“It’s extremely important,” Harden said in an interview with FOX 26 Sports. “I think last year it was great for us because we kind of built our chemistry up before training camp, and then obviously adding Chris (Paul) and adding PJ (Tucker), we got a year under our belt. Bringing other guys in, James (Ennis) and ‘Melo (Carmelo Anthony), just got to get them acclimated before training camp starts, something we need.”
Chris Paul Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: G
Born: 05/06/85
Height: 6-0 / 1.83
Weight:175 lbs. / 79.4 kg.
Salary: $35,654,150
Born: 05/06/85
Height: 6-0 / 1.83
Weight:175 lbs. / 79.4 kg.
Salary: $35,654,150
5d
“I understand some of the naysayers,” D’Antoni said. “I understand the question marks going into it. I would be worried about it if there were no conversations. But those have been answered sufficiently. Now, we’ll have to adjust. I’ll have to adjust a few things to get the best out of Melo and he’ll have to adjust his game to play with us the best he can. That’s normal things it took Chris (Paul) and James (Harden) about an hour and half to get solved. I go back to the Olympic experience and they want to play for the team, the name on the front of the jersey instead of the name on the back. That makes it easy, when you have talented players. You can’t make something out of nothing. We can make something out of something. These guys got something.”
By signing with the Rockets, Anthony had chosen to play in that style, though without the burdens of carrying a team that he had in New York after the blockbuster trade that brought him in from Denver. “We never had a blowup,” D’Antoni said. “We never had hard feelings. Melo’s a good guy. He just didn’t want to play my vision. He came from Denver in the middle of the year. You put New York pressure on him and we gave up half our team to get him. We didn’t have enough resources to win immediately. With the pressure, me wanting to play a different way that he was accustomed to and had been successful at, we just clashed. We couldn’t get over the hump. The best thing I could do is resign at that point because you can’t have it both ways. It wouldn’t work the other way.”
Mark Berman: #Rockets owner @TilmanJFertitta on landing @Carmelo Anthony: “We all know what Carmelo can do. I think people are going to be shocked what kind of year Carmelo is going to have with CP3 and James Harden feeding him the ball.”
Chris Paul: Welcome my brother 🚀🤟🏾 pic.twitter.com/RbthOlamn4
