Who won? Who knows. But Harden deal was one to talk about

Nothing like a big trade to get everyone pumped in the week leading up to the NBA regular season, is there?

James Harden can’t get a deal on a contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder and, boom!, he’s shipped off to Houston for a package of players and picks.

Not sure how much a more punitive tax threshold that’s coming factored into OKC’s decision – it had to play a role – but I think they might have made the right basketball decision as well as the right financial one.

Look, Harden’s a gifted player, no question about it, a 23-year-old shooting guard who should be entering the prime of his career and he may have had an atrocious NBA Finals last June but he’s skill.

However, he’s also never been The Man and never would have been on any team with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and it makes it a lot easier to be very good when you’re surrounded by great. I don’t know that he’s capable of lifting a team on his back alone because he’s never had to do it and there are enough flaws on the Houston roster that no matter how good he is, they are a marginal playoff team at best.

The Thunder is still good, very good, still the second-best team in the West (and awfully close to the Lakers) and losing Harden isn’t going to change that. They are being a bit financially prudent – it’s a byproduct of the new CBA as much as anything – and while you might see some shortsightedness in this deal from their side, they are better poised now to be flexible in the future than they would have been had they stuck with Harden at a maximum value deal.

But here’s one of the more important things about this whole affair:

For every decision someone makes, there are consequences and repercussions that you need to live with and have to anticipate when you make them.

I would presume, and hope, that Harden and his agents knew there would be backlash to his turning down what would appear to be a pretty good deal but you can’t leave a good situation without knowing there would be a price to be paid.

And as long as you’re willing to live with those consequences and repercussions, there can be no looking back.

I don’t think for a second that Harden regrets what he did, nor should he. He did what he thought was best for him and there’s no reason to look back.

We can’t presume for a second to know who “won” this trade at the moment, it might take a year or two before that becomes crystal clear.

But the salient fact right now is that it looks like everybody won:

Harden should get is maximum value contract, worthy of it or not.

The Rockets got a fine young player and still have enough money to go after another one next summer.

The Thunder still have Durant and Westbrook and Serge Ibaka and their depth and ability to get young players in the future has been enhanced.

Sure, it would have been nice had Harden taken the last offer and stayed in a place where they had something special going on. He didn’t, he made a choice, rightly or wrongly, and has to live with his decision.

-

You had to know this was coming, right?

Man, don’t you just hate it when things just fizzle out.

Like the World Series.

Boooorrrrrrinng.

Good on the Giants – and team with a guy they call Panda and a pitcher who evokes memories of Sidd Finch is okay with me – but I’d rather have seen the Tigers win.

Or at least win a game because there’s nothing as off-putting as a sweep.

But at least now we can start thinking about how AA is going to fix the TOD and who might manage it.

I’m available for either.

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I’ll tell you what, aside from the fact it’s about 150 kilometres from Casa Doug, they’ve got something good going up at Rama, the casino way up north that hosted the intrasquad game Sunday.

And quite aside from the fact two public intrasquad games is one too many – ask the coaches and players in their heart of hearts whether they really wanted to be there and you’d get an overwhelming “no, not really but I guess we have to do it – the facility was outstanding.

Had that theatre lighting we like so much and it’s too bad it only holds about 3,000 for basketball because I bet it’d be a cool place to have a pre-season game.

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No, I don’t know how Jose Calderon or John Lucas III is after banging up their knees yesterday and we won’t find out until much later today after practice.

The timing’s awful, though, if they have to miss even a day of practice since they’ve only got today and tomorrow to get ready to start things but, as Dwane said somewhere in this piece, things can happen at any time.

Just a tough break.

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Chat?

Oh, yeah, we’re going to chat.

Seems we have this thing at noon today with me, Not Grace Kelly, Dave F. and McGran to talk about the sorry state of Toronto pro sports teams and that ought to be, um, fun.

And there’s some talk about doing something at noon on Wednesday that’s basketball specific.

Man, you folks and I are going to get to be really close, aren’t we?

And is that a good thing?

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Hey, bundle up and be safe, folks.

It’s going to get nasty out there.

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Comments

[MC]

Send this idea upstairs Doug,
From the sounds of it, like many of the million irregulars over the years I only visit the on- line Star for your content primarily and other sports sometimes. Why not have "sections" of the Star available for a lesser price? Ie- Sports $5 a month and the whole Star for $20? I wouldn't think twice about subscribing just to get my daily read in for $5 or perhaps you could go independent ..... $5 per person 40,000 readers x 12 months = Doug will be riding his convertible not smelly Focus anymore. You can thank me later for making you rich.

[Lorie]

Doug, I just read the zany, sort of stream-of-consciousness noon-hour bloggy thingy (Sounded fun. And informative. But mainly fun.) and I've got a follow up question. Griff (who one hopes can safely get out of Detroit before the winds of Sandy blow hhim back to Butte) answered a question about the Jays as follows: "We're getting close to the end here, but one last word on the Jays. If they do as promised and sign two pitching guys with hair on their fastballs and spend wisely their budget of $100 million plus, they do have a chance given good health and a return to form by Bautista, but that's asking a lot." What did Griff mean by guys with "hair on their fastballs"? Is that a baseball term? Or a Griff term? Or a Griff term after he's been up close and personal for an hour or two with his hotel mini bar? Thanks! :)

Blogger's note: With Griff, you're never quite sure. But he meant guys who still have good stuff

[GM]

Maybe you should patent "The Irregulars" or I could see someone starting up a free blog or website for us to congregate if you become a pay site. I see theirregulars.com is available. Sure, we wouldn't have your expertise, but we'd at least be able to gripe with each other about point guard controversies and Colangelo debates.

