League MVP confident Rockets have what it takes
Despite losing key players to free agency, Harden and Co. are primed for title run
Much has been made of the course the Houston Rockets have plotted this summer.
Coming off a season in which the Rockets led the National Basketball Association with 65 victories and pushed the Golden State Warriors to seven games in the Western Conference final, Houston was expected to bring back largely the same team for another shot at the defending champions.
Things haven’t quite gone that way.
Yes, Chris Paul and Clint Capela were re-signed, as Houston locked up its top two free agents to longterm deals. But Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute — key cogs to Houston’s success last season — left in free agency, signing with the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers, respectively.
The players Houston signed to replace them — Michael Carter Williams, James Ennis and, once he clears waivers Wednesday afternoon, Carmelo Anthony — feel like either awkward fits for how the Rockets play, or simply not the same calibre of talent.
That Carter-Williams, Ennis and Anthony together have a salary cap hit of about US$4.5 million — compared to the $15 million Ariza got from Phoenix and the $4.3 million Mbah a Moute received from Los Angeles — makes it hard to ignore the likelihood they weren’t retained because of luxury tax concerns alone.
But when the question of whether Houston has taken a step back was posed to James Harden, the NBA’s reigning most valuable player, he didn’t hesitate: Absolutely not.
“No. You can go back to articles and conversations and people said, ‘Me and Chris can’t play together.’ (Then) we were the No. 1 (team) in the NBA,” Harden said with a laugh after Team USA practice last week. “Obviously, you can look at a roster and look at different players and say that. But you have to be on that court and you’ve got to be in the trenches and be in the war.
“Eventually we will figure it out. We have enough leadership in that locker-room and a great coaching staff to figure that out.”
From the first day of training camp last season, the Rockets built their team around a switching defence that emphasized its ability to have anyone on the court guard anyone else at any time. It was a defence specifically wired to try to stop the Warriors — and, if Paul hadn’t blown out his hamstring in the final minute of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, or if the Rockets hadn’t missed 27 straight three-pointers in Game 7, it might have accomplished its goal.
But even if one could argue Ariza, 33, has lost a step, or Mbah a Moute is a risk after dislocating his shoulder twice last season, replacing them won’t be easy.
Ennis is the kind of raw clay Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni has moulded into an impact player before, but he’s never come close to providing the kind of impact at either end as Ariza and Mbah a Moute have.
Anthony is coming off a season with the Oklahoma City Thunder in which he struggled to be a third option behind Russell Westbrook and Paul George — precisely the kind of role he will be playing in Houston. And he has never been known as a defensive stopper.
One thing Houston won’t be lacking is motivation. After the way the West final played out, Harden said he hasn’t been able to let it go.
“That was a good feeling,” Harden said of winning the league’s MVP award, “but that feeling that I had in that Western Conference finals, with basically one half to go ... I need that feeling back. I’ll try to work my butt off, and mentally lock in as much as I can to get back to that feeling.
“Like, you are right there. You’re a half away, and then something, just a roadblock hits you and you have to find a way to get past that roadblock. We couldn’t get past that roadblock. It was just too tough.
“We’ve got to get back there.” For the next nine months or so, the focus will be on whether the moves the Rockets made this summer will allow them to — or whether Houston let its best chance at a title slip away, done in by Paul’s balky hamstring and all those wayward three-pointers.
Just don’t expect Harden to agree with that assessment.
“What we have right now is for sure good enough,” he said. “We have to realize nothing changes for us,” Harden said.
“You’ve got to realize: that was me and Chris’ first year together. Guys were asking, ‘Can they play together? How is that going to work?’ We made it work, and it was easy.
“Once training camp hits, we’ll work our butts off, and every single day we’ll just continue to get better and keep chopping away.”