You have been leading the league in usage rate among reporters in this last month or two.

Tim, of course.

Now, with James leaving the Rockets, he is the second leading scorer in franchise history behind Hakim.

Harden.

First and assist, three pointers made free throws, All Star spot in eight seasons as a bracket.

So given the long picture, not just this morning when everyone woke up but big picture.

What should James Harden's legacy in Houston B.

You know, I really think it is a complicated legacy.

He is.

With all due respect to Moses Malone and and you, Robert.

He's the second best player in franchise history.

But unlike Akeem, he did not deliver a championship.

Unlike Akeem, he did not, you know, stay in Houston for his entire prime.

And then, obviously, this was a bitter divorce, and I think part of Hardens legacy is obviously the individual Brilliant.

He was a perennial M V P candidate won the M V p the scoring titles.

The assist titles revolutionized offensive basketball in the NBA, but there's also the short shelf life with his hand picked co stars.

Three years.

Then he couldn't wait to get rid of Dwight Howard.

Two years with Chris Paul.

One year with Russell Westbrook.

Then and then they both wanted out.

And so I think that has to be considered part of, Like I said, what is really a complicated legacy for James Harden with Rockets.

What do you guys see?

It hardens legacy there.

Well, look, this is what his legacy is going to be.

No one will ever wear his jersey again in his jersey will hang up in the Raptors at some point in time.

That is the biggest compliment to somebody's legacy.

That's that's starting it.

Yes, it is very, very complicated.

Like Tim, he is the second best player to ever play for the Rockets.

All of these things are compliments because they have a greatly Clyde Drexler.

They've had great players, but Robert Ory, obviously they drafted me.

Eso I'm gonna count myself in that also, but old.

But ultimately, I think that's where you look at the final piece of his legacy.

And will anybody where his jersey again?

Will it hang up in the Raptors.

And the answer is yes.

I don't know about that one, because you gotta understand, Tilman Fertitta is the owner of this team.

He only had the pleasure of having John.

I mean, harden for three years, so I don't know if he's gonna say Okay, we're gonna put him up in the rafters like the other guys who cemented their legs.

And those guys are in the Raptors.

So it's gonna be different, because if you look at what James did, he never really took him to the promised land.

He asked for all this stuff.

He got a big contract.

He got all these players to place around him and then he left town in the matter.

They left town.

So right now, there is a nasty taste in the mouth of the Houston's fans.

And that's what's the most important thing to Houston's fans that we gave you everything you wanted.

We did all these things and until me, even when I try to open a restaurant for this dude and he left and so there's a lot of things that the taste is not so great in Houston and Houston, Onley respects champions because look, at Warren Moon when the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

But they don't really put him in the Houston football legs because he did not win a championship.

Tim, I don't know how you see that.

And also, by the way, how you see the fact that James did end up going to Brooklyn when we know the conversations were also so hot and heavy with Philadelphia Philadelphia that was willing to offer them?

Ben Simmons, in return, did any kind of sort of bad feelings, either about hard and wanting to leave or about his old friend Daryl Morey.

Being the guy in Philadelphia play into this is well, well, clearly, the bad feelings about hard wanting to leave didn't impact the final decision because he got his first choice.

His first choice was to go to Brooklyn, and then he was like, OK, I'll be fine with Philly and then some other teams got add to the list.

I really don't think that the relationship and, you know, the whatever friction there might be with Daryl Morey was a riel factor here, you know?

Look, Ben Simmons was on the table.

The rockets did not get the young franchise cornerstone that they've been insistent on getting in return for James Harden.

I just think, though, when it got down to it the historic package of picks that they got back from the Nets, that was the deciding factor.

The fact that those Pixar dated well beyond what will be the primes of hardened KD and Kyrie for rebuilding franchise.

I just think that ended up being something they felt like they could not pass up when they basically had to make a deal.

Well, you mentioned the pics.

Also, they ended up with Victor Oladipo out of all of this Dante Xom, right?

So let's take a look.

How good is Houston right now?

You've got all the Depo joining John Wall in that backcourt.

What do you think, Robert?

It's the injury squad right now.

Everybody's coming back from injuries.

Are they gonna be healthy?

Because these three guys that they have Ah, great players, cousins.

If he could get healthy good health.

Whoa.

They stay healthy.

But if you look at something, they're still limping a little bit and so I don't think they're 100%.

So if they could get these guys and get them healthy.

They're fine.

But those picks I'm looking at them using their picks because there's gonna be another disgruntled superstar out there that's gonna say, I want out.

What better place to go then?

Houston, with no state tax, state tax, a great team and picks.

So they set themselves up for future something down the line.

And for a guy like Victor Oladipo, I look at Gordon Hayward, right?

Like Gordon.

Hayward was averaging 17 points a game in Boston on a championship caliber team, and people were still saying like, Oh, well, Gordon Hayward, it's like, No, he's good.

Now he's averaging 22 9 22 a night in Charlotte because he's got a little bit more unleashed.

He can have a bad night, not have to worry about people criticism, criticizing him because he's a guy.

Victor Oladipo now has the platform.

Has the runway to go be, Ah, high level score on this team and it's a matter of getting those reps getting those minutes and just going out there and playing.

So I like what they have.

A victory or deeper into his point.

If you have all of these picks, that's how they got James Harden.

They took a trade, a couple of players and got a bunch of picks.

And then that's what they shipped the O.

K.

C.

To get James Harden.

So now it might not be disgruntled.

It might just be somebody that's not resigning.

It could be somebody that's like, I want to enter free agency and they don't want to risk it.

So it doesn't always have to be disgruntled.

A lot of times it is.

But there are other scenarios where it's not always such a bad situation.

And you have all of this stuff that you've collected toe put out there that similar what Danny Ainge did to get Kyrie.

Yeah, just got another superstar that wanna, you know, Francis Green, other side.

What do you think I do?

Think the other thing we need to keep.

We need to keep a Ni here on Victor Oladipo before the trade, whether he fits really well or not.

Look, he's an expiring contract, and I think that's the primary reason that he was Mawr attractive to the Rockets than Caris.

Levert, who has two years after this year at about 18 mil per year and Victor Oladipo as an expiring contract.

Maybe there's a team that really likes what they see.

They want his bird rights.

Maybe there's a team that you know just sees value and and having the expiring contract.

But that is it could be another really significant, uh, chip for Rafael Stone, the new rocks general manager, to play in the trade market.

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