When John Wall claimed to look like he was before, and Christian Wood emerged as a bestial pick-and-roll partner, there was, for a fleeting moment, a last sense of hope that perhaps James Harden would retract his commercial demand . So much for that.
Although the conversation about Harden’s public preseason demand has died, Harden clearly still wants to leave Houston. On Tuesday, after Houston was defeated by the Lakers and dropped to the worst 3-7 of the Western Conference of the season, Harden only needed a few words to say all about the situation with the Rockets, which Harden proclaimed to be “it’s just not good enough. “
“We are not even close, honestly, to [the Lakers] – obviously the title champions – and all the other elite teams out there, “said Harden.” I mean, you can tell the difference in those last two games.
“Chemistry, in terms of talent, everything. It’s clear,” continued Harden. “I love this city. I literally did everything I could. It’s crazy. I don’t think it can be fixed. Thanks.”
Then he got up and got off the podium.
Shortly after Harden’s comments, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweeted that the Rockets remain involved in commercial negotiations for Harden, but that they are asking for the price remains high and no deal is imminent.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Ramona Shelburne and Wojnarowksi further reported that the Rockets are currently having Harden swap negotiations with “more than half a dozen teams” and that Houston owner Tilman Fertitta continues to guarantee Harden that he will find a swap for him. It is said that Fertitta “trained” Rockets’ new GM, Rafael Stone, to make a deal.
None of this is really new, of course. The Rockets have been buying Harden all the time and, of course, the asking price will be high. The new variable is Harden publicly losing patience while dealing with the fact that he cannot completely intimidate his leaving the city with a guaranteed two years, plus a player option in the third year, remaining in his contract.
In addition to taking his complaints to the media, Harden basically gave up on the court, having scored less than 20 points in each of the last four games. The last time this happened was in 2011-12, according to ESPN statistics and information.
Harden listed several teams as acceptable commercial destinations, including the Nets, Sixers, Heat, Blazers and Bucks. But then again, Harden doesn’t have all the advantage here. Yes, he is a powerful player who, along with his agent, has great influence behind closed doors, but he is not in a year of walking. Houston can, and probably will, exchange it for any team that offers the best package, not the team that Harden prefers, and until then Harden will be in Houston.
With all the chaos surrounding Kyrie Irving and the Nets now, you wonder how it can, if it affects a possible deal for Harden, or if the Sixers would be willing to shake off the good vibes they are building with their hot guys to start the season. The teams for which Harden wants to trade, in most cases, do not have the assets or the incentive to close a deal, unless Houston lowers its price.
It will be difficult for the Rockets to get anything close to a fair value, and Harden is trying to tighten the screws so that they give in to the pressure, get tired of the drama and cut their losses with a lesser agreement to get rid of what will only go away. make a headache worse. How long does the organization endure this? How long can other Rockets players share the same locker room with Harden while he tells everyone that they are not good enough for him?
For his part, Wall is clearly getting tired of Harden’s performance, as the Houston season – Wall’s first season back after two years on the shelf – has been totally hijacked by Harden’s plans.
“He is [Harden] speaking with your own opinion. I cannot know what he thinks about the team or what he feels we are, “said Wall, via the ESPN report.” I know how hard these guys work … to try to improve each day. I know how much I work on it to go back and compete at a high level.
“There are a lot of guys here who want to compete at a high level,” continued Wall. “As I said to everyone tonight and told the guys before, when one to 15 guys are all on the same page and they commit and they know their role and they know what they want to get out of it and that is to win, everything will be fine. But when you have certain guys in the mix who don’t want to buy everything as one, it’s going to be difficult to do something special or something good like a basketball team. “