James Harden is haunted by last year's Western Conference Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors.

Despite winning NBA MVP and leading the Houston Rockets to the No. 1 seed last season, there's an empty feeling that hovers over Harden. That would be because the Rockets were one game away from advancing to the NBA Finals after holding a 3-2 series lead over the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

Harden says that he is still haunted by last year's Game 6 and Game 7 losses despite all of the success he had in 2017-18, via Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports:

“It’s on my mind every day. It’s Game 6, Game 7, that’s what drives me every day,” Harden said.

The Rockets looked like the shoe-in to advance to the NBA Finals and end the Warriors' reign of terror before a Chris Paul hamstring injury ended those hopes in Game 5. Houston went on to lose the next two games, including the disastrous Game 7 in which they missed a record 27 consecutive three-pointers despite leading the league in that very category during the 2017-18 season.

Despite the Western Conference being better than it was last season, with LeBron James joining the Los Angeles Lakers and DeMarcus Cousins adding to an already stacked Warriors core, Harden isn't the least bit concerned. The league's reigning MVP believes the Rockets will be back where they were last season, at the top of the Western Conference:

"Nothing changes. The West is already a beast,” Harden said. “We all know what the Warriors bring. Obviously, DeMarcus Cousins is very skilled and talented, but they’re still the Warriors, they won three out of four championships. But we were right there. Clearly, last year showed us we were right there. And we’ll be right there next year as well.”

The Rockets are looking at a slightly different core compared to the one from last season. While they recently locked up Clint Capela on a $90 million deal to bring back their enigmatic starting center, they lost starting small forward Trevor Ariza and prized backup Luc Mbah a Moute to free agency. They'll replace those guys with 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony and journeyman James Ennis. Former starter Ryan Anderson is also being shopped around on the trade block, with the Sacramento Kings reportedly showing interest, via Kevin O'Connor of the Ringer:

“It opens up cap space for the Kings where now they have $20.5 million in cap space and that’s notable. Because I’ve recently heard … Houston would be looking for a team to dump Ryan Anderson on that could ease the path to sign Carmelo Anthony.”

While Anthony certainly has the resume for a starting spot, there's the question of how he fits into a fast-paced offense where the ball won't be in his hands most of the time. It didn't work out in Oklahoma City, so why would it work out in Houston?

Just as Harden and Chris Paul faced doubters entering last season, the new Harden/Paul/Anthony trio will face the same doubters as they look to repeat their success from last season.