Atlanta Hawks: The pros and cons of trading for James Harden

Should the Atlanta Hawks try and take advantage of the situation where James  Harden and the Houston Rockets are seemingly unable to reconcile.

The Atlanta Hawks may be on the lookout to try and get some advantage out of the apparently irreconcilable situation between the Houston Rockets and James Harden. The Rockets’ main man was less than impressed during press commitments after the Los Angeles Lakers game.

This situation has been brewing since before the season. It appears that Harden has had no respect for the team, given he was partying with friends when he was meant to be preparing for training camp.

However, when it came to playing the game of basketball, Harden has shown that he can step onto a court and produce at a high level. He is averaging 24.8 points, 10.4 assists, 5.1 rebounds, 0.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks in 36.3 minutes per game in eight contests this season.

Should the Atlanta Hawks be concerned about James Harden’s relative lack of production?

I say relative lack of production because Harden has led the league in scoring for the last three seasons. The former MVP has averaged more than 30.0 points a game in each of those seasons. Such is his versatility, Harden led the league in assists the season prior to his first scoring title.

So the question is why is the situation so bad in Houston. Harden asked for more help and in the following seasons the Rockets added Chris Paul, then Russell Westbrook, and now John Wall. The Rockets have never made it out of the West, even with this high-level talent who have come in and tried to help Harden.

Atlanta Hawks pro No. 1) James Harden is an elite scorer

As mentioned in the opening slide, James Harden is one of the elite scorers in the league. He has made a living out of shooting the 3-ball, including his almost unguardable step-back. He has also been really effective at driving to the rim and getting to the free-throw line.

The Rockets have built their system around Harden’s abilities on the offensive end. They even tried to go super small-ball at the trade deadline last season when the Rockets traded the injured Clint Capela to the Hawks. Considering they were bounced out of the playoffs in the second round by the Los Angeles Lakers, it is safe to say that experiment failed.

Atlanta Hawks pro No. 2 ) James Harden is an elite passer

Also as mentioned on the previous slide, Harden has led the league in assists once already in his career. He has also not averaged under 7.0 assists per game in the past seven seasons, including this one.

The main reason for this is that the Rockets surrounded their star with shooters and basically gave him the keys to the franchise. His play could go a long way to unlocking some of the talents of the young Hawks core.

Atlanta Hawks pro No. 3 ) James Harden has played with Clint Capela

The swiss pivot started his career with the Rockets. He had a tremendous pick and roll game with Harden that was almost impossible. Capela also knows Harden’s defensive tendencies and is able to compensate for them.

Atlanta Hawks con No. 1) James Harden is past 30 years old

Harden does not fit with the current timeline of the Hawks. At the age of 31, he has maybe four or five good seasons left in him. The Hawks have added veterans to supplement their young core and Harden would most probably upset this balance.

Add to this Harden has played a lot of NBA minutes over his career. After the age of 30, a player tends to get more injuries. Chris Paul is an obvious exception to this rule but he is taking good care of his body. Harden appears to come back every offseason out of shape and uses the start of the season to get fit again. This can not be good long term for his body.

Atlanta Hawks con No. 2) The Hawks already have a franchise point guard

The Hawks already have their franchise point guard in Trae Young. Since joining the Hawks three seasons ago, Young has averaged 23.7 points and 8.6 assists per game. He may not have the rebounding prowess of Harden but that is not why he is on the team.

Young is also only 22 years old so has almost ten years of NBA miles less on his body than Harden. Young is going to try and be the franchise cornerstone in Atlanta for as long as he can and the Hawks seem very happy with him in that role.

Atlanta Hawks con No. 3)  James Harden would cost too much to get.

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Harden will come with a massive contract. As it stands he is due $40.8 million this season and $43.8 million next season. The final year of his contract is a player option worth $46.8 million which is a significant portion of the team’s salary cap.

However, on top of this Harden has a 15 percent trade kicker associated with his contract. This means that his contract becomes $46.9 million, $50.4 million, and then $53.8 million in his final season.

To match these salaries, the Hawks would have to give up one or two of Danilo Gallinari, Bogdan Bogdanovic, or Capela. They would also need to add another player or two on top of this just to match salaries. To get him to the Hawks it would gut their roster.

Atlanta Hawks con No. 4) James Harden has a perceived party lifestyle.

The Hawks also want to have a team leader who is going to guide the younger players both on and off the court.. Harden has been shown to have a party lifestyle even before this season’s issues at the strip clubs.

Looking at this, it seems the cons far outweigh the pros of trading for Harden, The Hawks would be far better off focussing on getting the best result from the John Collins situation, hopefully cleaning up in the wake of the Harden situation.