Houston Rockets: Mike D’Antoni dispels Harden/Paul argument rumor

The start of the offseason for the Houston Rockets has been pretty drama filled already. Coach D’Antoni came out and dismissed some rumors that were going on, though.

The Houston Rockets have been in the news recently, but not for any real positive news. They have been letting go of assistants all week, with most of them coming yesterday afternoon.

Aside from that, though, the big story of the week was that there was some apparent arguing between Chris Paul and James Harden after the last game of the season, a loss against the Warriors. They were apparently upset about the shot distribution in the frustrating end to the season. Here’s the quote from Shams Charania of The Athletic:

“But Harden and Paul had tense moments with one another throughout Game 6, culminating in a verbal back-and-forth postgame that went into the locker room, sources with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic. Sources said the verbal exchange between Harden and Paul was regarding the ball distribution throughout Game 6.”

Our own Tevin Williams speculated that this was nothing to worried about the other day in an article, and it turns out that he was correct. Coach Mike D’Antoni dispelled the rumors of the fight and said it was overblown.

Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni also addressed the @TheAthletic report about tense talks between himself, Chris Paul and James Harden regarding style of play. https://t.co/T6IHQneHbZ pic.twitter.com/kPJF0H66ND

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) May 25, 2019

A whole lot of nothing

This situation in particular is nothing to be worried about as a Rockets fan. In fact, I’d be more worried if the two stars weren’t upset after a completely winnable series loss against the Warriors.

Harden and Paul are both extremely competitive and just want to win their first ring. The disappointing end to the year caused emotions to be high and discussions about how to improve to happen. That’s how it should be. The real question is how Houston will actually look to get better, because something has to change. The coaching staff is the first thing that will be different, by the looks of things.

More likely than not, the Rockets will have Harden and Paul manning things for the foreseeable future, with both of them under lucrative contracts. They have shown their friendship many times, so them trying to improve after a bad loss is not something that should be super concerning.