Report: Chris Paul Demands A Trade From The Rockets

Chris Paul isn’t happy with his current team, and has already requested a trade. Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo reported that the relationship between Paul and James Harden are terrible. Paul is pretty sure about his decision to leave the team.

“The delicate relationship between Houston Rockets stars James Harden and Chris Paul has been termed ‘unsalvageable’ and the star players want a divorce, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Paul went to Rockets management and demanded a trade, and Harden issued a ‘him or me’ edict following the Rockets’ second-round loss to the Golden State Warriors sources said.

“The backcourt mates went nearly two months without speaking to each other during the season, sources said, creating a tenuous environment for teammates and everyone involved with the franchise.

“Harden hasn’t returned Paul’s repeated attempts at communicating this offseason, sources said, after a year in which the pair repeatedly got under each other’s skin with petty acts in practices and games.

“’There’s no respect at all, on either side,’ a source told Yahoo Sports. ‘They need to get away from one another. Chris doesn’t respect James’ standing in the league, and James doesn’t respect the work Chris has put in to this point.’”

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey denied any friction between the players.

“We have two high-level competitors, Chris and James, who their only goal in life at this point is to win the title. They’ve accomplished everything else, they are both going to be first-ballot Hall of Famers. Two competitive superstars at that level, there’s going to be times when they are extremely competitive, extremely focused on how do we get to that next level, and when we don’t there’s going to be frustration,” Morey said. “I’m frustrated, our top players are frustrated, Mike D’Antoni is frustrated. We want to take the last step and be the champion and I think it’s good that there is tension in the sense that we all want to win.”

Morey is really optimistic about his team and the upcoming season.

“We feel like we should be the favorite in the West, and we’re going to do moves to show people that we should be the favorite in the West, and that’s going to create a little tension when we do that,” he added. “But at the end of the day, we’re going to have at least our starting five back, which again most teams are scrambling to keep it together and we’re going to spend midlevel, we’re going to spend into the tax. We’re going to be one of the most expensive rosters like we were last year and this year and we’re going to be right there.”