Daily Rocket Science: Snub of the Year

Mike D’Antoni is the new head coach and James Harden didn’t make an All-NBA team. Not a good day for Rockets fans.

Granted, the All-NBA snub for James Harden pales in comparison to the negative repercussions that will most likely come from Mike D’Antoni being hired, but it just adds to the negativity.

It’s widely assumed that Dwight Howard will leave town now, so perhaps the Houston Rockets can throw that money at a free agent who plays good defense to make up for D’Antoni’s inabilities.

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Red94’s Rahat Huq provided a great analysis of what the hiring decision will mean for the Rockets. The offense will probably get better, but the defense will likely continue to be a liability and Harden will have more of a right to do whatever he wants on that end of the floor.

"But maybe he can modernize the team’s offense by instituting some forms of unconventionality? Some out-of-the-box routes I’ve advocated in the past are Harden at power forward, or Harden at point guard full-time. If anyone would be open to such ideas, it would be D’Antoni."

The Dream Shake’s Ethan Rothstein opined on why he thinks Harden missing out on All-NBA honors is one of the biggest blunders in NBA history, considering his super-high usage rate and productivity. It doesn’t really matter in the long run, but it isn’t fun seeing one of the most gifted players in the game not being recognized.

Harden finished the season with averages of 29 points, 7.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. The list of players who have averaged 29-7-6 and played 70 games or more in a season includes Harden, LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson.

Harden is the only player in NBA history to have averaged at least 29-7-6 and played all 82 games in a season. And he wasn’t even selected for the All-NBA third team.

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Space City Scoop editor Tamberlyn Richardson has been running a column featuring the best comments on the site from this season, seeing as some of them are just as good as the posts themselves. The top comment from the year is in regard to Daryl Morey’s tendency to favor analytics over relationships, which has caused many coaching issues for the Rockets in recent past.

"But all of this (roster changes) is meaningless if your head coach doesn’t have the cooperation and respect of the players. If he refuses to play valuable players, does play non-productive players, doesn’t substitute effectively, uses ill advised player combinations and stands idly by while substitution is called for, you could still potentially be screwed, even with the best roster in the NBA."

Stay tuned in to Space City Scoop for any updates on the hiring situation as well as more opinions on the controversial decision.

Send our Editor any Rockets-related article/video/tweet/gram/vine that we may have missed via Twitter direct message to @TTOTambz.

Next: Houston Rockets Fans Speak: The Series

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Mike D’Antoni is the new head coach and James Harden didn’t make an All-NBA team. Not a good day for Rockets fans.

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