Rafael Stone: One year after trading James Harden, Rockets committed to new path

Thursday was the one-year anniversary of longtime Rockets superstar James Harden forcing his way from Houston to Brooklyn. And though the trade immediately pushed one of the NBA’s winningest teams of the 2010s into a rebuilding path, general manger Rafael Stone has no regrets.

“We are organizationally committed to the path,” general manager Rafael Stone told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle on the Jan. 13 anniversary. “I think I speak not just for myself but for Tilman (Fertitta, owner of the Rockets). We are smart people, and we knew this was not going to be easy. Great things are not supposed to be easy.”

“If you want to accomplish something great, it is not always going to be fun. We are cognizant of that, but we definitely think we’re on the right path. We don’t think we’re at the end of that path by any means.”

The Rockets bypassed an opportunity to trade Harden to Philadelphia, in large part because they believed the return (headlined by Ben Simmons) would not have been sufficient for them to contend for a title. Yet, the team’s total salary and win total would have been high enough to prevent them from making any marquee acquisitions in free agency, or bottoming out to acquire elite talent in the NBA draft. In short, they would have likely been stuck at a good-but-not-great level for the forseeable future.

So, instead, Houston traded Harden to a Brooklyn for a package centered around draft assets through 2027. In addition to the bevy of draft picks, though, that trade also allowed the Rockets to bottom out in the interim — since they did not acquire an All-Star talent like Simmons. That led them to the No. 2 overall draft pick in the 2021 first round, used on Jalen Green, and it appears likely to lead them to another high draft pick in 2022 — since the season is already more than halfway over, and the Rockets (12-31) have the NBA’s third-worst record.

That’s a far cry from the final full season of the Harden era, of course. At the time, Houston had the NBA’s longest active playoff streak. But to get the franchise back to a contending level, it may be necessary.

“I can tell you I am extremely comfortable with where we are and where this group is,” Stone told Feigen. “We have a good group of very young, very talented players, they’re working really hard and they like each other. And all of those things combined make me very happy.”

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