Four grueling months: The road to the James Harden trade

Rockets gamers, coaches and workers members gathered within the workforce eating room that had been arrange within the Grand Floridian Disney Resort and Spa. They talked via the night time and typically till nearly dawn after a crushing loss to the Los Angeles Lakers within the second spherical of the playoffs had ended a season that started with championship aspirations.

The completely satisfied jokes about being Grand Floridian champions because the final workforce stationed there within the NBA’s playoff bubble have been gone because the Rockets sat round these 4 tables.

The morning after, James Harden was nonetheless speaking with the entrance workplace about how the Rockets may enhance. He was important of assistant coaches however by no means expressed points with coach Mike D’Antoni. Harden’s issues with the workforce and its future have been clear, nevertheless.

D’Antoni was nonetheless speaking about staying, however by 11 a.m. on Sept. 13 — on the workforce’s constitution flight again from Orlando — he had determined to depart the Rockets amicably, fairly than undergo an uncomfortable contract negotiation to remain.

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4 months to the day after that flight landed in Houston, and three months after normal supervisor Daryl Morey determined to maneuver on as nicely, the Rockets traded Harden, who had change into acknowledged not only for his excellence on the courtroom or facial hair, however as an necessary a part of a metropolis the place he had planted roots as an element proprietor of the Dynamo soccer workforce and proprietor of a brand new restaurant.

It was not one closing blowup or blowout, no single incident or loss that led to the irreconcilable variations, these near the method stated. As a substitute, it was a collection of tremors that led to the ultimate quake that ended a Rockets period.

A bubble is burst

The top started earlier than the season crashed in Orlando in opposition to the Lakers.

The Rockets had escaped the primary spherical in opposition to Oklahoma Metropolis, beating the Thunder in seven video games to keep away from the ignominy of shedding to the workforce to which that they had traded Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook in the summertime of 2019.

At instances sad with how he slot in Houston, Westbrook was particularly so within the bubble. He struggled horribly within the Sport 2 loss to the Lakers. When Harden performed poorly in Sport 4, Westbrook, who had by no means acknowledged his personal struggles, known as him out. That went over badly, although Harden watched the video and determined Westbrook was proper.

The Rockets have been additionally coping with an argument surrounding Danuel Home Jr., who, as a member of the workforce’s rotation, had performed a key position within the first two video games in opposition to the Lakers.

The NBA decided Home had allowed a visitor in his room — a violation of the league’s well being and security protocols for COVID-19. The league additionally had investigated one other Houston participant, Tyson Chandler, though he had nothing to do with the incident. The Rockets despatched Home dwelling, however the workforce was visibly shaken.

After successful Sport 1 of the collection and having probabilities within the fourth quarter of the subsequent two, the Rockets fell aside within the closing two video games.

When the Rockets have been eradicated, the pervading sense across the workforce, which had so steadfastly claimed to be a contender, was that the championship window had closed. D’Antoni, Morey and Harden all would later say that the time had come to maneuver on.

The following departure

Although D’Antoni, Morey and Harden opted to depart for largely the identical causes, they made their choices independently, apart from sharing the sense the Rockets ought to rebuild with out them.

The Rockets weren’t shocked D’Antoni stepped down, solely that he did it so shortly.

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Days after coming back from Florida, Morey instructed Rockets proprietor Tilman Fertitta he was uncertain about what he wished to do along with his profession. He stated he would possibly contemplate a place exterior basketball however that he liked working within the NBA and will once more. He wished to be a free agent and thought the time was proper to depart. He was comfy with the concept of taking a “hole yr,” as he famously stated simply weeks earlier than accepting the job because the Philadelphia 76ers’ president of basketball operations.

The delay in asserting Morey’s determination was to work via contractual points, however Fertitta, his son Patrick and Rockets CEO Tad Brown started discussing the administration choices to come back. Patrick Fertitta pushed exhausting to advertise from inside. Brown and Tilman Fertitta agreed, believing within the philosophy and priorities underneath Morey, who had spoken typically about how he delegated determination making in his division, whilst he had change into the face of the Rockets’ entrance workplace.

Rafael Stone, who had been with the workforce for 15 years, first as normal counsel and later as one among Morey’s assistants in basketball operations, shortly grew to become the selection to be normal supervisor.

A brand new coach and indicators of change

Stone had been main the teaching search nicely earlier than he was named normal supervisor on Oct. 15.

Fertitta initially had solely a short handshake and small-talk conferences with candidates. He made it clear to Stone, Brown and Patrick Fertitta that he would depend on his entrance workplace to make suggestions. He typically speaks of the significance of understanding what you don’t know in reference to limiting his enter on basketball choices.

When D’Antoni stepped down, Fertitta knew of Jeff Van Gundy and in addition thought extremely of John Lucas, however reviews he wished Van Gundy have been by no means correct.

After Stone and others got here away from their first interview raving about Stephen Silas and the way ready he was a couple of myriad of Rockets points from model of play to the roster, Fertitta more and more centered on the candidate the workforce would ultimately select.

The notion Harden wished Tyronn Lue, who had coached LeBron James in Cleveland and was an assistant with the Clippers, was additionally not an element and even correct. The Rockets didn’t know who, if anybody, Harden favored all through the method, struggling to get his enter about any candidate.

Westbrook instructed the Rockets he strongly wished Lue, though by then the workforce was considering Westbrook could possibly be traded. Lue canceled one assembly with the Rockets earlier than a dinner assembly with Stone and Brown.

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When Harden and Westbrook, who have been saved knowledgeable all through the overall supervisor and training hires, had their Zoom periods with Silas, each endorsed him for the place, with Harden’s approval thought-about key to the ultimate determination.

