[Amick] Rockets rhetoric or reality?

LOS ANGELES – If ever there was a fitting place to discuss the topic of feuding NBA stars, this was it.

Los Angeles. Tinsel Town. Or, to be more specific, Laker Land.

Back in the summer of 2004, after all those years of in-fighting between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, the Lakers made that franchise-changing choice to trade the big fella to Miami and split up the game’s most dynamic duo. That was the most iconic example of how a superstar pairing can sour, but this sort of dynamic has been a part of the league for all of its days.

Which brings us to the debate about the Houston Rockets’ James Harden and Chris Paul.

On Monday night at the NBA awards in Santa Monica, where Shaq himself just so happened to be inside the Barker Hanger of the city’s airport telling terrible jokes to an eye-rolling crowd, the two Rockets stars who weren’t in attendance were a topic of much discussion. General manager Daryl Morey went to great lengths during his red-carpet visit with reporters to refute a June 18 Yahoo! Sports report that deemed their relationship “unsalvageable” and indicated that Paul demanded a trade, then proclaimed the Rockets the favorites for next season in this new Western Conference.

Now that Toronto brought an end to Golden State’s dominance, with the brutal injuries to prospective free agents Kevin Durant (Achilles tendon) and Klay Thompson (ACL) playing a massive part, isn’t it funny how their top rival’s view might have changed? Never mind the ongoing situation with coach Mike D’Antoni, who has been in on-again-off-again discussions about an extension for more than a month nowbut – regardless of the outcome – will still be on their sideline next season in what is the last year of his deal. Or, for that matter, the major changes on D’Antoni’s coaching staff. From Morey on down, they’re shouting through all that noise to announce that they’re not going anywhere as contenders anytime soon.

Morey’s musings on the red carpet came just one day after Paul himself insisted that he never asked for a trade and said he was “happy” to know he’d remain in Houston.

What’s more, Morey and Paul spent several hours before the awards show discussing the team’s future, free agency and the like at the nearby Montage hotel in a one-on-one meeting. So yes, in other words, their most pivotal parties appear to be on the same page (Harden, meanwhile, was on a marketing tour in the Philippines and China because, well, the Rockets were very confident that Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo would be named MVP).

“Yeah, it’s been the strangest time in my career,” Morey said while flanked by his daughter, Karen, an NYU film student who recently released a movie about the 2012 Harden trade titled “From 6th Man to MVP. “We’ve had periods where I felt like we deserved bad or negative coverage when we won 41 games a couple years ago, but this year the story should be how we’re the favorites in the West going in. And instead, I keep having to whack-a-mole a bunch of random stories (in the media). …It’s been frustrating.”

You know what would surely improve his mood, though? Adding a third star to this team that shouldn’t be erased from the list of title contenders just yet.

Houston remains undeterred in its looming pursuit of free agent Jimmy Butler, with the Rockets confident in their ability to either free up the necessary salary cap space if the 29-year-old decided to come their way or possibly land him via sign-and-trade with Philadelphia. It’s an annual tenet in these parts, this notion that their current payroll situation is never as prohibitive as it might appear. As it stands, they have no cap room and are limited to the midlevel exception (annual salary starting at $5.7 million).

 

A source with knowledge of the Rockets’ plans said Danny Green, Jeremy Lamb, Al-Farouq Aminu, DeAndre Jordan, Brook Lopez and Kevon Looney are also possible targets. But Butler, make no mistake, is the dream addition.

Butler will be a priority for the 76ers and potentially the Clippers as well, but his ties to the Houston area (his hometown of Tomball, Texas is 34 miles away) and perceived fit with Harden and Paul have the Rockets hoping he sees the merits of making this move. After Houston’s failed pursuit of Butler in October and November, the Rockets’ plans to continue the pursuit in free agency were first detailed by The Ringer and The Athletic’s Rockets beat writer, Kelly Iko, last week.

Before the non-Rockets fans in the crowd lose interest, know this much: The ramifications of the Rockets’ next moves will have a ripple effect on the entire league. If Paul and Harden can patch up whatever wounds might exist, and if Morey is able to have some success in free agency, then maybe the Rockets’ best days aren’t behind them after all.

Say what you will about Portland, Denver, Utah (with Mike Conley now in tow), this still-evolving LeBron James/Anthony Davis Lakers team and the Warriors in whatever form finally takes shape, but the Rockets – at their best – are a proven commodity that is still fully capable of playing its way into June. But man alive, what a difference a few weeks can make.

It was less than a month ago – May 29, to be exact – that an ESPN report revealed that Morey was considering a roster overhaul and a Rockets remodel seemed so plausible. Front office sources who spoke with The Athletic at the time indicated that Harden was the only off-limits player in the bunch, but it’s clear Morey was open to discussing almost all possibilities. And now, with the Warriors’ misfortune putting all that blood in the West waters, everyone is scrambling to separate the fact from the fiction as we try to figure out where they fit in this whole league-wide landscape.

