Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has had a busy off-season.
Morey spent most of the summer moving parts to try to acquire Lakers center Dwight Howard, but was unsuccessful.
Morey continued to press on, and what do you know, a star dropped in his lap by the name of James Harden.
The trade rocked the basketball world Saturday night, and according to Pro Basketball Talk, Morey was shocked by the trade, and deemed it “unprecedented.”
Shocked. I actually can’t come up with any examples of a player of his caliber and age getting traded at the time he was traded – it really has never happened. So we were obviously very aggressive and we gave up a lot – Oklahoma City does a great job; we gave up some great players in Kevin (Martin) and Jeremy (Lamb) and some great draft picks – but a top player like James really never gets traded so we jumped at the chance.
Morey said he inquired about Harden over 30 times, but the final call sealed the deal.
I actually didn’t think they’d trade him. I think he’s a great, great player. I think he’s already playing at an All-Star level and is going to be a perennial All-Star and those players are rarely traded so I thought, frankly, it was going to work out there. I’m very happy for the Houston Rockets that he’s here.
Harden is a pretty good player, now we shall see if he can handle being the man.