Houston Rockets: Why James Harden’s new $228M contract made history

The Houston Rockets have decided to give one of their greatest players the largest contract extension in NBA history.

Yes, it’s true and official coming from the Houston Rockets‘ offices at 1510 Polk.  Do realize the magnitude of what just happened?  Absolutely and it ensures that James Harden is well-compensated through the latter stages of his career.  This was something that had been brewing since earlier in the season and there were many questions as to if he’d take what has been called a “Super-Max” deal.

The NBA salary cap continues to escalate but with the latest projections being scaled down — it will be $99 million in 2017-18 — from estimates as high as more than $100 million, this may have promoted Harden to make the decision to cash in now versus later with the uncertainty of the continuous flow of money currently pouring into the Association’s coffers.

Here’s a breakdown of the deal via ESPN’s Bobby Marks:

However, Marks did mention that his actual extension value could fluctuate based on future salary cap projections.  He said this deal was based off a potential $108 million salary cap.  Harden signed a four-year, $118 million extension back last off season but because of the new CBA, there is a “grandfather” clause that allows players with eight to nine years of service the opportunity to sign a back-to-back contract extension.  The Rockets pushed hard for the provision of the contract language to be added to the league’s collective bargaining agreement and that’s why it’s being offered to him today.  Russell Westbrook is another player that is eligible for this type of extension although there’s no word on if he’ll take it just yet.

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Nonetheless, an already rich man just got richer with the total value of the last two years of his current deal plus the extension — four-years, $168 million — totaling up to $228 million over the next six years.  Wow!  Not to mention that he still has additional streams of revenue like endorsements.  Harden is currently on a 10-year, $200 million deal with Adidas.

Is this the right decision for the Houston Rockets moving forward?  Without a doubt and it’s no-brainer.  Harden is finesse with his style of play and isn’t too hard on his joints that he needs most.  This will work exceptionally well with his durability as we have the best training staff in the business.  If they were able to rejuvenate the careers of Eric Gordon, Nene Hilario and keep Ryan Anderson on his two feet for the most part, keeping Harden healthy will be no sweat.

I wrote about this same topic back in December and now what was being proposed is a reality.  Harden is already a future Hall-of-Famer and it’s only befitting that its best player is rewarded with some financial security.  Do you really want to go back to the days of when we were heavily-leaning off Luis Scola, Goran Dragic, Kevin Martin and Courtney Lee?  No disrespect to those guys but we’re on a whole new level with Harden and not just up-and-coming in the previous era after Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.

We have not missed the playoffs since Harden has been a Rocket and that trend will certainly continue.  Not only that but the trade that sent him here to Houston will forever be branded as Houston Rockets general manger Daryl Morey’s signature move and it was a damn good one at that.

Harden’s presence has been nothing but a boon for the Rockets, not to mention that the value of the franchise has skyrocketed with the latest estimates via Forbes being around $1.7 billion, up from about $453 million in 2012, his first year here.  When adjusted for inflation, that’s still close to a $1 billion of excess valuation the team has added over the past five years.

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I may have been disappointed by his performance in the waning games of the Western Conference Semis against the San Antonio Spurs but it doesn’t change the fact that Harden NEEDS TO BE HERE.  You cannot replace him with a player on any level or get any equal return if he were shipped and that’s certainly an incredible problem to have.

So congrats Beard on your new deal and I look forward to watching you for years to come.  And now you have help in Chris Paul joining you in the back court.  I can’t wait until season’s start!

Go Rockets.