The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have played in the last three NBA Finals and other NBA teams are looking at ways to compete with those so-called, "super teams". While the Warriors were built from scratch until this past season, adding Kevin Durant has widened the gap between the haves and have-nots. The Houston Rockets are one of the teams that want to try to create their own super team to compete in 2017-18.
Blake Griffin and Chris Paul
The Houston Rockets are looking at making some big trades to free up money to chase free agents this offseason.
They plan on keeping James Harden but there are a number of big names that the Rockets would like to add to push them over the top. The first two names are Los Angeles Clippers players Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, which would decimate the Clippers while making the Rockets into a contender.
The one player that the Houston Rockets really want to pursue is Chris Paul. The recent rumors indicate that Paul wants to head to Texas but it is the San Antonio Spurs that he wants to play for. The Los Angeles Clippers put themselves in this position when they didn't lock up their two best players before the 2016-17 NBA season started.
The Los Angeles Clippers are also hard at work on trying to ensure that they don't collapse this offseason.
They team has made it clear that they will do what they can to remain relevant, and that includes hiring NBA legend Jerry West away from The Golden State Warriors to try to convince players to remain on board.
Other Houston Rockets targets
Outside of Chris Paul, the Houston Rockets have their eyes on some other top free agents as well.
The Rockets are considering trading players such as Ryan Anderson, Lou Williams, and Patrick Beverly to free up room and money to chase a high-profile free agent.
Top targets for the Rockets also include the Atlanta Hawks' Paul Milsap and the Toronto Raptors' Kyle Lowry. The alleged plans right now are for the Rockets to go hard after Chris Paul but not give up on a chance to get one of their other free agent desires as well.
Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said that he will aggressively put together a team that will compete with the Golden State Warriors, saying that the Warriors are not unbeatable. One of the first moves will be to lock up James Harden the first chance they get to a monster contract extension. Then, the Rockets will do everything they can to lure a free agent like Chris Paul to Houston to make a run for a championship.
