Austin Rivers Aired Out All The Rockets Dirty Laundry Today
Bold move here from Austin Rivers seeing as how he only was on a 1 year deal in HOU and is technically a free agent. It’s been a pretty fun couple of weeks of point guards going ton First Take and destroying their current team, first we had Terry Rozier and now Austin Rivers. Now I don’t think Austin Rivers’ intentions were the same as Terry’s and really it’s great to hear someone be honest about what went down at the end of the Rockets season.
The first thing that stands out is what he said about the Rockets mindset after Durant got hurt. They expected the Warriors to fold? Are you fucking stupid? Why on earth would that thought ever enter your brain. Last time I checked they still had everyone else on their roster that had just won back to back titles. Yes this is the same franchise that blew a 3-1 lead but I wouldn’t exactly call them mentally weak. I’d actually use that to describe the Rockets if we’re being honest. I get that Durant had been on an absolute tear that postseason, but after the Warriors won Game 5 without Durant how could the Rockets honestly think they were going to fold. Shame on them and if that’s really the case than they deserved to get embarrassed like they did on their home floor. Underestimating the Warriors might be the dumbest thing you can do after you spent all year talking about how you were the better team and could beat them.
The other thing that stood out was what he had to say about the Rockets system. It’s not exactly news that people are talking about how the Rockets will never win with that system, how there should be more ball movement and all that jazz, but what this did give us is a sense that the players really do at times get frustrated just watching James Harden do everything on every possession. There are rumblings of this from CP3, PJ Tucker, and now Rivers so I say where there’s smoke there’s fire. It’s predictable, and their refusal to change things up just to maybe try something different you could argue is what ultimately cost them. I will say, credit to Austin Rivers for not taking the bait from Stephen Jackson yesterday when he tried to get him to admit that Harden quit at the end of Game 6
It’s already been a crazy offseason for the Rockets with the firing of all their assistants, their head coach not getting a new deal, rumors about how everyone on the roster not named Harden/Paul is available, and now Austin Rivers is going on TV and basically said they were frauds who blew the series. That’s rough.