Being eliminated from the NBA Playoffs is more often than not disappointing, but teams can have moral and team-building losses as they grow and learn.

The Houston Rockets have long since surpassed that stage. Though this is the eighth straight NBA Playoffs that the Rockets have been sent home in some level of disappointing fashion, to be fair this *only* the fifth consecutive post season where the Rockets have come up short of their high expectations.

In those last five NBA seasons, the Houston Rockets have been one of the favorites to not only have one of the league’s best records, but according to sites such as LeoVegas, talking heads and NBA media, they are among the top 3-5 contenders for the NBA championship.

How much is it really on Harden’s shoulders?

After winning the first game of the series with the Los Angeles Lakers by a large margin, the Rockets looked as if they were serious contenders for the NBA title for those 48 minutes.

Unfortunately for Houston fans, they’ve been basically blown out three of the next four losses and Houston was once again eliminated with a whimper; falling way short of the NBA Finals much less the Western Conference Finals..

James Harden, for his part and as expected: he put up some nice numbers in the points column, but he didn’t help the narrative that he doesn’t show up for his team when they need him the most in this series. For those casual basketball fans, yes it’s possible to average 29.7 points per game and still not be doing enough for your team.

With Houston again sitting out the playoffs early, what is being said of Harden falls in one (or both) of these buckets.

Harden’s style isn’t conducive to playoff success

The prevailing thought is Harden can lift the Houston Rockets to one of the top seeds in the league by put up gaudy scoring numbers, triple doubles and lead the league in minutes during the regular season, but the way that he plays doesn’t translate in the playoffs.

It puts focus on the prevailing thought that though Harden garners a lot of assists, that he doesn’t really make any of his teammates better; those assists make him look better. On top of that, the Playoffs put much more emphasis on defense, intensity and strategy — all of which is centered around Harden.

If the offense has always been Harden-focused, what does his teammates do when they have the ball in unfamiliar positions. Not that Westbrook, Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker and Robert Covington aren’t capable NBA players, but they’ve played a role secondary to Harden for the full season and now they’re forced into situations in a completely different atmosphere. It’s a different animal that the Rockets haven’t optimized for.

Harden can score, but can he make other winning plays?

As the NBA’s leading scorer for the third season in a row, there’s no doubt that Harden is a one of the NBA’s most-talented scorers in the league’s history. However, there’s been plenty of extraordinary scorers that didn’t win an NBA championship as the primary option including Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Dominique Wilkins, and Tracy McGrady.

The theory is Harden needs to do more of the intangibles that is less about putting the ball in the basket than making winning plays. That’s not just hitting clutch shots, but making a pass that’s out of his offensive comfort zone, taking a game-changing charge, grabbing a crucial rebound, deflecting or stealing the ball, or getting a block in the last couple minutes of the game (as he did against the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Lu Dort)

These mix of intangible plays are ones that every superstar has made multiple times to win those grind-it-out games on the way to winning an NBA championship. These plays are the ones that are seared into the minds of NBA fans.

What’s next for the Rockets?

Next season will be James Harden’s ninth with the Rockets. No doubt big changes and adjustments will need to happen again for the team to get over the hump. Whether that’s changing up the offensive strategy, looking for a new coach, or trading for players that will better complement Harden. Whatever it is, the time for the Harden-era Houston Rockets is running out.