Danuel House faces an uncertain future with the Rockets after leaving the Disney World complex following an alleged violation of campus rules, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. According to the NBA, House “had a guest in his hotel room over multiple hours on September 8 who was not authorized to be on campus.” His absence removes a productive player from Houston’s bench and raises questions about what the front office plans to do with him.
Feigen notes that House is one of the few Rockets who is both relatively young, at age 27, and has a team-friendly contract. House still has two seasons left on the three-year, $11.15MM deal he signed last summer. He shot 38.1% from 3-point range on a team that emphasizes long-distance shooting more than anyone else in the league, and he provides athleticism in the front court along with another ball-handler.
The Rockets have the option of trading House, but Feigen states it’s likely to be at a significant discount given his current situation. Coach Mike D’Antoni refused to comment on House’s status before tonight’s Game 5, telling reporters, “The team can address that later. Right now, just thinking about playing and winning tonight.” (Twitter link from Feigen)
There’s more on the Rockets:
- With the season hanging in the balance, John Hollinger of The Athletic wonders if the organization will eventually consider trading James Harden. The Rockets have repeatedly gambled to try to build a championship team around Harden, but they are now in a position with no cap room, no draft picks this year, no commitment to pay the luxury tax and no young players they can trade for veterans. Harden can opt out of his current deal after the 2021/22 season, and he may be tempted to leave while he still has a shot at winning a ring.
- There was “audible shouting” coming from Houston’s locker room following the Game 4 loss to the Lakers, Shams Charania of The Athletic says on Stadium (video link). He adds that players are “really holding each other accountable” to bring better effort and better body language for the rest of the series.
- Veteran center Tyson Chandler has been added to the injury list for Game 5, Feigen tweets. Chandler has been declared out of tonight’s game due to neck spasms, but he hasn’t played at all in the postseason except for shooting two free throws after another player was injured.
Bounced again! Groundhog day playoff edition.
Rockets
No salary cap
No draft picks
No young player
No paying tax
What can you do to win championships？
Trade James Harden now. D’antoni’s gone and you can get a lot for him now. He’s slipped a little and the shine is getting a little dull and if you wait a year he may opt out and leave anyway. I like the idea of seeing what you can get for James Harden now. You’ve tried it for six years or whatever it is let’s trade him and start again.
What would enthuse him?— besides insurance ads. Sam Cassell?
Fire Dantoni. Trade Westbrook for pick and playing. Scrap small ball centric offense, use in spurts. Focus on ball movement and defense as core offense. Accept more high percentage shits instead of chucking 3s. Houston you have a problem! The small ball, iso heavy, 3 chucking offense was a disaster. Barely got past okc, and getting pounded by lakers. With one of the greatest offensive weapons since Jordan at your disposal!!
*shots
Why do they not have an edit function in the comment section? They need to fix that!
Give me a break. No one is going to care about the House situation in a few months. He is talented and makes short money. He’s in demand.
If its a short season coming up they could run small ball again with Covington a big. It’s kind of up to him; he has a place in the league as a 3 too. He does get help from teammates though.
Lakers in 5 said this from the beginning of the round. Houston has absolutely no chance of winning a title going forward. Harden just isn’t the superstar people thought he was keep building teams around him only to lose in 2nd round year after year. Rockets will be paying westbroke and harden 90 million for 2 aging players lololololol hard to believe they got worse from the cp3 trade but they did!
Can’t wait to hear from harden wesbroke mvps dudes been silent all 2nd round wonder why?
He will pop up and say that with Danuel House the Rockets would of won lol ! Poor guy. Rockets are a dumpster fire and will never win anything playing “their way”
Best best is canning dantoni And trading russell for a couple mascots. After the lakers made adjustment in game 2 dantoni Said “we have the lakers scared our confidence is sky high.” They proceeded to lose 3 straight. Refusing to change game plans because of ego is never a good thing to have in a head coach. I suspect going forward lakers gave everyone a road map how to beat rockets small ball lineup much in the same way heat have roadmap to beat bucks.
Would of? Really? Wow.
Sshhhh!!! Bounced again!!! Team has best O player sonce Jordan and nofinals appearances!!!! Sshhhhhhh!! Lol!!
Has anyone checked on hardenwestbrook map theyre probably not ok.
Crying in his basement my guess. Another year of excuses
LOL
Will you be doing the same after election day?
Tears? Tears of joy for sure.
My life isn’t centered around Trump winning though.
I’m an adult and if he loses he loses. You know, how an adult should act.
Please no Trump. You will kill it all.