[doug]

interesting topics here today...on Harden trade good for OKC, we should have traded Bosh and the Magic danced with Howard way to long, I always thought Harden was a little over-rated and was in a excellent spot in OKC with his skillset, be interesting to see how he responds to the pressure of him being the man....paywall not surprised as it will be the industry norm soon, I guess it comes down to personal preference and choice me I am undecided but I like the suggestion of having a varying subscription fee, from full to bits and bites but not sure how realistic that is to do from a software perspective...also to the reader that mentioned about Kindle, this was a interesting story from the last week, me I'll stick to buying paperbacks after reading this...ok cheers...

http://www.zdnet.com/why-amazon-is-within-its-rights-to-remove-access-to-your-kindle-books-7000006385/

[DH]

Doug, pretty obvious who won the Harden Deal. Unless you are the NY Knicks and give away the world during the Isiah Thomas years for the best player, when you get the best player in the trade you usually win. When one is only slightly better than the other then it is usually a wash until time tells us otherwise. In this case the 2 central figures are Harden/Martin. Harden is a much better player than Martin. Martin is going to get lost on OKC, while I expect Harden to flourish in Houston where he's the man.

As for your Raptors column the season boils down to 3 things:

Can DeRozan get better
Lowry and DeRozan need to play in tandem well enough down the stretch of games and pull some out for them
Valentunis contributes better than expected.

Point 2 is the key factor, Raps lost a lot of games in the 4th stanza last year. Bargnani isn't a closer cause he's really a stand still jump shooter. Therefore Lowry or DeRozan have to finsh games. last year the guy who did it best Bayless is gone.

Blogger's note: Best player for sure. But which is the better team today? No doubt on that one. I'm glad Harden got paid; he's still on an inferior team

[Mike]

Hey Doug,
just want to give the opposing view to the "if i don't get it free, i'm not paying" sentiment. I know the online ad revenue is next to nothing, i know that the creation of good content is pain-stalking to create and completely devalued in this "free" content age of broad user generate mostly garbage. I will happyily pay to read your pieces and the other content on the star. The daily content you (and soem others) provide on this site is worth north of "free" and i will be there to sign up. Keep up the good work

Mike

[Nick M]

This may be a simplistic viewpoint but, among other things, the star states it is trying to supplement its print revenue. Then it would make complete sense to put whatever would be offered in print behind some kind of a pay wall. However, things like this blog seem to be an added revenue only possible due to the internet, which would make paying for it more difficult to justify. Obviously there are other costs associated with maintaining a blog page that I can't speak to (i.e. paying the Grunt $1 for every hit?), but suffice it to say, this may put a damper on the New Year.

[Jacques]

Doug,

Ever thought about getting your own app.

Blogger's note: I usually like a good escargot

[Andrew Potter]

David Simon, the genius behind HBO's The Wire, has often spoke of the need for online content to be accessed through a paywall system. Traditional print media is dead. People who believe that Blogs and content-aggregates provide the same level of professional analysis are insane; Blogs can be entertaining - absolutely - but only those with the resources can truly provide the access and in-depth coverage that we seek in media.

The Star's Doug Smith is someone who has the professionalism and access to augment sports, especially basketball, in a way that cannot be achieved by Joe-Blow, Arm-chair Analyst.

Smith has been someone who has inspired me to take a more active role in journalism and athletics as a possible career path; this past month I began writing the basketball-beat for the University of Western Ontario.

As a student who often struggles to buy groceries let alone begin chipping off an ever-growing student-debt, this is a service I will no longer be able to partake in.

The Star's decision - the same one made by dozens of media outlets in the past year - is a mistake. Perhaps not for its immediate economic interests - though by looking at the comment page, this may be an issue for the Star's large online community - but for the effect it will have on the journalism industry in general.

How are future generations of young people going to be influenced to take up journalism with the same fervor that Doug approaches his job? Only those with additional means (I acknowledge that I am very fortunate for what I have in life but I cannot justify this additional subscription) will be able to be influenced in that way. What we will see is a generation of upper-middle class-raised journalists, telling stories and dictating perceptions of truth through a narrow-gaze.

The truth is becoming a luxury available only to people with means. I wonder what Marx might have to say about this were he alive.

That is what I worry about.

Anxiously awaiting more details on this new structure.

[Steve]

"Blogger's note: Best player for sure. But which is the better team today? No doubt on that one. I'm glad Harden got paid; he's still on an inferior team"

That's really the key here. OKC still look just as good to me, plus they picked up some first round picks to ensure that as a small market team they can get more young guys in to follow on from the current batch when they inevitably can't renew all of them at some point down the track.

[john]

@GM, I stand corrected. Would 'scantily clad' be more appropriate?

[GM]

@john, sure, I'll buy that!

Further to @Nick M's point about the blog being added revenue separate from the newspaper, if the powers-that-be expect to charge for the blog, as a potential customer, I'd at least expect the same number of office eyes reading and editing each post, like they do with the newspaper copy, rather than just the author writing it and hitting 'post'.

[TL]

If the Star goes ahead with the paywall, I hope the marketers get on the job and start making the case for the value of professional content. Online is the only place where the audience expects experts and entertainers to work for nothing.

It amazes me that people who are forking out $1000/year for premium cable still think they are getting sports (or anything else) for "free" on TV!