Some part of you wants it.<\/p>\n
Some flames never die. Some memories gradually fade into the abyss. Others are visceral. You could reach out and grab that moment. Your instinct is to re-live it, because psychologically, you never stopped living it in the first place.<\/p>\n
James Harden. The Beard. Based on demographics, the odds are fairly high that this is the best player you ever watched in a Houston Rockets uniform. Only one man in history has represented the team better. If you were alive during the Patron Saint\u2019s back-to-back title runs, consider yourself blessed.<\/p>\n
For the rest of us, it\u2019s Harden. Beautiful, flawed James Harden.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter where he goes next. Harden will be remembered as a Rocket. The recent rumors suggest that he\u2019ll be joining the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
Rockets reunion unlikely for now<\/p>\n
That said, we cannot let feelings dictate decisions. Not if our name is Rafael Stone. We must let logic take the wheel.<\/p>\n
Logically, it would be nearly impossible to bring him in via this year\u2019s trade market. First things first: Fred VanVleet is Ime Udoka\u2019s sparring partner. He is not going anywhere. The Rockets won\u2019t even broach the subject of him waiving his implied No Trade Clause. They brought VanVleet in to be a cultural staple, and sending him unceremoniously packing isn\u2019t in the cards.<\/p>\n
Dorian Finney-Smith and Steven Adams bring us close to Harden\u2019s contract, but not close enough. They make a combined $27ish million to Harden\u2019s $39.3 million. You\u2019d have to part with someone like Jabari Smith Jr. or Reed Sheppard.<\/p>\n
This is where the brain overrides the heart. It doesn\u2019t matter if you think Smith Jr. is a long-term role player. It\u2019s irrelevant if you think Sheppard is too short to crack Udoka\u2019s rotation. Trading either for a 36-year-old would be bad business.<\/p>\n
Particularly when his fit with the team isn\u2019t even clear.<\/p>\n
Harden would have new role with Rockets<\/p>\n
When Harden was in Houston, he popularized the term \u201cheliocentric\u201d basketball. It was a word Twitter (ah, how I miss Twitter) hipsters (are hipsters still around?) used to sound smart, until everyone started using it.<\/p>\n
He still plays roughly the same way. At 36, Harden is still a monster with the ball. He\u2019s in the 83.4th percentile in Points Per Possession (PPP) in isolation plays this year.<\/p>\n
Still, the Rockets shouldn\u2019t necessarily want the ball in his hands too regularly.<\/p>\n
The 2025-26 Rockets are sorely missing a ball-handler. That ball-handler is VanVleet. Conceptually, he was always the perfect fit alongside a playmaking big man like Alperen Sengun. VanVleet can capably get the ball up the floor and into the hands of the guy who\u2019s actually making the play. Harden makes the play.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not been particularly portable throughout his career. Harden has two modes: brilliant scorer who\u2019s pass-friendly, and brilliant passer who\u2019s score-heavy. He adjusts his profile based on roster construction, but there is no JJ Reddick (forever the consummate example of an off-ball player) in his game.<\/p>\n
None of which is to say the reunion couldn\u2019t be successful. The Rockets could stagger Harden and Sengun as often as possible. Harden may not be an active off-ball player, but he does have off-ball gravity. Coupled with Durant, he\u2019d make it more difficult for teams to double-team Sengun.<\/p>\n
So – I want to see it, too. But I want to see it under the right circumstances. That means not trading Smith Jr., Sheppard, or anyone under 25 for Harden right now.<\/p>\n
It means Harden accepting a below-market contract to come home this summer. If that\u2019s an option, the juice is suddenly worth the squeeze. The Rockets can figure out the basketball mechanics later, and take a low-cost talent upgrade at a position of need.<\/p>\n
If that hurts anyone, it\u2019ll be Reed Sheppard. The reality is, Sheppard was drafted to a win-now team whose head coach has a philosophical opposition to playing him. The path forward is not clear for Sheppard, whether Harden comes or not.<\/p>\n
Granted, Harden isn\u2019t a defensive stalwart either. That said, he\u2019s always been someone you can hide on bigs, because he can randomly kind of guard bigs in the post. Imagine Sheppard trying to withstand a Nikola Vucevic post-up, and tell me Harden wouldn\u2019t be a better option for Udoka.<\/p>\n
Better yet, I dare you tell me you don\u2019t want Harden back in Houston under the right circumstances – and actually mean it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some part of you wants it. Some flames never die. Some memories gradually fade into the abyss. Others…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211,9782,5320,5319],"class_list":["post-580839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-basketball","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-nba","tag-rockets","tag-rockets-analysis","tag-rockets-rumors","tag-rockets-trade-rumors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116009852698337979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}