NBA Rumors: The Houston Rockets are reportedly not a realistic option for LeBron James in free agency this summer, which makes a ton of sense
No matter who you ask, the Houston Rockets are always one of the teams that is constantly linked to LeBron James as he prepares to hit free agency for the third time in his NBA career.
Interestingly, every time that he’s hit the open market, he’s switch jerseys. With the third time be much like the first two? That is yet to be decided. Although, any time you hear any basketball pundit talk about where LeBron James could head this summer the Rockets are a team that always comes up.
And, most of the time, it’s also the No. 1 possible option.
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However, according to ESPN’s Chris Haynes, the Rockets are not a “realistic option” at this point. Which makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons. First, here’s what Haynes said (transcribed by Real GM:
"“Houston has been linked a lot,” said Haynes. “I’ve been told that’s not a realistic option.”"
This pretty much aligns with reality. And that reality is that the Houston Rockets would essentially have to blow up their roster in order to make room for LeBron James, while re-signing Chris Paul. And even though we’ve seen teams do that in the past, it’s not exactly realistic for the Rockets to do all of that on draft night or in the days leading up to LeBron’s free agency decision.
Houston would have to trade Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon and (likely) P.J. Tucker. The would also have to be fine with letting Trevor Ariza walk in free agency. While those moves aren’t exactly impossible to make, we also have to consider the fact that all those players would have to be replaced with rotation players signing on a veteran’s minimum salary.
The more you really think about this possibility, the more far-fetched it gets.
Plus, why would the Rockets blow something up when they came one game away (possibly a Chris Paul injury) from beating the defending champions and representing the Western Conference in the NBA Finals.
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I get it would be for LeBron James, but I’m not under the belief that you try to fix something that wasn’t necessarily broken.
The thought of Chris Paul and LeBron James sounds great on the surface, but perhaps it’s more of a pipe dream than an actual possibility this summer.