Report: James Harden traded to the Houston Rockets

The Thunder traded All-Star guard James Harden to the Houston Rockets for several players, picks and cash. (Layne Murdoch/Getty Images)

The Oklahoma City Thunder traded All-Star guard James Harden to the Houston Rockets Saturday night, reports Yahoo! Sports.

The Rockets in turn sent guards Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and future draft considerations to Oklahoma City for Harden. The Thunder will send center Cole Aldridge, forward Lazr Hayward and guard Daquan Cook to the Rockets.

Houston will also send two 2013 first-round picks  (from Dallas and Toronto) to the Thunder.

Sources say that the Thunder and Harden were not able to reach an extension and Thunder general manager Sam Presti moved quickly to trade him.

"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," 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. We appreciate James, Cole, Daequan and Lazar’s contributions to the Thunder organization and this community and wish them the best in the future.”

Harden, last season's NBA Sixth Man of the Year, recently turned down a four-year offer worth about $52 million. Harden had been asking for a maximum contract worth $60 million.