How Bleacher Report’s anti-Rockets agenda has been unveiled

Bleacher Report has been unable to hide their anti-Houston Rockets slant of late.

Houston Rockets fans have grown accustomed to hearing negativity spewed towards the team, as it’s seemingly become a permanent trend to slander the Rockets. But lately we’ve seen a strange phenomenon, as the Rockets have mostly drawn praise from the media, as the NBA nears a return to game action.

But on Saturday, Bleacher Report brought Rockets fans back to life, as the Rockets became the target of the site’s vitriol. They started out with their top 100 list, which had Russell Westbrook as the 22nd best player in the league, which was incredibly flawed, and especially considering that they had Khris Middleton in their top ten.

But amusingly they didn’t just stop there, as their second publishing was just as painfully bad as their top 100 rankings. They cited James Harden‘s high usage rate throughout the 2019-20 season as a potential reason the Rockets would struggle in the resumption of the season in Orlando.

But what’s seemingly gone unnoticed by the site is that Harden will have had four months in between games, which is longer than a normal offseason. This means The Beard will be well-rested and the resumption will essentially be a new season.

How B/R’s anti-Rockets slant has been unveiled

So the usage rate is less of a factor considering the amount of time that will have passed in between games. But even if we were to cling to that statistic, we’d have to also point out that the Rockets had the second-best offense in the 2019-20 season, while Harden led the league in scoring, in spite of said usage rate concerns.

B/R also cited the possibility of a Westbrook/Harden pairing being unsuccessful, although the Rockets won 63 percent of their games in the first season of the MVP pairing.

We also can’t forget that the Rockets sat Westbrook in 11 games, posting a 6-5 record during those games. If the Rockets simply win three of the games they lost when Westbrook sat, they quite possibly could have the third seed right now, which would be a better finish than they had at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season.

It should also be pointed out that the Rockets have eight remaining games, which provides another opportunity to rise in the conference standings. The author of the post stuck with the age-old argument of Harden being a playoff choker, which we all know isn’t true.

Although the picture was painted of the Rockets being unable to yield successful results with Westbrook and Harden, the reality of the situation is that the Rockets’ pairing has already proven to be successful throughout the season. This could quite possibly be why so many in the national media have made the Rockets their Cinderella team ahead of the return to the court.

Bleacher Report’s anti-Rockets slant was on full display on Saturday, and it came out of left field, as the Rockets haven’t played a game in ages. It would be one thing if this was written after a series of losses, but the Rockets haven’t even touched the court in four months, so it’s hard to grasp where such a take would even come from. Except for the fact that B/R is known for their dislike towards the Houston Rockets.

And since their bias has been notated, doesn’t that take hinder the credibility and legitimacy of their Rockets content?