The James Harden trade is a week old now, and while the book is obviously not yet written on what it’ll mean for everyone involved, we have a bit of a clearer picture than we did last Sunday.
Harden has looked like a true superstar in Houston, dropping 82 points over his first two games, including a career-high 45. The outlook for the Thunder is a little more murky, but they haven’t shown a disastrous dropoff so far. We’ve got several stories looking at the Harden trade today, along with all the latest NBA news.
We’ve also got a couple new columns up today: first is Jan Hubbard’s take on the future of the Steve Nash-less Suns, and also, after the Knicks topped the Sixers in today’s early game, Moke Hamilton wrote about how this is the Knicks’ best start in 14 years.
Now, today’s links:
- Royce Young of CBSSports.com writes about how the Thunder are reacting, chemistry-wise, to the James Harden trade: “There was a certain tightness, an incredible closeness between the Thunder’s young core and losing a key piece like Harden should obviously disturb some of that togetherness and chemistry. The hole left by Harden’s departure might be unfilled — Kevin Martin’s locker is well away from Harden’s old digs — but Scott Brooks has no choice but to move his team forward and focus on the goal. ‘James [Harden] was a good player,’ Brooks said. ‘Don’t get me wrong. But he wasn’t Dr. James. He wasn’t helping the group stick together. All the guys do. Russell, Kevin, down the line, Perk, Nick. All the guys. That’s what makes good teams.’ “