Playing with Harden? Not KD

Unlike the trashed and burned Rockets, I’m going to save Leslie Alexander and Daryl Morey a lot of wasted time.

Cancel the exit interviews, gentlemen. Scrap the sappy postmortem news conferences. Let go of the whole idea of looking back one more time at the six-month disaster that was your utterly underwhelming 2015-16 season and finally start looking ahead at the eradefining offseason that awaits. How, you ask? Easy. Lock yourselves inside

Toyota Center, feed the key to Clutch and don’t emerge until you can answer these two all-important questions without bending the truth to fit your personal narrative.

1.) Why in the world would Kevin Durant want to come to the Rockets?

2.) Who in the world wants to really play with James Harden?

I hope you packed sandwiches and snacks because you’re going to be there for a while.

Before this already misguided love affair went horribly astray — 41-41, barely making the playoffs, getting laughed out of two arenas by the Stephen Curry-less Warriors — the big-city Rockets had a big-time plan.

Re-sign Dwight Howard. Pursue the NBA Finals again. Then steal KD away from 29 other teams, just like how Morey convinced Superman and the Beard that H-Town really was the hip, modern NBA place to be.

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Houston held up its end of the bargain. Great, ever-growing town. Enough room for the Texans, Astros, etc. Proud enough to actually start going crazy when it was 56-all at halftime of Game 4 and the moment we’d all been waiting for was surely about to come. The Rockets? Ha, ha, ha. Oh, man. Give me a minute while I stop coughing up a lung.

The next time Howard enters Toyota Center better be in a new uniform. The fakest team in the Association was easily the worst allowed on the court in the postseason — how’s that Game 5 guarantee looking, Jason “0-for-7” Terry?

And until the Rockets discover a coach who can kick Harden’s butt nightly, install offensive and defensive systems that work, and produces more heart and intensity than team meetings, nothing about this franchise sounds like a better-than-Oklahoma-City home for Mr. Thunder Up.

I know Charles Barkley isn’t the most politically correct Rockets fan in the country. But a single straight-to-the-heart line from the Round Mound of Rebound in regards to the most polarizing basketball star on the planet said it all about the philosophical divide these Rockets face.

“I’m not sure I would want to play with him.”

That’s the Chuckster on Harden. And that’s about as bad as it gets when we’re talking about a face of the franchise who has only been out of the first round once in four years with the Rockets.

The more I watched the daily display of disorder and dysfunction, the less I believed Harden as currently constructed is built to guide an organization to the promised land.

The farther and farther this season’s Rockets fell away from their Western Conference finals truth, the less I believed Durant would even consider reuniting with his former sixth man about 500 miles away from OKC.

The King went back to Cleveland and Morey has twice pulled magic out of a cheap hat, so anything can obviously happen.

Lacking in intangibles

But as absolutely electric as Harden can be with a ball in hand, he has been allowed to become so fixated on dominating the Rockets’ offense that it’s hard to imagine Nos. 13 and 35 sharing the same prime-time marquee.

Then there’s the scary stuff.

Russell Westbrook is a much more complete player than Harden and, right now, better overall than the league’s 2013-14 MVP. Bad-fashion Russ also tries to play a little D, which is more than can be said for the on-the-fritz light switch that shadows Harden’s 82-game effort.

Then there are the things that really matter. What separates scorers from champions, halfcourt players and me-first prima donnas from legitimate franchise saviors.

True leadership. Offcourt intangibles. Sacrificing yourself every night for the greater good.

It took some of the game’s greatest stars half of their career to find those traits buried within. Howard never has and ultimately let Harden down, as their DOA pursuit fizzled into a B-list version of bad reality TV.

Harden is just 26, a year removed from almost being the real MVP and already one of most thrilling Rockets to ever wear red. But for the second straight year, he’s entering the dead months saying the same exact thing, as is his broken team.

For everything that Harden pulled off the last seven years, he feels farther away from a golden trophy than ever before. He needs help. He also has to allow others in and can’t try to do everything himself.

Brushing Beard aside

Superman was supposed to share the weight. Now he’s about to fly away for good. Durant? I wouldn’t waste my time, KD, unless I knew for certain that Harden can change.

The Rockets are. And that’s the most disappointing part of this all, if you think back to when Morey united Howard and Harden in the same overjoyed city.

This was supposed to be about championships — multiple, plural. Until the new names arrive, it’s about to be The Beard and some dudes.

That has 41-41 written all over it. And Durant doesn’t do average.