Report: James Harden Accountability, P.J. Tucker Contract Among Rockets' Gripes

MDA, in the end, is just like the majority of head coaches out there--he will take a team as far as its best player.

 

James Harden doesn’t like being held accountable and his fanbois don’t hold him accountable for jack shiit either. Not surprising.

 

This is for the most part true....coaches do make a difference. MDA could have made a difference if he wasn't so hard headed trying to prove small ball right that it cost him his head coach job. Can you be a championship coach with no adjustments or playing no more than 7 players? No you can't.

 

after reading the article on The Athletic, sure, Harden deserves some blame, but some of the people who were talking need to stfu

1) House

Bro, u were a nobody who had shown a few flashes here or there before this season. You’re complaining about your role and getting heated? U betrayed the team in the bubble. Foh

2) Eric Gordon

U were absolute garbage this season. Your role was inconsistent? That’s the excuse for your shooting percentages and chronic boneheaded play/horrible decision making? Take some responsibility for your sh*t play.

3) Westbrook

The message about lack of accountability and culture is a good one. The unhappiness with the offense, I get it. However, I look at who the messenger is, and he’s another one who needs to stfu. Seems like he just wants to go back to stacking up triple doubles. He didn’t like standing around watching Harden do his thing, but that’s because he wants to go back to what he did in OKC where everyone else stood around and watched him do his C- impersonation of James Harden. The team got rid of Capela to accommodate u. Your usage rate was off the charts, and u took the 2nd most shot attempts per game of your career. OKC didn’t hold u accountable. He got to do whatever he wanted.

I understand PJ’s unhappiness with his contract situation after being the rock for this team. I get that 100%.

 

Moot point.

Can you be a Championship team with James Harden as your best player? No you can’t.

 

I don't think he was hardheaded as much as he was just going through the motions this past year. Chris Paul was taken away from him and that basically left him with the task of being...well...being a coach. So he reverted back to what he did his first season in Houston--put the ball in Harden's hands, close his eyes, and hope for the best.

I think other coaches would have tried to make Westbrook fit in better on this team and MDA, being the lameduck that he was, wanted no part of that.

 

Headline: Harden dick riders still see him as infallible.

 

I think it speaks volumes to how people get sick of playing with and being part of a James Harden led team. Generational player but the drawbacks are becoming more apparent.

 

A lot of revisionist history in this thread. I can't believe some of y'all are mad at Morey. It is obvious that he did not want Westbrook on this team, but was overruled by ownership and Harden. Those were his two bosses. Westbrook is antithetical to everything Morey tried to instill in this organization. The small-ball approach was a fun novelty that had to be done to give the team a chance at competing. Lord knows that allowing Russ to brick wide-open mid-range jumpers is a death sentence.

Many basketball players are delusional about their own role and abilities. Westbrook is mad about a system that was tailor-made around his complete inability to shoot? Eric Gordon is mad about his role when his streakiness meant that he couldn't be played with confidence? I love PJ to death, but he's too old to be committing major money and years to at this point in his career. Nobody is going to give him the sweet spot contract he wants. Danuel House will be lucky to get a minimum deal from this organization after the bubble breach.

This is the third time in the Harden era where there has been reported locker room disharmony (end of Dwight, end of CP3 and now this). I think it's safe to say that Harden is not a leader who holds others accountable and pushes them to be their best. There is something about his personality and the way that he controls this franchise that rubs other stars the wrong way. It's a small thing, but notice how neither LeBron or Giannis ever wants to pick him in the All Star game. People aren't chomping at the bit to play with James. Every time he runs another star out of town, even if they're disliked (Dwight), you have to think other guys notice that. So if we aren't going to spend money for star players and we have no draft capital to improve (Thanks, Tilman), there is really only one way forward...

I'll see y'all in the eventual "James Harden Appreciation Thread"

 

lol

 

How many teams have won the Western Conference over the last 20 years?

 

When have we seen it with Kaehi. I've seen Harden be more interactive with the media than Kaehi has and people nut hug him. You pick and choose your evidence and ignore all the contradictions to your narrative.

Harden has had sit down interviews with ESPN. He's done a 30 for 30 episode also. He's been open to the media more than many other stars.

Seems like a sad excuse.

 

He is a troll, don't mind him.

 

They are probably in their minds believing they do to take responsibility. No one is afraid of criticizing these guys and I'm sure they've heard an ear full from fans, coaches and... Harden. Harden seems like the type of guy who can dish out criticism but can't take it. Look it his on court okay and how many times in the past he's yelled at teammates after a poor defensive effort by him? That **** adds up. These aren't the only people who've said that Harden can't handle criticism.

Harden has been coddled too much. Those guys haven't.

 

If you're going to use Kawhi Leonard as a baseline for human interaction then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Bottom line, the media will praise/kill any player but the player is able to do damage control and control/resolve the story line out there if they have a working/better relationship with the media. Basically, a give and take relationship.

 

Lol, stop acting like if Harden pushed back the media would change their tune on Harden. The media loves Lebron because he wins rings and ups his scoring and efficiency in the playoffs, not because he is friendly with the media.

Apply Occam's Razor. Your narrative required too many logical leaps. Mine is a much more straightforward explanation that probably upsets you... Lebron is just far more successful and then media is going to praise success.

