Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • ninth best player, according to MBA rankings and the superstar dominating the news lately.

  • Former M V P James Harden.

  • It's no secret he wants out of H Town, but practice with the team yesterday and is expected to play in preseason action tonight.

  • Stephen A.

  • What should the Rockets dio with James Harden?

  • Well, they should unload them.

  • Hey, wants out.

  • Let him go.

  • I don't like the fact that you know what an African American coach that waited 20 years for this opportunity finally gets it.

  • And the star, one of the prolific scorers this game has ever seen, doesn't want to be there.

  • So when I hear my man, Kendrick Perkins speaking on the jump like he did the other day, well, I hear my brother Steven Jackson from all the smoke podcast with Matt Barnes speaking about James Harden.

  • They ain't wrong.

  • They weren't wrong with what they're saying.

  • But in the end, because you want out, the bottom line is it's not a good situation for Stephen Silence to be coaching in because your star doesn't want to be a part of the mix.

  • So as a result of that, you unload him.

  • Now you don't unload it for nothing.

  • You make sure that you get equitable compensation or is close to it as you could possibly get.

  • But you make it very, very clear to James Harden.

  • We're not telling, you know, you're not We're not saying stay because we got you locked under contract for the next two years because that's not gonna fly because that's a poison, the situation for the team to be in the rest of the team around him.

  • But what you do tell them is we will exhaust every means and every measure to get you up out of here and where you wanna go.

  • But we will not let you go for cheap compensation.

  • You're one of the elite players in this game, and we're gonna make sure we get the farm for you.

  • If we let you go, you can at least tell them that and then work to move them out.

  • Well, you've got to deal him sooner than later is the problem, because, um, the issue really is as he's continually disgruntled and increasingly unhappy, he becomes mawr of a distressed asset and his trade value decreases.

  • Stephen A.

  • What you're talking about is people ain't coming with their best and final offer now because it ain't the trade deadline yet, right?

  • And so?

  • So people talk about like you could buy.

  • You know, a car like this, you can You can call up all the different dealers in the area and say, Look, I'm giving everyone one chance to make their best offer and they'll tell you Well, when you shopping around, come back, say, no, no, no, no.

  • One chance.

  • What's your best price that will actually get you the best price immediately?

  • Tell you supposed to buy a car?

  • That's how you're supposed to sell James Harden.

  • If the Rockets are serious, then they won't wait till the trade deadline to see.

  • Oh, now people are get serious now.

  • They'll give us our their best and final offer because that offer will be less than it is today because he's a they have to move him.

  • This is not a It's an untenable situation.

  • Rocks need to get on the phone right now and let people know we are moving hard, best and final.

  • We're not negotiating what you got.

  • Take the best offer and be done with it.

  • What makes what makes you are wrong because they don't have to move James Harden.

  • They don't have to ease under contract for the next two years, so they don't have to do a damn thing.

  • Not what they need to do is they need to move him.

  • But they don't have to do anything.

  • They could keep James Harden and the brothers just gonna have to show up to work and and perform at a high level and give that M V p type performance on the court until he find his next his next destination.

  • But right now, what you're looking at is Houston has lost leverage.

  • James Harden has lost leverage.

  • And if I'm the Rockets, I'm gonna hold on to James Harden right now and I'm gonna wear it out.

  • I'm going to see if he comes in.

  • He's supposed to play on Thursday, and I'm gonna see how how it's gonna happen, how it's gonna work in the next 25 to 30 games.

  • I'm not going to rush anything right now because, like you said, teams are not going to give you what you want for James Harden right now.

  • So with that being said, you got to keep him and try to make this thing work some type of way and don't force the issue.

  • If I am in the front office and I am the general manager of the Houston Rockets, I probably wanted reach out to David Griffin and pay a consulting fee and find out how did he handle the Anthony Davis situation?

  • So superb and find out and get advice from him on how to handle this.

  • Anthony Davis.

  • I mean, is James Harden situation Kendrick Perkins.

  • Here's the slight, slight disagreement that you and I have.

  • You say James Harden, you you and I agree they don't have to trade him because he is under contract for the next two years.

  • But you said he has to go out there and perform at a high level.

  • That last part is not necessarily true.

  • Now it might be on wise, but he doesn't have to do that part.

  • If James Harden shows upto work but appears disinterested appears ah, bit apathetic towards or indifferent towards things.

  • Is it going all out, etcetera, etcetera?

  • What they gonna do?

  • They're gonna dock him because he averages 15 instead of 30.

  • They're gonna dock compay because he's not looking like he might take a publicity publicity hit.

  • You know, it doesn't look good toe basketball lovers when we know what he can do on the court if he's not doing it.

  • But we he doesn't have to perform at a premium level, which is the danger of keeping the describing the star where he does not want to step.

  • Not only that, he does that and his trade value goes down, which is Dad Burke.

  • Hey, have to perform.

  • And the reason why I say he have to perform at that M V P type level is because if he wants out, he still have to let the team know.

  • Because here's the problem right now.

  • If you're a team that's looking to even try to trade for James Harden.

  • One thing you you're worried that he's not gonna be committed to the franchise long term, so you want to see so right now, the way James Harden have the the situation for us with him wanting to be traded, not reporting to camp on time, he has to clean those areas up and in order for him to clean those areas up, not only do we have to show up toe work, but he needs to show up, toe work and perform at a high level, especially if he's trying to get traded and want somebody to want them.

  • It is true.

  • It is true.

  • It is true, not true.

  • Perk this.

  • What?

  • This is his the issue when a star like this wants out, Actually, it's in their best interest to not have too much trade value because then wherever they get dealt to is not as good as they would have been because they have to give up Mawr to get them.

  • It's in that actually works for Harden if he kind of underperformed or gets elective surgery or, you know, like does one of those things that stars sometimes do, and they and there's and consequently not a huge trade package for him at the destination he gets, he arrives, he will ball out, he'll have full value and everything, and the team will be even better because they didn't have to sell the farm to get him.

  • The point is, the rockets there is the position here, guys, because whatever the letter, whatever the letter of the law, is with the contracts.

  • Superstars have the clout in the N B.

  • A.

  • Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

  • Subscribe to ESPN plus.

ninth best player, according to MBA rankings and the superstar dominating the news lately.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it