There was a major trade in the NBA on Wednesday. The Houston Rockets have gone a long way toward beefing up their hopes of doing more damage in the NBA playoffs. The Rockets have reportedly traded for Chris Paul, the All-Star point guard that most recently played for the Los Angeles Clippers.
League sources told TheVertical.com about the trade. Adrian Wojnarowski wrote that "The Rockets will send the Clippers a package that includes guards Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams, forward Sam Dekker and a 2018 first-round pick." The first-round pick has some qualifications attached to it.
Beverley, Williams, and Dekker to Los Angeles
Beverley will certainly be a downgrade for the Los Angeles Clippers in the point-guard position. His scoring numbers from last season don't reflect his scoring potential as he played alongside James Harden, Houston's clear first option on offense. Beverley averaged 9.5 points per game last season but should do much better than that as a member of the Clippers.
With the trade, Lou Williams will return to Los Angeles. Previously he was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers before being traded to Houston mid-season last year. He is an effective scorer as he averaged 17.5 points per game last season despite averaging less than 25 minutes per game.
Sam Dekker played his first full season in the NBA during 2016/17 after appearing in just three games in the previous season.
He is a young player that might blossom into a starter over the long term. However, at this point in his career he's not a game changer.
With the three pickups, the Clippers certainly didn't get swindled on the deal. The Clippers' lineup certainly is subject to further change. They have seven players named as free agents on Spotrac's list for 2017 NBA free agents.
Those include Blake Griffin, J.J. Redick, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, players that logged big minutes for their team last season.
Harden and Paul, scoring and assists
For Houston, they will now have one of the NBA's most-effective scorers in James Harden playing alongside one of the league's most-effective passers in Chris Paul.
Paul certainly has some scoring punch as well as he averaged 18.1 points per game last season. But don't be surprised if that scoring average dips a bit playing alongside Harden, a player that eats up a lot of shot opportunities for his team.
Houston also has a ton of money invested in two players. According to Spotrac, Harden will make a base salary of $28,299,399 in 2017/18. Meanwhile, Paul had a base salary of $22,868,828 last season. The point guard has had numerous injuries in his career so acquiring him is not without risk. The Houston Rockets don't quite have all of their eggs in one basket, but they seem like a team whose record next season has major swing potential: they could be huge when at full health, but injuries to one of their two stars could see them only slightly above average.
