When it comes to Harden, is it hardened?

Or is it the Rockets?

Well, to me, it's It's always the team when you have a player under contract to a lesser degree.

For example, Max, I would use that Prescott, even though we're talking apples and oranges to some degree as it pertains to football compared to basketball.

The fact of the matter is that when you have the license to franchise tag Dak Prescott, not just one year but another year, what have you?

You can go to the negotiating table.

You don't necessarily have to capitulate to his demands or his wishes.

Andi ends up stuck in the situation that he has to work with.

The situation is similar with James Harden in this regard.

The fact is, he's old 41 million up.

I'm sorry 30 years, 41.2 million this upcoming season and then 44 million the next season before his player option kicks.

And so he's under contract now.

Obviously, he's a superstar in this league, and you don't want to disgruntled James Harden.

But the flip side is he is under contract And so it's one thing to sit up there and say You want out.

It's another thing to literally designate a particular team.

You want to land towards the Houston Rockets.

No, they want fair and equitable compensation, and that's far difficult to do when a player comes out and says that specifically is where I wanna go because you could always say that didn't necessarily work out as opposed to a guy that just says, Just get me the hell up out of here.

You can't sit up there and say You can't find some place for him to go But when he wants one particular place, that's much harder to do.

Those are the reasons why.

I think along with Dwight Howard and the CP three situation with Hard and Max were hard and one of them gone.

I think those are the kind of things that puts Houston in some position of leverage.

They both have leverage.

That's true.

But if the question is who has more leverage, I'll say James Harden, I agree.

If he says I only wanna play for Brooklyn, Houston and tell him tough, we're not gonna send you to Brooklyn.

But with another team really try to make a move and mortgage, you know, like mortgage the house for James Harden.

If they believed he wasn't gonna stay there, it's possible.

Maybe a team like Philadelphia says, Well, he thinks he wants Brooklyn Now, if we get him down here, he'll want to stay or something like that.

Um, I don't know, though, that they bring the kind of deal that it would take to move them that the Rockets would really like.

Now I agree the team has some leverage because it's a two year contract.

If it was two years left on the deal, then it's a player option.

If it was one year left on the deal, they really wouldn't have much because he'd be like, Look, you're gonna be left holding the bag.

You gotta move me.

You gotta move me now or trade deadline on by then, you really only have them for a short rental if you're not the Brooklyn Nets, so the team doesn't get much back.

Um, the team has some leverage, but the NBA superstars, eh?

NBA superstars have enormous leverage.

This is a player driven league.

I've said it many times in Major League Baseball.

Most important person in the franchise is the GM.

In the NFL, the most important person is the head coach, and in the n B A.

The most important person is the franchise player.

James Harden, as a franchise player, is legit.

MVP caliber player has enormous leverage here.

It's not that his team doesn't have any, but he has more.

And if he says he wants to play for the Nets, good luck getting a deal where you're getting any kind of really value for him.

If it's not at least a three way deal or a four way deal, where Harden winds up where he wants to be.

All right, well, we are bringing someone in to break the tie.

We've got MBA champion Kendrick Perkins in the House.

All right, so perk.

The question here is who has more leverage in the situation as it pertains to harden.

Is it Harden or the Rockets?

Stephen A.

Said it was the Rockets.

Max said Harden.

So what do you think?

It's the Rockets by a long shot?

James Harden has no leverage right now because he's under two.

He still have two years left on this contract, and we see that right now.

If James Harden had all the leverage, the trade would have been done.

The Rockets are in control.

They don't have to trade James Harden.

He signed to the Houston Rockets.

They could hold onto him until the remainder of his contract is done.

So they don't have to trade him.

And they definitely don't have to trade them toe what he wanna be traded?

They don't owe him that.

So right now, let me tell you something.

The thing with James Harden messed up it is that he should have kept the trade in house and not made it public.

When you make it public now you make so many, you make bad, you make it hard for everyone.

And you could almost have the organization be rebellious.

Especially when you pick a destination.

Because look, like I said before, the Rockets are not just gonna give James Harden away.

I said this yesterday.

James Harden, is they Rose Royce?

And they're not about to just trade him for escalating to Audi trucks.

No, they're gonna want back off for Rory or something to that nature.

So right now, the Houston Rockets have all the leverage, and they're showing us that because they're not giving into what he wants on day two, they're not well, well, let me say this to you, KP They are trying, though.

I mean, they just they just like you said, they want the farm.

They ain't giving them away for nothing.

They they've got to get significant compensation for him.

You're absolutely right about that.

But they recognized that he wants to leave, and here's why.

I'm told they don't necessarily have a problem with it.

They understand where they are.

They know they want to get significant compensation for him.

But James Harden has made it clear to them he loves Houston.

It's where he'd like to end his career.

It's just that at this stage in point, he knows they can't win a title.

So he wants to go somewhere to win a title and then hopefully return before his career is over.

If you believe that, the bottom line is is that James Harder, you are absolutely right.

Like I said earlier, I don't believe he has the leverage, but I believe the reason that his leverage have diminished so significantly is because he pinpointed the one particular team he wanted to go to if he said, I just wanted out.

Well, you could work out a deal with a multitude of teams to get him up out of there.

But the fact that you pinpointed Brooke Flynn now it's gonna be incoming upon Brooklyn A to decide if they want you be how bad they want you and see what assets they're willing to give up.

And D.

Who can I work with in terms of a 13 around the league toe?

Help acquire the assets for us to give to Houston so we could get James Hearted.

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