James Harden is enjoying the best season of his NBA career. (GETTY IMAGES)

Back in 2012 the great Bill Simmons wrote a great piece on Grantland that rips Oklahoma City management for breaking up a three-headed monster in James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

The last line of Simmons’ article read: Oklahoma City will rue the day it traded James Harden.

Fast forward to 2015.

The Thunder are hanging by a thread in the Western Conference, while the Rockets are rolling near the top of the standings.

Oklahoma City stumbled out of the gates when Westbrook and Durant missed the first quarter of the season with injuries and has not been able to regain its footing. And even when Westbrook and Durant are in the lineup, the Thunder have struggled to string together any type of winning streak. On Jan. 28, OKC hit rock bottom when it fell to the lottery-bound New York Knicks.

When you lose to a team that is purposely trying to lose games, you know you’re in deep trouble.

In the words of the great Chick Hearn, the Thunder’s playoff hopes are in the refrigerator. The door is closed, the lights out, the eggs are cooling, the butter is getting hard and the Jell-O’s jiggling.

Despite deep playoff runs the last four years, including a couple of trips to the conference finals, the Thunder have not returned to the NBA Finals since 2012 when Harden was still running with Westbrook and Durant.

Oklahoma City has not been able to fill the “Harden role” for the past three seasons. They’ve tried Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and Reggie Jackson. None of them have measured up to No. 13.

That number has not been worn in OKC since Harden left, and when newly acquired Dion Waiters requested to wear No. 13 the Thunder oddly denied the request. Apparently, that wound hasn’t healed yet and having Waiters wear No. 13 would only bring up painful memories. It’d be like having your current girlfriend wear you ex-girlfriend’s ring.

Harden, the Thunder’s first-round pick in 2009, is enjoying the best season of his young NBA life. In his third season with the Rockets, the pride of Artesia High School is averaging career highs in points (27), assists (6.8), steals (1.9) and free throw percentage (89%). His 27 points per game leads the Association and from the way he’s stroking it this season he’s on his way to his first scoring title. And his defense has also picked up, something he was heavily criticized for last season.

If the season ended today, Harden, 25, would be the runway choice for MVP.

That’s gotta be killing Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City management. While OKC struggles to find the next James Harden, the real James Harden has become one of the best players in basketball.

If there is any doubt that Harden is the hardest one-on-one cover in the league, just ask his former teammates who got a taste of the man Steve Smith calls The Barber for the way he cuts up his opponents. Watch Harden put Waiters on skates:

Dion Waiters was the fourth player taken in the 2012 NBA draft. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

There is a lot of like about Dion Waiters. He brings a lot of toughness, having grown up in Philadelphia, and plays with an edge. Some NBA scouts believe Waiters will be a star at the pro level.

There is also a lot to dislike about Dion Waiters. He wasn’t a starter last season at Syracuse, doesn’t have great measurables, and didn’t play a lot of man-to-man defense in college because Jim Boeheim prefers the 2-3 zone.

You have to wonder what the Cleveland Cavaliers there thinking when they selected Waiters with the fourth overall pick in Thursday’s 2012 NBA draft. It was easily the most stunning move of the night given the recent history of Syracuse players in the Association.

Syracuse players in the Boeheim era are more likely to fizzle in the NBA than thrive. That is a proven fact. It happened to Dwayne “Pearl” Washington, it happened to Billy Owens, it happened to Lawrence Moten, it happened to Adrian Autry, and it happened to Gerry McNamara, it happened to Hakim Warrick, it happened to Jonny Flynn, and it happened to Wesley Johnson.

Flynn was the fifth overall pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves 2009 and it was THE WORST first-round pick that year. Flynn was a fish out of water and is now struggling to hook up with a team — any pro team. The Timberwolves obviously didn’t learn their lesson with Flynn because the follow year in 2010 they selected Wes Johnson, another first-round bust out of the Boeheim program.

There are a few exceptions. Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly and Sherman Douglas all had long, good NBA careers and Carmelo Anthony is one of the 15 best players in the league.

Waiters is hoping to have a long productive NBA career, and he seems to embrace the challenge. He is a good player and certainly deserves to go in the first round of the draft. But to be selected fourth overall is beyond surprising. Even Waiters was stunned he was picked that early.

“I’m very surprised. Top five. That’s every kid’s dream,” Waiters said. “I’m very thankful.”

Waiters said he had a tough time transitioning from high school to college because he never came off the bench until he got to Syracuse. He often clashed with Boeheim, but he says the “tough love” and made him into a better player.

The Cavs had a multitude of options with the No. 4 pick. They could have gone with Kansas’ Thomas Robinson, North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes, Connecticut’s Jeremy Lamb, or even Duke’s Austin Rivers. Talent-wise, Rivers may be the second-best player in the draft behind Anthony Davis and the Cavs would have had a lethal Duke-and-Duke combo with Rivers and Kyrie Irving.

Instead, general manager Chris Grant decided to roll the dice on a player who will have the added burden of being the fourth player taken in the 2012 draft.