NBA Trade Rumors: James Harden now open to trade to Blazers, Celtics?
NBA Trade Rumors: James Harden now open to trade to Blazers, Celtics
It’s been a few weeks since it’s been reported that James Harden doesn’t want to be a member of the Houston Rockets, or since he’s requested a trade, but not much has taken place in terms of a potential deal coming to fruition.
Harden is still a member of the Rockets and I don’t think you can say that he hasn’t become a distraction for the team. Still, there hasn’t been much reported traction on a potential deal. From the look of the situation, objectively, it seems as if the Rockets’ asking price is simply too high for any of the interested teams to meet.
Now, though, it appears that Harden is once again expanding his list of preferred destinations. According to a report, Harden would now be open to a trade to the Portland Trail Blazers or Boston Celtics.
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While both of these teams make sense on the surface, it’s extremely telling that the goalposts continue to be moved in this direction. It’s becoming clear that a trade to one of his original preferred teams, such as the Brooklyn Nets or Philadelphia 76ers, isn’t on the horizon and he wants out of Houston sooner rather than later.
It’d be interesting to see what the Celtics or Blazers would offer if they would even be interested in Harden at all at this point. The Blazers would almost have to include CJ McCollum and a number of their other promising young players. Now that the season has gotten underway, that seems quite unlikely.
As far as the Celtics are concerned, we know that they have the assets to get a deal done – and likely could without having to include Jayson Tatum. Still, with as much trouble as Harden has caused with his attempt to get out of Houston, perhaps it’s something that turns this organization off.
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Plus, you’d have to wonder about Harden’s fit in a ball-movement centric offense such as Brad Stevens’. That said, the probability for James Harden to be traded has certainly improved over the last day or so. Which team will rise and take a big risk on James Harden? At this point, your guess is still as good as ours.