As Speculation About James Harden’s Future Starts, Brooklyn Nets Enter The Dog Days

If James Harden is frustrated with Kyrie Irving being a part-time player, Steve Nash’s rotations and the high cost of living in New York, he was maintaining a poker face about those alleged feelings.

Harden was addressing the speculation in Bleacher Report that was discussing him likely being a free agent for the first time in his career. The speculation was posted Tuesday morning and Harden wound up addressing it shortly after another frustrating experience for the Nets in an unmemorable 10-point loss to the Lakers.

On Friday, Irving and Harden combined for 61 points, their highest total in five games six games together. It seemed Harden was frustrated with Irving being only able to play road games due to his vaccine status when he said that the Nets needed Irving for every game.

Shortly after completing a triple-double of 33 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists where he had little help around him, Harden gave his version of a denial when he said “Did you hear that from me”.

Then in a somewhat tense back-and-forth, he responded to a question describing what he was frustrated with by saying:

“Of course I’m frustrated because we’re not healthy where there’s been a lot of inconsistency for whatever reason, injuries, COVID, whatever you want to call it,” Harden said. “I think everyone in the organization is frustrated because we’re better than what our record is and we should be on the way up. That’s all it is. 

“If you didn’t hear it from me, I don’t talk to nobody. I have an agent. If you don’t hear it from me, then it’s reports, So I’m frustrated because I wanna win and I’m a competitor. It’s pretty simple.”

Right now, the Nets are in the NBA’s dog days, the kind of malaise that can strike in the dead of winter. Of course little continuity can create that and for the Nets, they’re five games into Kevin Durant’s absence that likely will take them into the first few weeks past the All-Star break.

It is the kind of malaise that creates two-plus hours of little transition defense or an array of mental mistakes, which happens during a rough stretch for any team.

The Nets are a little over a year since Harden declared it would be “scary hours” upon joining forces with Irving and Durant. They did experience “scary hours” but those times are rare with the trio appearing in 16 games together, including all five in the first round against the Boston Celtics when the Nets dominated.

Then in the opening minutes of Game 1 against the Bucks, Harden injured his hamstring and was never 100 percent when he returned later in the series. Irving injured his ankle in Game 4 in Milwaukee and did not play again before becoming a part-time player after the Nets decided to let him play road games.

But the continuity thing is real, the Nets have had 23 starting lineups, putting them near a pace to match teams like the 2005-06 Knicks, a team that deployed 42 starting lineups and a team nobody wants to be linked to since it won 23 games in Larry Brown’s lone season as coach though somehow it won six in a row in early January.  

Being in the dog days is a weird thing to say a team like the Nets. After all, they hold a more than respectable 29-18 record, putting them in a scramble with Milwaukee, Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia in a competitive race for the first five seeds in the East.  

You would know why the Nets are experiencing this from the results of their games in the last month or so. When the Nets beat Philadelphia while Harden is in the COVID-19 protocol on Dec. 16, they were 21-8 and in the midst of 11 wins in 14 games.

Two nights later, Durant entered the protocol and the Nets dropped a seven-point decision to the Orlando Magic but after three postponements, they beat the Lakers and Clippers. Since that point, the Nets are a subpar 6-9 in their last 15 and starting with the Orlando game they are 2-7 in their past nine game homes.

During their last 15 games, the Nets have actually shot at least 50 percent five times but the only time you can say they dominated from start to finish was their 120-105 win over New Orleans on Jan. 15, the same night Durant was injured. That came on the heels of a ugly loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder when Durant sat and Harden had little help.

Even if he did not outright say it postgame or his thoughts were conveyed by someone close to him in the Bleacher Report story, it is understandable why Harden would be frustrated and eager to reach free agency for the first time.

After all, Harden has never had the chance to experience the frenzied atmosphere often surrounding prominent free agents.

Upon being traded from Oklahoma City to Houston on Oct. 31, 2012 after being a teammate of Durant for 220 regular-season games, he signed a contract extension through 2015-16 that ultimately became another contract extension on July 8, 2017 for his current contract, which contains a player option Harden likely will exercise.

It is plausible to think the Nets will eventually figure this out, find some continuity, get a high seed and be among the favorites to win the title. In the meantime, they are likely to go through some more of the dog days of the 82-game grind known as the regular season.