HOUSTON -- The Houston Rockets' season was disappointing on so many levels. Late Friday afternoon, standing on the team’s practice court, general manager Daryl Morey put the season on him but vowed things will improve.
But when it came to the dysfunction of the season that hampered this group, something several players confirmed following their knockout by the Golden State Warriors in five games with Stephen Curry playing just 38 minutes, Morey pointed at others.
He blamed other NBA teams for putting out negative stories about the Rockets.
“It’s smart for other teams to paint us in a very negative light,” Morey said. “It’s a very competitive free-agent situation -- all the articles you see out there are all the other teams trying to, smartly, paint our situation as negative. But I think any free agent that looks at us, they’re going to see a history of winning. We have the third-best winning percentage in the league the last 10 years, almost no losing seasons. We win at a very high level. There are very few teams that can put their track record of winning against ours.”
The reality is the Rockets underachieved so badly that the owner, Leslie Alexander, fired coach Kevin McHale 11 games into the season, something the GM doesn’t regret. He said interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff did a solid job, but the team, less than 24 hours after its season ended, asked for permission to speak with Golden State assistant coach Luke Walton about the job.
Morey said no interviews have occurred yet, but that if things are to improve, the chemistry must. James Harden is at the forefront of this. He can no longer ride to road games by himself; he needs to be on the team bus like everybody else, unless, of course, he’s back in his native Los Angeles, visiting family.
NBA players have homes in cities where they grew up or played in previously and sometimes won’t stay at the team hotel on the road, and that’s fine for Harden and others. Outside of that, everybody needs to ride together on the team bus and team plane, stand together for the national anthem and huddle up together after player introductions.
Harden typically bolts to stretch his legs at the scorer’s table following player intros instead of huddling one last time with his teammates. It’s a small thing, a nitpicky deal, but when people on your team talk about dysfunction and chemistry, the little things -- like not huddling with your team after being introduced -- say something. It’s something Harden did at times last season, too.
A togetherness was missing.
Morey said nobody talked about chemistry last season when the Rockets were winning 56 games and reaching the West finals. He’s right. Everybody was happy; the Rockets had issues -- big and small -- yet won games.
It didn’t happen this season.
Many point to the relationship between Harden and Dwight Howard as the cause of the problems. It wasn’t good, but they didn’t hate each other -- it just didn’t work on the court. Harden seemingly lost trust in Howard’s game, and took more of the offensive load while others struggled.
It has led to reports from commentators saying nobody wants to play with Harden.
“I think that’s very smart, strategic positioning,” Morey said. “I had to address some of that last year when a certain owner [Mark Cuban] was painting our team in a bad light. This year is no different. I think it’s very smart that other teams are trying to paint our players in a bad light. It’s going to be a very competitive free-agency situation. James Harden, I don’t know who wouldn’t want to play with him -- a top-five player in the league, unbelievable passer, unbelievable scorer, a guy you can build around. Everything we hear is everyone wants to play with him.”
Houston will have the cap space to sign two major free agents this summer if Howard declines his player option, which he likely will.
Kevin Durant, Ryan Anderson and Al Horford are the leading candidates for the Rockets in free agency.
Will they get any of them?
It’s uncertain, and in reality, we won’t know until the first week of July. Harden is a fantastic player who plays well with others and produced with Howard last season in reaching the West finals.
Morey is fighting for his franchise because he knows nobody outside of his organization will defend it. He knows the Rockets can’t rebuild around only Harden, that they need to add another star player.
“It’s smart, it’s a very competitive free-agent situation coming up and being kicked while you’re down is a smart strategy by teams leaking things or trying to put things out there to make us look bad,” Morey said.
Morey is stating his case, doing his job, understanding the season was bad. That’s why they’re watching the rest of the postseason in the first month of the baseball season.