The small market is sad! Relive the dynasty that I missed 4 million!

"Thunder rookie, Rockets old player, Spurs assistant coach."

This should be a sentence that many fans are impressed by. Looking back at the late 2000s, the Thunder's talent show vision was completely previewed. At that time, the Thunder seemed to have a plug-in in the draft, and it seemed that no matter how they chose, they would not make any mistakes.

The beginning of all this was in 2007, when the Thunder (at the time of the Seattle Supersonics) chose Kevin Durant after the Trail Blazers chose Oden. This result is likely to still make it difficult for Trail Blazers fans to let go.

In the subsequent 2008, the Thunder were still the winners in the draft. They selected the best players in the draft for two consecutive years. They chose Westbrook in the fourth pick and then Ibaka in the 24th pick. The team's youthful talent is getting higher and higher, creating a brand new core lineup.

If we look at it from a statistical perspective, when we are lucky, we often feel a little unlucky, but for the Thunder, this sentence doesn't seem to work, and they selected Harden in the third pick in the 2009 draft. For the thunder at that time, he was full of energy and had endless potential.

Time comes in 2012. The four young core members of Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka led the Thunder to reach the finals for the first time since the team relocated. Although they eventually lost to the Heat three led by James, for fans at that time, the general theory is that it is only a matter of time for them to win a young and talented team.

But unfortunately, when the Thunder rejected Harden's contract renewal request, the Thunder's fate seemed to be determined. On the one hand, it is because of the team's salary pressure, and on the other hand, it is based on the sluggish performance of Harden in the finals, averaging only 12 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game. As a result, the Rockets took advantage of the situation and successfully accepted Harden into the team.

In the end, the Thunder made the decision to trade Harden to the Rockets, in exchange for Kevin Martin and Girimi Lamb, with two first rounds and one second round, and eventually became Adams, Abrines, and Mickey McGary.

Before being traded to the Rockets, Harden took the initiative to sacrifice his life to maintain the Thunder's lineup configuration. In order to cooperate with the team's ball distribution, especially when he and Westbrook need to hold the ball to dominate the game, Harden is willing to play the sixth man role of the team. Judging from the player attributes, both Harden and Westbrook need the ball, so choosing one of them to lead the second team is the most reasonable choice.

Harden also performed very well in this position, winning the sixth man in his last season with the Thunder, helping the Thunder to enter the finals that year.

After Harden came to Houston, he successfully took over the Rockets' position as the number one player. In his first season, Harden averaged 25.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, shooting percentage of 43.8%, three-point shooting percentage of 36.8%, and real shooting percentage of 60%. After changing teams, Harden's average score has soared by nearly 10 points, from a substitute scorer who averaged 16.8 points per game to a star guard who averaged 25.9 points per game, officially starting his All-Star journey.

2012-13 season is also the beginning of the Rockets' eight consecutive years of playoffs, and before that, they had missed the playoffs for three consecutive years. From the 2015-16 season to the 2019-20 season, Harden's personal data was just playing games. During this period, Harden won three scoring champions and one assist king trophy. Since the 2016-17 season, he has led the league in the top spot in the victory contribution value for four consecutive years.

The only regret when looking back at the Rockets era is that he ultimately missed the championship trophy. His peak period happened to overlap with the Golden State Warriors Dynasty, and it was really difficult to win the championship goal. When Harden forced his way out, the Rockets also exchanged great value for him and eventually traded him to the Nets.

Combined with Harden's later achievements, the rewards the Thunder received in this transaction were really quite bleak. Kevin Martin was the protagonist of the deal, but he only stayed with the Thunder for one season. As for Lamb, he never reached the passing line of scoring in double-digit points per game before leaving the Thunder.

The only thing worth mentioning for the Thunder is that they chose Adams with the first round they got from the Rockets. The Aquaman center has been a stable start for most of the time with the Thunder. He played for seven seasons with the Thunder, and averaged 9.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1 block per game. While Adams is good enough, it is enough to tell the failure of the deal when he became the only part of the deal worth mentioning.

Looking back now, the Rockets are really making a big profit. It is no exaggeration to say that this deal can be said to be a robbery by the Rockets. Although it is understandable that the Thunder misjudgment of Harden's potential and the pressure on the team's salary at that time, paying a future MVP to only exchange these returns is a huge loss.

And worse, Harden's later development was even better than Westbrook. Compared with the five years when the two were at their peak, Harden seems to be even better.

The Thunder may not have realized this at the time, after all, Harden was only the sixth player on the team at that time. And the problem may be precisely because the Thunder failed to correctly evaluate Harden's huge potential, resulting in trading him out of the team at a price far below his actual value.

But from the perspective of the team's business, this is more of a helpless tragedy for a small market team. At that time, the Thunder had three main players who had won big contracts, Durant with 85 million in five years, Westbrook with 80 million in five years, and Ibaka with 48 million in four years.

When the Thunder had two offensive cores and established Westbrook as the core of ball control, the team naturally preferred to invest resources in the combination of Durant + Westbrook + Ibaka, so they preferred to renew the contract for the then blocking king Ibaka. Although the difference between the contract for Harden was not big, it can be seen who the Thunder valued more at that time.

As the sixth man at the time, Harden was about to become a restricted free agent in the summer of 2013, and expected to require a contract of nearly a maximum salary of about four years and 60 million, but the Thunder belongs to a small market team and it is difficult to accept the situation of paying luxury taxes for the fourth star.

The management offered Harden 56 million for four years, but what Harden wanted was a contract that was close to the maximum salary, such as the Rockets' four-year offer of 80 million for four years. In fact, as long as the Thunder gritted their teeth, they could sign Ibaka and Harden at the same time. With the Thunder's lineup at that time, there was still a considerable chance of winning the championship, but this was also a fate that could not be escaped in the small-scale market.

Of course, most of this type of criticism is a hindsight, but it cannot be ignored that the Thunder did suffer heavy losses in this deal. In 2025, Thunder won the championship when he was facing a crossroads again, with the right time, place and people gathered.

Alexander has the opportunity to sign a four-year super contract of about 290 million in advance this summer, winning the first player in the NBA with an annual salary of 80 million yuan. As for the rest of the core, Caruso completed a four-year, 81 million contract with the Thunder in December 2024, while Hartten signed a three-year, 87 million contract last year.

Faced with the upcoming offseason, the Thunder will face the maximum salary renewal of Homgren and Jewe. Both can sign a five-year, 247 million contract, and Dort is also eligible for a three-year, 80 million contract. Judging from the Thunder's winning route, this top defensive sharp knife is indeed valuable, but there are still some weaknesses on the offensive end. For the Thunder, this renewal option needs to be carefully considered whether it is worth it.

Looking at the future, in the next five years, the Thunder will hold 8 first-round and 12 second-round draft picks, and will be able to reach 11 first-round and 16 second-round picks by 2030. This means that even in the trading market, Thunder’s prospects are worthy of optimism.

The Thunder have won the championship at a low cost this season, and their current salary is quite healthy. They have won 8.8 million yuan in prizes for winning the championship, and they can also receive a total of 12.4 million yuan in prizes, and a profit of 11.5 million yuan in profits for not paying luxury taxes. If the Thunder renews their contracts with high salaries in the future, their salary is expected to exceed the luxury tax line by 5 million next season, and paying luxury tax is basically a foregone conclusion.

And if you want to build dynasty achievements in the future, Presti has a lot of work waiting for him in the offseason, and I just hope that this time they won't make Harden-like mistakes again.