 

To that end, there’s no better person to talk to than veteran forward P.J. Tucker. Other than Harden and Paul, there’s no player who matters more in that Rockets locker room than the 34-year-old who arrived alongside Paul in the summer of 2017. Add in the fact that Tucker is widely known for his candor and authentic personality, and his perspective just might be the key to understanding what’s real and what’s perceived about these Rockets. So, naturally, he’s the guy you track down outside the NBA awards show as the end of the night draws near.

 

Tucker, wearing a bright orange suit and holding the “Sneaker King” trophy he won for rocking the best kicks, agrees to discuss all the Rockets madness and what it might mean.

I get traded (laughs)? Nah, I’m (joking).

Alright, so you know the headlines of the past few weeks. And so Daryl comes out today, and his talking point was, ‘We’re the best team in the West and I don’t know why y’all aren’t talking about that. The core is together, we’re going to add a piece…’

I don’t understand why y’all so surprised. I don’t understand why anybody is surprised.

From what standpoint?

It’s Daryl Morey.

What does that mean?

Dude, what are you like…

Surprised that he was thinking about other (roster) ideas?

No, no. (Why are you) so surprised because he said something, but something else is happening or that anything happens that didn’t happen or that – any of it. Like, it’s Daryl, man. You’ve got to take Daryl with a grain of salt and know that Daryl Morey is a brilliant guy, he knows basketball, he knows how to stir stuff up, he knows how to make stuff happen. And at the same time, he knows how to play his cards and he knows how to hold ‘em.

Where does that leave y’all though – as a player?

Dude – as a professional. You have to be a professional – period.

Did any of this stuff rattle you guys?

Dude, if that was the case then guys would be in the media saying stuff and feeling certain kinds of ways. You’ve got to know where you’re at, who you’re dealing with and what’s going on. If you don’t know that, then you’re in the wrong business.

So it feels like everyone might have looked at the core, saw what happened with the Warriors, and if you keep most of this together that you could be in a really good spot. Have there been discussions along those lines, and how do you see that?

I honestly haven’t had any discussions with anybody, other than certain individuals. I haven’t had a collective discussion with anybody, so I don’t know. It’d be a shame for a team to win 65 games (two seasons ago) and 50-something games (last season) in back to back seasons to dissipate, but in this business you never know. I would hope from what we’re doing, that we want to win right now. We’ve got a team to win right now. So with all the things that is going on in the league right now, I don’t think there’s anybody right now who can say they’ve got a better roster than us. Nobody – top to bottom, in the NBA.

Ok, but it still has to function, right? As a leader in the locker room, tell me about James and Chris. You can’t speak for them, but…

No, but I’m sick of the fake news man. It’s fake. Everybody – I argue with Chris and James more than Chris and James argue.

 

Fine, but Game 6 (against the Warriors): How hot was it (afterward)?

It was what it was. Everybody’s mad. Everybody’s pissed. You can’t – I’m sick of all the highlight of whoever this person is trying to come up with all this crap, like I argue with Chris and James more than Chris and James argue with each other. Like, I’m the center, focal (point) of the argument because I’m always yelling at somebody and they’re yelling at me. So for me, it’s like ‘If you’re not arguing…’ You don’t think Kobe and Shaq argued? Hakeem (Olajuwon) and…

But that’s a tough comparison though, right? There’s a threshold there. Kobe and Shaq reached a point where it wouldn’t work anymore.

Nah, but guess what? They won championships together. Right? And that’s what people care about, right? That’s what we talking about, right? Nah, but we’re talking about winning championships, right? So that’s all that matters. To win a championship. That’s it. Nothing else matters. If we win a championship together and we ****ing hate each other, then guess what? Who cares? (Laughs) Nobody. Right, so that’s all that matters. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Winning a championship. Everything else is failure.

Look ahead a little bit. We’re going to have fireworks the next couple weeks.

Dude, July 1 is going to come. There’s going to be a ton of fireworks. All this stuff is going to happen. Right now, line it up – we’ve got the best roster in the NBA right now. Period – that’s ready to play on October whatever the day is…

The tension obviously doesn’t bother you.

There’s always tension. Every good team has tension. Golden State is arguing with KD and Draymond (Green in that Nov. 12 game against the Clippers). Everybody is going to fight. Everybody is going to argue. That’s a part of it, dawg. People don’t realize, we’re together like eight hours a day. Like dude, you’re just getting on my ****ing nerves today, like I’m just sick of seeing you. Like, that’s just how it is, man. It’s part of the business.

 

Chris runs hot, too…

Yeah, Chris is a hothead. But Chris wants to win. Chris might be the most competitive person I’ve ever been around in my life, and I’ve known him my whole life (Tucker and Paul grew up playing against each other on the North Carolina AAU circuit). Like, period. Chris wants to ****ing win. Period. Chris wants to win. I don’t care. Chris wants to win.

Does the way he’s wired still help the group?

I don’t see how it can’t (help the group). I can’t be around somebody who wants to win like that and not want to win. So if you can’t do that, then this might not be where you need to be, because that’s the stuff you need to be able to win.

I wasn’t (sweating the recent reports). I ain’t talking to nobody, because I know. I live it every day. There’s nobody on our team together more than me and James and Chris, so why would I sweat it?