Trade Harden whilst he can at least garner interest from teams due to his age (still only 26). Means Houston could still get some good pieces for him.

Houston can retain him for a few years if they want, but a) they won't do any better and b) by the end of those few years Harden's trade worth would have declined even further.

He is tracking a similar path to Carmelo. A lot of teams wanted Melo in his last F.Agency..now very few teams do (his contract situation is also another factor i know).

FWIW, I don't have Harden in the top 30 players, let a lone the top 5. That's from a talent POV.

But if i was selecting a team, i'd say that there were 50 or more guys than I would select before Harden.

Westbrook better then Harden? How did the Thunder go without DURANT last season with Westbrook as their leader? Right out of the PLAYOFFS RACE.

Harden dosent play defence but he is better then Westbrook and Paul. Kawahi LBJ,Durant, Curry are ALL BETTER PLAYERS but after that it is a tossup.

Macdub you cant be serious? not top 50 or 30? at worst he is top 10. Just last season he was the MVP runner up

Harden has 3 issues he needs to address.

1:Defensive awareness which is farsical. He gets caught ball watching and gambles a lot on the defensive end and gets blown by to easily. Needs to learn how to react better and move his feet

Turnovers: He makes a lot of careless bounce passes which are to easy to ready and pick off. Granted he actually does possess pretty good playmaking ability, but he tends to make some silly mistake with the ball.

Maturity and conditioning: This is what is probably is the root of all of his defensive problems are turnovers. Sure he played with a bad ankle all throught the season, but he was rerally out of shape this season and it showed.

BTW, I posted with a handle I have from another forum as ammo.

I also think he really needs a coach who can instill some grit and mental toughness into him. A hardnosed coach like Jeff Van Gundy ill do him wonders.

Really? Harden carried the howard less rockets to the second seed in the west with 56 wins and all the way to the WCF's? How is it silly?

Yep no real argument left to be made. That is all you have left?

As I said in the other thread about the Rockets, I think they need to let Howard go and go in a new direction.

I think the biggest need is at pg. Conley or Teague would be perfect here as theyre both good all round players who are ok with not being the man, but are also able to step up and make big shots.

Beverly is good, but in my mind is a backup pg.

Next you need some shooting from the pf or c and let Capela play the other spot. Ryan Anderson would be great here. I said in the other thread Nick Vucevic, who is under contract, but word is the Magic are after Howard, so he'd become available if that is the case.

Most importantly, they need a coach who can call Harden out. No more untested guys with no track record. Jvg would be perfect. Really hope that happens.

I would ;-)

Considering Harden is having a say in the new coach, I doubt they are going to sign one that will bust his balls until he plays decent D.

I think they should trade him if they can get a decent return.

Maybe Boston are interested, one of the Nets unprotected picks would be tempting.
If they could get this years Nets and Mavericks picks from Boston they should go for it.

Get a new GM that actually understands team chemistry ands wants to build a team not just a bunch of assets to use in trades.

I respect Harden as a scorer who knows how to milk the refs and defenders' incompetence but I would never have him on my team.

People complained that nobody would go to the Lakers while Kobe was there, and I agree with the comment above that good players won't go to Houston while Harden is there. Same with New York while Carmelo is there.

It might seem fine being paid millions per season to be on the same team as these ball-hogging studs, but if your career is going to go downhill as a scorer because you don't see much of the ball, then I can't see too many young and ambitious players liking it.

Why oh why did they ever get rid of McHale?!

Trade Harden NOW while he is still somewhat respected and still has some cache, and get as many draft picks and assets you can for him. The LOLakers will be looking for a new "Star", trade him there for some of their youth maybe, if they're stupid enough to take it of course.

Let D12 go as well, and rebuild from the ground up.

I personally can't stand Harden as a player, especially as a so-called "Star". If I was a GM building a new team from scratch, he wouldn't even get a mention in the boardroom. No point guard worth a damn will ever want to play alongside Harden. It's a death knell for their future contract signing possibilities. Beverly-types are the perfect pgs to have next to him, guys who are selfless and play D. Not many of them around.

I think some people are far too harsh on Harden. He is a great player. Definitely top 10 in the league right now, and when he plays like he did last season, and more towards the end of this season. Top 5.

He Finished this season 6th in win shares and 4th in wins above replacement.

The aim of the game is to put the ball in the basket and there's not many guys who can do it as well as him.

Now, does he have weaknesses? Sure. But they're not insurmountable.

It is possible to build a contender around the beard, it's just a matter of whether the Rockets can find the right supporting pieces

Howard missed 41 games but all throughout that season guys like Beverley and Montijunes also missed a number of games. You think it was only ward missing. Harden was wining games with the likes of Tarik Black and Pappanikolu or whatever thee names were starting. He had even less talent then what Russ had.

That is why he won the PLAYERS MVP choice because he was carrying a bunch of scrubs on his shoulders.

Cram I think it is widely acknowledged that Jeff Van Gundy a Houston resident will be their new coach and hopefully he is someone that can muster some understanding with Harden that defence matters. Having had to be a fan and put up with last seasons fiasco was tiresome and hard to take.

As for Harden the only thing that is stopping him from greatness is defence and turnovers.If he cant turn it around on the defensive end under Van Gundy who is one of the best defensive minded coaches in a while then the Rockets management need to seriously contemplate the idea of moving him.

Harden dosent play defence but he is better then Westbrook

Just stop it.