 

to me this starts with Tillman and D'Antoni. First off D'Antoni hardly played the young guys on the team (Harrell, Dekker, Hartenstein etc) to have them develop. Hell he hardly played some of the vets even especially in the playoffs his rotations were so thin that when someone did get hurt basically everyone had to play 43+ minutes.

Tillman though saw an opportunity to bring in a bigger name 'star' in westbrook once he became available. He coddled Harden a bit too much here. Of course Harden and Paul probably had issues but they won a lot together. It was only after the injury laden season Paul had that tensions got worse. Paul had said he was committing himself to better diet and fitness that off season (and he carried through and showed) Now once Westbrook became available Tillman went all in and was so desperate that the Rockets had no leverage. His demand was ridiculous without thinking of the potential basketball related issues that would arise. As different and "ball-controlling" Paul and Harden were their skills complimented each other and they were both complete offensive players. Westbrook is not that. The trade would make a ton more sense if the pick swaps and the picks were not included (or maybe one pick and swap only instead of two of each).

Then of course things were not working out with Westbrook and how the Rockets play but of course Tillman barked out his orders of "shut up and listen! make it work!" and the team drastically changed its makeup. RoCo is great though but trading their only viable big man (not to mention young player) to make it work for Westbrook was a short sighted move. This is not a move Daryl Morey has ever made in his long tenure of GM. Thats when I knew he was going to leave because it was Tilman basically running the show. Dont get me wrong microball was super exciting and all but it wasnt something that would be sustainable for multiple seasons. The best case scenario would have been the Rockets win the title this year and then most likely would need to dismantle the team afterwards.

As for the players complaining:

Gordon - The dude has been hurt consistently ever year and his shot has been so off. This team would have been lethal if he was a consistent 18ppg scorer (like scoring 16, 20, 19, 18 17 a night instead of like 8, 28, 4, 32 etc) he was so undependable as a scorer especially over the last two season. Of course he wants to go back to the 16-17 season when he won 6 MOTY but that was the last time he was a consistent scorer. On top of that he did not want to go back to his role coming off the bench either the last two seasons (maybe this was more MDA's fault but you cant say MDA didnt try to give him a bigger role by starting him)

Tucker - Honestly I have NO complaints about Tucker he busted his ass all season every season. I am not sure what sort of contract extension he wants but he is 36 years old and put on a lot of miles the last couple of years. He is still a good role player but the Rockets needed to be looking for the next Tucker instead of trying to grind PJ into the ground. If PJ wants a large extension (in terms of $ or years) I dont blame the Rockets for declining. The team needs to get younger not older. If the team was on the cusp of winning a title then it would make more sense to sign him to a larger extension but this team maybe more on the cusp of making the second round forget title aspirations.

Rivers - this is a kind of a joke. I honestly have no idea why he even came back for the season. He had his moments and played well his first season in Houston but I did feel his role was never consistent. He hardly saw consistent minutes from MDA but he also never really looked like he knew what to do out there. He is a good bench player imo but never seemed to know if he should drive or just pass the ball around or shoot. Seriously I thought he was gone last summer him coming back surprised me big time - it may have been a bigger indication that there was no market for him in the league from the other teams. If he walks it would be unfortunate in that there is a role that the Rockets would need to fill (backup PG) but maybe that role is filled via a westbrook trade.

House - While the facts was not completely revealed what happened in the bubble it seems he was more at fault than anything else. To his credit he worked hard to carve out a role on the team and a good role too. House was a big part for the teams success but the dude is an idiot and despite his good contract no team is going to want to touch him the way he left his team out to dry because of his own selfishness.



Now you could say this was all Morey's fault because he did everything for Harden but what GM wouldnt cater to his star? I think MDA went too far though with this though putting too much on Harden himself. He completely changed and elevated Harden's offensive game but it was way too much. Its no surprise the team set franchise records when Harden had a complimentary star in the "iso offense" in Paul because it allowed him to rest without the team collapsing.

I am looking forward to see what Silas does to change the offense since I felt it was becoming too predictable and wearing Harden down too much but I dont think Gordon, Westbrook, House will be back next season - they will need to be traded to get players who may fit the new offense better and to make sure everyone is on the same page in the locker room.


Honestly though there were a TON of people on here always complaining about Les and how cheap he was etc. I said Les was a great owner he never got involved with what Morey wanted to do just told him to keep winning and not to tank. Now I wish he did give Morey a green light to tank to get a star earlier and he actually did in 2012 when Morey started to trade away everyone (lowry for the pick, letting dragic leave, amnesty Scola etc) when the Harden trade happened. Now Tilman comes in and we're about to enter the darkest era of Rockets basketball because he does inject himself into everything. This is more Tillman's mess than anything else. Les sold him a team that was a title contender and now look at what he did with it.

 

He wins rings when he jumps ship and gets elite players with him. Still 4-6 all time

 

Okay. He still wins rings and not only that, he ups his performance in the playoffs. Statistically you can literally see this.

 

There are about 2-3 players who’s scoring and efficiency goes up in the playoffs.
Hardens numbers in the playoffs are still elite. And the drop off is similar to other superstars.
The fact is Harden has never had a player like AD, Bosh, Wade to play second fiddle.

Don’t get to prop up Lebron when he does nothing on his own and bash Harden when he can’t do it on his own.