Houston Rockets’ Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony Free Agency Watch: Part 4

Here’s a scenario which many of you have brought up: what happens if Lebron signing is contingent upon trading Harden to New York for Anthony.  Would the Rockets do it?  As you all may know by now, the latest (old) news from the rumor mill is that James and Anthony desire to be teammates, but only a few teams have sufficient space under the cap* to make it happen, the Rockets not being one of them.  But the rebuilding Knicks, no doubt, if offered the 24-year-old Harden would jump at the opportunity to claim something significant from the loss of Anthony.  Would Houston do it?

*The Lakers are one of those teams as reportedly, they have been exploring deals to unload the $9million salary of Steve Nash by attaching their #7 pick, hoping to pitch the possibility of a James-Bryant-Anthony triumvirate, nevermind the fact that a James title in L.A. with Bryant in tow would do nothing towards achieving the former’s intended goal of closing the gap in rings between the two players.  Unless Robert Sacre and Jordan Hill got creative with the HGH, I don’t even think that team would get out of the 1st round in the brutal Western Conference.

In a vacuum, the 24-year-old Harden is preferable to Anthony.  But a contingency clause of SIGNING LEBRON FREAKING JAMES is not a vacuum.  If x action gets you Lebron, you do it, no ‘ifs’, ‘ands’, or ‘buts’ about it.

Funny thing #1: from a basketball utilitarian standpoint, this is a no-brainer.  If the phrase ‘no-brainer’ had an example in the dictionary, this scenario would be written in that spot (right next to “trading Klay Thompson for Kevin Love.”).  But why would Houston not do it?  Why are we so hesitant to discuss it?  For the same reason we skirted around the temptation of trading Chandler Parsons for Rajon Rondo.  It’s kind of a backstabbing move** and ultimately, it just looks really bad to the rest of the league.  But would Daryl Morey really care?  Landing Lebron James would represent the biggest coup possible on this platform.  You can’t top it.  It’s like being offered $6billion for an app you created to help people text their nudes more privately.  You cash out, you walk away, and write a book about it later or something.  So if this happened, why would Daryl Morey even care about the next domino or the potential fallout from future free agents.  This would be the pinnacle.

Funny thing #2**: would it be backstabbing?  I don’t know how tied James Harden is to this organization.  Not to read too much into things, but he wasn’t exactly going out of his way to recruit Dwight Howard, nor did he seem overly thrilled about the acquisition.  Was he even at the press conference?  Don’t get me wrong.  In combination with yesterday’s post, you probably think I’m throwing Harden under the bus.  That’s not what this is about.  Offensively, I still stand by my stance that he’s one of the most brilliant players in our league.  But he has some warts, even in the leadership category, that are hard to ignore.

Would this ever happen?  Would Lebron James ever pull such a conniving maneuver such as this, seeing a team with the ability to pair him and his friend Anthony, with an existing dominant rim protector, and ultimately orchestrating a sacrificial ceremony?  Surely he couldn’t, right?  Demanding a team trade its resident superstar for your friend as the condition of your signing would be as cruel as airing a nationally televised special to break the hearts of an entire city over your decision to leave them.  No one could ever do that, right?

***The best thing about the Decision, and everything surrounding it, is that it actually worked!  They actually won two titles!  Usually, scenarios like that never pan and after so much initial ridicule, we just forget.

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Total comments: 14
  • slick shoes says 2 months ago

    Good name for the effect, but they say Wade has the most misspelled name in the NBA.

    I cant stand how often Broussard calls Dwight "Dewight". There is no freaking E!

  • Buckko says 2 months ago

    However, one thing with having Carmelo, LeBron, and Howard on the same team - their bodies will likely all break down around the same time (similar ages, similar minutes, Team USA minutes, etc.) Harden, being younger, should be able to help boon LeBron and Howard as they age (also known as the anti-Dewyane Wade effect).

    Good name for the effect, but they say Wade has the most misspelled name in the NBA.

  • rocketrick says 2 months ago Very Weird Stuff for this Site. Perhaps the author is appealing to China and Taiwan with his head scratching articles??

    Anyway, Morey managed to maximize Asik with a very likely Lottery Pick one year from now.

    Lin? Jeremy for sure had his moments with this team although his fans simply chose the Pluto orbit.

    Looking forward to the immediate future as I chose to upgrade my seats for the upcoming seasons to come....................
  • majik19 says 2 months ago

    Broussard also wrote that today in an Insider article:

    A lot has been made about the possibility of James teaming up with Anthony, and few teams in the league have a better chance of pulling that off than Houston.

