Har'en Gets Extension.

Another "holy s***!* deal.

 

Seriously. These guys are taking utterly enormous deals.

We're talking about a deal that gives Harden an annual salary of over 45 million dollars. That's nearly the entire contract that Kobe signed for two years that everyone complains about. It'll be somewhere between 44-46% of the cap for the foreseeable future. That's incredible! Even Kobe's deal was only worth in the 30% range of the cap. That's an astronomical contract.

Interesting to note that Durant just took a giant pay cut to help his team build a dynasty.

 

Lordy.

 

I think there's a point comparing the two deals. One of them was for 5 years, takes more of the cap, and is in a smaller market with a small history of success. The other to an older player, but only 2 years, less of the cap, and in a massive market with a history of success. We'll see what happens, but this contract is likely to be a massive mistake as it ties up almost half(!) their cap in one player. God forbid Chris Paul re-signs this summer to his maximum amount of 207 dollars or whatever it is. In the 2019 season they'll have around 80 million tied up in two players! If they cant get out from the Gordon and Anderson deals by then, they'll have another 35 million tied up there too!

Unless the cap takes another significant jump in the next couple years, this deal is going to greatly affect Morey's ability to build around Harden which makes it very much like the deal Kobe signed. Sure, Harden is younger and healthier and more effective at the time, but it's also for more than twice as long as Kobe's deal and will hamper the team just as much. The two contracts are absolutely comparable.

 

About to be someone else that will have to make that call now.

Really surprised me as well.

 

This was a brilliant move. Set up the team to look its most exciting in years, nail down their best player forever, and then get out before the Chris Paul/James Harden experiment doesn't work and they're back at square one.