The Rockets, nevertheless, have been decided to decide on a coach for the long run, not simply to suit the roster on the time. Westbrook already had hinted he wished out. His demand would quickly observe as he cited a need for a consolation stage he by no means discovered, even whereas enjoying nicely for months, with Houston. The Rockets have been uncertain if they’d be capable to transfer him, making the selection of a coach to work with or with out him irrelevant. The numerous unknowns drove the Rockets to disregard the specifics of the roster.

Westbrook stated he wished to be traded a couple of week after Silas was employed on Oct. 28. The one severe talks have been with the Wizards. The conversations stopped for weeks earlier than Washington re-engaged and quickly agreed to the commerce for John Wall and a first-round decide on Dec. 10.

The commerce course of

The commerce of Harden, the face of the franchise almost from the second he arrived simply days earlier than the beginning of the 2012-13 season, was significantly extra sophisticated.

His reticence to supply an opinion a couple of coach via the hiring course of may have been tied to a sense he would need to be traded. He equally didn’t play a task in free-agent recruiting, as he typically had in previous seasons. Harden was typically in Los Angeles in October and enjoying with Kevin Durant, a former teammate when the 2 have been in Oklahoma Metropolis and now a member of the Nets.

Harden’s name to Patrick Fertitta in early November with a commerce request lasted greater than an hour and was pleasant, fairly than confrontational, a distinction to his defiance in media interviews when he arrived late to coaching camp in mid-December.

There have been instances Harden confirmed the offended facet gamers see once in a while at apply or after video games as soon as Stone let him know he would commerce him solely on the Rockets’ phrases — and to the workforce that provided them the very best deal — fairly than adhere to his want record. However even then, Harden moved on to a extra collaborative tone because the Rockets saved him up to date, typically via his new brokers.

All through, Harden was extra pensive than upset, seeming ambivalent not about his determination however that he can be leaving Houston, an angle he retained in one other lengthy assembly two days earlier than the Jan. 13 commerce to the Nets, his first selection. He even spoke of an openness to the concept, maybe advised extra out of courtesy than as a plan or objective, to play for the Rockets once more, citing his nonetheless shut relationship to the group and robust emotions for the town.

As a lot consideration as had been positioned elsewhere in regards to the Rockets’ failure to achieve the NBA Finals after years of contender standing throughout Harden’s historic run as one of many recreation’s prime offensive gamers, there would have been no consideration of shifting on from Harden had he not wished to be traded. The Rockets have been so decided to construct round him they provided a package deal that may have been value a document $150 million over three years.

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The management group already had mentioned how they’d reply ought to issues go south. They have been decided to not let peripheral points — from Harden’s lacking the beginning of coaching camp to his feedback disparaging the workforce the night time earlier than the commerce — influence decision-making.

Even Silas’ tone in coaching camp Zoom periods with the media — the coach was understanding on some events; on others, he acknowledged the scenario was “a setback” — had been mentioned and factored into the way it may influence the workforce and commerce talks.

The reported concept that Tilman Fertitta forbade Stone from making a cope with Morey was incorrect. Not solely does Fertitta keep out of commerce negotiations, satisfied that he lacks the experience to have a choice and dictate instructions, Stone had intensive talks with Morey and reached the purpose on the day of the commerce with Brooklyn that he made one closing demand. Had Morey agreed, the Rockets would have despatched Harden to Philadelphia.

On the weekend earlier than the commerce, Stone and Morey, who stay shut after years as pals and morning commute companions, agreed to skip to the top of the negotiations, with Morey desirous to know what it could take to finish a deal.

Stone wished one other draft decide or one other participant, doubtless Tyrese Maxey, together with settlement on far much less safety for the picks within the deal. The 76ers by no means received there. Morey has since instructed confidants that he thought the Rockets made a terrific deal. There have been late calls from different groups, however none gained traction.

The ultimate days

The commerce additionally didn’t come about due to Harden’s feedback following a pair of blowout losses to the Lakers two weeks in the past. After the second, he declared the Rockets “simply aren’t adequate.” He had reached that conclusion months earlier, although with some second ideas after a profitable offseason retooling of the roster. He lastly went public with them — and performed so poorly that night time along with his coronary heart clearly not within the recreation — as a result of he had been instructed the deal was near completion.

The Rockets grew to become so decided to finish negotiations that Stone by no means noticed the second half of the loss to the Lakers that night time. He had spent the night on the telephone with the Nets and 76ers.

His teammates didn’t know on the time why Harden appeared to have already checked out. When DeMarcus Cousins stated Harden “disrespected” them, he emphasised he was not speaking in regards to the postgame press convention however about “antics.” And the emotions Cousins expressed hours earlier than the commerce had been shared the night time earlier than within the locker room with an embarrassing loss nonetheless recent.

The scenario seemed to be on Harden’s thoughts all through the sport that night time. His ideas spilled out when he stated: “I like this metropolis. I’ve actually carried out all the pieces that I can.” He then appeared to catch himself, stopped and left.

Stone and Silas spoke with Harden the subsequent morning, and the coach instructed him to not come to apply. Harden was not occurring the journey to San Antonio and Chicago, although that call would change into moot when the commerce was accomplished. Silas and Stone additionally spoke to the workforce that day, defining the breakup to come back as an opportunity to “reset” the season.

With that, an period was over. In some ways, it had ended a lot earlier.

4 months to the day earlier than the blowout loss to the Lakers, the Rockets had been equally routed by Los Angeles, their season closing with one closing, telling beating. Even then, Harden provided a clue to what he was considering and what would come.

“It’s been an unbelievable expertise,” he stated that night time. “Clearly, didn’t finish like we wished it to.”

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

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