Chris Paul Opts In; Then Traded To Houston

[JoeyCrawford]

Lol og15

[SF_Warriors]

D'antoni is going to have to figure this one out... How do you run your offense now with two players that need the ball as much as they do? Paul has a high ego to which he will bitch and moan if he isnt running the offense and you heard it hear first that I am not a believer this would work out. You will be hearing reports of "disgruntled paul" or harden next season and an overall drop off of the Rockets. Harden was putting mvp type numbers as the starting PG, where is he going to play Paul to where they share the spot light? If the secondary playmaker was such an issue they could have gotten a back up pg that can do that without getting in hardens way

Harden as a point guard was a success already and I think they were a star PF/C away from making noise along with PG or Melo. But if they do shell out their bench just to get melo (another ball dominant player who probably still hates D'antoni) then I guarantee you this experiment fails

Any time you can trade a few decent players for one of the better players in the nba it should be done (cp3 is easily a top 10-12 player)

the goal is for them to go beat the warriors. I dont think Cp3, harden and a weak bench is the answer

And you think beverley, lou, harrell and dekker is the answer? CP3 is an upgrade and quite the significant one. Obviously the warriors have one of the greatest collection of talent in nba history, so I do not expect any team to add one all star and be able to top that, but the move brings them a step closer at least.

Lou can be replaced by gordon, and we all know all star talent can mitigate a loss of depth on the bench (see: warriors after acquiring KD) People said their depth took a huge hit when it did not matter because all star >>> depth, especially in the playoffs

If it fails, they can reload next summer after cp's salary comes off the books.

[zshawn10]

Read on Twitter

[xfactor]

Not sure the lineup gets them past round 2.

chris paul, james harden and paul george doesn't get past round 2? That lineup is stacked.

That's what I'm thinking..

That team would likely meet its demise when facing the Spurs.

[John Murdoch]

Read on Twitter

Capelas a goner

[vxmike]

Bulls got better return than Clippers. Now I can truly say we are not worst FO in the league. There are always Clips and Knicks making sure of that.

Uh no. CP3 was a UFA seeking a $35M deal. The Clippers are lucky they got anything and I think they got almost as much value as the Bulls did. Butler has two seasons left on his deal at half the cost of Paul.

[fouronesix22]

Any time you can trade a few decent players for one of the better players in the nba it should be done (cp3 is easily a top 10-12 player)

the goal is for them to go beat the warriors. I dont think Cp3, harden and a weak bench is the answer

Who says this is the roster the Rockets roll into 2017/2018 with.... seriously... there are obviously other things going on here. Have some patience.

They have no cap space to sign anyone... No one is going to take that ridiculous ryan anderson contract. Plus if they want more cap relief maybe they get rid of gordon. But then thats really pushing it in terms of depth

[John Murdoch]

#FLOPCITY

Its gonna be unreal ..refs are going to have to get ready to review everything with these 2

[zshawn10]

Read on Twitter

[RightToCensor]

6/28/2017 will truly be a landmark day for Houston fans. I cannot express how much I appreciate Morey's everyday efforts.

[PhillySixers22]

Obviously for what they gave up this is a no brainer. I don't get the fit at all though, can either of them really excel without the ball? Harden off-ball simply isn't the mvp candidate of the past few seasons and the same goes for CP3. If nothing else it will be an interesting experiment, and again for what they gave up is certainly worth a shot.

[John Murdoch]

6/28/2017 will truly be a landmark day for Houston fans. I cannot express how much I appreciate Morey's everyday efforts.

ownership aswell for sticking with him after the Yao/Tmac years

[HotTubMike]

the goal is for them to go beat the warriors. I dont think Cp3, harden and a weak bench is the answer

Who says this is the roster the Rockets roll into 2017/2018 with.... seriously... there are obviously other things going on here. Have some patience.

They have no cap space to sign anyone... No one is going to take that ridiculous ryan anderson contract. Plus if they want more cap relief maybe they get rid of gordon. But then thats really pushing it in terms of depth

That's just your opinion... Anderson is actually a very moveable contract... he was highly sought after last off-season and has always had trade speculation surrounding him. There is no reason to say his contract is "unmoveable" other than your opinion.

Morey/Houston still has plenty of work to do this off-season.

No reason at all to act like on June 28th there roster is set.

[MC3]

Bulls got better return than Clippers. Now I can truly say we are not worst FO in the league. There are always Clips and Knicks making sure of that.

