James Harden admits the Rockets' 2015-16 season 'wasn't great at all'
The Houston Rockets were a hot mess last season.
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Actually, no. The Houston Rockets were a boring mess. By and large, they weren’t that entertaining as they Martyr Ball’d their way through two head coaches and 41 wins in 82 tries prior to what should have been an embarrassing first round defeat at the hands of the mostly Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors. The team entered 2015-16 with legitimate championship hopes after sneaking into the 2015 Western Conference finals, yet frittered away the entire season with listless play that seemed to act as a season-long tribute to the offseason of 2016.
That offseason, which was apparent by Christmas of last season, featured the departure of Dwight Howard via free agency. In a minor, salary cap-clever surprise the franchise also committed heavily to star guard James Harden – giving the Rocket a $118 million contract spread out over four years via renegotiation.
For the first time, James Harden will get to lord over his own training camp. And, unsurprisingly, he’s speaking as if something is in the air. From Jonathan Feigen at the Houston Chronicle:
Harden was happy to gush about the change he has already seen in attitude.
“It’s not even close,” Harden said of the mentality heading into camp compared to last season. “We’ve doing something I haven’t since I’ve been here in Houston. Just trying to shake things up, just trying to make sure we really know each other in and out on and off the court. I think that will translate to a better team.”
Optimism in the NBA when summer gives way to fall comes more reliably than a change in the weather, but Harden said last season’s disharmony was “an extremely big problem.”
“On any team, in any sport, if you don’t have the entire team on one page, the entire team having one goal, you’re not going to be successful,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to build here in Houston. We have several new guys we want them to come and feel like this is a great group and we’re going to build this together.”
Harden, speaking at an event pitched to promote a sports drink, said last season’s .500 turn “wasn’t great at all” and that it “left a bad taste” in the 2015 NBA MVP runner up’s mouth.
He speaks for us all.
The Rox guard still put up stellar averages of 29 points, 6.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game for Houston, but the team never managed anything higher than a five-game winning streak in a campaign that cost both Kevin McHale his head coaching job (after a 4-7 start) and well-respected former assistant J.B. Bickerstaff his ideal rookie coaching setup following a disheartening 37-34 run as interim head coach.
Dwight Howard, meanwhile, turned in numbers unseen since his second year in the NBA. His clear reduction in role led to a midseason discussion with general manager Daryl Morey that left him unsatisfied, a meeting that ended with Howard wondering why he’d committed to Houston in the first place.
The big center moved on to Atlanta, just three years after signing a four-year (with a player option after three seasons), $88 million deal with Houston.
As a result, James Harden will have his first offseason and first full training camp to mull over his gig as the leader of the Houston Rockets.
Rare is the superstar that is traded following or just before training camp, as recent examples only include center Alonzo Mourning (dealt from Charlotte to Miami in 1995) and Scottie Pippen (traded in the first week of camp from Houston to Portland in 1999). The Oklahoma City Thunder, fearful of Harden’s contract demands, shocked the NBA by dealing their reserve guard to Houston just a few days before Halloween in 2012. The new franchise player had to ingratiate on the fly.
By the time cap rolled around in 2013, Howard was in the picture. Same with 2014. And in 2015, when Harden showed up out of shape following an offseason ankle sprain.
By 2016? Different picture. One that you get.
The Rockets aren’t at full strength just yet, not even with Harden’s admission that he’s been “working out all summer.” The team added free agent forward Ryan Anderson and free agent guard Eric Gordon during the offseason, along with veteran center Nene to help spell the younger Clint Capela in the pivot, but hybrid forward and restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas remains off the official roster due to an ongoing contract impasse:
“It’s very important for him to get here as soon as possible so we can start figuring this thing out,” Harden said.
Perhaps. Ryan Anderson can’t replicate Motiejunas’ low post skills, but it appears as if the Rockets (and Pistons, while we’re at it) signed off on Donatas as a contributor when they dealt the forward to Detroit during the trade deadline season last winter, prior to Detroit’s void of the transaction following new revelations about a lingering Motiejunas back injury.
The bulk of the pack, as Daryl Morey sees fit, is in place. This, for the first autumn of his Houston career, is James Harden’s turn to run things as the lone star.
We’ll just have to see how that turns out.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!