Houston Rockets: Chris Paul’s contract is high risk, high reward
By T.A. Mock
The Houston Rockets have inked Chris Paul to a four-year max extension worth nearly $160 million. Let’s take a look at why this is a high risk, high reward contract.
Chris Paul got PAID. The Houston Rockets ponied up and paid their second superstar. He’ll be making nearly $40 a year over four years. In fact, this coming year he’ll be the second highest paid point guard in the NBA behind Steph Curry.
This past season, he was absolutely better than advertised. He posted .460/.380/.919 shot line with a .550 effective shooting percentage and a .604 true shooting percentage. Paul posted a near career low in assists but, he’s never played alongside another distributor like James Harden.
He and Harden meshed extremely well. There were plenty of skeptics that claimed these two ball dominant would never mesh. However, these two stars immediately flipped that script and got on the same page. Paul recognized that this was Harden’s team. Harden recognized that Paul is a star and can enter clutch mode and take over games.
Paul was also finally able to shrug off one of the biggest knocks against him. He was finally able to get to the conference finals. Unfortunately, his hamstring didn’t cooperate and he missed the final two games against the Warriors.
Paul also helped pilot and guide the Houston Rockets to their best season in franchise history. The team won 65 games and lost only 17. All in all, it was an absolutely phenomenal year. Sure, the Houston Rockets didn’t quite make it to the promised land but, great strides were made and can be built on.
More from House of Houston
- Are you the 2021 FanSided Sports Fan of the Year?
- Houston Texans: 4 reasons Romeo Crennel is right coach right now
- Astros-Twins Wild Card Series: 5 things to know as MLB postseason begins
- Houston Texans: The Most Underrated Sports Drought Ever
- Houston Texans: J.J. Watt’s early case for NFL Hall of Fame
So, this deal had to happen. Last year was just too good for it not to. This deal has the potential to be very high reward. That reward being the team’s first championship appearance since the ’90s. However, there is also high risk to this deal as well.
The Risk
Paul has only played 80+ regular season games in a season three times. In fact, he only played all 82 games in one season. So yeah, Paul has dealt with a lot of injuries throughout his career that have limited what he’s able to do in a season.
This most recent postseason hamstring injury is just the latest in a laundry list of injuries. His injury history is one reason why this deal is high risk. However, the Houston Rockets appeared to do a pretty good job mitigating his injuries this past year. Yes, he missed time but, splitting duties with Harden should only help his case to stay healthy.
Additionally, giving a 33-year-old point guard a four-year deal is always a risk. Especially considering that at the end of his deal he’ll be making about $45 million during his age 37 season. So, this deal appears to be extremely likely to age poorly.
Next: 5 ways to replace Trevor Ariza
However, in spite of these two big risks, I’m convinced this deal will be extremely worth it, especially if the Houston Rockets are able to retain Clint Capela. So yes, this is an extremely high-risk deal but, the high reward vastly outweighs the risks.