Rockets Rumors: James Harden's Trainer Irv Roland Fired as Assistant Coach

The Houston Rockets reportedly fired player development assistant coach Irv Roland on Friday, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. 

Per David Aldridge of The Athletic, Roland has been James Harden's trainer since 2016, and he was also close with Rockets point guard Chris Paul "for years" before working with Harden.

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle that Roland began working with Harden long before he officially joined the Rockets' staff in 2016 as well.

In an article from February, Alex Squadron of Slam Online wrote that Roland and Harden met in 2008 at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, Ohio, when Harden was a freshman at Arizona State.

During that time, Roland was a video coordinator for the Hornets, which is a position he held from 2005-10. While with the Hornets, Roland developed a strong relationship with Paul as well.

Roland eventually founded a training business called Blueprint Basketball, and he became Harden's trainer.

After a short stint in player development with the Phoenix Suns, Roland joined the Rockets in 2016 and helped Harden reach a new level of performance. In 2016-17, Harden averaged 29.1 points and an NBA-leading 11.2 assists per game.

He followed that up last season by leading the NBA with 30.4 points per game and winning the NBA MVP award. Harden also helped lead Houston to the NBA's best record and to Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

This season, Harden averaged a career-high 36.1 points per game, and he is once again a leading MVP candidate along with Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Rockets once again fell to the Warriors in the playoffs, though, as Golden State beat them in six games in the second round.

That has led Houston to make some changes to the coaching staff under head coach Mike D'Antoni. In addition to Roland, the Rockets parted ways with assistants Roy Rogers, Mitch Vanya and John Cho on Friday, per Feigen.

The Rockets reportedly also moved on from associate head coach and defensive guru Jeff Bzdelik, who returned to the team in November after retiring following the 2017-18 campaign.

Marc Stein of the New York Times reported Friday that "some in the coaching community" wonder if the sweeping changes were made in an effort to "nudge" head coach Mike D'Antoni toward leaving.

Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has said that he plans to keep D'Antoni, but 2019-20 marks the final year on D'Antoni's contract.

Houston's core of Harden, Paul and Clint Capela will be back next season, but the Rockets are seemingly hopeful that a new mix of voices on the sidelines will aid them in chasing down the Dubs in 2019-20.