A reminder of why Harden rates untouchable status

With the NBA trade deadline passing Thursday afternoon, let’s squash the notion that the Rockets should have traded James Harden. Please. Not only is Harden not the Rockets’ major problem, Harden is the reason the Rockets have a problem. Huh? Let me explain. The only reason you or anyone else is even talking about the Rockets as a team capable of doing so much better is because they have one of the NBA’s

five best players on their roster.

If you are clueless enough to believe the Rockets should rid themselves of a 26-year-old, top-five-in-the-world talent, you should be forced to donate all of your Air Jordans to charity and never speak of Dr. Naismith’s sport again.

We don’t have to look back too far to see what the Rockets would look like without a star, without a Harden.

Try the three years between Yao-McGrady and The Beard, when the Rockets were barely above .500 and not a playoff team.

Last year, with Harden leading the way, the Rockets won more playoff series than they had in the previous 17 seasons combined. Yes, combined.

So you go ahead and enter the race with your Kevin Martin-, Luis Scola-, Shane Battier-led squads.

Smart people will take The Beard … and the Hollywood love life and the often motionless defense.

Getting rid of Harden wouldn’t be like tossing the baby out with the bath water. It would be like demolishing the house because the baby had an accident in the tub.

For you millennials who have no clue as to why anyone would ever have to throw out bath water, trading Harden would be like tossing your smartphone because of one out-of-focus selfie.

Look, the Rockets’ bath water is dirty, and they are out of focus, and Harden is right in the middle of that.

But Harden is also the team’s best hope for clearing it up.

Les Alexander and Daryl Morey are smart enough to see that.

Remember when Morey said he needed a third star-level player to make the Rockets a legitimate contender?

That was before the Warriors and Spurs started playing at historic levels.

Bold moves attempted

Even after the Rockets finished with 56 wins last season, the third most in franchise history, Morey wanted desperately to add LaMarcus Aldridge to the mix this past offseason.

He understandably took a gamble on Ty Lawson, who brought substantial baggage along with the ability to get to the rim and find open teammates (third in the NBA in assists the last two seasons). The Rockets traded for the point guard while he was in a rehab facility following his second arrest for DUI.

In the most important respect, the gamble paid off in that Lawson has had no additional off-the-court troubles.

On the court, however, Lawson hasn’t been the player he or the Rockets expected. The 28-year-old is having his worst season and scored a total of two points in the last three games, all Rockets losses.

Lawson has scored two or fewer points in a third of his 48 games with Houston. In his six seasons (418 games) in Denver, he had such nights only 8 percent of the time.

Amazingly, the Nuggets went 20-13 in those games, while the Rockets are a lousy 4-12.

“I’m still trying to figure it out,” he told me a couple weeks ago.

That could be the title of the Rockets’ 2015-16 highlight film to this point.

Clearly, they are “Still Trying To Figure It Out.” Maybe they won’t. This is a talented team. This is a playoff team.

But this is a team with confidence issues, focus problems and an interim coach who has yet to earn the players’ respect — actions speak louder than words — dropped into a challenging position.

It is a puzzle of pieces that don’t seem to fit.

The odds against such a squad’s coming together to win a championship are much longer than the 75-1 number at which Bovada and a number of Vegas sportsbooks will vacuum your money away.

Less filling

What we saw from this team last year tells you this group is capable of so much better than its 27-28 record and ninth-place standing in the Western Conference.

Rarely do teams with this level of talent fail so miserably.

Perhaps all the trade talk and rumors will be the wake-up call the Rockets need.

One thing’s for sure: Depleting the talent by erasing Harden from the mix would not have improved the team or its chance for success.

A team in search of a third star could hardly afford to lose its No. 1.