Harden, Paul join the trend of recruiting for superteam
All I was thinking about was the power of James Harden and Chris Paul.
Thursday belonged to P.J. Tucker. His day in downtown Houston. His personal news conference, celebrating a $32 million free-agent contract for a seven-year veteran from the University of Texas, who once bounced from Israel and the Ukraine to Germany, Greece and Italy just to stay relevant in the NBA.
But Tucker isn’t a Rocket this summer without Leslie Alexander’s superstar duo. Take away the dual point guards, and general manager Daryl Morey probably is still searching for a versatile small forward who can smoothly switch out multiple
positions on defense and isn’t afraid of the superpower Warriors. And in Tucker’s acquisition we have the early proof of the power Harden and Paul hold together.
“Not only do you need the USA Basketball team members to win games, you need them to go get and convince P.J. Tucker to take less money than other teams are offering,” Morey said at Toyota Center. “It’s a huge, huge factor to winning in today’s NBA.”
Come here. Play with us. Win a ring.
That’s where LeBron James has truly shined, what Kevin Durant is doing so well right now and where the super team obsessed NBA is in 2017.
After Superman burned out, Alexander and Morey kept their vision rolling, betting hard last summer on Mike D’Antoni, then giving everyone from Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson to Nene a perfect platform for new basketball life.
But those were all bets. Risk with high reward — if they paid off.
Recruiting in the pros
You get to the conference semifinals with one superstar and a surprising team that paid off on all its bets. Then you collapse in Game 6 and don’t even face the unbeatable Warriors.
“People saw that the wear and tear, both mentally and physically, on James was just too great to really expect him to get us all the way to the trophy,” Morey said. “Whereas now in those key moments, a tough possession after 46 minutes of a game, it doesn’t have to be James. It could be Chris, it could be James, it could be different guys on different nights.”
Together, Harden and Paul have the potential to leap over a couple steps in what is normally a methodical process — draft, develop, improve — and immediately place the Rockets on the same stage as Golden State, Cleveland and San Antonio. Not when it comes to winning — the D’Antoni Show collected 55 victories last season — but when it comes to getting the biggest names that lesser franchises always miss.
Think Gordon Hayward cruelly leaving Utah behind and becoming a Celtic, joining a 53-win team that already was the regular-season best in the East last year.
Look to the west and see invincible Golden State adding Nick Young and Omri Casspi on the cheap, after retaining Andre Iguodala (who looked past the Rockets) and signing Stephen Curry to a record $201 million deal.
The one-word summation of an incredibly complex process that now involves everything from super agents and international branding to shoe deals, the Olympics and country-wide advertising: recruiting.
Harden and Paul recruited Tucker, just like Durant helped make Young a Warrior, then posted a teasing photo of his new teammate as soon as the contract was inked.
Gold-medal winners stick together in the modern NBA. They join up, form unthinkable superteams and subvert the traditional process.
For every brilliant move that Boston’s Danny Ainge or Golden State’s Bob Myers pull off, there’s a golden whisper from James, Durant, Harden and Paul that is impossible to deny.
“The stars are trying to figure out which ones to pair up with. … Then all the guys who help you win titles, like Trevor (Ariza) and P.J. Tucker and Nene and Eric (Gordon), are figuring out which of those pairings do they fit best with,” Morey said. “It really is like a have and have-not situation right now in the league.
“Because I think the players are more aware of their power and they’re the ones who create the wins.”
Relationships count
Morey now has two names who have the rest of the league in their contact favorites.
Paul is the president of the players association, has a famous alter ego in addicting TV commercials and is an eight-time All-NBA point guard who could have stayed in Los Angeles or joined Kawhi Leonard’s Spurs. Harden is more famous than ever, has spent two of the last three seasons as the second-best player in the league and already has been through the fire with Dwight Howard.
Durant and Curry improved the champion Warriors in a few blazing days. James changed the league by going to Miami, then returning to Cleveland, and bringing all his pals with him. CP3 and The Beard were in Tucker’s ear from the start, making it a no-brainer for the ex-Longhorn to turn down the temptation of more cash from other teams.
“It’s a collaborative relationship, not only the team winning on the floor but team chemistry, team structure, team everything,” Morey said. “It’s a partnership. And that’s what Leslie’s built for years and we’re continuing to improve it and make it even better year by year.”
Two Rockets point guards for 82 games could prevent Harden from wearing down again at the worst possible time.
Harden and Paul together, recruiting outside the lines, should give the Rockets another critical advantage in the superteam NBA.