Grading the Rockets return for Harden

The Houston Rockets have traded James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets for four first-round picks and Victor Oladipo. Here is how the Rockets grade out in the trade.

The Houston Rockets have finally completed the blockbuster in waiting by sending James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets. The trade involves the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers in what amounts to a four-team trade.

The Rockets will send James Harden to the Nets and will receive Rodions Kurucs, three unprotected first-round picks, and four pick swaps from the Nets. The Cavaliers will receive Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince from the Nets and are sending Dante Exum and their 2022 first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks to the Rockets.

Finally, the Nets are trading Cariv LeVert to the Indiana Pacers who will then send Victor Oladipo to the Rockets. All told the haul for the Rockets stands as four first-round picks, four unprotected pick swaps, Victor Oladipo, Rodions Kurucs, and Dante Exum.

The draft pick compensation is one of the best hauls in recent history as every pick from the Nets is unprotected and means the Rockets could conceivably have every Nets pick from now until 2027. The headliner of the trade, for the Rockets, is Victor Oladipo who is on an expiring contract and will give Houston’s front office plenty to think about over the coming months.

The Rockets gave up the best player in the trade but got in return an impressive draft haul, a ready-made contributor in Victor Oladipo, and two rotation pieces in Rodions Kurucs and Dante Exum. The winner of this trade won’t be known for almost a decade but let’s grade the Rockets return as it stands right now.

Next: Grading the draft pick haul 

Grading the Houston Rockets draft pick haul

Grade: A+

The Houston Rockets have to earn an A+ for the draft pick haul they received from the Brooklyn Nets. Securing four first-round picks, all unprotected, plus four unprotected pick-swaps, and a second-round pick is an unprecedented return in the modern NBA.

While the draft picks from 2021 to 2024 likely won’t be lottery picks, the picks and swaps from 2025 to 2027 could become incredibly valuable. The Nets core of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving is a championship level core but it is a unit that’s a championship contender only for a few more seasons.

Durant is 32-years-old, Harden is 31, and Irving is soon to be 29. By the time the 2023-24 season starts this core will all be approaching the end of their primes if they’re even still in them.

Not to mention, there is no guarantee that Durant, Irving, and Harden will stick around as they all have player options for the 2022-23 season. If the three remain as productive as they have been throughout their careers, there is a genuine possibility that all three will opt-out, and the Nets will have to give out three max-contracts in the same offseason to players well into their 30’s.

The Nets have mortgaged their future to try and win a championship with one of the most high powered trios in the history of the league, but the long term pain could see the franchise in the abyss as the decade heads towards 2030.

The fact that none of the picks have any form of protections is a fantastic development for the Rockets, and largely unprecedented. The Rockets are set up to have a tremendous amount of draft capital for the first half of the decade and can use it to either bolster their current rosters or use it to build through the draft.

Draft picks are best used to acquire proven NBA talent and the Rockets now have enough to go out and secure the next disgruntled superstar that comes down the line. Even if the Rockets decide to take the more organic approach of drafting and developing players they’ll have enough picks to have a speedy rebuild.

Rafael Stone deserves praise for his ability to extract the most draft capital through one trade in recent memory. This facet of the Harden trade deserves an A+ and positions the franchise to have a healthy and fruitful future.

Next: Grading the players 

Grading the players the Houston Rockets received

Grade: B-

The players that the Rockets received in return for James Harden are a tad bit underwhelming and only earns a B-. Victor Oladipo was truly fantastic in 2017-18 but has been injured and less effective since that breakout season.

Further dampening the enthusiasm about Oladipo is that he is on an expiring contract and looking for a max-deal, which means the Rockets are on the clock to determine if he is a part of their future. Receiving a player in return for James Harden that you let walk after one season would be catastrophic.

The Rockets in all likelihood will work hard to extend Oladipo, but the question remains if he is worth it. Oladipo’s 2017-18 breakout was explosive as he averaged 23.1 points a game on 47.7-percent shooting and made the All-Defensive and All-NBA teams.

Oladipo suffered a slight dropoff his following season before suffering a serious injury that kept him out for the rest of the season and most of the 2019-20 season. Further removed from the injury in 2020-21 Oladipo is back to the form he showed in 2018-19 when he was an All-Star.

Oladipo is not the offensive player that Harden is but he is an elite defender and an excellent finisher. A good comp for Oladipo is that he is an older version of Jaylen Brown but unlike Brown, he is not under contract for the next few seasons.

While the Rockets will have to wait and see if Oladipo can be their franchise cornerstone, they know that Dante Exum and Rodions Kurucs are simply rotation players. Kurucs was buried on the Nets bench this season but is 6’9 and has hit 40.7-percent of his corner 3-pointers.

Kurucs is good depth at the power forward position and could be insurance if the Rockets decide to move PJ Tucker at some point this season. Exum, on the other hand, is an interesting player who has been snake bitten by injuries throughout his career but was a highly regarded prospect.

Exum hasn’t done much in his pro-career but he was the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft and is worth an extended look at to see if he has anything to offer. Sometimes high draft picks don’t work out, but they almost always have real talent that if activated can make patient teams look smart.

All things being considered, there were better prospects to receive for Harden than Oladipo and both Kurucs and Exum are bench players who likely won’t make much of a difference this season. The Rockets could have gotten more NBA talent if they traded with another team, but that doesn’t mean the trade was a total bust.

Next: The final GPA   

The Houston Rockets final GPA

A+  +  B-  = B++

The Rockets’ final grade for the James Harden trade is a 3.5 or a B++. The draft capital they received was tremendous, while the NBA players they got back were a bit underwhelming.

The franchise, in the long term, is in a better place than they were yesterday but their chances of making the playoffs have dropped precipitously. Oladipo is a good player but James Harden is on another level.

The Rockets have to hope that John Wall can step up his playmaking and Oladipo can shoulder a heavy scoring load if the team wants to make a playoff push. The only positive, as this season is concerned, is that the Rockets could field a much-improved defense.

Oladipo is an excellent defender and a backcourt of him and Wall will make life difficult on the backcourts of the Western Conference. Finally, Harden was not playing at full speed this season so the team’s 3-6 start could be somewhat of a mirage and a total collapse towards the lottery shouldn’t be expected.

It’s very difficult to win a trade when you’re the team trading away the superstar. All-NBA talents have the ability to completely change a franchise and Harden is exactly that.

The Rockets won’t be better this season than if they had Harden but they have a plethora of future assets that should lessen the blow of a disappointing season. The franchise’s future looks to be bright even if their present might be a step back from what fans have grown accustomed to.

The Rockets could have done better in a trade but if the Nets deteriorate later on in the decade and the Rockets hit on their picks, then the Rockets can win this trade. It won’t be until 2030 until we know for sure who won this trade but as of right now a B++ isn’t too bad.