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James Harden sounds ready to go after the 'super-team' Warriors

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer
He might not have a 'super-team' around him, but James Harden sounds ready to get to work. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
He might not have a ‘super-team’ around him, but James Harden sounds ready to get to work. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Golden State Warriors in free agency promises to be the dominant NBA storyline for the remainder of the summer and into the start of training camp. While pundits consider how the former NBA Most Valuable Player will mesh with reigning two-time MVP Stephen Curry, and fit into a club that just won 73 games and game within a minute of winning a second straight NBA championship — spoiler alert: pretty well, probably! — the more interesting question might be how opponents try to attack the Dubs in hopes of short-circuiting what should be an absolutely lethal offense and puncturing what should be a long, athletic and aggressive defense.

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From the second Durant made his intentions known, many viewed a Warriors title as all but a certainty. From the sound of things, though, former KD teammate and Warriors foil James Harden isn’t so ready to crown Golden State as champions.

During the press conference at which the Rockets announced they’d reached agreement on a four-year, $118 million renegotiation of Harden’s contract that could keep the All-Star shooting guard in Houston through 2020, Harden fielded a question about what Durant’s move to the Bay means for the rest of the West with what sounded like a bit of an arched eyebrow and some shade, according to AJ Neuharth-Keusch of USA TODAY:

When asked about the Warriors and the competitiveness of the Western Conference at his renegotiation press conference on Saturday, Harden began by saying that his only focus is the Rockets and how they can improve upon a disappointing season.

Then came the ever-so-subtle jab.

“Obviously the Warriors are a really good team … but there’s only one basketball. You’ve got to figure it out.”

Rockets owner Leslie Alexander added, “They have to defend us.”

New head coach Mike D’Antoni joined his owner and star in standing firm on the question of competing with the new-look Warriors:

Harden followed that up with an open letter to fans disseminated through the Rockets’ Twitter account on Monday afternoon that featured an oblique reference to the Warriors’ favorite status (emphasis mine):

Dear Red Nation:

Saturday was a big day for all of us who love the Rockets.

I feel so honored to be able to extend my basketball career in this great City which I now call home. I can’t thank Mr. Alexander enough for the faith he has shown in me and the incredible support my family and I feel from the organization and our fans.

From the first day I arrived you embraced me as your own. Your support has helped me grow so much as a player and as a man — from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!

I can assure you our Team will work hard together, grow together, build together, compete together, and pursue our ultimate goal — another Championship for H-Town — together!

There will be challenges along the way but we will continue to fight. Everyone in the organization is locked in on the same goal.

We are not a “super-team”, but just a group of guys that want to work hard to be the very best. And our work begins immediately.

We look forward to taking this incredible journey with all of you!

It’s good to know that, while players, coaches and circumstances might change, the beef between the Warriors and Rockets continues to endure. Long may this kinda-sorta rivalry run.

This is where we note — with all due respect to the Bearded One and the rest of the Rockets — that Golden State has gone 15-2 against Houston over the last two years, outscoring Harden and company by more than 12 points per game and knocking them out of the postseason in consecutive years. And that was before the Warriors had Kevin Durant; yes, there’s only one basketball, but with the way Golden State shares it, that ought to be plenty. So, y’know, no wonder the work needs to begin immediately.

That said, perhaps there’s something to be gained by steering into the skid. Yes, the Rockets are coming off a disappointing .500 campaign and will enter the season a tier or two below the Warriors in the Western Conference pecking order. Yes, there are real concerns about how a Houston team that finished in the league’s bottom 10 in defensive efficiency last season will stop opponents while fielding lineups leaning heavily on Harden (whose flagging defensive effort has been a topic of much rending of Internet garments over the past few years) and free-agent acquisitions Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon, neither of whom have ever profiled as plus defensive players. (A lot will be riding on Trevor Ariza and Patrick Beverley, though replacing Dwight Howard with springy young Swiss big man Clint Capela — in whose minutes Houston outscored opponents by 3.1 points per 100 possessions last year and without whom the Rockets got outscored by two points-per-100 — might help more than many realize.)

The Warriors are heavy favorites, and the Rockets will be underdogs. So why not lean into that identity, start from the position that nobody believes in you, and dedicate yourself to the proposition of cultivating an us-against-the-world mentality that motivates you to cram all those forthcoming preseason projections right back down the haters’ throats?

Harden reached rarefied individual air this past season, joining Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the only players in NBA history to average at least 29 points, seven assists and six rebounds per game over the course of a full campaign … only to find himself on the outside looking in on the All-NBA teams, thanks largely to Houston’s 15-game drop-off in the win column. Harden said last month he intended to use the slight of not being named one of the 2015-16 season’s six best guards as “extra motivation […] to come back and be a better basketball player overall,” and judging by his comments at his post-extension press conference, that may well extend to improving as a leader for these Rockets, according to Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle:

“We’re going to build it and build it until we get it,” [Harden] said.

Then Harden said all the words I’ve been waiting on him to say for years. And, people, let me tell you: The Beard sounded like he meant it all.

“Last year wasn’t a great year for me. But it won’t happen again.”

“Leaders aren’t built when things are going extremely well. So I had to learn from it. I had to figure out, how can I be better individually? How can I grasp my team and bring us a lot closer? … I’ve learned so much.

“Starting with this summer and training camp, we’re going to be all in.”

How the Rockets’ mix plays out on the court should be fascinating. If healthy, Gordon and Anderson are precisely the kind of powerful long-range bombers who can help open the floor for Harden’s drives to the basket, make opponents pay for collapsing to keep him out of the paint, and propel Houston from the fringes of the top 10 in points scored per possession, where they’ve hung out for the past couple of years, up to the very top of the league in D’Antoni’s fast-paced and spread-out system, challenging the revamped Warriors for the title of the NBA’s most potent attack. If Harden really does recommit to working his tail off on both ends of the floor, to coming into training camp in great shape, and to setting this sort of tone of togetherness, the Rockets could very well wind up developing into a whole greater than the sum of their individual parts.

The result might not be a super-team, but it could be one better equipped to stand and trade with the best in the West. At the very least, it could be one that’s a heck of a lot more fun to watch and root for than last year’s model.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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