HOW CLOSE TO SUPER STATUS?
Jerome Solomon says the Rockets still have some work to do.
Question his overall strategy, his hiring practices, his taste in uniforms and his stadium menu choices all you like, but never doubt that Les Alexander is about winning championships. Period. The latest evidence in support of that came with last week’s trade for Chris Paul, one of the more dynamic players in the NBA.
The move was one of the highlights of the NBA’s now-annual Midsummer Night’s Superteam Dream.
Though the 6-foot Paul be but little, he is fierce, and among the top playmakers in the league.
Without question, the Rockets got better, but their improvement is hardly enough to fear the Golden State Warriors, the Superteam everybody loves to hate.
Superteam has become a bad word in recent years, thanks to the poorly disguised, and embarrassing, jealousy of the 29 non-championship teams.
But the Rockets have been on a Superteam quest since Alexander bought the franchise.
That hasn’t always been the case since the franchise moved to Houston from San Diego in 1971.
Otherwise, Elvin Hayes never would have been shipped to Washington D.C., and Moses Malone’s promised land wouldn’t have been anywhere near the Liberty Bell.
Another splashy move
The Paul trade is an Alexander special.
He likes acquiring bigname players.
Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard had a combined 36 All-Star appearances before coming to the Rockets. And each had multiple top-five finishes in MVP voting.
Paul is a nine-time All-Star and has finished in the top five of MVP voting four times.
Problem is, he won’t be enough to push the Rockets to a title.
“Any day you can acquire a Hall of Fame-level player is a good day for the franchise,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said. “It’s a weapons race in the NBA and you’re either in the weapons race or on the sidelines.
“We felt like with James Harden in his prime and Chris Paul in his prime, this gives us a real shot to chase the juggernaut teams that are out there, and puts us right there with them.”
Note: Morey said the trade gives the Rockets a shot at chasing the Golden States and Clevelands, before excitement led him to proclaim the Rockets are right there with them.
They aren’t there with them. Not yet.
The Cavaliers play in the lower division Eastern Conference, whose playoffs have been the LeBron James Invitational for the past seven years.
The Warriors are simply trying to hold on to what they have to see how lengthy a run they can put together.
About more than stars
When you have a star like Kevin Durant leaving millions on the table, first to join the team a year ago, then to aid it in keeping the squad intact this offseason, you are literally playing with house money.
The Rockets made a run at Andre Iguodala, but weren’t able to convince him to leave Oakland. Undoubtedly Iguodala, who hasn’t averaged double figures in points or even five rebounds or assists in any of his four seasons with the Warriors, is more valuable with Golden State than he would be with most teams.
Luring him to Houston wouldn’t have been as much about lifting the Rockets as about denting the Warriors.
It’s a tricky game. As vital as the stars at the top of the statistics are — you know, the ones with their own shoes, the one who do the podium interviews — it takes a complete team to hoist a championship trophy.
Until a championship roster is under contract, a general manager’s work is never done.
As star-driven as the league is, two of the past four NBA Finals MVPs (Iguodala and the Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard) were role players who hadn’t even been to an All-Star Game with their championship teams when they made those clutch, title-winning plays.
That is why the Rockets’ resigning Nene and adding P.J. Tucker could prove crucial in tight playoff games.
Though the Rockets were interested, sure-fire (onpaper, anyway) star-level lifters like Paul George (Oklahoma City) and Jimmy Butler (Minnesota), names Alexander would have loved, ended up elsewhere.
So Morey had a good week, but not a great one.
With only seven players who are expected to be in the rotation next season under contract, he has much work to do before the Rockets can be considered a super anything.