Uh no. CP3 was a UFA seeking a $35M deal. The Clippers are lucky they got anything and I think they got almost as much value as the Bulls did. Butler has two seasons left on his deal at half the cost of Paul.

We dealt Butler 2 years in advance for much better value if you rebuilding than what Clippers got. And we would need to give Jimmy that same 35M deal at age of 30. Now depend how much you value 2 years in mediocrity. And Bulls dont even have talent like Blake to fall down and keep him. We would immediatly go into rebuilding. So how much do you value 2 years in mediocrity and then hit rebuilding or go now in rebuilding and get value for Jimmy till you dont give him away for late 1st, 3&D pg and former #19 pick who missed a year because of back injury.

[vxmike]

Clippers got 3 assets who they can flip for future returns as well as a future 1st.. thats really not bad for a guy who was leaving. Its arguable the Clips could get 3 late 1sts for those guys.

It's an amazing return. They can trade DJ to the Celtics and their rebuild will be off to a great start.

[clippertown]

How is CP3 planning on playing off the ball? He was terrible off the ball with the Clippers, mainly because he is so reluctant to shoot and tries too hard to involve all of his teammates. If Houston expect CP3 to play a more offensive role, they are dreaming.

The reason the Clips failed is partly because CP3 refused to penetrate and dish. Maybe this had something to do with BG, DJ or even Doc, but the penetrate and dish model is pretty heavily utilized in Houston. In addition, due to CP3's weak bones, towards the end of the season, he always breaks down - usually during the playoffs which really hurts the team.

In addition, Harden likes to take players off the dribble and pass only if he is unsuccessful. CP3 likes to utilize screens to create space and then pass to whoever is most open. It looks like Harden will continue in the PG role and CP3 will have to adapt to the SG role, which he is not even top 20 at playing. I think both Houston and the Clippers lose with this trade.

[MaxRider]

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i haven't see this many trades after draft night and before July 1st

[BallerTalk]

Actually Durant/Curry/Kawhi lost to Westbrook this year because of individual success. One of those 3 should win if you want to reward team success.

I don't know why you're bringing those 3 up. Did they all finish as a clear 2nd this past year and in 2015? It was a race between Harden and Westbrook this past year and between Harden and Curry in 2015

I brought them up to illustrate that Harden was a beneficiary of not rewarding winning this year. It would come down to Kawhi vs Durant or Curry if it was only about winning. The fact that it came down to Harden and Westbrook was because of an emphasis on individual stats in the first place.

Nah, Harden was the top candidate where you didn't have to choose between winning or astronomical individual numbers.
He did both.

[inquisitive]

Morey wanted to swing for the fences. Staying put against the Warriors wasn't going to get it done, so why not. I don't think they're done either. Likely going after PG13, Hayward, or Melo.

[Edrees]

I don't know why you're bringing those 3 up. Did they all finish as a clear 2nd this past year and in 2015? It was a race between Harden and Westbrook this past year and between Harden and Curry in 2015

I brought them up to illustrate that Harden was a beneficiary of not rewarding winning this year. It would come down to Kawhi vs Durant or Curry if it was only about winning. The fact that it came down to Harden and Westbrook was because of an emphasis on individual stats in the first place.

Okay, and? I'm talking about the front runners in 2015 and 2017. I wasn't commenting on how we decided they're front runners or who should be the front runners. I'm only comparing team success and individual accomplishments relative to each other. Not to the rest of the league. If Harden beat out Westbrook with the tie breaker of team success then it would make no sense to say, "Well, if it's all about winning then give it to Durant." Huh? Durant, Curry and Kawhi are irrelevant in this discussion. Saying Harden is the MVP over everyone else because of team success and saying Harden could've beat out Westbrook because of team success are two completely different ideas. You seem to think I'm arguing for the former

How are other MVP candidates irrelevant? Your entire claim is that Westbrook won the MVP for the same reasons that Harden lost to Curry, therefore Curry is automatically part of this discussion. You're the one who brought Curry into the discussion by bringing up 2015. And Kawhi was a top 3 finalist so ignoring him just to suit your narrative is ridiculous.

The fact is that if MVP voters were consistent with 2015 when deciding finalists for MVP and then MVP, Harden would lose to Kawhi, Durant or Curry instead of losing to Westbrook.

Sorry for derailing this topic so much, this is the last Ill say on this in this thread.