Serious question K. Is DAntoni coming back. Cause Harden spoke well of him. IMO this system was more about Harden than small ball. Franchise and coach bought into it. Not a wise basketball decision. Not a Harden fan. But best to way for Rockets to improve. Is move Westbrook. Sixers fit him well. Harris fits Harden better IMO. Personally if I was DAntoni I go to Sixers. He seems ok after gm though. Rockets don’t have picks . So
Harris, Thybulle (or another player), two 2nd rd picks. Sixers picks are high 2nd rd picks. You can get two solid bigs there. Kansas Center from Nigeria Azubuike will be there. Absolutely a true center with big upside. Even Stewart from Washington. A real PF with upside. Point is there will be solid true bigs there. PFs or stretch 4s even a true center. This is a better and deeper team. If Harden shares the ball.
If you’ll notice, Mike D’Antoni stayed in his chair the entire fourth quarter. I don’t think he ever got up. Every time they put the camera on him the last 8 minutes of the game he was sitting there with his arm crossed with his mask on just staring off into space.
It was like Mark Jackson wearing that black suit in his final game with the Warriors. The writing is on the wall.
Like he was thinking what all he had in his office that he has to go and get pit today.
Making sure he wasn’t forgetting anything. Lol
A surprise to no one the Rockets go down in the playoffs again. Westbrook was invisible. Harden got his points but it was toxic as ever with a poor FG%. Rockets are not winning with this core no matter what Morey tries to sell you. Can’t wait til next year when they beat Utah in the first round only to be bait for the top seed again.
They don’t have a core they just have Harden. That’s been the case every year Harden has been with the Rockets. Both Chris Paul and Westbrook are overrated pieces and bad acquisitions. I don’t know if a Harden team can win a ring but they’ve never made a very good effort.
Fire Dantoni. Trade Westbrook for pick and playing. Scrap small ball centric offense, use in spurts. Focus on ball movement and defense as core offense. Accept more high percentage shots instead of chucking 3s. Houston you have a problem! The small ball, iso heavy, 3 chucking offense was a disaster. Barely got past okc, and getting pounded by lakers. With one of the greatest offensive weapons since Jordan at your disposal!!
No one’s offering anything for Russ right now
The Rockets paid a huge price to try and see if Russell Westbrook and James Harden would work together. They could have kept Chris Paul and been done with that contract in 2 years. Instead it’s Westbrook for three more.
As I said above this is a great time to trade James Harden and start again. Westbrook run the show with 10 young guys and draft picks. You can still get something for Covington also. The Rockets COULD have a good future if they play this right. There’s no way they can run it back same squad next year.
Imagine trading one huge contract and a lifetime of picks and pick swaps for one even huger contract and worse player.
Westbrook and Gordon for Tobias Harris and Horford，Who says no？
Everyone but you
Eric Gordon is done. He’s become a spot-up shooter. His injuries and age have taken away his quickness and he can’t drive to the hole like he used to. He’s a 6-3 spot-up shooting guard.
Sixers say no way.
And (supposedly) there are GMs/teams lining up to hire D’Antoni.
Are they watching the same games we’re watching?
Or is that just D’Antoni’s PR team using smoke & mirrors via the media to get him another job?
Rockets got out rebounded 50 – 31. Point is Bron and AD alone can post Rockets team. That’s two smart very good players. You are just giving them the paint. All teams need a rim protector. Even if he only plays 20 mins. I always thought Harden pick n roll with Capela. Was a dangerous play. He can do that with any big. If he wants to. Just can’t see how you beat a good team. When one player dominates the ball. Bron is better than Harden. He don’t dominate the ball. Even when he was on that awful Cavs team first time around. He used everyone. He didn’t dominate he facilitated. And took over when needed. To me Harden is a better Mello. Numbers and no rings.
Tumi trading Clint capela was the biggest mistake. He was a pick-and-roll partner for lobs for Harden and could block shots and defend post guys. He may have done a decent job on Antonio Davis, who knows. Sure Covington is good but it left the Rockets without any big men.
Click publish before proofreading my voice to text. Always a bad move LOL.
•Analytics are good but overuse (of anything) can cause predictability.
•And the Lakers are good at shaping their defense to opponent tendencies.
•The Clips would have presented problems too, and the Nugs can come back.
•It would be hard to out-momentum or out-confidence them, which I think Houston relies on after trading away the grinding Capella.
The five-out offense is best so far as an occasional tool. Coaches worry about it a lot but this might be the first attempt to make it the system. It should get another try.