Celtics Title Town

WOW! News broke this week that Harden turned down a 54 million dollar extension. So, just like that the Thunder don't waste anytime, and they ship Harden to Houston for Kevin Martin.

ESPN LINK

The Thunder offered Harden $55.5 million over four years -- $4.5 million less than the max deal Harden coveted and will get from the Rockets, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.

"We wanted to sign James to an extension, but at the end of the day, these situations have to work for all those involved. Our ownership group again showed their commitment to the organization with several significant offers," Thunder general manager Sam Presti said in a statement.

"We were unable to reach a mutual agreement, and therefore executed a trade that capitalized on the opportunity to bring in a player of Kevin's caliber, a young talent like Jeremy and draft picks, which will be important to our organizational goal of a sustainable team."

The small-market Thunder had already signed Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka to long-term deals, and apparently realized Harden was going to want a bigger salary than they would offer.

Harden will regret not taking the offer. Especially if it was only 4.5 million less than the max offer. The Thunder were on the verge of something really special, and now Kevin Martin has jumped onto a title contender. Some may thing the Thunder have taken a step back, and perhaps they have, but they still got a guy who can score in mass quantities. The best thing about Harden though was his toughness that he portrayed.  It's hard to say if the Thunder have gotten better, or maybe worse. I think they'll be fine though, but it's still a big loss.

Harden may regret this like I said, after the Thunder raise a banner  maybe this year, or within the next five years. I would be shocked if they don't.