVPs, the scoring titles.

  • The only thing left for those guys to do is to win a title.

  • And once you trade Russell Westbrook, you're not gonna get back anything.

  • So James Harden is not going to sit around and and and be waiting on the rebuilding stage rebuilding process.

  • So if I'm James Harden once Russell Westbrook is traded, I'm walking in the door and talking to the owner and the G m and the coach and say, Hey, my time is up.

  • It's time for me to go.

  • I need a new destination.

  • It's time for me to go somewhere where I could compete and when the title.

  • So I said they need to trade both of them.

  • They have to It's time to blow it up.

  • Yeah, I think that's pretty clear, Andi yet I would say if I'm the Rockets, At least I know Hardened may be unhappy.

  • Whatever, but if I have him under contract, I'm gonna say what Dr Buss told Kobe Bryant.

  • Once upon a time, I got a five carat diamond.

  • I'm not trading it for 51 carat diamonds.

  • James, I'm sorry.

  • You're gonna have to bear with me like you're under contract.

  • I'm not just gonna unload you because you wanna be unloaded.

  • We have to get equal value for you.

  • And that is going to be very difficult because there aren't that many players on your level.

  • So, you know.

  • And once you move Westbrook, by the way, you don't know your right perk.

  • You're not gonna get a Westbrook level player back, but Harden has shown he doesn't necessarily need that to build a team around him.

  • That could be very competitive.

  • Andi.

  • And once you clear that salary off your books, you have a lot more flexibility to maneuver.

  • Ah, clever GM might figure out a way to put a team there that Harden likes.

  • Now.

  • I'm not suggesting that that winds up happening.

  • I think it's an under 50 50 shot.

  • But as long as that's the case, I'm moving Westbrook first.

  • I'm not gonna move the thing that makes my team special just for, you know, spare parts.

  • If someone blew me away of Golden State, made me an offer for the number two pick in this and that and they could throw ah, player and the whole thing, I would have to consider it.

  • And you're going to get a much smaller hall, obviously, for Westbrook right now, given his contract and his perceived value.

  • Nevertheless, I would move Westbrook first and hold on to harden until the absolute last minute, when I absolutely had to trade him to try to get the most for him.

  • Well, first of all, I don't agree with you But there's no surprise there.

  • Max Kellerman.

  • Of course, I don't agree with you, but I will tell you this.

  • Why the hell wouldn't you get something significant for James Harden?

  • I mean, the man.

  • Listen, he's old.

  • 132.9 million over the next three years.

  • Russell Westbrook is old, 132.6.

  • All right.

  • Both of them have an option of players option after the next two seasons.

  • We get all of that, but I think the question that needs to be asking First of all, I completely agree with Kendrick Perkins.

  • He's right on the money.

  • They gotta blow the whole thing up now, because the reality is, is that if you're Houston and you've got a guy in Westbrook that wants out, let me tell you what Houston has been saying for months and stuff and what they, without question saying, are saying now.

  • Kendrick Perkins.

  • Dwight Howard was there hard and wanted them out.

  • They lost in the playoffs a couple of years ago.

  • Last year, Rather, Harden was at the press conference, he said, We all know what the problem is to the press walked off the walked off the podium went down to the office with Maury and and everybody else.

  • He said I once Chris Cp three up out of here right now, Westbrook wants out.

  • And if you're Harden, you've got a situation where people are looking at you right or wrongly, and they're saying, Okay, are you a problem?

  • Now we know you average a minimum of 29 over the last four years.

  • We know that over the last three, you average 32 plus and you're just unstoppable offensively, your magician on the offensive side of the ball.

  • But if you've got teammates, either you don't wanna play with or don't want to play with you and there's no championship to show for all the effort and all the money.

  • Eventually, the organization is gonna look atyou too.

  • But it doesn't mean they're gonna be stupid and lose him for nothing.

  • So now here's where it gets tricky when we bring up Brooklyn because KP brought up Brooklyn at the top of the show.

  • Well, you got Spencer Dinwiddie.

  • You got Caris Levert, you've got picks.

  • You got all of those things that Brooklyn could offer.

  • And Lord knows what else.

  • You know what else?

  • Houston wouldn't wanna hear this.

  • Ah, lot of people wouldn't want to hear this.

  • Especially Houston.

  • Because if you're Tilman Fertitta and the Houston Rockets, why would you wanna help Daryl Morey, who just left you?

  • But he is the president of basketball operations in Philadelphia.

  • They do have somebody by the name of Ben Simmons or Joe L and B.

  • You're talking about somebody like a Ben Simmons, in my estimation, along with additional players, potentially picks as well toe pair hard and would then be because you stuck with Al Horford, okay, And and basically with Tobias Harris.

  • I don't think you stuck because I think the bias Harris would do well with the right team mates.

  • At the end of the day, those air just to and there's gonna be a slew of other offers.

  • But if I'm Houston Max, I know I can get significantly mawr for Harden.

  • I'm not saying that Russell Westbrook is not going.

  • KP is right.

  • He's gone.

  • Russell Westbrook ain't making that decision and then gonna retract.

  • That's not how he's built.

  • If he told him that, he said so to them, and he said it publicly.

  • He wants out.

  • He out, He's out.

  • So you're gonna move him.

  • But the first order of business, in my estimation, if you can get the fall for James Harden, you do it.

  • You do it because you don't know what additional assets you're going to get.

  • Four Harden That will enable you toe.

  • Also unload Russell Westbrook for some additional assets.

  • That's how you play that game.

  • In my estimation, I disagree about the order in which you trained them.

  • I think you get rid of Westbrook first and you hold on to harden until you absolutely have to let him go.

  • That said, you're right.

  • It's almost impossible to get equal value for Harden.

  • Ben Simmons.

  • Ben Simmons.

  • Now you're talking.

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Who should the Rockets straight Harden or Westbrook?

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