James Harden is the laziest man in the NBA

Two weeks ago, the Rockets fired Kevin McHale amid an early swoon. As Mike Prada illustrated, the Rockets were teetering primarily because key players, including James Harden, weren't playing very hard, especially on defense.

It turns out that changing the coach didn't fix the effort issues, at least for Harden.

Clint Capela does a good job to challenge Ersan Ilyasova's layup and ... Harden just watches the carom bounce to Aron Baynes, who gets a bunny. This is 2013-14 James Harden, not the MVP runner-up we saw last year. The guy needs to get in shape or start meditating or something. This is not okay in the modern NBA. There are cameras everywhere and fans in Houston are near revolt.

This comes two days after Harden decided to let the Knicks blow by him on a fast break so he could argue with a referee despite being the last line of defense.

By the way, the Rockets were 4-7 when McHale got fired. Since then, they are 3-4. Progress?