A decade after Oklahoma City traded James Harden on the eve of the 2012-13 common season, it nonetheless stands as an atrocity upon the artwork of dynasty-building. As the central gamers concerned in that deal wind down their Hall of Fame careers in bleak conditions, there is no such thing as a extra denying it, Oklahoma City buying and selling Harden was essentially the most detrimental commerce a company has made in NBA historical past.
Fresh off their 2012 NBA Finals loss to the Miami Heat, Thunder executives have been inspired by their progress. Each of their 4 headliners was 24 or youthful, together with their defensive plug Serge Ibaka. However, Harden’s poor efficiency within the Finals sequence in opposition to Miami and the monetary standing of the Thunder left the group sheepish on providing a large extension to him. After General Manager Sam Presti supplied a four-year $48 million deal to Serge Ibaka, Harden rejected a team-friendly four-year, $52 million extension understanding that in 2013 he might demand a max contract as a restricted free agent.
Instead of embarking on one other title chase with Harden, Presti took drastic measures. On Oct. 27, Presti pulled the set off on a commerce that despatched Harden and roster flotsam to the Houston Rockets in alternate for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks, and a second-round decide. Oklahoma City has been coping with the implications ever since. The Thunder remained contenders within the West, however as soon as Harden was traded, the Thunder’s ceiling was significantly decrease. Juggernaut potential was gone.
Harden existed as a buffer between the pro-Westbrook and pro-Durant camps. With him gone, Westbrook morphed right into a dwell wire throughout the offense. He repeatedly led the league in turnovers, tried extra photographs per sport than Durant and carried out the distribution duties which are anticipated of level guards. That dynamic allowed the “Whose team is it?” debates to take off. The uneasiness between Westbrook and Durant continued till the latter departed Oklahoma City for Golden State.
In the last decade since Harden was traded, it’s develop into obvious that they have been in one another’s means. Harden, Westbrook, and Durant have every been named league MVP, however they weren’t constructed to share the limelight collectively. Durant was awarded the 2013 MVP throughout a season wherein Westbrook was solely wholesome sufficient for 46 video games, whereas Westbrook’s lone MVP arrived in Oklahoma City’s inaugural post-KD season.
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Few posited that the Thunder’s Sixth Man of the Year would end up as the preeminent guard of the decade, though. Three years into his career, Harden’s resume was more similar to Kevin Huerter than Michael Jordan. On his own, Harden blossomed into one of the most complete offensive guards in league history. Unfortunately, Harden spent his entire Houston tenure experimenting with a variety of different partners to give them a leg up on the competition in the postseason.
None would ever appease him. In 2013, Morey acquired Dwight Howard to be the ideal pick-and-roll partner with Harden and a one-man paint protector. Unfortunately, Howard was quickly becoming a relic as pace and space offenses turned him into a liability.
Once the Harden-Howard partnership collapsed, Morey searched for synergy with Chris Paul and Harden. On the hardwood, Paul and Harden excelled. Unfortunately, Harden’s personality struggled to co-exist with another superstar. After two years and coming one game short of the NBA Finals, Paul was shipped off to Oklahoma City for Westbrook. Once again, Harden butt heads with anoooother teammate.
Once he touched down in Brooklyn, Harden, Kyrie Irving and Durant formed an offensive Volton. However, Harden’s hamstring injury allowed the Bucks to sneak past Brooklyn. Midway through the next season, Harden forced a trade out of Brooklyn to Philadelphia. Now 34, Harden has produced fireworks on the stat sheet, but has never been able to mesh with another co-star.
In retrospect, Harden was always going to burn out playing alongside Westbrook and Durant. Watching the 2011-12 Thunder in hindsight is akin to The Supremes singing backup to the Temptations early in their careers. Their ball-dominant styles served as the counter to Golden State’s egalitarian, ball-has-energy, motion offense. Their egos made them cautionary tales.
All three all wanted the ball in his hand and they flourished once allowed to run their respective offenses with no guardrails. That was never going to happen with Durant, Harden, and Westbrook in the lineup. The 2012 Thunder tallied the fewest passes in the league.
Westbrook, 34, has sunk like a boulder as his explosiveness has declined. Westbrook’s bull-in-a-china shop mentality and shot selection off of line-drive jumpers has cratered his impact. He’s always been an inefficient scorer, but now that he can’t compensate athletically, he’s nearly a leper.
Conversely, Durant is wasting his talents on a Nets team that he purposely marooned himself on. The path not taken should have resulted in the Thunder’s big three winning a championship or three. The 2016 Conference Finals series would have played out differently in NBA annals if Harden were another offensive option for the Thunder when Durant and Westbrook’s shots stopped falling during the final three games of that collapse. With a ring in 2016, Durant probably remains in Oklahoma City until at least 2019.
Meanwhile, after going ringless in the OKC Big 3 era, Presti is still on a mission to redeem himself by replicating that draft artistry. Ultimately, the Thunder chose Westbrook and a bargain deal on Ibaka over Harden’s demands. Today, Oklahoma City is still facing a reckoning for those choices.