This trade would probably be the one that gets it done for the Rockets. They would want to get an in his prime McCollum and a young player in Trent, while the Blazers would ask for something in return. They would be able to get off Enes Kanter‘s money for this season while getting ” three and d ” wing Danuel House in return for sending a 2024 first-round pick.
House would be the perfect guard off the bench, and the Blazers wouldn’t have to give up any of their defensive forwards.
Giles would backup the center position, and Harden would slip seamlessly into McCollum’s starting spot.
Hood would be the backup two for the Blazers as he recovers fully from injury.
For the Rockets, they would still stay in the playoff race; pairing Wall with McCollum would actually be a better fit than Harden was with Wall. Trent could either play the 3 in the Rockets small ball system or they could promote Eric Gordon to the starting lineup, making Trent the sixth man.
Kanter would be the backup five to recently signed Christian Wood, and the 2024 first-rounder would be insurance if things went south with John Wall.
It’s tough to get a read on the Blazers front office, as Neil Olshey doesn’t give a lot away. It’s likely that they don’t make an offer for James Harden, but if it gets closer to the season and the Rockets feel the pressure to move him, maybe the Rockets accept lesser offers than some of the huge trade packages we’ve seen for players like Jrue Holiday.
Olshey may decide that the team the Blazers have now is better than what it would be with Harden; I can see why teams wouldn’t want to gut their roster for the polarizing Harden.
But, every NBA team should consider what it would take to make a trade for Harden, as top five players in the league like him don’t come up very often.
The above trades are just hypothetical, but these would be the likely packages if Olshey did decide to pull the trigger on a deal.