James Harden and the Houston Rockets are at a breaking point

Tillman has been getting heat WAY before this. If your superstar wants out, he gets even more heat. Everything has been perfectly deflected back to Harden, just take a look at the internet. Teams that want to trade for him were always going to. Everyone knows how good James Harden is.

 

I would say since 2017-2018, Harden has been a really good defender. You dont see much of those back door cuts anymore either.

 

LOOOL, oh yea James wants to upgrades the roster every season in the article and LOL....luxury tax, luxury tax, LUXURY TAX. Never paid that....but then...Harden got everything he wanted, right Tim????

 

His post defense is great, and if he so happens to stay with the team, maybe they should consider playing him at the 3 where he's more likely to encounter post play. But his perimeter defense has never been good - not even remotely. It may not be all-time awful like it was earlier in his Houston tenure, but it's still bad.

 

I used to think that until 2018, but I dont think its like that anymore. And if you look at that OKC series, he was really good. Like his iso defense was excellent, wether it was Schroder or Cp3.

 

I 100% believe this is what happened. Remember that "i failed James" comment Morey made during the playoffs? Then the love letter Morey wrote to James after quitting for personal reasons, only to take the philly job? Morey absolutely talked to James and convinced him to leave houston

 

This is worst than the Lebron control stories

 

The Rockets won't break - Harden has to conform or wait.

DD

 

The only reason to wait is for Miami to give up a little more pieces. Either Morey thinks he we will wait for him or thinks he can just trade Tobias and keep Ben which I’m sure the Rockets won’t ever do that trade.

We all knew Russ and Harden wouldn’t work or lost of us knew. We knew he parties all the time and before games or practices. Some nights he looks terrible and most nights he looks fantastic and the best player.
When Russ came the only good thing or that I hoped for was that Russ was his friend, that he would make him accountable on the court and off the court. And I remember saying that Harden needed to settle down, get married or something. I mean not forcing him or not saying is the only way to make him mature. But he still acts like a 19-20 year old. Wish Russ would influenced him and he would settle down and at one point there was a rumor that he had gotten engaged but turned out it wasn’t true.

This guy is surrounded by yes men, his mom spoils him, he gets whatever he wants, he does whatever he wants on the court and off.

the only solution and best thing for Harden would be to be traded to the Heat, Jimmy and Pat won’t allow all this diva nonsense. Maybe they can get him in line or get him a baby mama lol.
if he doesn’t wake up and change his body is going to feel it pretty soon. Partying in your 20-30 is fine. At some point in your early or mid 30s one starts feeling it.

I’ve defended him but now that the org has a new coach new system new gm we need to move from Harden and start new culture without him.

I still hope he is professional about this ordeal that he created, that he plays well, that he has chemistry with the guys and go far if he ends up stay all season long. But if we don’t win a championship or go to the finals, it’s time to move Harden for sure in the off season.

 

It's convenient to put all the blame on Tilman for Harden apologists like you because everyone hates Tilman. Yes I totally agree that Tilman is a POS.

It is totally possible that some of McMahon's stuff was from Tilman. BUT, I trust Clutch who said more than once that Harden pushed for the Westbrook trade. He didn't just agree with whatever Tilman suggested. He was a big part of forcing it happen. So if you hate Westbrook, you should also hate Harden. There's no other way around it.

 

Apologists for what? What has Harden done here besides the Westbrook trade that we also know isnt even completely his fault. So whats the deal? If you believe that it was all Harden, than why did Tillman go on TV and say "Yo lol my FO was nervous, I had to push it through." If that's true, than that means either A. James was okay with it not happening or B. They could have told him no and we could have started this rebuild earlier?

Its entirely plausible. Both of them have their not so unbiased sources. Harden could have forced it(and he's an idiot for that) but he also could have been told no and both scenarios would have been better than what we have now. And I dont believe that Daryl was so hamstrung by Harden that he could not talk to him.

 

Windhorst:

Star treatment, it’s not unusual in the NBA, especially over the last decade for stars to dictate practice/travel schedules. LeBron, back in his first go-around in Cleveland, was giving changes in travel schedules. There’s been star treatment paid to Kawhi by the Clippers. What Tim is pointing out is the Rockets were not just giving him those special privileges but really letting him dictate major decisions on the roster. LeBron wanted Anthony Davis. It’s not unique to Harden but it hasn’t worked out for Harden. While spectacular over the last 6-7 years, he hasn’t delivered at the highest level in the playoffs. Now the Rockets situation is very badly eroded and Harden is the root cause.

