http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/857724... The Houston Rockets agreed with guard James Harden on a five-year, $80 million contract Wednesday, league sources told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.
The deal came four days after the Rockets pulled off a stunning trade to acquire Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Houston traded shooting guard Kevin Martin and first-round draft pick Jeremy Lamb to Oklahoma City, along with future draft picks.
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey called Harden a "foundational player" on Monday, stating that the reigning Sixth Man of the Year is "a player we can build around."
The Rockets, who also signed point guard Jeremy Lin this offseason, visit the Detroit Pistons in their regular-season opener Wednesday.
that's freakin ridiculous.
hi new joe johnson.
enjoy your albatross of a contract while it freakin lasts... 
1 year and $20mil too rich but I understand why....
What Houston is showing here to all other potential free agents...."Come Here and We'll Pay You"
OTOH this means Carmelo and for now at least Chandler are revving up for extensions after next summer.
They wouldn't have money in 3 years. Lin 15mil, Asik 15mil, Harden 17mil... They might not even make the playoffs.
3G4G wrote:1 year and $20mil too rich but I understand why....
What Houston is showing here to all other potential free agents...."Come Here and We'll Pay You"
OTOH this means Carmelo and for now at least Chandler are revving up for extensions after next summer.
here's what i never got about that crap though dudes...
for one, if you dont have a top 5 player, or you can't set yourself up to get one, what the hell is the point of paying an all nba 3rd teamer max money so that you can be the 8th seed in the west for the next god knows how many years...
that crap never made sense to me. if i was houston i would've TANKED....HARD.
Honest opinion....
If given like role or lions share role is...
James Harden a better player than Russell Westbrook?
chewy wrote:They wouldn't have money in 3 years. Lin 15mil, Asik 15mil, Harden 17mil... They might not even make the playoffs.
No that's not how it works....
It's more like this with a $62mil cap figure in 3yrs
Harden $16mil(actual cap hit)
Lin $8mil(actual cap hit)
Asik $8mil(actual cap hit)
$30mil left to spend on the rest of the roster. Since they have $10mil on the table in TOs salary come 2014 if they added no one they'd still have around $20mil in cap space
Now usually successful teams have 2 near Max or 2 Max Cats. As of now Houston only has 1
3G4G wrote:Honest opinion is given like role or lions share role is...
James Harden a better player than Russell Westbrook?
LOL what? is that english, orrr....caz I don't quite understand what you mean.
If that was even to me...
And no of course he's not better silly. I said he's a POTENTIAL 3rd teamer. Or meant to say it, it was implied. You get the point though...
DohLin33 wrote:3G4G wrote:Honest opinion if given like role or lions share role is...
James Harden a better player than Russell Westbrook?
LOL what? is that english, orrr....caz I don't quite understand what you mean.
If that was even to me...
And no of course he's not better silly. I said he's a POTENTIAL 3rd teamer. Or meant to say it, it was implied. You get the point though...
I went and edited the post. Sorry my thoughts are coming faster than my typing.
So when everyone was bashing Westbrook for not giving the ball up to Durant and said OKC was a better team when Harden ran the offense, fans were essentially saying Harden is not better than Westbrook?
That is awful.
They better hope Bynum or Howard ends up there in the offseason, or it's awful signing.
Morey is beyond terrible as a GM and talent evaluator.
3G4G wrote:DohLin33 wrote:3G4G wrote:Honest opinion if given like role or lions share role is...
James Harden a better player than Russell Westbrook?
LOL what? is that english, orrr....caz I don't quite understand what you mean.
If that was even to me...
And no of course he's not better silly. I said he's a POTENTIAL 3rd teamer. Or meant to say it, it was implied. You get the point though...
I went and edited the post. Sorry my thoughts are coming faster than my typing.
So when everyone was bashing Westbrook for not giving the ball up to Durant and said OKC was a better team when Harden ran the offense, fans were essentially saying Harden is not better than Westbrook?
You know they have medication for that right. 
Lol jk.
And I STILL don't know what you mean dudes.
But that said, I already explained what I meant, what is this business about lions and opinions. My opinion is LEGIT for SURE, so I hope you weren't bein rude or jerkish stating that I said anything strange, b/c obviously I didn't.
