No, the Brooklyn Nets should not trade for James Harden

James Harden is keen on joining the Brooklyn Nets, but there are too many reasons why Sean Marks shouldn’t budge.

Rumors have been swirling that Houston Rockets star James Harden wants to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets to join Kyrie Irving and former teammate Kevin Durant.

This has excited Nets fans and can potentially push a true contender from a super team to an even more super team. However, if we step back and look at this objectively, acquiring Harden would be a bad move for Brooklyn.

To begin with, if Houston does end up seeing Brooklyn as the best partner to make this deal with, the Nets would have to give quite up the haul to make this happen.

The Rockets are unlikely to part with Harden if they don’t receive Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen, and a haul of draft picks in return. That’s a lot for Brooklyn to give up.

Yes, they’d be adding one of the best players in the league to their roster, but at what cost? Is Harden really worth giving up practically the team’s entire bench?

The answer is no.

Other than the fact that the Nets would have little to no depth behind their big three, Harden’s presence on the team would arguably hinder his teammates from playing at their absolute best.

Harden is a ball-dominant player who gained a reputation for his iso-ball offense. The problem with this? Both Durant and Irving are also ball-dominant players.

The way he plays has made him one of the best in the game and a sure-fire future Hall of Famer, but he would have to change his style if he does end up going to Brooklyn.

In order for Durant and Irving to be able to show off their scoring prowess, Harden would need to find a way to be offensively impactful without the ball, something he never really had to do in his eight seasons in Houston.

More importantly, he would need to thrive as a defender. This is especially problematic because Harden is an inconsistent defender, and it’s irrational to expect him to thrive in that role so late in his career.

This becomes an even bigger red flag when considering the fact that defense is one of Brooklyn’s glaring weaknesses.

The intangibles are also worth noting. Not only are all of Durant, Harden, and Irving superstars with very big personalities, but Brooklyn’s new head coach, Steve Nash, is as inexperienced as it gets.

Having him manage a contender with two huge stars like Durant and Irving is already a massive ask. Throwing Harden into the mix certainly won’t make his job any easier.

This move could potentially result in Brooklyn becoming the most offensively prolific dynasty we’ve ever seen — or a dysfunctional unit that struggles to find chemistry.

Is trading your very best bench players and some future picks for a ball-dominant superstar with a big personality worth the risk? Throw in Nash as another huge factor into the potion and the answer is a hard no.

Most teams would be incredibly lucky to have Harden, and for good reason. But the Nets, as they stand today, are not one of them.

The fact that superstars such as Harden are desperate to go to Brooklyn is inspiring and a testament to how well the franchise has been run as of late but acquiring superstars for the sake of having them isn’t the way to go.

To this day, the first question that pops into everyone’s mind with regard to Durant, Harden, and Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder is “what if?”

That will also be the case if Harden becomes a Net.