The summer for the Rockets has been a weird one, to say the least. The team ended the season falling to the Golden State Warriors for the second consecutive season — and after going down in the second round, Daryl Morey was looking for ways to shake up and improve the roster.
He came out and said that pretty much anyone but James Harden could be moved, which meant that Chris Paul was on the trading block. In the midst of these rumors, others came about — largely about the relationship between Paul and Harden and the contention between the two.
On the heels of a story that came out about Paul and Harden arguing about the small things, Harden recently said that he and Paul have communicated often and are in a good space, dismissing all of the rumors as ‘negative media stuff.’
“There was a lot of false talk,” Harden said. “The negative media stuff and all that stuff that was going on and running, it wasn’t true. Me and Chris had constant communication and we’re good.”
The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. Paul has a history of rubbing teammates the wrong way, but the way it was talked about between he and Harden was probably exaggerated beyond what things really were.
Without Paul, the Rockets will run out a similar team to what they had last season, but with Russell Westbrook as Harden’s running mate instead. There’s no telling whether the relationship will be better or worse on the court, but things will certainly be different.
