Could Kevin Durant make like LeBron and head 'home'?

All good points, mushi...and I'm not saying moving Ibaka was the best option, just another one. Still, I'd take crappy option B myself. Keep Harden and continue negotiating until a better trade offer comes along...a MUCH better trade offer, even if that meant Harden played half a season with a chip on his shoulder and in a bad mood.

"For my money, OKC should have started the season with Harden, and either worked out a way to pay him (ie. amnesty Perk), what better offers were on the table, or seen whether moving Ibaka was a better option. Either way, they made a trade for the long term by trading Harden, so the logic of not wanting to disrupt the 2013 season doesn’t add up to me.” Move Ibaka? Problem is there you now have three wing players that need the ball to be effective and the analysis that was being used to support Harden as a potentially top 25 guy was that he was much better when sharing the court with only one or none of Rus or Durant. Plus Ibaka’s value to the thunder was more than to the general market (given their roster) whilst Harden’s was the opposite. The problem with the better offer again is that if it goes south chemistry wise (which those involved had a fair read on) his value diminishes as the season goes on. Now I think they could have gotten a better deal but a) would it have offset a potentially great season (and I think they would have been favourites to win if Russ doesn’t go down in the play offs) b) it would not have been without risk. The Harden trade wasn’t about long term getting better but more picking the best of several bad outcomes. Once harden wanted superstar money and not 6th man of the year money the thunder were screwed. From that point there was no “winning” just minimising the loss. To be honest as much as I oppose trading Westbrook now, as I think that would be the single dumbest move that the thunder organisation could make outside of encouraging Durant to join a suicide cult for leadership training, his value was higher and whilst he’s the better player I think they would have got closer to his current value than the got to Harden’s (hindsight) current value “It wasn’t as if trading Harden before that season ensured everything was smooth sailing." Nope it wasn’t smooth sailing. But you can have the chemistry problems associated with being the #1 team in the league whilst watching him light it up elsewhere and wondering how good you could have been.... Or the chemistry problems of playing with a 30 minute a night guy outwardly hating your front office and watching that manifest itself on court. I take crappy option A.

Yeha I do get that. I think the reason they didn't amnesty Perk is that they were afraid that they couldn't find an effective replace to immediately slot in, which is why he is still there now ahead of Adams (annoyingly). I reckon that they should have got rid of Perk and tried to get a big man as well as draft picks rather than Kmart. With Dwight going to Houston they should have gone after Omer Asik who was wanting to leave Houston but eventually went to New Orleans. Other than that I couldn't think of any half decent big men on the market at that time.

Yeah, I get where both you and Clark are coming from...but I still think that trade stunk. OKC had other options and, in my mind, trading him in the manner they did, and for the players/picks they did, was the worst one, and I don't think you needed a crystal ball to know that. The chances of their draft picks producing a player/s of similar value to Harden was unlikely. KMart was always a chance of not re-signing and was never going to compliment Westbrook and Durant in the way Harden did. For my money, OKC should have started the season with Harden, and either worked out a way to pay him (ie. amnesty Perk), what better offers were on the table, or seen whether moving Ibaka was a better option. Either way, they made a trade for the long term by trading Harden, so the logic of not wanting to disrupt the 2013 season doesn't add up to me. It wasn't as if trading Harden before that season ensured everything was smooth sailing. Having said all that, I readily admit a bias here...I'm annoyed that we never saw those 4 guys together and playing at a high level for longer. For that reason alone, the trade stinks!

