Daryl Morey Says Teams Released Negative Reports to Hurt Rockets in Free Agency

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey believes his team is being put in a negative light by other NBA franchises in order to hinder the Rockets' chances in free agency, according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com.  

"All the articles you see out there are all other teams trying to, very smartly, paint our situation as negative," Morey said, per Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle.

The Rockets, one year removed from making the Western Conference Finals, finished 41-41 this season and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Golden State Warriors. 

That capped off a tumultuous season for the Rockets. They fired head coach Kevin McHale 11 games into the season, and tension brewed for most of the year between stars James Harden and Dwight Howard. Watkins reported at the conclusion of Houston's Game 5 loss that Howard felt Harden hasn't respected him enough, and that's one of the reasons why Howard will explore free agency this summer.

When asked about chemistry issues in Houston, Morey said, "There are teams swept out of the playoffs and we're not hearing about how they have a problem," per Smith.

While that may be true, no team fell short of expectations worse than the Rockets. To go from the Western Conference Finals one year to the No. 8 seed isn't by accident or just a matter of playing poorly.

Houston has problems that it needs to address, starting with finding a new head coach and a potential replacement for Howard. If teams are labeling the Rockets in a negative manner, it's up to Morey to resolve that.