Superstar shuttle exchanges passengers
Paul’s 2018 hamstring strain reverberates with franchise
LAS VEGAS —
Life changes in an instant and often without warning.
One sliding door opening or closing, one flap of butterfly wings, one stab of hamstring pain, and everything affected is different.
Chris Paul has always known this, though he often has maintained that perception, rather than reality, is altered. Regardless, the hamstring strain he suffered in the 2018 playoffs might have changed not only NBA history but his life.
The final ripples of that moment ended when the Rockets, the team Paul chose in pursuit of his championship dreams, dealt him to Oklahoma City on Thursday for Russell Westbrook, another star running mate for James Harden.
After Paul’s Game 5 injury against Golden State in the 2018 Western Conference finals, the Rockets spent much of the next year believing they would have been champions had that game ended a minute earlier — before that instant when everything changed.
With Paul, they might have topped the Warriors in that series. We’ll never know. If they had, they likely would have beaten the Cavaliers in the Finals. They never got that chance.
But Paul was magnificent that night, as the Rockets had been that season. There is no disputing that. They had been the NBA’s best team from the time they acquired him in another blockbuster deal until his hamstring refused to cooperate.
Had the Rockets finished what they started, had Paul stayed healthy and the team been rewarded with a championship, he almost certainly would not be leaving town via the franchise’s latest home run swing.
Decline in second season
Paul was not the same in his second season with the Rockets. He no longer destroyed big men switching onto him, left to try difficult fadeaways over them. He did not shoot anywhere near as well as in his first Rockets season.
All of that, along with another hamstring injury that gripped Paul in December, suggested the advance of time had begun to win.
There were sensational moments. He was phenomenal in Brooklyn when the season was spinning away early. He led the Rockets to the February win at Golden State when Harden was out. He had an outstanding final performance with the Rockets in Game 6 of the West semifinals against the Warriors.
But the Rockets had begun to lament the four-year max contract they gave Paul — matching what he would have received as a free agent the year before — at least in part out of obligation for his willingness to join them in a trade.
The Rockets believed they had a championship window with Paul, 34, and Harden sharing a backcourt. Daryl Morey’s meeting with Paul in Los Angeles last month left the general manager so encouraged that he declared on that night’s NBA awards show red carpet the Rockets should be considered Western Conference favorites.
That was before Paul George defected to the Clippers to play with Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, before the Lakers loaded up around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, before the Jazz and Nuggets were bolstered by freeagent and trade acquisitions, and before the Rockets came up empty in their plan to at least add a significant free agent to their returning nucleus.
Instead, they dramatically reversed course, sacrificing control of four first-round picks (including the two that will go to the Thunder) to end Paul’s Houston tenure, this time making Westbrook the latest star in Rockets red.
This is in many ways typical of the Rockets. Westbrook joins Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Tracy McGrady, Harden and Paul as future Hall of Famers acquired in trades since the first championship season in 1994.
There is always risk in such deals, usually tied to the wealth of outgoing talent. To acquire Westbrook and their two seasons with Paul, the Rockets surrendered Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell, Pat Beverley, Sam Decker, three first-round picks, and the right to switch places in two other drafts.
The risks with Westbrook, a triple-double machine, are as obvious as his gifts. If they were not, the Rockets could consider how they felt about their championship potential with Paul before that moment when everything changed.
There were doubts about Paul’s fitting in next to Harden, who had just led the NBA in assists per game and was ball dominant. Coach Mike D’Antoni,
who had moved Harden to the point, had called him a “points guard.” Paul was celebrated as the “point god,” among the best to run an offense.
But the Rockets cited Paul’s talents as a catch-and-shoot marksman. He could effectively play next to Harden, and they were so right. The Rockets rolled to 65 wins and a 3-2 lead in that series against the Warriors.
When Paul was heading to free agency, the Rockets argued he would age well. He does not rely on explosive quickness. He does not leap over anyone. He can knock down standstill jump shots into his late 30s.
Another hamstring injury and the worst-shooting, lowest-scoring season of Paul’s career changed things. And it points to the gamble of committing to Westbrook, 30, for four seasons.
Westbrook is not the catchand-shoot master Paul is. A career 30.8 percent shooter from distance, Westbrook has made less than 30 percent of his 3pointers in three of the past four seasons.
Window for championship
He also depends on his spectacular athleticism. Westbrook remained a force of nature as he turned 30, averaging a previously unthinkable triple-double for the third consecutive season. But the Rockets will have to wonder how that will age for the same reasons they had to consider how Paul would be in his mid- to even upper 30s.
But in giving up so much, the Rockets showed how they regard Westbrook. There is both a yearning and a pressure to make the most of Harden’s championship window.
The Rockets believed Paul gave them the second star needed to go all the way, and even without the proof that would have come with a title, they were right. They believe Westbrook raises that ceiling, and the chance to get him ended Paul’s time in Houston.
Though in many ways, the beginning of the end came when Paul limped away from perhaps his most sensational game as a Rocket.