The Rockets have a big two in James Harden and Dwight Howard, but the owner wants three.
Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander was pretty clear in speaking to Fox 26 in Houston that the plan is to go big and try to add a third star to the roster.“We’re going to have cap room to bring in a terrific free agent and I think next year we’ll be a lot better than we were this year,” Alexander said in an interview with FOX 26 Sports. “I think the nucleus is great. I think we have two of the brightest stars in the league. We have players who are going to be much better next year, young guys. We have a very good nucleus….
“We won 54 games,” Alexander said. “It’s tough to win 54 games in the NBA and the West is so stacked, it’s hard. We were the youngest team in the league in the playoffs. Just that alone will get us much better. I thought the team played hard. They did what they could and when you lose the other team was better.”
He’s right on one front, this was a year for the Rockets to be on the learning curve. By the playoffs we saw the old, dangerous Dwight Howard emerge with a huge series. (James Harden was another issue.) The Rockets started to find some footing with their style of play, and GM Daryl Morey has been clear for a while that this roster needed some additions.
The two most obvious spots would be an elite point guard and to add a traditional stretch four. Expect to hear rumors of the Rockets trying to make a play for someone like Rajon Rondo this summer. It is known they want to throw their hat in the Carmelo Anthony ring. If Chris Bosh decides to test the market he would be a good fit.
But getting another star will not be that easy.
To do that the Rockets will have to find a taker for Omer Asik and/or Jeremy Lin (giving the Rockets little to nothing back in return in terms of salary). The problem there is as much as both of those guys bring value on the court (not commiserate with their contracts, but they are quality players) nobody is just going to take on the salary, you have to throw in a sweetener — and the sweetener everybody asks for is Chandler Parsons. The Rockets don’t want to give him up, in fact they are likely to try to work out is the Rockets will decline his option this summer and make him a restricted free agent they will re-sign. They can pick up his option for next year (less than $1 million) but then he is an unrestricted free agent in 2015 and much harder to keep.
Morey is an active and smart GM who said during the first round that he, the owner and Howard are impatient and want to win sooner rather than later. A smart couple moves can vault the Rockets up the ladder, as can the simple fact this team is maturing.
Of course, the other problem is that the Thunder, Clippers, Trail Blazers, and for at least another year the Spurs, are all also going to be ridiculously good. The West is brutal.