James. Harden, nicknamed 'Cornerstone Deng', 'The Little Prince of Nightclubs', has many shortcomings, playing lazy, walking on the court, defensive, weak-willed, lingering in nightclubs, liking big ass girls, etc., as a ten-year old fan of the Rockets in the last life, Chen An really can't like the Rockets star who later became one of the league's signature superstars.

But Chen An is a head coach at the moment, and his personal likes and dislikes must be put aside, from the team's point of view, even if Howard replaces Harden alone, the Magic team will definitely not lose, which is evidenced by facts.

The Houston Rockets have not made the playoffs for three consecutive years after Chairman Yao retired, the team is struggling, and the rebuilding situation is not ideal, but since Harden joined in 12 years, the Rockets have never missed the playoffs in the next few years, and Morey has built the Rockets with Harden as the cornerstone and has achieved remarkable results. In the following years, the Rockets reached the Western Conference Finals, and their regular season record was not bad, with more than 50 wins, and they became a veritable powerhouse in the West, which is full of strong players, all because of the arrival of Harden.

And Harden himself has achieved great things, not to mention the statistics are improving year by year, in the 14-15 season and the 16-17 season he won the second place in the MVP selection, although he failed to win the MVP, but he did grow to the point of the league superstar, only because of his shortcomings are constantly criticized.

The most important thing is that Harden is not the kind of stubborn wayward player who indulges to the end, he is very smart and will compromise and even change under the pressure of reality, such as the 15-16 season, this guy is sexy. wanted to make a big deal, got involved with Khloe Kardashian, and because of this, he had conflicts with the coach and Howard in the team, which caused the team's results to plummet, and finally only stumbled into the playoffs with the eighth place in the West, but suffered a round trip. The outside world is overwhelmingly criticized him, and even affected the selection of awards, can you imagine a playoff team with such luxurious statistics as 29 points, 7.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game that has not even been selected for the best player three teams?

This is undoubtedly a punishment for Harden, but this guy woke up very quickly, immediately broke up with Khloe Kardashian, and corrected his playing attitude, at least he didn't look at the defense anymore, so he was able to force away head coach McHale and get rid of Howard, and lead the Rockets to play a proud record in the 16-17 season, which is a reflection of his strength and intelligence, and also reflects the reality of the NBA.

If he can get Harden, Chen An believes that his position as head coach must be as stable as Mount Tai, and Harden can just go to the Rockets and lead a group of remnants to the playoffs in the Wild West, can't he be in the East?

For Chen An, Harden must be the best choice for trading, the key is what kind of attitude he should take to get along after Harden comes, is it complete indulgence + unlimited firing rights, or the guidance of chicken soup for the soul, or strict management?

"Let's get it first!"

Chen An quickly made up his mind that since the Thunder was interested in Howard, it would not be too easy to bring in Harden, he knew very well the current situation of the Thunder, but on the surface, he still had to talk to Rob. Hennegan discusses.

"What do you think of Harden as a player?"

"James. Harden? ”

Rob. Hennigan obviously understood what Chen An meant, and then said: "This player has solid basic skills, is also relatively comprehensive, and plays very smart. ”

As a former assistant manager of the Thunder team, Rob . Hennigan obviously knows Harden very well, and he first talked about Harden's strengths, but then the words were not very good: "But this player's talent is not high, I think he has limited room to grow, and the most important thing is that his willpower is worrying, and he will definitely not be able to grow into a qualified team leader." ”

Rob. Hennigan's evaluation of Harden is quite low, in fact, this is also the general opinion of the outside world and even the current management of the Thunder about Harden, the reason why the outside world will form such a general opinion of Harden is mainly because of the playoffs just past season.

The Thunder have had a remarkable season as they made it all the way to the Finals in the playoffs, and throughout the playoffs, there are two series that are crucial for the Thunder, the first being the division finals against the Spurs and the second being the finals against the Heat.

In the division finals with the Spurs, Harden can be said to have made a great contribution, as the sixth man, whenever the situation is anxious, after coming off the bench, he can open the situation with his own breakthrough, long-range shooting or organization scheduling, and lay the foundation for the team's victory, so Harden has been unanimously praised by the outside world after this series.

But in the finals with the Heat, Harden's performance was a disaster, completely like sleepwalking, and the media also exposed the reason for Harden's sluggish performance in the finals after the game.

As soon as such news was exposed, the outside world's perception of Harden fell to a low point, and the Thunder management was also disappointed in Harden, so in terms of the importance of the Thunder's four less, it was reduced to Ibaka, refusing to provide Harden with a 4-year 60 million contract, and was only willing to give him a 4-year 52 million contract.

These cases are Rob. Hennegan understands everything, so he doesn't approve of using Howard to exchange for Harden, after all, the current Harden has not grown up, although he won the honor of the best sixth man this season, but the data is only 16.8 points per game, 3.7 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and the league's first center Howard is not at the same level, at least in the eyes of others.

"You may be right, Harden may not be a leader, but I have to admit that this player has his own characteristics, and I think he has a lot of room to grow."

Chen An gave his opinion, but it was obviously difficult to convince Rob. Hennigan, the guy shook his head and said, "Why do you have this understanding?" Harden's talent is obvious, he can't fly like Westbrook, and he doesn't have the back-to-back skills of Kobe Bryant and Wade. ”

At this time in 12 years, the general view of the industry on the guard is still at the stage of the big four, thinking that the one who can jump and fly, break through quickly and have a certain back-to-back technology is the standard guard, and the three-point is just one of the weapons in the arsenal, and it is not a conventional weapon. Therefore, JJ Reddick's annual salary is only about 6 million, you must know that in 17 years, the 33-year-old Reddick got an annual salary of 23 million, which is caused by the change in the league's playing style.

And under this general view, Harden's prospects are far inferior to Westbrook's, and no one would have imagined that this fat bearded man could grow into the league's No. 1 quarterback in the future, but Chen An knew, so he had to convince Rob. Hennigan.