Paul says he’s ready to ‘hoop’
D’Antoni’s job now is to mesh star guard into lineup rotation
Rockets guard Chris Paul, early for Wednesday’s practice as he had to be during weeks of rehab, casual ly put up jumpers with little else needing tobe done. The grueling process of coming back from a bruised knee was behind him, and the mystery about when he would return to the court was over.
Still, the Rockets maintained a small out, listing Paul as “questionable” to play in Thursday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns in case his knee did not respond to Wednesday’s light practice and the flight to Arizona. But there was no one who believed Paul would not be cleared to play for the first time since he limped through the Rockets’ season opener Oct .17.
“He’s ready to go,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said before realizing that the team officially had left some uncertainty as to Paul’s status. “Am I speaking out of turn? I think he’s playing tomorrow. We’ll see.
“What we have done up to now doesn’t count. We have a newteam. When you put that big of a rock into a pond, there’s big waves. Wehave to figure out. One, give him a chance to get into game shape, and two, everybody’s rotation will be a little bit different. We have the next two or three games to get that smoothed out.”
While the Rockets are 11-4 to start the season, there is a sense
that they are starting over because Paul’s return will impact the playing time of every player in the rotation other than the centers.
D’Antoni said Paul will start and play roughly 20 minutes but will be monitor closely, adding that “Jason (Biles, the Rockets’ head trainer) will hit me with a stick if I play him too much.”
The most important adjustment that will have to be made is to restart the process of meshing Paul’s playmaking skills into a backcourt already built around James Harden. Man with the plan
The Rockets remain confident that it will work. In the mean time, D’Antoni will stagger his two star players’ on the bench, with one running the offense while the other takes a breather.
There was greater uncertainty about how much time Paul can spend on the court and how long it will take to for him to sharpen his playing skills.
“There’s nothing like playing,” Paul said. “Hopefully I can relieve some of that pressure off James with the ball handling.
“There’s only a few teams in this league I think that can go into every game knowing they can win, and I think we’re one of those teams. We have a ways to go, but hopefully that process starts tomorrow.”
For Paul, the 14 games spent on the sidelines with D’Antoni’ showed him how he can fit into the mix for the Rockets. Paul had been characteristically vocal throughout the first month of the season, sharing observations during timeouts and halftimes. Although he has played only one game with the Rockets — scoring just four points but adding 10 assists and eight rebounds in a victory at Golden State — Paul has been involved enough to know what is expected of him when he is on the court with Harden and when he runs the offense without Harden on the floor.
“You always look at things and see how you can implement yourself, ways that youcan help, ways that you hope you don’t hurt,” Paul said. “At the end of the day, it’s basketball. I’ve been playing for a while now.”
Paul also missed 14 games last season with a broken thumb and had 17 points and five assists when he returned. Two nights later, he had17 assists.
“Unfortunately, I’ve had broken thumbs, ligaments, so I know the process ,” Paul said. “But it’s tough. Every situation is different. I was playing on a totally different team at the time. The way our schedule was, I had an opportunity to practice with the team. Tomorrow, it’s like ‘Let’s just get to it.’ ”
Paul bruised his knee in a collision with the Grizzlies’ Mario Chalmers in a preseason game Oct. 11 at Memphis. After Paul’s knee was slow to come around and he struggled badly in the opener, the Rockets decided to hold him out until he could be considered 100 percent. Back on the court
Wednesday’s practice was the Rockets’ first with Paul a full participant since the 2017-18 season began even though it was more of a walk through and not much of a physical test.
Still, the Rockets had been targeting Thursday night’s game against the Suns, with Paul steadily increasing his workload and worrying less about his knee. The next steps in the rehab process are only possible under game conditions.
“I’m going to go out and hoop tomorrow,” Paul said. “I might score five. I might score 50. Probably not 50. I never did that. But at the end of the day, it’s about winning the game and making sure we play the way we want to play.
“I’m excited about getting out here (to practice) … and not in the training room. There’s nothing like playing agame.”