Hoops Habit
Fansided

Houston Rockets: The Double-Batman Conundrum

By Mauricio Putz

Sep 27, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden (13) and center Dwight Howard (12) pose for a picture during media day at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 27, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden (13) and center Dwight Howard (12) pose for a picture during media day at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

We’ve seen it before, and rest assured, we’ll see it again. The NBA has become, to some teams’ demise, a superteam league. Stories surface year after year regarding stars and/or superstars looking to battle side-by-side with their once foes instead of against them.

More from Houston Rockets

Year after year, superstars’ on court value rises, with it, their power over the league. Whether it is LeBron James flipping the script in the Eastern Conference by taking his talents back to the Cleveland Cavaliers and leaving the Miami Heat, or Dwight Howard bolting the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers to play aside James Harden in the Houston Rockets, superstars get do as they wish in this league. This is hardly a problem; game attendance rises, small-market teams play with a chip on their shoulder, superstars seem happy and, for once, pressure-free.

The superteam trend mainstreamed by the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, has sinked its teeth into the Houston Rockets.

After a failed first year, in less than a month, the Rockets enter the second Harden – Howard season with a lesser roster than the one they had last season after hitting an offseason home-run with Patrick Beverley, just before failing terribly with Chandler Parsons and Jeremy Lin.

Maybe Harden and Howard need to look back before they decide how to move forward.

Coming into the league, Howard and Harden couldn’t have come from different places. Howard, on one side, came in as the Magic’s saviour, ready to take the 21-61 teams’ reigns and propel them into NBA stardom; Harden, on the other hand, made Oklahoma City Thunder‘s roster as Russell Westbrook‘s understudy, a sixth-man, at best.

During the 2012 offseason, several years into their careers, both, Harden and Howard, bolted their teams in look for greener pastures. Harden decided, after his young three-year NBA career, he was ready to jump from sixth-man to front-man. Howard went “ring-chasing” and landed, for a year, on a depleted Lakers team which featured a hurting Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant, before eventually getting a job with the Harden-led Rockets.

The Rockets, after landing such high-caliber players, face a familiar superteam problem, who leads?

This might look like an easy answer, Harden should lead since he creates the offense and was there first. But it’s not. Harden and Howard’s position couldn’t be more different, Howard, a power-forward/center, spends most of his time down-low shooting bunnies. Harden, a shooting-guard, generally creates the Rockets’ offense and spends his time shooting jumpers.

Well, it’s most definitely not that easy to determine.

Dwight Howard, after ten seasons in the NBA, back and shoulder injuries, is far from the devastating force he was with the Magic, but he’s still, arguably, one of the most dominant human beings in the paint, whether on defense or offense, Howard stands tall down-low.

Live Feed

The New Orleans Pelicans poor injury luck has already begun
The New Orleans Pelicans poor injury luck has already begun /

Pelican Debrief

  • NBA 2K24 Soundtrack: Full List of ArtistsApp Trigger
  • NBA 2K24 Clothing Brands RevealedDBLTAP
  • Los Angeles Sparks: Recapping their six-game winning streakFanSided
  • NBA 2K24 Pre-Load TimesDBLTAP
  • WNBA players that deserve a signature shoe as the league developsFanSided

    • Also, Howard came into the league with leadership written al around it (although said leadership might’ve been watered down and traded for treason after the intense drama he inflicted into his Magic departure) and he, kind of, delivered as he propelled the Magic past the title-favourites 2009 Cleveland Cavaliers and into the NBA Finals. (Yes, this was Howard’s greatest achievement in Orlando.) 

    Harden’s expectations coming into the league seldom reached Howard’s, however, even as Westbrook’s replacement off the bench, he managed to prove his leadership, skills and value, to arguably the greatest basketball mind in the NBA, Daryl Morey.

    Despite their rather diverse origins, both, Harden and Howard, need not to prove their value to the Rockets.

    Howard a career 58-percent shooter and 12.9 per game rebounder, anchors the Rockets’ offense and defense on the block. Despite his numbers constantly going down, his presence alone provides the Rockets a false sense of protection against the league’s big men.

    Harden, a defensive liability, to say the least, one of the smartest guards in the league and a career .499/.369/.849 shooter, gives the Rockets a breath of fresh air in creativity and propels the team’s offense into an unreal “no-need-for-defense” levels.

    If the past is any indication of the future, it is rather irresponsible for Howard to take the lead. However, with Harden’s radioactive/contagious “disconnected-controller” defensive sense, it would be devastating for their title chances for him to drive the Rockets bandwagon.

    So… who leads?

    Advantage: Patrick Beverley

    Home/Houston Rockets