【Highlights】Harden against the Cavaliers slashed 22+7+10
Three, two, one.
This is the number of seasons that Harden has worked with Howard, Paul, and Westbrook, showing the decline of the rules, showing harden's decline in patience as he grows older.
How long can Harden's alliance with Durant and Irving last?
Renowned basketball journalist Mark Stein reported that Harden is open to leaving the Nets this summer, and the news has been widely circulated in the league.
This rumor reminds me of harden and Westbrook when Paul received a call from rocket management saying that he wanted to trade him, and Paul begged the rockets not to send him to rebuild the team, but the reply was no, because the Rockets had someone who wanted to play with Westbrook, so Paul had to go to the Thunder.
Harden chose Westbrook and then parted ways for a year.
The Nets are also Harden's choice, he in order to go to Brooklyn quite painstaking, first delayed not to report to the Rockets training camp, then overweight, followed by a few good games to find that the Rockets have not started the trade as he wished, directly passive slack, but also publicly said that this team has no prospects for development, he can not move.
Just after Harden made the unilateral breakup remarks, Rockets boss Fertitta was furious and ordered Harden to be sent away as soon as possible, and the deal with the Nets was quickly concluded.
In fact, the Nets were hesitant at first to trade Harden, because they had to spend a lot of team building resources, especially draft picks. Just as the Nets were tangling, something happened that made the Nets realize they had to do something.
That thing is where did Owen go?
Because of the recent barrage of vaccine denials, you may have forgotten what Irving did before the Harden deal. In January 2021, Irving suddenly left the team, and the Nets explained to the outside world that it was a personal reason, but head coach Nash admitted that he did not know why Irving was absent and did not return text messages. Subsequently, some netizens broke the news that Owen went to his sister's birthday party and did not wear a mask, which was a violation of the alliance's epidemic prevention regulations.
The Nets saw that Irving was too capable of tidying up outside the court, so they came up with an idea in negotiations with the Rockets.
"Or shall we give you Owen?"
Rockets are not stupid and categorically refuse. The Nets have no choice but to complete Harden's deal by overdrawing the team's assets. When the operation was complete, one insider put it this way: "The Nets want Irving to be responsible and take his work seriously, but there is unpredictability. Irving's personality became the driving force for the Nets to urgently introduce Harden, and Harden's arrival gave the team a sense of security. ”
Harden's first season with the Nets was still quite good from the perspective of coordination. Owen took the initiative to find Harden and proposed to play the point guard himself, Harden was responsible for organizing the attack, Harden gladly accepted, the Nets big three formed a Deng ge pass, DuOu attacked the game mode, simple and rough but also quite effective.
Although the Nets stopped in the Eastern Conference semifinals, but Irving was injured, Harden was injured "bloody", the Nets can also play with the final champion Bucks to grab seven, which brings unlimited reverie, if the big three are healthy, it is not beautiful.
Because of this, Harden will issue a "moment of terror" declaration before the start of the 2021-22 season, when he is really confident.
However, the "moment of horror" became a "moment of distraction" from the beginning of the training camp. The Nets issued a notice within the team during the offseason to get vaccinated as soon as possible to deal with New York's epidemic prevention regulations, and when the training camp began, the Nets found that only Irving, the main members of the team (executives, coaches and players) were not vaccinated, and the management and coaching team angrily made a suspension for Irving.
Irving was driven home by the team, there was a chain reaction, Harden due to the lack of systematic training in the offseason, resulting in poor physical condition, especially lack of explosive power, and caught up with the league to change the scale of blowing penalties, Harden's season started slowly. If Irving can play, Harden can adjust more calmly, but Irving is so arrogant, Harden can only endure the humiliation and burden of being scolded by the fans, while anxious to find the state.
Of course, Harden himself did not play well, can not blame Irving, but the team is a whole, teammates help each other, but also common sense, Irving can not play because of no vaccination, the impact is not Harden alone, but the entire team.
"Owen has his ideas, we respect them, but we still have to fight for the title." Harden said.
Due to the impact of the nets, the team unblocked Irving and could participate in away games, which was originally a good step, and Durant and Harden were in public, implicitly expressing their hope that Irving would come down the stairs and become a "full-time" player.
