That trade right there is the exact reason why the Thunder will stay relevant for as long as Presti is the GM.

Kevin Martin is good, not as good as Harden, but he's good. Jeremy Lamb has the potential to be great (Imo).

Add in 2 firsts and a second, and that's an awesome deal for a player who was the 3rd best on your team.

Not too sure, you know. Harden is a beast and he was always reliable to change a game for them. Martin isn't a great player, he's an erratic shooter who'll play off Durant and Westbrook well, but won't play as well as Harden. Harden was a creator, a potential superstar. The only reason he's gone is because they probably can't fit him under the cap (Durant, Perkins, Ibaka and Westbrook are all earners).

I like Lamb, I can see what they like about him, he's long and smooth and could work out a good but different player to Harden. He's long and slim and he won't make plays like Harden, but he could work out a better defender and a better fit for the Thunder. We'll see, but I don't like Kevin Martin, especially as they already have Thabo to start. IMO, it won't be long before Martin is traded.

Perhaps, I can see your point about Martin. I think Lamb is the real gem in the deal.

At worst Martin will score 15 ppg this year and leave at the end, freeing up some cap space for them.

There was no way they could resign Harden imo, even at the 13mil a year deal they were looking they'd have been totally hamstrung for the foreseeable future.

Lamb could be a good player, but come on, he scraped into the lottery of a draft with only one superstar. Yes, he probably dropped a few places lower than his ability suggested, but Harden is easily looking like the second best player from the 2009 draft, easily the best guard and a likely all star throughout his career. The Thunder would have been better trying to get rid of Perkins and doing whatever it took to tie down Harden. They're still a good side, but Durant will now have to step into a playmaking role, he'll have to pass the ball more and I'm still not convinced he can take over a game in that playmaking sense. Westbrook can't do it, IMO the player that would have been their go-to player for creating plays in the clutch would have been Harden this season. Durant would have took the shots but Harden would have been setting up the play.

Westbrook is a good player but his greatest weakness remains his lack of natural playmaking ability. His numbers are great, his effort is great but he can often cause more harm than good with his selfish style of play. Harden added the balance needed between Durant and Westbrook, for me the Thunder have lost an awful lot.

I'll put my neck on the line, and probably be wrong, but I think Harden was so successful because he wasn't ever the no. 1 target for the defence. You saw what happened when Miami targeted him in the playoffs.

Of course, but his numbers speak for themselves. His skill set is fantastic and he still has huge room for improvement. He isn't a lights out athlete but he's such a skilled player. He was easily the best '6' in the league and he's easily one of the best SGs. Bearing in mind he still has 10+ years left in his career, I can see him easily being a regular all star throughout his career and easily a franchise player.

But he ain't gonna be a "6" in Houston. He's gonna start, and be the number 1 option.

And a very good starter he'll be. Get him the right bigs and they've easily got themselves an all-star who could seriously flourish. I really like Harden, his numbers were great, he was unselfish but willing to take on shots, he oozes brains and he gets better every game. The only thing he needs to work on now is his defence and becoming the number one option. It's a change of role in a way but it isn't, when he comes on he often becomes the go-to guy for the Thunder, he just has to do it more regularly. He's not an instant Kobe, but for me he's got potential to easily be better than Joe Johnson or Brandon Roy, two established all-star 2 guards who were/are franchise players. Whether he could be a Kobe or a Wade will soon be seen as he becomes the man at Houston, but I really like him and I think they should have tried to get rid of Perkins to create more room to keep him.

Perkins is an integral part of what the Thunder do defensively. Harden is a decent player and will be the franchise player in Houston. I agree with the Roy type comparison, not JJ though as he is/was biz. If Lin stop's the stupid shots and can feed Harden the way he fed Novak on the perimeter then he could have crazy numbers.

Perkins is a good player but Ibaka is the star for them defensively. For me the Thunder often performed better with Perk off the floor, simply because he would sometimes be too lethargic as a defender. I imagine they could have got somebody decent in return for Perk. It was never going to be easy for them to get rid of one of the stars, but I still can't believe they've got so little in return.