This summarized exactly how I feel about the Harden trade: With the James Harden trade, Oklahoma City just handed the Western Conference to the Lakers - Grantland

It especially bothers me how the team was unwilling to spend while making a profit. Owning a sports team is not, and never had been, a long-term profitable business (see here if you need an explanation on that claim: Malcolm Gladwell on the NBA lockout - Grantland). You own a team as a community asset, which we've invested in with an arena. As Simmons said, what the Thunder did in giving up Harden is literally unprecedented in NBA history. No contender has ever traded a star for financial reasons. Everyone is trying to explain this away by looking at the bright side of Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, the picks, and the Ibaka signing, but all of those contain an element of risk. Harden was a sure thing - a top 3 shooting guard in the NBA who fit in well with the team. I really hope a couple of those risks work out (the most likely being that Ibaka grows defensively and offensively this season, but he showed little growth last season so it is hard to predict. He looked very good in the preseason), or the Thunder could have just given up one or more NBA titles.