After a tough loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, James Harden spoke to the media and all but said ‘please trade me right now, I hate it here.'

More recent reports have the Rockets actively shopping James Harden in a trade, potentially sending him to the Brooklyn Nets or Philadelphia 76ers.

On the daily Locked On Pelicans Podcast, host Jake Madison react to Harden's comments, going as far as comparing it to how Anthony Davis used his leverage at the end while still with the New Orleans Pelicans.

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Jake Madison: This James Harden situation… this is like the moment where people thought they could convince Anthony Davis to stay here in New Orleans. He had the “that's all folks” thing and so that's definitely not going to happen over the offseason. This was the moment that probably broke everything wide open, at a certain point keeping a superstar becomes untenable. It might have just hit that point, he even had John Wall kind of subtweeting him in some weird way because it was in a press conference after talking about how when you have guys who don't want to buy in, it becomes really tough to try and do anything or to try and fix anything.

That's what's happening here in Houston right now. I've learned, and as Pelicans fans you've learned, you can't make this work. This is the point where you end up trading him and you ideally need to do it as soon as possible. The problem is two-fold. One, they're going to want a lot for him but there are not many teams that can offer that sort of thing. Then two, even if they could offer it to him, they probably don't want to offer it to Houston right now because of the stuff he's doing. These comments actively damage his trade value and make it tougher for him to get out of there. I never understood this kind of behavior from superstar players or players wanting out, there's a way to go about this. There's a way that just doesn't help your cause. I can't imagine that this type of move is gonna get James Harden out of there any sooner.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0BlZrgUb3W3G7FNjvLda6h?si=1R-obovmR9Wed40ZEkgvIg