NBA Rumors: Chris Paul is already recruiting LeBron James to Houston

NBA Rumors: Chris Paul is reportedly already recruiting LeBron James to the Houston Rockets

LeBron James is about to embark on arguably his most difficult task of his NBA career – facing the Golden State Warriors with Jeff Green as his best sidekick (until Kevin Love returns) – and he’s already being recruited.

According to Marc Stein, Chris Paul is already recruiting LeBron to the Houston Rockets, who are fresh off being eliminated by the same Warriors in seven games.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals begins Thursday.

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"[via NY Times]Rest assured that the Rockets’ understandably devastated Chris Paul — who made a fast exit from Toyota Center late Monday night after being forced to watch the biggest game of his life from the bench because of his hamstring injury — has already begun his recruitment of James to Houston."

Paul missed the last two games of the series against the Warriors with badly strained hamstring, one that would’ve likely forced him to miss the NBA Finals even if the Rockets would’ve won Game 6 or 7.

But if you replace LeBron James with, say, Trevor Ariza and Eric Gordon, perhaps there’s a chance that the Rockets would be playing, say, the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals right now.

However, that’s never a fair game to play. The fact remains that the Rockets fell short, and if they’re going to have enough room to outright sign LeBron this summer they’re going to have to gut their roster.

If anyone can get it done, though, it’s Daryl Morey. He’s one of the brightest minds in front offices around the league, and has some interesting pieces to work with. As it stands, Chris Paul, Trevor Ariza and Clint Capela are free agents.

Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon would likely be two candidates that would likely need to be moved. They make $20 and $13 million, respectively, next season. P.J. Tucker is scheduled to make $8 million next season.

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The Rockets have their work cut out for them if they’re serious about possibly signing LeBron James this summer.