A report made by Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops this week relayed that Dwight Howard is “extremely unhappy” being a secondary option to James Harden on the Rockets. Though Howard refuted the report, this is not the first time rumblings of discontent have surfaced regarding the pair, with Fran Blinebury of NBA.com relaying that members of each player’s camp went into the 2014 offseason “whispering” about their desire to get rid of the other.
Houston entered the 2015/16 season with its eyes firmly set on contending for a title, but the team hasn’t meshed, and that cost Kevin McHale his job as coach. There’s no denying that both Harden and Howard are extremely talented players, but neither has the reputation of making their teammates around them better, which is likely part of the Rockets’ woes this campaign. Howard can opt out of his deal at the end of this season and become an unrestricted free agent, while Harden still has two more seasons remaining on his pact beyond this one.
This brings me to the topic for today: Can James Harden and Dwight Howard form an effective tandem for the long term, or should the Rockets consider dealing one or both players?
Do you think Houston should continue to build around the duo, or is it time to tear down the roster and begin anew? If you believe that keeping the two players together is not the answer, which one should the franchise look to retain? Who do you believe is more to blame for the discord? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.
I would get rid of Dwight real quick instead of letting him leave in FA.
As time goes on I’m getting happier Dwight didn’t take the 5 year max from the lakers as we would probably be a lottery team or maybe eight seed with him at this point. He left in disarray but the future is bright for us. He seems like the player who would leave a team then go back to the team once Kobe retires
Because of Dwight health issues, age, & free throw problems, I would trade him now to the Heat for a younger players like Whiteside & the Duke guy Winslow [the #9 pick]. Don’t let us kid ourselves Dwight’s back issue will always be there, and wih age it gets worse. We have seen this before in Yao Ming. Houston will never win a championship with your star shooting woeful on the line..remember Karl Malone of Utah Jazz! Come payoff, folks will always mess with him on the line. Besides I am sure he is looking for a bigger check next summer which will handicap the Rockets going forward. He is Not worth $23million plus in salaries. Though I like him as defensive player, but he brings too much offensive liability to the team and he appears unable to correct this problems during off season.
Finally I will keep James Harden, but he needs to be trained on Spur’ Pop system of moving the ball around & playing defense. The Rockets need Mark Jackson as their coach. I was a partial season ticket holder & I saw the writing on the wall with this team during pre-season, consequently I refuse to renew my ticket plan.
That’s a trade the Heat will never make.
I think that many of their internal conflicts have a lot to do with deferring the ball to one another in situations they believe is their opportunities. There’s only one ball and, while Harden can be wildly inconsistent as a shooter, I would have to split them both up and keep James as the Rockets number one option. I don’t believe that one is better than the other but Harden’s style fits more into the league and how it’s becoming a more jump-shooting league. Howard can be a major part of a title contender if he finally decided to take less money, but he still believes he has what it takes to be option numbero uno. He could create a good duo with Carmelo in my opinion, however with the way Porzingis is progressing and how the NY fanbase is treating him, they could view Howard negatively because as was said previously in this article, he’s not the type to make his teammates better. It could stunt Porzingis’ growth, but this is just one speculation.
Certainly makes sense to look for a new home for Howard. Can’t see the Rockets getting by either the Warriors or Spurs at this point, might as well explore all options.
If James Harden isn’t going to participate in their ability to be a good pairing, they won’t be
They would be smart to trade him, but the question is which teams would want to trade for him? I highly doubt the Heat are gonna give up Winslow for him (or Whiteside for that matter). The only team I can think of that might have any interst in trading for him would be the Cavs. Then again, would they want another injury prone player on their roster?
At the end of the day, I think he ends up crawling back to Cuban and signs with Dallas (which he shouldve done the 1st time around). He’d be a much better fit and have less clubhouse issues vs staying in Hou. On top of that they have an excellent medical staff that worked wonder on injury prone guys like Chandler and Wright who benefited greatly from their time in Dallas. Maybe they can do the same for Howard
I think it’s easy for forget that the Rockets were in the Western Conference Finals only seven months ago. Harden and Howard can co-exist successfully, because they’ve already proven it. The trick is for the Rockets to rediscover what they were doing last season. I think it’s a matter of focus, not chemistry.
Part of that was b/c of the defense they played, with their athletes, and the 3 point shooting they got from them. They aren’t playing the same way. Corey Brewer hasn’t been good. They also have Marcus Thornton playing way too many minutes/taking too many shots. He obviously can still score, but he is terrible defensively, which is bad paired with Harden. They miss what they got from Josh Smith. I think their rotations are also all over the place.
Obviously, the game more perimeter oriented, but you still have to play inside out. GS led the league in points in the paint last season. You have to get it in the paint either through dribble penetration or a pass into the post, and then kick it out to your shooters. That’s what Dwight does best. He doesn’t have the same athleticism as he once had, but he is still great on the defensive end, and rebounding. When he has actually gotten touches, he has played well, as evidenced by the last 2 playoff appearances. He also seems like the only one on that team, besides Patrick Beverly, that is playing hard
yeah, chemistry issues only come up when teams are under-performing. there’s certainly a value to having team chemistry, but teams that don’t get along can still win. we have such limited insight into what actually goes on in a locker room so it’s often naive of us to say winning teams = good chemistry and losing teams = bad
trade howard for brook lopez