The past three days have not been easy on the Houston Rockets.

First ESPN reported that the team's MVP pair James Harden and Russell Westbrook "expressed concern about the direction of the franchise." Then Kendrick Perkins revealed that Harden refused to talk to the Houston management. Though Shams Charania reported Harden remains "committed" to the team and will stay for at least another year, he also broke the news that Westbrook wants to leave Houston. Later, Charania joined sports writers Kelly Iko and Sam Amick in reporting that Eric Gordon, P.J. Tucker and Danuel House have been unhappy with the team.

Houston are not in a comfortable position. Their owner Tilman Fertitta hates luxury tax as much as he despises his balance sheet being in the red. However, the team has two super max deals – $41 million for Harden and Westbrook in the 2020-21 season, which will grow even bigger in the coming years – and thus have no room to improve their squad. If Houston want to make a change, they will need to get rid of one of those contracts. Judging by the performance of the two, sending Westbrook away will make more sense.

Westbrook averaged 27.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 72 assists last season. He brought what Houston wanted from trading Chris Paul for him: better fast breaks, more aggressive offenses and even better rebounding. However, in the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers, Westbrook became Houston's offensive deadweight that gave the purple and gold reason and confidence to double team Harden. Meanwhile, his struggling performance after returning from quad injury worried the team – he is 32 years old and underwent major surgeries on both knees.

Under such circumstances, Westbrook's three-year, $132-million contract seems even more unpleasant. So should he be held responsible for Houston's failure?

To be fair, last season was only the first year of Westbrook with the team. Back in the Oklahoma City Thunder, he paired with top off-ball players like Kevin Durant and Paul George. When Westbrook broke in, he had Steven Adams who's good at both setting screens and finishing near the rim.

Westbrook did not have all of this in Houston. He and Harden carried most of the team's game but Harden ceased to do off-ball play four years ago. Other teammates did not move much on the floor either. Clint Capela was a good finisher but he was traded in the middle of the season. When the tallest guy on the court for Houston is Jeff Green, it's difficult for Westbrook to find decent screen.

Should role players be held responsible then? Houston's role players have lacked playmaking ability for a long time. However, it's absurd for any team to blame role players for a lost series. Franchise players should table responsibility. Furthermore, judging by the contracts of Tucker, House and Rivers, they already did their job.

As mentioned earlier, Harden and Westbrook already take a big chunk of Houston's salary, not to mention Eric Gordon's four-year, $75.6 million contract. With little money left, it's simply impossible to find qualified role players for every position, let alone ones who are able to deal with the ball. Moreover, Harden felt most comfortable having the ball in his hands.

Then should Harden be held responsible? People have been pointing fingers at him for years because of his play style, poor off-ball defense and lack of perseverance. Harden kept dropping crazy numbers in the regular season, but when Houston entered the playoffs, he seemed to have lost his magic. The awkward scenes of going 2-11 in field goals and watching the team lose were not in short supply.

Nonetheless, in the four seasons with Mike D'Antoni as the head coach, Harden upgraded himself from an effective scorer to a top playmaker. He just pocketed his third scoring title in a row and won the MVP in 2018. Meanwhile, Houston have selected no earlier than 37th overall since 2016 and did not pay even a dollar in luxury tax. Yet they remained as a top 4 team in the West and came so close to making the NBA Finals in 2018. They could not have done that without Harden.

Houston made Harden who he is today and benefited from it. That's why they will have to live with the other consequences of doing so.

Many have blamed Fertitta for the mess. Houston had to watch the departure of multiple players, who would have otherwise made a real change by staying, because Fertitta opposed paying taxes. However, this is his team and he can run it however he wants.

It took four years for the Houston to be in this quagmire. It didn't happen in a week or month. When D'Antoni became the head coach in 2016, he decided that the team's offense should go around guard – Harden's position began to lift. In 2018, Houston signed a four-year, $160-million contract extension with Paul, squeezing all the cap flexibility. Paul and Westbrook both slipped in 2019 and 2020 forcing Harden to shoulder more and further twisting Houston's offense.

It's hard to find any one person to take all or most of the blame, just like it's not easy to pull Houston out of their dilemma.