Each NBA team’s best trade in franchise history

Houston Rockets

James Harden, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook, and Lazar Hayward for Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, and picks to OKC (2012)

As a member of Oklahoma City Thunder, James Harden was the ultimate luxury. Yes, the car was driven by budding superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, but having Harden around as a sixth man to occasionally steer the offense not only helped the Thunder reach the NBA Finals in 2012, it set them up for at least a decade of championship contention.

Aside from the Miami Heat’s “Big 3”, there was nothing that could slow this team’s success… except Thunder owner Clay Bennett’s white-knuckle grip on his wallet. See, following the franchise’s first Finals appearance since moving to Oklahoma City, Harden’s contract was set to expire and Bennett, who has a net worth of $400 million as of 2018, didn’t want to finance Harden’s expected and deserved pay raise for fear of exceeding the luxury tax.

So instead of giving Harden his money and keeping OKC’s title window wide open, the team shipped him and several other rotational players to the Houston Rockets for Kevin Martin (serviceable replacement), Jeremy Lamb (shrug), and picks that later became Steven Adams (good), Alex Abrines (eh) and Mitch McGary (scrub).

In Houston, Harden provided his new team with a different sort of luxury: having a franchise player that willingly embraced the team’s newfangled “Moreyball” principles. With an MVP award in his trophy case, Harden has made the Rockets an elite team in the rugged Western Conference.