Mark Cuban on Rockets: That’s not a very good team except James Harden

Mark Cuban is already spicing things up before his Dallas Mavericks meet the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Cuban spoke with Grantland’s Kirk Goldsberry earlier this month and talked about the Rockets, who he said were not very good save their MVP candidate James Harden. The conversation came after Houston beat his Dallas squad on April 2 108-101.

“There’s no more predictable team than the Rockets,” Cuban said. “You know exactly what they’re gonna do. But James Harden is so good. That’s what analytics have begot. Right? Predictability. If you know what the percentages are, in the playoffs, you have time to counter them. Whether you’re good enough to do it is another question. Because they are very talented, and James Harden, I think, is the MVP. Because that’s not a very good team over there.”

Yeah, I’m sure that’s going to go over well in the Rockets’ locker room.

Doesn’t Cuban know that by saying something of that nature he’s making it harder for his team to succeed? Of course, when he said it, he didn’t know that his Mavs were going to be facing the Rockets in the playoffs, but he still wasn’t careful with his words. And how silly was his logic anyways? Harden is the biggest part of that team. You can’t say except for the MVP they’re not very good. You can say that about a number of other teams. But the point is the Rockets DO have James Harden, which is what makes them so good.

Between this and what he said about Dwight Howard, Houston will have plenty of motivation for the series.