Help wanted as scuffling team again relies too much on Harden
I thought the Rockets were past this point.
James Harden near the top of the NBA in nightly minutes. The face of the franchise and one of the best players in the league forced to carry too much weight.
Chis Paul was out again Wednesday. Eric Gordon, Sixth Man of the Year two seasons ago, was inserted back into the starting lineup.
Carmelo Anthony also was, technically, still on Daryl Morey’s roster. But we’re leaving the Rockets’ self-induced Melo mess in the past.
The present: A team that won a franchise-record 65 games last season took the hardwood Wednesday night near the bottom of the Western Conference, despite the fact that the reigning champion Golden State Warriors have been off their game.
Then the Dallas Mavericks
owned the court, winning 128-108 and pushing the Rockets to 9-11.
When the Rockets left their arena, they were next-to-last in the West and only better than the annually rebuilding Phoenix Suns.
“Nobody’s happy,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Everybody’s searching for answers and talking to ourselves, running into walls.”
The Mavs’ easy 20-point win couldn’t be blamed on Anthony not fitting in.
Standings are ugly
Dallas — a laughable 24-58 a season ago — also began the evening with a better record than the Rockets, which was yet another sign that D’Antoni’s team still isn’t right.
"You look down and, right now, we're in 13th place and Utah's in 14th,” said D’Antoni, before Harden took the court. “It's like, 'Oh my gosh.' ... 62 (games) left or whatever. We'll get there."
Maybe the 2018-19 Rockets really will rediscover themselves in time for mid-April and the NBA’s real season.
Harden overloaded the box score (25 points, career high-tying 17 assists, 11 rebounds, six steals), placing his name in the NBA history book next to Magic Johnson’s. The Beard, who also played a game-high 37 minutes and 21 seconds, then kept insisting his Rockets will be just fine.
“We’ve just got to figure it out,” he said.
D’Antoni sounded less certain, mentioning former vets Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute by name, while acknowledging a lack of roster depth.
“Obviously, it’s a problem. And it’s something that I know, the front office, they tried to do the best they can,” the coach said. “No blame going around. It’s just the way it is.”
Wednesday was the quarter mark of a new year. At a time when Morey should already be working the phones to help Harden and Co., the underperforming Jazz brought veteran sharpshooter Kyle Korver back to Salt Lake City via a late-November deal with the Cavaliers.
Paul, 33, has played well when active, but his age is starting to show. The Rockets’ bench is an increasing question mark — Danuel House, former Aggie and Cougar, was the initial replacement against the Mavs, despite just joining D’Antoni’s squad and playing 26 pro games in three seasons. And the league’s reigning MVP ranks second in the NBA in average minutes (37.4), which means Harden is spending more time on the court than he has since 2015-16.
The Rockets were a supremely disappointing 41-41 that year. Kevin McHale was fired after just 11 games. J.B. Bickerstaff ’s squad was bounced by the Warriors 4-1 in the first round.
But the clearest connection between then and now was the Rockets wearing out Harden by the time the postseason arrived.
His average minutes declined in the following seasons: 36.4 in 2016-17; 35.4 last year, which was his lowest since he ran the hardwood as Oklahoma City’s sixth man with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
This year, Harden is again putting up MVPcaliber numbers (leagueleading 31.1 points, 8.7 assists, 5.6 rebounds). Yet the Rockets are light years off last year’s pace and have reverted back to some of their troubling pre-D’Antoni ways.
Is it going too far to point out that the Los Angeles Clippers, Paul’s old team, were on top of the West while the Rockets trailed Dallas 52-36 early in the second quarter?
When it hit 59-41 — following another Dennis Smith dunk —D’Antoni simply stared at the court, silent with folded arms. Waiting on Paul
The kicker: Who’s the 2016-17 NBA Coach of the Year going to turn to to fix all this?
Even Paul’s return from a hamstring injury won’t immediately erase a backward summer that continues to hold back this team.
When very well-traveled, 15-year veteran Devin Harris is schooling you on your court, you definitely have a problem.
“They just have to play more minutes. You've got to do what you've got to do,” said D’Antoni, referring to the remaining vets forced to pick up all the extra weight. “Eric and James and James Ennis and Clint (Capela) have got to carry the load … until everybody’s back, which will happen. We just have to try to hang in there until we do.”
Too much is already being asked of Harden.
Sure, The Beard can carry this if he must. He totaled 94 points, 26 assists and 12 rebounds in 91 minutes during the previous two defeats. He spent his early years in red improving, learning, evolving and nightly pushing his team toward the NBA’s peak.
"Thank goodness he's 29 years old and he's still able to do that,” D’Antoni said. “He was phenomenal — is phenomenal."
That is no longer up for debate.
But the story six years ago was that the Rockets needed to surround Harden with more help. The fact remained after Dwight Howard came and went.
These Rockets are still stuck in some weird, eerie “We almost made the NBA Finals” limbo.
As-is, they’re not even making the playoffs.
Harden needs a stronger supporting cast. Again.