Houston Rockets: Projecting the starting five for 2017-18

Point Guard

Chris Paul. There’s no debate here. Next.

OK, so you want a little bit more. Paul replaces local favorite Patrick Beverley who decided to trash Houston after the trade and try to save face by saying he asked to be traded. Paul is an upgrade of 9 points, 5 assists, and 2 points in defensive rating over Beverley.

While some pundits are concerned about Paul and Harden coexisting, I have a hard time imagining a world in which two eager passing players who want to play with each other with the plethora of shooters and slashers that the Houston Rockets have would struggle to coexist. I don’t make my money by saying stupid stuff, though, so I get why the people say it. Seriously, read the Chris Haynes article on Andre Iguodala’s recruitment, Paul loves it in Houston.

Paul’s minutes will need to be monitored and Houston Rockets fans should be aware of that. Paul has some knee issues in his career and you don’t want those to crop up during a long season. On the bright side, Houston should be able to rout enough teams to rest Paul up during the year.

What to watch out for?

Well, simply put, look out for Paul’s minutes He’ll put up assists in this offense, he’ll distribute the ball, and he’ll be able to will the Houston Rockets through some patches they otherwise might not want to fight through. The real issue for this team is making sure that Paul has a reliable backup point guard to fill the “Bev-Lite” role (Shout out to AK aka “The Buttdoctor” for that one).