Rockets G James Harden plans to sit out games until healthy

The on-again, off-again injuries Houston Rockets swingman James Harden is dealing with are on-again and the former Arizona State product has had enough.

Dealing with recurring toe and ankle problems, Harden missed Saturday’s game against the Detroit Pistons and said after the contest that he plans to sit out until he’s full healed:

"With James Harden’s right ankle still giving him trouble nearly a month since he sat out three games last month, Harden was out Saturday against the Pistons and said he might have to be out for more games to finally get the ankle problems completely behind him.“It’s still sore,” Harden said. “It’s painful.”Harden, has struggled on and off with the ankle issue for weeks and said the plan is to sit out until he can fully recover."

The Rockets have much larger aspirations than being one of the better regular season teams, so there’s no reason to push Harden until he’s healthy as the team certainly doesn’t want to create an even bigger issue.

Harden, much like Stephen Curry and Tyreke Evans plays a style of game that tends to breed ankle injuries and continually re-injuring the ligaments isn’t a good way to maintain health leading up to the postseason.