Oklahoma City, OK

The Oklahoma City Thunder have traded Sixth Man of the Year James Harden to the Houston Rockets after failing to reach an agreement for a contract extension.

Together with Harden, the Thunder sent Cole Aldrich, Lazar Hayward and Daequan Cook to the Rockets for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first round picks and a second round pick.

The deal happened after the Thunder failed to reach an agreement with the 23-year-old Harden, who averaged 16.8 points and 3.7 assists last season in support of superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

It was reported that the Thunder offered Harden a four-year, $52 million which he turned down. Then, Oklahoma immediately made the move to trade its top reserve, instead of allowing him to become a restricted free agent after the Oct. 31 deadline expires.

"We wanted to sign James to an extension, but at the end of the day, these situations have to work for all those involved. Our ownership group again showed their commitment to the organization with several significant offers," Thunder general manager Sam Presti said in a statement.

"We were unable to reach a mutual agreement, and therefore executed a trade that capitalized on the opportunity to bring in a player of Kevin's caliber, a young talent like Jeremy and draft picks, which will be important to our organizational goal of a sustainable team," he added.

With the trade, the Thunder got themselves two reliable scorers in Martin, who has averaged 18.4 points in his eight NBA seasons, and Lamb, who led the Rockets in scoring with 20 per game in the summer league.

The Rockets, for their part, have given their point guard a reliable backcourt partner in Harden, who can get a five-year, $80 million deal from Houston.

"While I never like having to send out quality players like Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb, this trade gives us a chance to make an immediate impact on the future of our franchise moving forward," Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said in a statement.

Lin also welcomed Harden and his new teammates via Twitter. "Welcome Harden, Cook, Aldrich and Hayward to Houston," he tweeted.

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