More importantly, if you’re out there and want to trade for Harden, you probably had a good idea of this anyway but you’re seeing this story, you’re learning about this, you’re looking at a guy not dedicated to his conditioning, looking at a guy who turned down a $100M extension and didn’t dedicate to his conditioning, a guy who has put his teammates and coach in a horrible position and is saying come trade for me. It’s pushing the limits of star power to the nth degree.

Would you go ahead and trade for a guy whose regimen would absolutely catch up with. Mid 30s. At some point, there has to be a slowing of the in between game frolic. Wouldn’t that be a concern for any team that might take on Harden?

Yeah, especially because he’s in a tweener position with his contract. We remember when Kawhi demanded a trade. He had one year left on his contract. Spurs had next to no leverage. They got a quality player in DeMar DeRozan but it wasn’t the same trade you could have made if you had him a few years. The Rockets aren’t taking pennies on the dollar for him because he has multiple years. If you’re going to pay the going rate for a MVP which is all the good, young players on your roster, maybe your best player, and potentially 2-3 draft picks, can you do that with a guy left with two years left? Ideally you’d like him to extend his contract. You look at him, the way he’s treated his team, now you have pause. He does have a player option. You could split the difference and ask him to pick up that option. An extension would be paying him $50M in his mid-30s. That’s a hard pill to accept right now. The Rockets have a high burden they want in a trade, understandably. I think it’s a very complicated trade to pull off. I think they’ll get it done.

When does something like this get done?

That’s the question we don’t know. In the last few months, the 2021 free agent class has vaporized. If you were pinning on 2021, you reassess and say the star we maybe can get is James Harden. I do think there’s 2-3 teams that can get into that game. Whether they’re on Harden’s list and whether Harden would show up and play, that’s an open question for sure.

Who are those teams? Are any team’s on Harden’s list a possibility?

I think the Miami Heat are an interesting possibility. Riley has long believed get me the highest talent and our system will make it work. They have the young players. Problem is they only have one draft pick they can trade, which is 2027. The New York Knicks have a bunch of young players and all of their draft picks. Then some farther shot teams like the Cavs who have young players, extra draft picks. I don’t think that’s where Harden wants to be but that’s the type of team who can maybe make an offer. We can go further down the list. I do think teams will make offers. When they’ll make them, we have to see how things play out.

 

Yes and coincidentally that was his most fit year conditioning and weight wise.

 

In the context of this thread, my point is that the Westbrook trade was just a tip of an iceberg. Harden has a lot of control on the team. Morey definitely would have talked to Harden about the concerns of getting Westbrook and Harden still pushed for it. So yes, Morey's hands was forced, not just by Tilman. You keep downplaying Harden's part.

No, the Westbrook trade didn't just mean that Harden wasn't just dumb. It means that he had a lot of power to force things. And these leaks if there's any truth to them suggest that it was like that before Tilman's time.

 

I can’t believe there’s so many people that not only defend this worthless sac but still want to ride with him. He should’ve been traded 3-4 years ago and we wouldn’t have missed anything important except securing full value in return.

Nobody is lining up to trade for a 31 year old, heavy usage, ball chucking, ISO king, TO machine, playoff choking, rapper chasing, party loving, lazy fat ass that needs to be coddled and calls all the shots? I’m shocked!

Every off season it’s “damn Harden looks heavy and out of shape”. You never here this type of **** with any other Superstar with serious aspirations to win a title. Every playoffs he comes up short one way or another regardless of roster/injuries and gets a free pass from his fanbois.

The longer he’s here the more of a liability he becomes. If he gets hurt when he doesn’t even want to be here in the first place we’ll truly be ****ed. The guy is a distraction and a headache. Can’t wait till he’s gone and we can finally move on and play team basketball with guys that want to be here.

Yes, yes call me “Lin troll” all you want. Doesn’t change the fact that your lord and savior Jim Harden is a loser and he won’t win ****.

 

What other trades? All that's being talked about is the Westbrook one? What tip of the iceberg? And if all this is WHY DID WE NOT SPEND IN THE LUXURY TAX. Why did we hire Silas. TIllman WENT ON TV AND SAID HE FORCED IT THROUGH. So what do you want me to say? James got everything he wanted, except when he didnt?

All superstars have that power ALL OF THEM. And from what it seems like, it hasnt been to the detriment of our team cause we've been really good.

 

As much as I ****ing hate LeBron James, credit to him for being a far better GM than Harden could ever pretend to be.

James Harden is about to be exiled from Houston.

 

W

Windhorst of all people criticizing Harden for his conditioning. Gotta love sports journalists.