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The Houston Rockets are an organization riddled with inner turmoil as we speak. Just yesterday, Houston fired its head coach, Kevin McHale, after starting 4-7. This was clearly a ridiculous overreaction, as McHale had his team in the Western Conference finals just six months ago.
McHale took the fall for Houston’s brutal start, but it’s clear that there’s way more going on in the Rockets’ locker room than simply replacing the head coach is going to fix. According to Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today, many Rockets players are incredibly frustrated with star shooting guard James Harden‘s ‘aloofness’ and uninspired play.
In fairness, Harden’s averaging 27.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. However, he’s been shooting poorly all season (37.2 percent overall) especially from three-point range (26.2 percent).
If Steph Curry missed his next 99 3-pt attempts, he would still have a better % than James Harden. @tomhaberstroh pic.twitter.com/QesuTbYoFF
— J23 iPhone App (@J23app) November 19, 2015
Harden’s never been known to be a solid defender, but he undoubtedly worked hard to improve last season and it showed during Houston’s playoff run. Unfortunately, as CBS Sports’ Matt Moore noted, he’s completely regressed this season:
“He had such a bad reputation in 2014, and he worked very hard to correct that. Bad news: His problems are back.”
There’s no telling if interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will be able to turn things around. He’s off to a solid start, as Harden scored 45 points with 11 assists, eight rebounds and five steals last evening, and Houston defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 108-103 in Bickerstaff’s debut. But assuming McHale was the lone problem in this situation would be painfully shortsighted after just one game.
Timothy Downs is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. You can ‘like him’ on Facebook add him on Google or follow him Twitter @Tidow1212