    I would never trade Harden straight up for Carmelo... but if Lebron thinks that gives us a better team and would sign with us, I would totally do it. (I wonder how the Heat or Knicks would feel if the other got Harden for their superstar while the former got nothing, haha).

    However, one thing with having Carmelo, LeBron, and Howard on the same team - their bodies will likely all break down around the same time (similar ages, similar minutes, Team USA minutes, etc.) Harden, being younger, should be able to help boon LeBron and Howard as they age (also known as the anti-Dewyane Wade effect).

    In short - our title window is longer if we have Harden, Lebron, and Howard. Titles are more probable if we have Carmelo, Lebron, and Howard.

    At this point though - just give me Lebron OR Carmelo OR hell even Bosh and I'll be pretty happy with the offseason.

  • Lyfestyle says 2 months ago

    It's only 'ludacris' if you're not talking about LeBron James. It would've been 'ludacris' for Miami to clear house for cap space four years ago, except LeBron was coming, so thus, not at all 'ludacris.'

    With as horrific as Harden was in the playoffs and as terrible as he is defensively, OF COURSE you consider it. It'd be 'ludacris' not to.

  • rockets best fan says 2 months ago

    :lol:

  • thejohnnygold says 2 months ago

    trading James Harden.....? not going to happen. to even ponder the thought is so far off base it's Ludacris. it's not part of the Rockets plan now or in the foreseeable future. I agree FSS. I would really prefer discussing realistic possibilities.

    tumblr_lq1r4dbfQ81r0t1dvo1_500.gif

    You're right...that would be Ludacris. I don't think Harden gets traded....but anything is possible.

  • timetodienow1234567 says 2 months ago How about trading harden for picks 3 and 10. Trading away jones/Asik/demo for cap space. Have Melo/ James take 18 apiece and drafting Exum/Parker/wiggins at 3 and grabbing mcbuckets at 10. That would give us the best team possible.
    PG = Exum
    SG = Lebron
    SF = Parsons
    PF = Melo
    C = Howard
    3rd big = Demo
    6th man = mcbuckets

    Of course we'd have to go near the tax line if not over it to resign parsons.

    Note: I'm a fan of harden and unless it's to get James, Davis, or Durant, he's untouchable.
  • rockets best fan says 2 months ago

    trading James Harden.....? not going to happen. to even ponder the thought is so far off base it's Ludacris. it's not part of the Rockets plan now or in the foreseeable future. I agree FSS. I would really prefer discussing realistic possibilities.

  • payplay2 says 2 months ago

    Team play wins championships. Harden is not a team player. Moving him to get a star player would be a great move for Houston

  • feelingsupersonic says 2 months ago

    Is it interesting for some fans to talk about a scenario where Harden gets traded, sure. Some fans spend countless hours imagining scenarios that will never come close to happening but if that is your cup a tea then so be it.

    Seriously though, in the real world, Harden is not getting traded. That's a sure bet.

  • Buckko says 2 months ago

    I can't imagine lebron forcing the rockets to trade harden for melo. Besides harden being a much better playmaker and efficient scorer. The main draw is harden would keep improving to make up for lebron's eventual decline so they could keep winning titles while melo would make their title window significantly smaller. Plus if they traded harden for melo, the backcourt would be a ghost town and the front court would be in simplistic words cluster ****. Lebron, parsons, melo, howard, jones, Dmo all trying to fight for minutes while you have beverley, cannan, and daniels as your guard rotation. Sounds catastrophic.

    You might see the wind blowing a different direction from lebron's camp after the rockets have made their offer to him knickabokkaz.

  • Knickabokkaz_2 says 2 months ago Lol you know Rahat when I tweeted you that possibility of trading Harden or D12 for Melo so Lebron and Melo could possibly play together in Houston with Harden or D12, I was seriously laughing about it. I honestly don't see it happening because I don't see either player leaving as much as I know how temptation is. I'd say this scenario happens about 500% less then Lin going back to Ny.

    Melo after that interview... Put it this way, writings on the wall all the things he mentioned "fans think in one year if I go to this team I'll win about the title. It's not about that it's about the next 6-8 yrs" this is coming from Melo, then him talking about his kid transitioning and how it was tough for him to move from Brooklyn to Baltimore when he was a kid.

    He's staying in Ny, trust me, this is "Kill Wish Wednesday", Lebrons staying in Miami too. Hey if you want to believe the possibility go ahead. Just setting yourself up for failure.
  • timetodienow1234567 says 2 months ago I agree wholeheartedly.