LeBron James: Houston Rockets still remain in hot pursuit of the King

It’s getting down to the nitty gritty for LeBron James as the free agency period will open up over the next few days. The latest is that the Houston Rockets are still ‘all-in’ to pursue the King but is he interested? Let’s look.

LeBron James/Houston Rockets fans — the free agency opening date of July 1 is on fast approach and it will be interesting to see where the team decides to direct their cause in terms of making this team even better than the one that won a franchise-record 65 games last season.

Will the team be able to re-sign Chris Paul and Clint Capela? They certainly hope so. Can they add another superstar to mix? That certainly remains to be seen as a deal for such a notion can be extremely complex but it’s not impossible. The Houston Rockets are in competition with teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers that have gobs of cap space to sign whomever the hell they want.

General manager Daryl Morey will have to tread carefully as it’s widely understood that this team will be over the luxury tax line for spending in 2018-19 and I’m sure he wants to make best use of the dollars that are about flow toward trying to keep most of this team together.

But what’s the latest on the team’s pursuit of LeBron James? According to Sam Amick of USA TODAY, nothing has changed and the team remains steadfast in pursuing the greatest basketball player on the planet.

Here’s what the scribe had to say about the situation:

"“As was the case with Paul last summer when he forced his way out with the Clippers, it remains possible that James could opt in to his current deal and force a trade to a team like the Rockets by making it clear that he’ll opt out and leave in free agency if the Cavs don’t comply. And while Houston is considered a long shot to land James, that isn’t about to keep the Rockets general manager, newly named Executive of the Year Daryl Morey, from trying.According to a person with knowledge of their situation, the Rockets are still pursuing James – even if Harden made it clear that it was hardly a necessity. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.”"

This news is slightly encouraging but this certainly means the team needs to have Plan B or C

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ready to go just in case it doesn’t work out to have LeBron James in Rockets‘ Red.

This is despite reports coming from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst indicating that the Los Angeles Lakers and his incumbent team in the Cleveland Cavaliers have a better shot at James. Heck, there’s even a wild rumor that James could stay in Cleveland if he were offered 50-50 ownership of the team.

I honestly think if that were offered to him, it’d be hard to turn down and then the King would be staying in C-Town. Windhorst also mentioned that his family wouldn’t necessarily feel “comfortable” moving to Houston which is certainly an enigma within itself.

This city is one of the greatest in the world and I’d think it’s mind-boggling that anybody wouldn’t want to have the guff to move here but that’s my opinion and there are certainly many people outside of this city who would view things quite differently.

James Harden has expressed his opinion that James is not necessarily needed because of the fact that the team was one game away from the NBA Finals which would allude to the fact that there may be some chemistry issues if LeBron James were to decide on Houston.

But if it happens, I’m positive things will work out and the skepticism will go away just like when Chris Paul was acquired this past off season.

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As Rockets fans — the date to keep an eye on is June 29, the date to which LeBron James must make decision on whether to opt-in or out of his $35.6 million player option for the 2018-19 season with the Cavs.

We’ll have to see — keep swinging for the fences Morey!

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