The Washington Post is very down on James Harden and the Rockets

The Washington Post, one of the most storied newspapers in America decided to make enemies out of any of their Houston sports readers.

Today, the Post released its top 100 NBA player rankings, James Harden was ranked at No. 13. Karl-Anthony Towns, Klay Thompson, Demarcus Cousins and Jimmy Butler are just some of the few rated higher than Harden in their eyes.

Here is what the Post had to say about Harden.

"Two years ago, Harden was a legitimate No. 2 in the MVP race behind Stephen Curry. Last year, his defense regressed again, the Rockets were a huge disappointment and he slipped down a few rungs. Now, playing point guard for Mike D'Antoni, the potential is there for Harden to turn things around again. Can he?"

Harden normally is considered one of the Top 5 players— at worst Top 10 — in the NBA, but because he slipped defensively he has now had a free-fall and now fallen out of the Top 10. I guess we figured out who didn't put Harden on any All-NBA teams last year.

Sigh, the national media again loves taking pot-shots at the former MVP runner-up.

Most egregious is the placement of Cousins at 12, ahead of Harden. How Harden gets penalized for defense and the Rockets being a disappointment, while Cousins plays the most important defensive position poorly while being less effective offensively, an objectively worse leader/teammate and having demonstrably less success, is a complete mystery.

On top of all of that, the Post also refused to put any other Rockets players in the top 100. That's right, no Trevor Ariza, no Clint Capela, no Ryan Anderson or Eric Gordon. In Sports Illustrated’s NBA rankings, Harden was No. 7, Capela was 79, Ariza was 81 and Anderson was 89.

Not sure why the Post is so down on the Rockets but it's clear they don't think very much of them this season. Hopefully the Rockets can go out and prove those silly Post writers wrong.