With the James Harden trade to the Clippers in the news, I’ve recently looked back on the first time Harden was traded in his career in 2012:

When Harden was traded to the Rockets, it was pretty clear he was a good player that would be a starting guard on almost any NBA team.

However, it became clear very quickly that his offensive ceiling was a lot higher than people expected when he dropped 37 points then 45 in his first two games as a Rocket.

I just remember the excitement of those first few games where it was apparent this guy had a level to his game that not many could have foreseen based on his time in OKC.