Problem isn’t he wasn’t an all star when he was traded and it is difficult to see how he would have become one being the sixth man and third option on him team. The thunder would have needed to get 3 all stars into a loaded west roster for him to get there and as a scorer with zero defensive value who only had a 20% usage rate It is unfathomable that Harden could have generated the stats to get there so lets park the he was an all star. At the time many asked if harden had the capability to play without Durant and Westbrook, and whilst the numbers generally disproved them they never suggested he could just leap up to a ~30% useage rate whilst still generating the same foul rate. Could they have potentially gotten more? Sure. But remember the risk in waiting was a massive chemistry issues. Thunder and Harden had basically ended contract talks and Harden was massively pissed and unless you are dealing with Dolan generally a players value goes down as the player becomes more publicly disenfranchised. Looking at trades from the advantage of information gleaned after the trade is like calling a lottery winner the next Warren Buffet

Worst trades ever? Hard to tell from a player who has played one season and a player who is not properly utilized by Brooks. With Sefolosha gone hopefully he will give Lamb some decent game time, he showed promise last season and Adams based on last season will be even better this year and will start him if they know any better. They needed to gain a decent big man through the draft somehow and giving Harden to a team that could start him was the best option with the amount of scoring they had in KD Russ and Serge. And with Perk on his last legs they needed to act before it was too late and they were stuck with a lack of defensive support for Serge in the paint.

I think part of the reason the Harden trade keeps coming up, is that it was one of the worst trades...ever. Harden is an All-Star, Team USA starter and legit top 10 player, and he was traded for what wound up being Steven Adams, Jeremy Lamb and one year of Kevin Martin. Presti never needed to trade Harden with the seeming urgency that he did, and if he had acquired more help through that trade, OKC could well be NBA champs by now.

I think part of the reason the Harden trade keeps coming up, is that it was one of the worst trades...ever. Harden is an All-Star, Team USA starter and legit top 10 player, and he was traded for what wound up being Steven Adams, Jeremy Lamb and one year of Kevin Martin. Presti never needed to trade Harden with the seeming urgency that he did, and if he had acquired more help through that trade, OKC could well be NBA champs by now.

I think part of the reason the Harden trade keeps coming up, is that it was one of the worst trades...ever. Harden is an All-Star, Team USA starter and legit top 10 player, and he was traded for what wound up being Steven Adams, Jeremy Lamb and one year of Kevin Martin. Presti never needed to trade Harden with the seeming urgency that he did, and if he had acquired more help through that trade, OKC could well be NBA champs by now.

Yeah completely forgot about that. I reckon if he signed with UnderAmrour you would be leaning toward him going to Washington in the near future

Also the first year without Harden they had the best points differential and lost westbrook in the playoffs. This team is a few lucky breaks away from winning now and really that's all you can ask for at these start of the year. Winning a title is going to take some luck, not sure Harden coming off the bench changes that

to be fair it was something like 30-40m a year. It's not like he's got a cheap roster and elected to amnesty a player it's just that no quality team really runs a 3 max and 1 near max guy

Hey Myles, Take a look into the recent deal he signed with Nike. I think a few of the underlying negotiated terms in that deal means that he will be in OKC for the long haul as he has really committed to the OKC community. The kind of commitment he is unlikely to go back on. I think people hear the way he talks about Washington and think that it the only place he has love for, but a lot of his terminology around OKC shows the same level of love of that being home. Fun to speculate, but this is a very different situation and scenario to James. The only way that he would leave is if OKC regressed badly over the next two years and TBH when you have Westbrook-Ibaka-Durant you will always contend even in the tough west. Fun piece, but ultimately he stays in OKC.

I reckon KD is a massive chance to move from Oklahoma when free agency comes up. I still don't know why people keep bringing up the James Harden thing. He stated he didn't want to be a sixth man and they couldn't afford to pay him as a starter, they has Sefolosha on the cheap and they weren't going to cut Westbrooks minutes either. OKC had plenty of scoring as it was, and Harden offers absolutely nothing on defense. The thing that holds OKC back is their rotations and the ability to run the floor. But in terms of KD, I think he will home to Washington when his contract expires. The Wizards are going to be the big movers this season in a weak Eastern conference.

I think this idea has been getting louder in Durant's head ever since his owner proved he is more about saving coin than championships. If the Thunder had retained Harden (one of Durant's best friends) I think they have a title by now and Durant is thinking extension instead.

He should follow lebron to cleveland

If the thunder follow your blueprint and trade Russ then yes I think he's a lock to move.

I was hoping you meant Seattle, oh well. RIP Sonics.