James Harden against the Lakers on Jan. 12. Jan 12, 2021; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (middle) dribbles the ball against the Los Angeles Lakers during the third quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Houston Rockets’ guard James Harden had been expressing frustration with that franchise and pushing for a trade for a while, making that particularly explicit with comments that the team was “just not good enough” and “I don’t think it can be fixed” after a 117-100 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night (seen above). In that loss, Harden scored 16 points on 5-of-16 shooting from the field (31.3%) and 1-of-6 shooting from three-point range (16.7%). Well, on Wednesday, Harden got his wish to leave Houston, doing so thanks to a four-team megatrade. Here’s more on that from Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:

Here’s the full overview of that from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium:

And ESPN’s Tim Bontemps had quite the note on the Nets’ picks:

So this is definitely a move by the Nets to win now, and a move by the Rockets to try and build for the future. We’ll see how it works out for both of these teams, as well as for the Cavs and Pacers.

[ESPN; photo from Troy Taormina/USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.