Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey is expected to chase LeBron James in free agency this summer, reports ESPN’s Zach Lowe:
They are underdogs, maybe big ones, but Morey has long promised that he will go for it if he thinks Houston has even a 5 percent chance of winning a ring. He will hunt likely LeBron this summer, per league sources, and hopes to sign Paul to another long-term deal. With Clint Capela and Trevor Ariza headed toward free agency, just bringing this group back could vault Houston well into the luxury tax. Tilman Fertitta, the team’s new owner, has said he would pay the tax to preserve a contender.
Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni told Lowe that he feels Houston has a “five-year window” with the James Harden and Chris Paul duo. That seems slightly ambitious. Five years from now, Paul will be 37 years old; will he be the same player at that point? Will he be able to keep up with the Rockets’ high-paced offense? The answer to both of those questions is almost certainly no.
Because of those questions, giving Paul the five-year max deal that he may command next summer would be an extremely risky move. Morey says, however, that if Paul accepts, the Rockets will “feel good about it.”
