The Brooklyn Nets appear to be in a downward spiral as the NBA trade deadline. What was supposed to be a three-headed monster with James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving has devolved into an underwhelming state of affairs where all three are rarely available at the same time.
Irving remains a part-time player due to the New York City mandates relating to COVID-19 vaccination status and Durant is currently sidelined as he recovers from a sprained medial collateral of the left knee. The original timetable for Durant was reportedly 4-to-6 weeks and the injury was announced on Jan. 16.
The Nets have lost seven consecutive games and find themselves ahead of the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference standings by just a half game. The Raptors have won five straight games while the Boston Celtics trail Toronto by just a half game and they have won four consecutive games, too. If the Celtics and Raptors were to pass up Brooklyn, they’d be in the play-in tournament.
This is not what James Harden signed up for when he chose to be moved to the Brooklyn Nets when he had the choice between landing there or with the Philadelphia 76ers, led by Harden’s former President of Basketball Operations with the Rockets, Daryl Morey.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: This Nets-Sixers Trade Lands James Harden In Philadelphia
An interesting detail has emerged from the Harden saga with the Nets as the NBA trade deadline approaches. According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, the Rockets made it clear to Harden they would ‘welcome him back’ to Houston if that ‘was ever in the cards.’
“The Rockets, who sources say made it clear to Harden that they would welcome him back in Houston if that was ever in the cards, were operating like a player-friendly operation in their handling of the deal but had all sorts of incentives to push the deal in Brooklyn’s direction,” Amick wrote.
The idea of James Harden landing back with the current rendition of the Houston Rockets would be a tough one to buy as an actual outcome given his desire to compete for a championship. Jalen Green looks far from being ready to be a co-star on a contending team and there would need to be aggressive changes in the supporting cast.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: This Nets-Sixers Trade Lands James Harden In Philadelphia
For the sake of the hypothetical, the Rockets do at least have a war-chest of future draft picks from the Brooklyn Nets at their disposal to make some trades as well as some intriguing young players in addition to Green like Alperen Sengun and Josh Christopher, who have shown some intriguing flashes.
Perhaps the main obstacle for the Houston Rockets in a re-tooling on the fly effort in the event of an unlikely Harden reunion would be John Wall’s contract. He is undoubtedly not going to decline his $47.4 million player option for 2022-23 and that is a key factor in the team already being at $131.1 million in spending obligations.
Say Harden was interested in returning to Houston this summer, the Rockets would need to facilitate a sign-and-trade deal with the Brooklyn Nets where names like Eric Gordon and Christian Wood would be included for salary-matching purposes—depleting an already underwhelming supporting cast.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: This Nets-Sixers Trade Lands James Harden In Philadelphia
If James Harden were to return to the Houston Rockets, the best time to do so would be to sign a 1+1 deal and decline the player option next offseason to sign as a free agent in the summer of 2023.
In such a scenario, there would be ample salary cap space for Harden to recruit a co-star to join him, young players on the team would have had more time to develop, another dynamic prospect would be taken in the 2023 NBA Draft, and there would still be plenty of picks to use in trades.
Such an approach would be emblematic to LeBron James’ decision to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers after they added Kyrie Irving using the NBA Draft and had assets to use to trade for Kevin Love. However, it’s easier to recruit a co-star to Houston than it is to Ohio.