And yea Harden is barely 3rd teamer anyways...
It's a lot to pay for someone with only 2 seasons of excellent play. I'd rather pay it for him than anyone we've had this century though.
They have 1 max contract. They will have money to spend to build a very good team
chewy wrote:They wouldn't have money in 3 years. Lin 15mil, Asik 15mil, Harden 17mil... They might not even make the playoffs.
Part of the poison pill third year that was reported was the Rockets cap hit would be 8 mil per year because they were under the cap. I wonder if the Harden contract changes that.
We'll it starts tonight who will be watching for the debut of Harden and Lin. I'll be watching for my boy Parsons. Hopefully he will make a jump this year.
NBA just being NBA.
Is anybody really surprised by this? Harden has huge pressure to justify this contract with big numbers, since nobody expects the Rockets to win anytime soon.
Harden was talking about how he is ready to be a leader and how he was a leader in college and now he is back to his accustomed position. Thats some big talk from a guy who didnt step up when it mattered most. Lin also said he was ready to be the leader so it should be interesting to see who delivers and who doesn't.
CrushAlot wrote:chewy wrote:They wouldn't have money in 3 years. Lin 15mil, Asik 15mil, Harden 17mil... They might not even make the playoffs.
Part of the poison pill third year that was reported was the Rockets cap hit would be 8 mil per year because they were under the cap. I wonder if the Harden contract changes that.
It doesn't as they're still well under the cap even after adding Harden's $14.5mil. I just looked at Westbrook's deal to see how his salary broke down per year and in the second year of his 5yr $78.9mil Max contract from OKC he's making $14.6mil. Harden essentially signed the same deal
The only committed salary calculated from Hoopshype is Lin/Asik/Scola's amnesty figure. But this is reported salary and not factoring actual Cap hits. So the Rockets have $36.3mil total salary.
The Cap hit figure is $8.3mil(Lin's cap hit) +8.3mil(Asik's cap hit) +6.5mil(Scola's cap hit)=$23mil + $14.5mil(Harden's cap hit 2nd yr)=$37.5mil. Harden's Max doesn't start kicking in until next year. This year he's playing for $5.8mil(which is a bargain) Team Salary Cap figure by 2014/2015 $62mil natural progression the Rockets have $24mil free but have to exercise some Team Options on certain Players.
They waived JuJo/Brockman/Hayward already and didn't pick up Cole's option. So the way I see it they keep Parsons/Jones/White/Montie/Morris.... plus additional pick salary, comes to about $12mil. So they'll have $10-15mil depending on what they actually do to spend on another significant player and they still won't be at the Tax thresh hold.
The way I now look at Harden's deal is like this....using Westbrook's deal again as a measure
1rst yr $5.8mil
2nd yr $13.6mil
3rd yr $14.6mil
4th yr $15.7mil
5th yr $16.7mil
6th yr $17.7mil
Total 6rys $85mil is what the Rockets are truly paying Harden should he play each yr to completion as a Rocket.
Harden is at the max is STILL tradeable.
GustavBahler wrote:Harden was talking about how he is ready to be a leader and how he was a leader in college and now he is back to his accustomed position. Thats some big talk from a guy who didnt step up when it mattered most. Lin also said he was ready to be the leader so it should be interesting to see who delivers and who doesn't.
Harden has all the tools to be a very dominant SG. Issue is can he consistently produce with defenses locked onto him.
Here's also the major beauty of Rockets situation. Since they will be "under the cap" for the next 2 yrs any deal they execute at this point "does not have to match Dollar for Dollar"(assuming this rule is still in place).
So they could realistically trade Patrick Patterson/Royce White/future 1rst for Josh Smith. I'm not saying this is a fair offer or Hawks would agree to it, I'm just saying this could work under the current CBA rules.
They'd be looking at
Lin($8.3mil)
Harden($14.5mil)
Parsons($1mil)
J.Smoove($12mil ext)
Asik($8.3mil)
Jones($1.6mil)
Morris($3.1mil)
Montie($1.4mil)
Enough space to sign a significant Free agent in 2yrs if they pulled off such a trade this year. This leads me to believe Morey wants to get another deal done but he won't STARFUDGE his team in the process.