'The sooner Irving plays at home, the better our overall performance will be. Harden said.
Not long after Harden made such a statement, Durant was injured and is expected to return after All-Star Weekend, which seems to be a good opportunity for Irving to get vaccinated, it was Irving who recruited Durant to play brother basketball in Brooklyn, at that time, Adu was still recovering from tendon injury, and Owen texted every day to persuade KD to go to the Nets together.
Now that the good brother is injured, Owen must not say that he will be vaccinated so that the brother can rest assured of his injuries?
However, Owen was not.
"I've already made the decision (not to get vaccinated) and I'm going to stick with it and it won't change because of what happened in the league." Owen said.
When Harden heard these words, how did he feel?
Harden is in good shape after lifting the new crown isolation, and Nash's military principle is that as long as the main force can play, it can be used. Since the end of the year, Ha has averaged 38.5 minutes of playing time, and his average playing time this season has increased to 36.9 minutes, second only to VanVleet in the league.
It is foreseeable that in the days when Durant is absent, Harden's load will only be more and not less, and Irving can only play away.
Stein's revelation this time may be harden's attitude. There are two main sources of reporters, the team and the players, the Nets obviously will not throw such information to the outside world, Harden's team is not accurate.
Among the Nets' Big Three, Harden is the most stressed. Durant has a championship, he is now in the stage of enjoying basketball career, is really fond of playing games, pure "ball idiot". Irving also has a championship, and he is now living bigger than basketball and is reluctant to bow down before the car.
Harden has no championship, he will be 33 years old until the 2022 offseason, and the championship will have a great bonus to the historical status and commercial value of the star, and the championship is a team a year, and time is not waiting for anyone.
Harden did not renew his contract with the Nets in advance, which is the main reason for the speculation that he may leave the team. However, it must be pointed out that Durant's early renewal of the Contract with the Nets is due to the restrictions of the 38-year-old rule, and he cannot get a larger contract until the 2022 offseason, but it is better to get it in advance, while Harden is 164 million US dollars for 3 years if he is early to renew, and it is 5 years 270 million to jump out of the contract this summer.
Money is on the one hand, and harden also wants to give himself room for choice. If this season still fails to rush the championship, it is difficult to say whether Harden will stay in Brooklyn.
The Nets smashed the pot and sold iron to get Harden, if he left this summer, wouldn't the Nets be empty? If Harden really has such an idea, the Possibility of the Nets acting early cannot be ruled out.
For example, replace Harden with Simmons.
In Stein's report, Harden's new owner preferred the 76ers, and the 76ers knew that they had a chance to get Harden, so they waited for Dengge on simmons' deal.
If Harden changes Simmons, it is also a win-win. Simmons doesn't have Harden's projection, but he can go from one to five, he can also organize offense, and can raise the Nets' talent level from another perspective.
Although Simmons does not play, the 76ers have won 10 of their last 13 games, and Embiid has become more and more courageous, if he has the help of Dengo, wouldn't he be like a tiger?
The Nets could go the other way, and that would be to trade Irving for Simmons, but that would depend on whether the 76ers were willing or not. In addition, considering the divided state of the United States for vaccines, if the Nets do this, they will be under greater pressure from public opinion.
Harden offered a deal is unlikely, and the safer way is to play this season, after all, it cannot be ruled out that Irving suddenly changed his mind, or the Nets were willing to violate New York's epidemic prevention regulations to pay Irving a fine to play at home.
Harden from the Rockets to the Nets, some words and deeds have been some of the losers, the road he chose, no matter how difficult it is, he has to try it. Rejecting the Thunder's contract extension is "decision 1", leaving the Rockets is "decision 2", and if there is still "decision 3", at least be cautious.
The real embarrassment is the Nets, Irving did it, Harden did it again, and now it is getting closer and closer to the trade deadline (February 10, local time), and the Nets are in a dilemma.
Or should the Nets consider considering a star on the West Coast? Former MVP, scoring king, assist king, take Irving to exchange, can complete the "Oudi" and the former champion partner reunion, Adu Harden can also reunite with the old brother, continue to write the cause that was not completed 10 years ago. The two teams trade "poison to attack poison", if they can meet the division finals, the traffic explosion, can achieve a win-win situation.
It's funny to think about it that way.