This obviously gives OKC all kinds of flexibility going forward, but there's no doubt that they're a worse team this year than they were yesterday. That's not a good thing for a team that was a few timely baskets away from a title.
Kevin Martin is not James Harden lite. He's a good shooter, but he won't compliment Durant and Westbrook the same way Harden did, and he's a god, god awful defender. It's too bad they can't combine him with Thabo to form one shooting guard.
Props to Presti for the balls to make this move, though. Clay Bennett fucking blows, this is on him. Harden deserved to get paid top dollar, and he's only going to get better. (And as RJ and Jaybone have pointed out before, he'll be playing into his 40s barring a major injury.) Time will tell if he can be the man on a winning team, but he's definitely going to put up big numbers now. As a fan, I'm just going to miss watching him play with Durant and Westbrook. It was always fun to watch.
Actually, it gives them no more flexibility until after 14/15, they are at the cap until then with just Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and Perkins. They have no flexibility until then.
This trade makes them a markedly worse team unless they get very lucky in the draft and that won't happen until after this when they would have been a championship contender.
The reality is if Perry Jones is on his way to being the player people thought he'd be coming out of college. The Thunder could have dumped Perkins overpriced contract and kept Harden.
Martin can't play D, is injury prone and will walk after the season to an overpriced contract. Lamb is OK, but he won't play many minutes this year playing behind Thabo and Martin.
The only hope for this trade to be decent is if Toronto suck enough to a Top 10 pick and a great player fall to them. Dallas' pick is Top 20 protected for years to come.
Harden put pressure on the opposition. Now they can't do this.
The concept that Presti is some genius is way overblown:
Durant- As Presti said at the time and since, had they gotten the #1 pick, he would have taken Oden
Westbrook- The needed a PG. He was the best PG. No brainer-anyone would have taken him- if they taken Love and signed a PG they may have been better.
Harden- Everyone's would have taken him- he was head and shoulders above everyone else
Ibaka - a very good pick-this was smart and a little out of the box
Green for Perkins - an extra piece for a piece they needed was a good trade- but did the Thunder know of his heart condition? It did cost them a draft pick.
Presti has done what should have. He made one pick that turned out great. He made a trade that helped but may have been the ultimate cause of trading Harden.
His trade of Harden needs lots of luck to become a wash. It's very, very likely that it will be a big net negative to a team that was on the rise.
Presti has been solid but hardly a wunderkind.