Rockets Media Day 2019: Harden, Westbrook and Top Interviews, Videos

We'll have to wait a few weeks to see what Russell Westbrook and James Harden look like (back) together on a basketball court. 

For now, though, it was all smiles at Houston Rockets media day. Westbrook and Harden each went out of their way to express optimism about the partnership, with the typically cantankerous Russ even dishing out extended answers in his presser.

"It's going to be scary, that's all I can tell you," Westbrook told reporters. "It's going to be scary—not for us."

There has been a healthy sense of skepticism about the potential of Harden and Westbrook playing together because of their ball dominance. Harden expressed optimism that he and Westbrook can learn to work together when one of them is having a strong game.

"If Russ got it going and Russ is having one of those games that we've all seen before, guess what I'm going to do: sit back and watch the show, and vice versa," Harden said. "It's just a part of basketball. So you can't sit up here and say, 'Oh, Russ is going to have the ball for the first half and I'm going to have the ball the second half.' No, things happen through the course of the game that you just flow with and go with.

"All of us in this locker room and this front office has one goal, and that's to win it. However that happens, it's going to happen, and we're just going to figure it out."

Harden noted that while both players have won MVPs, neither has been able to capture a championship. The closest they got was when they were teammates with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012, winning the Western Conference before losing to the Miami Heat in the Finals. Oklahoma City traded Harden to the Rockets in a financially-motivated decision that altered the trajectory of the entire Thunder franchise after that Finals run.

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has said he views the Rockets as title favorites. Harden said he is willing to take the blame if Houston fails to accomplish its goal. 

"If we don't win, I'll take all the blame for it," Harden told reporters. "That's just what the territory comes with. That's why you have to go out there and win. That's why we work extremely hard in the offseason to bring players in and whatever is necessary to give us the best chance to win. I know what's at stake."

Everyone in the Rockets locker room, including coach Mike D'Antoni, knows it's a championship-or-bust attitude for Houston. D'Antoni is heading into the final year of his contract after failed extension negotiations. He, like Westbrook and Harden, thinks the two stars can figure things out.

"It'll work itself out. You try not to overcoach it," D'Antoni said. "We need Russell to be Russell. We don't want to change him. He's an MVP. That's who we need. We need his bravura to be Russell. That's good enough."