



Everyone was taken aback by the OKC Thunder trading away 23-year old star James Harden to Houston. Rockets GM Daryl Morey still can’t quite believe he landed the Bearded One: “How surprised were you that a player like Harden was available? Morey: ‘Shocked. I actually can’t come up with any examples of a player of his caliber and age getting traded at the time he was traded – it really has never happened. So we were obviously very aggressive and we gave up a lot – Oklahoma City does a great job; we gave up some great players in Kevin (Martin) and Jeremy (Lamb) and some great draft picks – but a top player like James really never gets traded so we jumped at the chance.’ How does this change the team? Morey: ‘Well I think to win the title you’ve got to have a foundational player and James is that. Simple as that. Now our job is to add another significant player or have one of our young guys develop into an All-Star-caliber player. You probably need two to really be a championship contender. We’re not there yet but we’ve got multiple young players who can take a step forward and we also have max cap room to get it done going forward, so he changes the whole dynamic. Then just on the floor, for offense we’re going to play up-tempo and get a lot of easy baskets that way, but our half-court offense was pretty challenged given our roster (prior to the tarde), and James is probably a top-five in the league talent on offense.'”

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