Houston Rockets: Why failure is not an option in 2017-2018

The Houston Rockets made one of the first big splashes of the 2017 off-season, making a blockbuster sign and trade for Chris Paul.

The Houston Rockets since that point have not been able to land that third superstar they were hoping to acquire to make them a super team and competitive with the Golden State Warriors. Which is unfortunate because the Rockets need this season to go reasonably well. And Chris Paul is the main reason why.

The team traded away a large portion of its productivity from last season in Patrick Beverly, Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, and more for Chris Paul’s services. Chris Paul opted into the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers to do so and that way the Rockets could sign him to the max extension of five years and $205 million when he hits free agency next year.

That’s if Chris Paul wants to re-sign with the Rockets though. And this is why 2017-2018 needs to be a success. I’m not saying the Rockets need to win the championship or even get to the NBA Finals. That’s a tall order to ask with their current roster against the Golden State Warriors.

What they can’t have happen is a 2015-2016 season, where egos and lack of chemistry put them at the lower end of the playoff food chain and they get knocked out in the first round. Anything short of a Western Conference Finals appearance or at the very least a competitive second round exit, and Chris Paul could look elsewhere.

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When Chris Paul came to the Rockets, it gave him all the leverage. He can stay for the max extension with the Rockets. Or if after a year he doesn’t like the experience or doesn’t feel like the team is competitive enough, he can find suitors all across the league who would want his services should he choose to move in order to chase that ring.

This is the deadly proposition of a failed season where Chris Paul once again can’t get past the second round, or worse, we get bounced in the first round. The Rockets gave up a lot to get Paul, and if all those assets were traded for one season of him, then we just set the franchise back a couple years.

James Harden is a phenomenal player no doubt. But in this NBA there is not one super star who can do it alone. And if this Rockets season doesn’t yield better results than what Chris Paul got out west in Los Angeles, we could have just traded a lot of key pieces for one more year of playoff failure, and face the prospect of rebuilding around Harden, wasting some of his prime years.

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The Rockets need 2017-2018 to go well enough that Paul sees the potential for a championship in his future and re-signs with us as a result. If the season doesn’t go well enough for him to do that, Daryl Morey will have to get even more creative with less options available to trade to make sure he doesn’t lose the best years of James Harden’s career with nothing to show for it but second round playoff exits.

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