I was definitely not expecting that. I don't follow the Thunder but it wouldn't have been Brooks' decision to let Harden go - he was doing great things for that team.

In terms of immediate future though, the Thunder are better. Martin is just as good a scorer as Harden and Jeremy Lamb is really one to watch, fits in with their all-offense personnel, which seems to work.

I see the advantage for both sides, the thunder has the 12th pick from this draft in lamb and some good picks, martin could be trade bait before the deadline. BUT the rockets grab a good scorer in harden, and a developing big in aldrich. Rockets starting 5 lin harden ? aldrich asik.

Lets see the thunder send perkins and the picks to utah for milsap :)

An extension couldn't be reached with Harden because he wanted an extra $4.5mil (total, not per year) than was offered, so the Thunder traded him. Had nothing to do with wanting to get rid of him. Pretty simple.

Good trade for both sides given the circumstances.

Yeah, Presti shows his smarts again. Harden wouldn't take their best offer, so they traded him before anyone knew he was up for sale and got great value.

Kevin Martin is a better shooter than Harden and will largely cover his loss, so they aren't harming their ability to win this season.

Even better, those extra picks will allow OKC to keep renewing their supporting cast with quality players in the coming years. (Or use them to lure a quality FA like Millsap as Whitey suggested).

At the same time as he has set the team up for this year and the future, Presti has also sent a message to any future stars on OKC's roster: don't let your agent overprice you or you'll be traded to a bad team without a second thought!

OKC got more for Harden than Orlando got for Dwight.

Anon, read what I said - Martin will LARGELY cover his loss. I realise Harden is a great player and can do things Martin can't, but in the end he wanted too much money, so Presti made a great trade that MINIMISED the immediate loss to the team and IMPROVED their ability to put talented and cheap complementary pieces around their core in future.

And yes, Houston has done well because they got Harden, who is a great player to build a young team around. But Presti sure squeezed a lot of picks (and a talented young player) out of them!

Bill Simmons picked this a few weeks ago.. It makes sense. There's no way OKC should have thrown the max at Harden

Its not daylight robbery when the alternative is losing the guy for nothing or 15c on the dollar once the rest of the NBA gets word that Harden won't resign!

Seems crazy to me that harden would leave when there's a good chance okc could win the title this year and he's already on huge amounts of money, what is the extra few mill going to matter?!

Sign of the times, money>loyalty or championships.

I agree Jimbob, I'd have taken Presti's offer knowing I'd be playing on the most exciting young team in basketball for the next four years minimum, with a genuine chance to win multiple titles.

Will be interesting to see if Harden ends up regretting his decision to push for more money.

Presti has another trade idea in the works.

They've got most of the puzzle pieces to challenge but must be thinking of getting something extra to top the West.

@anon rockets dangerous in the coming seasons. 45 million on lin, harden and asik? Come on. Plus they gave away lamb and a heap of picks.

They would have been better off, trading away kmart for high picks and rebuilding around lamb, royce white and the upcoming picks.

think James Harden is worth a max contract, just not to OKC. In my opinion James Harden is currently the third best shooting guard in the league behind Kobe and Wade. Kobe will retire soon and Wade's body is declining fast. Before we know it Harden will be the best 2 in the NBA and I think that warrants a max contract. However, he'd still be the third best player at the Thunder and you can't be paying the max for the third best player on a team and have Perkins and Ibaka signed to big contracts as well. Zero cap flexibility if they gave in to Harden.

Even though I believe Houston won big on this deal, I really like what OKC have done. Its been reported that Harden knocked back a 4 year 55 million dollar deal which is 4.5 mill below the max. If you can't sacrifice 4.5 mill on a 55 million dollar contract to be part of something great that is going to be in the hunt for a championship every year for the best part of the next 10 years then you should be shipped. OKC didn't mess around and pulled the pin straight away, I like it.

Isn't it just possible that it was a good trade for BOTH teams?