After their tumultuous break-up, James Harden and the Houston Rockets have gone in different routes, with the Beard having a lot of success with the Brooklyn Nets, recovering his best form, forming a terrifying trio with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving at the Barclays Center.
On the other hand, the Rockets have struggled without the Beard and at some point, had lost 20 consecutive games, tying the third record for a single season. They also parted ways with Victor Oladipo and PJ Tucker and it doesn’t look like they’re becoming a competitive team again shortly. However, that doesn’t mean they regret something they did earlier in the season and if you ask their GM, he’d do things the exact way he did.
Rafael Stone took over the Rockets in the offseason after Daryl Morey left the franchise. He had the not-so-easy job to trade James Harden and he pulled a 4-team blockbuster deal that sent the Beard to New York. Seeing how bad the team is playing right now, one would imagine Stone would feel some sort of regret about letting Harden go but he’s confident he did the right thing. Talking with ESPN, Stone said he wouldn’t change anything and would make the same deal for Harden if he had the chance.
“I would for sure, 100 percent, do that deal again. Again, you guys don’t have the advantages of knowing everything I know, but literally, no part of me regrets doing that deal. I have not second-guessed it for a moment.”
“A lot of what I said about being in a position maybe to not have to be bad (to rebuild), there’s some other things that we’ve done, too, but it’s primarily that deal that’s allowed us to say, ‘Hey, we want to compete on a slightly quicker time frame.’ We’re not going to go down this path of intentionally trying to lose games for years on end.”
After being a perennial playoffs team, the Rockets are now one of the worst teams in the league. It’s time to start a rebuilding process and see if they can get another Hakeem Olajuwon or James Harden in the draft. As for Harden, he’s chasing his first NBA championship after failing to get it with the Rockets.
