Skip to content 
The latest controversial quotes from James Harden confirm what we already knew. Harden wants out. He wants out now.
The Rockets are looking for an appropriate trade. Their demands are incredibly high, and understandably so for a perennial MVP candidate. It’s clearly not enough for Harden.
With his desire to be traded already well known, Harden’s comments on Tuesday will have done little to help his cause. You can see his angle: Make life more difficult for the Rockets, and hope they accept a lower price.
There’s no sign Houston will do that. If anything, Harden trying to control the situation further will increase the chasm between potential trade partners and the Rockets front office. Other teams will be in no rush to make a deal when Harden is agitating in this manner.
Why pay Houston’s high price now if Harden is going to continue like this? No team is desperate at this stage of the year. Front offices can afford to wait, testing the mettle of the Rockets.
The increasingly peculiar situation with Kyrie Irving makes a trade harder for the Nets. The Sixers are still in a position of figuring out what they can be with this group. There are a lot of factors at play which have slowed the Harden trade market – these comments after a loss to the reigning champion Lakers are not going to ignite a fresh bidding war.
Harden said, “I love this city. I literally have done everything that I can, I mean, this situation is crazy. It’s something that I don’t think can be fixed.”
“We’re not even close, honestly, to that team — obviously the defending champions — and all the other elite teams out there,I mean, you can tell the difference in these last two games.
“We’re just not good enough — chemistry, talentwise, just everything. And it was clear these last two games.”
[spreaker type=player resource=”show_id=4112709″ width=”100%” height=”200px” theme=”light” playlist=”false” playlist-continuous=”false” autoplay=”false” live-autoplay=”false” chapters-image=”true” episode-image-position=”right” hide-logo=”false” hide-likes=”false” hide-comments=”false” hide-sharing=”false” hide-download=”true”]
