Hardened posted pictures on I G over the weekend.

Sell Bring well, Baby's birthday party without a face mask.

Come on, James.

Yesterday his head coach spoke to the media about heart and the options from camp ast faras timetable.

There is no timetable as far as I know, Um, and it is a setback.

You know, you want your best player to be here, and there's a short window.

You have to be honest and understand that this is a setback not having one of the best players in the MBA here.

Yeah.

Max, do you feel like this is all proof that Houston just needs to move Harden at this point?

Absolutely.

Yes.

This is the leverage a superstar player has in the n b A and the N B A.

Make no mistake, the superstars are in charge.

Forget about the letter of the law.

The superstars run the league guys.

This is what the superstar could do on any n b a team.

He can turn himself into a distressed asset.

He can make it obvious that he don't want to be there.

And let me tell you what happens to the team that has them like here.

The stars interest in the team's interests are diametrically opposed.

How so?

Theo team wants to get as much as they can for the superstar if they have to move them, and they know they have to if he doesn't wanna play there.

But that's not the superstars.

Best interest.

You don't want to gut the place you're going to write.

So the superstar could be fine with the strategy of Look, I'm gonna make it very obvious I'm not happy here.

And what the rest of the league noses, they're gonna have to trade him anyway.

Not only that, but if he has a short list, particularly if it's a list of one, everyone knows they're gonna have to trade him to that team.

And so what does that mean?

His trade value goes down.

In other words, not in terms of how great a player is, but what you're going to go get back goes down.

So I know the team is thinking we haven't heard an offer we like yet We can wait till the trade deadline, get the best possible offer.

But the best possible offer you could get that is probably not going to be as good.

If you have an unhappy star who doesn't want to be there, it is making that clear.

The whole league knows we don't have to trade as much for him, and it depress is the value of what they could get back, making it in the team's best interest to get the best deal they possibly can as quickly as they possibly can.

I disagree with you, Max, and here's why I disagree with you because James Harden, specifically, according to the reports, said that he wants to go to one specific destination.

Well, what you've done is you've hampered the team's ability to get equitable compensation in return for your services.

And if you're Houston, you have no obligation to be complicit in that kind of maneuver.

The Vatican matter is, James Harden is getting about 41 million this year, is gonna be making like 44 million next year, got a player option for 47 million.

After he took the money, he signed a contractual agreement on That doesn't mean they shouldn't move him.

I'm saying they should.

But what I'm saying is you don't want to capitulate to that now, because what happens is everybody is gonna try to get him on the cheek because they know how desperately he wants out.

I am in total support of James Harden wanting out of Houston.

I'm not in total support of how he is handling it.

I don't I you know, in a perfect world, I want Stephen Sollecito have James Harden.

But I knew the minute that him and Russ couldn't coexist, even though I believe in John Wall and I think that John Wall's gonna come back and wreak havoc.

The fact of the matter is, he's coming off that Achilles injury, and so we don't know what his health is gonna be like.

If you question, if you're wondering about Kevin Durant, Max in terms of what Kevin Durant's gonna be like, imagine what you could wonder about John Walker, John walking and shoot like Kevin Durant.

And so we've got that to be concerned about.

And then you look at the powers in the West.

Denver has gotten stronger.

The Lakers of the champions, the Clippers is supposedly going to come back with a vengeance.

You look at the Western Conference.

The powers that be Houston and Dallas is ascension with Luca and Porzingis once he gets healthy.

Okay, now Houston is really, really dipped.

So the window of championship opportunity is no longer there for James Harden.

So absolutely, you move him, you trade him.

But where he was not smart, in my estimation, is literally saying, it's Brooklyn and I wanna go to To me it should be Brooklyn or should be Philadelphia either, or works the way Kyrie looks right now.

You might want it to be Philly instead of Brooklyn, but all I'm saying is you've got to give Houston options and because he didn't do that, Max, apparently Republicans.

I haven't spoken to James Harden, but because he did not do that and he does.

And he really pigeonholed them by saying Brooklyn to now.

And I believe that he was at the strip club on purpose.

I don't think James Harden is a professional man.

He ain't doing something like that by accident.

He did it to send a message.

He wants out.

He did it so he would have an excuse not to show up the first day of training camp.

But now that the cat's out the bag, it just illuminates the fact this brother desperately wants out of Houston.

He wants out.

He wants to be gone.

And if that's the case, if you did it now, you're going to get him for cheap.

If you're another team, in all likelihood, that's why if I'm Houston, I would wait a little while until I get the offer that I want for his services.

I cannot lose James Harden for nothing.

I got to get a big time.

Makes you think you're going to get that offer.

Look, I get the asset thing.

But what?

What makes you think you're going to get that offer?

Unless the only way you can is if you really value certain teams draft picks, they're not lottery protected.

So let's be specific.

They have extremely high draft picks.

Let's be specific.

If it's Brooklyn, it should be den Witty.

It should be Caris Levert.

It should be numerous picks.

If it's the Sixers, it should not be a deal that does not include Ben Simmons, Period agreed.

If I were the Rockets, I'd want to deal him Thio Philadelphia.

So I could get Ben Simmons.

And I think Harden and Embiid would be a problem in the East.

And then the Rockets would get back a genius.

Young, brilliant 6 ft 10, you know, franchise Centerpiece, because otherwise you lose any deal you make.

The question is, can the Brooklyn Nets do they have enough assets to maneuver so they can get a piece that Houston wants?

I'm just saying, Stephen A the longer Houston weights the worst the deal is gonna get its gonna get worse because increasing the league increasingly, the league is gonna know that's a That's a distressed assets and unhappy star.

I think the sooner they make move, I think the sooner they make a move, the worst the deal would be.

But I will say this because of Cairo's position that we just talked about earlier.

If I'm Houston, it might.

I'm sorry if I'm Brooklyn.

It might be even more important than I get James Harden.

Because guess what?

You gotta have something in that locker room to help k D.

Because if Katie Katie is gonna lose it, if everybody comes to him asking him about Kyrie all the time, Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube For live streaming sports and premium content.