If the Rockets fail in their pursuit of James Harden, could they pivot to Kyrie Irving? According to Marc Stein in his latest Substack post, it’s a possibility.
Stein hears that Irving could be a fallback option for Houston, which enters the summer with the most projected available cap space of any NBA team. Harden is expected to choose between staying with the Sixers and returning to the Rockets for a second stint. There have been conflicting reports on whether the Suns might also join the Harden sweepstakes.
The Mavericks remain the only known team with definitive interest in signing the polarizing Irving, Stein notes. His sources indicate that the Rockets could explore a run at Irving, Harden’s former teammate in Brooklyn, if Harden re-signs with Philadelphia.
It’s unknown whether Irving would consider the Rockets. Houston could sign Irving simply with cap space or work out a sign-and-trade with the Mavericks. The Rockets have a bevy of future first- and second-rounders, plus some young talent, that could entice Dallas in that scenario, but as long as they maintain enough cap room to sign Irving outright, there would be no incentive to give up assets for him.
Houston, with new coach Ime Udoka, seems intent on bringing in some proven, high-level talent to supplement its young core. Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez and Cameron Johnson (restricted) are some of the other free agents — or potential free agents if they decide to opt out of the final year of their contracts — that the Rockets reportedly may pursue.
Huh? Rockets really trying to get into the play-in.
Rockets want to really shoot themselves in the foot. NO ON HARDEN AND NO ON KYRIE. Neither will work with these young guys. I wonder what would do if Silas was still coach. They want to be in the hunt. Harden needs to stay in Philly and Kyrie no guarantee in Dallas but let him go with LeBron. I will definitely kill my season tickets with this.
Did you want to give actual reasoning aside from how the media has made you feel over the last 2 years? PS I’m sure the Mavs would love to resell your season tickets, not sure what makes you think they care about anything other than your money to watch losing ball
She’s a Rockets fan, not a Mavs one. She’s referring to Rockets season tickets.
Here’s a reason: defense is a thing and the Rockets are already terrible at it. Ditto for maturity and accountability.
Kyrie and Harden are among the worst fits possible. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that mismatch.
Its funny to me that people actually believe these stories. It’s literally an “NBA insider” thinking out loud his own opinion and then every publication picks it up and reports it as news. This is not happening, so don’t be one of the dummies that believes every headline you read.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There’s always conflicting reports. Most people assume the Rockets will be looking to make a splash as they have the most cap space and a finite time to use it before Green, Smith, Tate and Sengun sign rookie extensions. If they strike out on Harden, Kyrie would be a logical plan B as he and maybe Middleton are the only other 2 high potential guards in this off season’s free agency class.
I don’t see it happening. Writers need to write. Houston didn’t lose for this long to sign a money grab like Irving who will find multiple ways to sit out. I do believe the Harden rumors, but if he truly wants to win now, he’d be smart to stay in Philly and see how that plays out.
Kyrie would not be the logical plan B. The logical plan B is actually their plan A, and that is signing a couple of guys that compliment the current roster and still have upside. That’s not kyrie, or harden, or Middleton, etc. Their young roster will start winning games when most young rosters do, and that’s when they get to about their mid 20s. Signing guys for way too much money that aren’t going to be good when the rest of the team is doesn’t make any logical sense. The rockets have actually made smart moves since having to blow up the roster and start over. They’re not going to start making bad decisions now, as much as the national media and a lot of dummies who read their stories would like to believe.
lol why are they so obsessed with destroying their team’s chemistry?? Just dont sign either of them and let the rest of the unit develop naturally, then target whoever else you need who is an upgrade. This is easy.
What team chemistry, did you not see the Rockets last season?
Not saying they should sign either Harden or Irving, neither is going to be a positive on the court to help the young guys grow, but they were terrible last year and had too many kids trying to get their own instead of playing for the team.
Case in point ☝️
Backcourt trio of Kyrie/Jalen/Scoot Porter would be extremely hard for opposing defenses to stop. Kyrie actually fits them better than Harden fr. None of Kyrie/Jalen/Porter are good defenders but all 3 are dogs & all have great length & instincts. They’re a far cry from Smart/DWhite/Brogdon defensively but Udoka will def have them looking better than the past few seasons. Houston’s biggest weaknesses the past few seasons have been in the paint tho. Issues with rebounding & guarding the rim need to be dealt with this summer if the Rockets are gonna become a playoff team. Andre Drummond would fit them perfectly, they should go ahead & throw him a 3yr $45-50M deal & take him off the market early…. Kyrie/Jalen/Eason/Jabari/Drummond with Porter/Whitmore/Tate/KJ/Sengun off bench would be a really balanced, talented team with alot of potential. That’s not even considering their other skilled young guards
They were actually one of the better rebounding teams in the league… so I’m not sure why they would over pay for Drummond. He’s awful in the pick and role and isn’t able to spread the court better then anyone they already have on the roster. There are much better options available that won’t cost as much. And they can add a big in the draft with their second first round pick. I agree that kyrie is a better fit then harden, but there’s no way the rockets hand kyrie a big contract, and I don’t see kyrie wanting to play in Houston unless they do that.
I like my roles hot with butter.
Why should a guy that’s played for minimum as a backup get 15+ per year for multiple seasons?
Why would you throw $15M a year at Drummond? Didn’t the the just play on a $3M contract and contribute 6 and 6 off the bench this year? If you have to pay him anything more than 2 years, $12M total, you’re getting ripped off.
Drummond is still on that $3 million deal.
I really doubt things would end well between no nonsense Udoka and Irving trying to do whatever he wants.
I wonder if Ime will go after Grant Williams and overpay to get him. We shall see. We also will see if he can coach.
This team sure loves their head-cases.
They are going to do what Atlanta did a couple years ago and mess everything up
Like you think this is actually true ……
Rockets have the most cap space. So they can pay any player the max. No Team is dumb enough to pay these two a max contract.
Exactly. It’s painful being a rockets fan right now because every player gets linked to them getting paid stupid money, and then 99% of the people that read the headlines think the rockets are an awful run organization that is dumb enough to do it. Meanwhile all they’ve actually done is made really good decisions, especially considering the hand they were dealt, and they are now in a good position to field a team that will start to win some games. They’re not ruining that by maxing out guys like Kyrie and Harden, despite what their agents tell “nba insiders” to report.
Rockets get linked with everyone because they have cap space and no state income tax
Personally, if I’m the Rockets, I would use their cap space in trades instead of FA to find a star. This year’s FA class isn’t teeming with Superstar talent, and the few that are at that level come with baggage. Between the bevy of picks they have and younger talent, a guy like OG makes more sense.
Giving up assets does not make sense when you are at this stage of the rebuild. Giving up young players and draft picks for OG does what exactly for this team? It’s not making them a contender. If this team was a playoff team or right there, I’d say go ahead and use picks to get a guy like OG, but he’s not a guy that is a game changer by any means. They need to keep their young guys and draft picks, continue to develop them, and wisely use their cap space to bring in guys to compliment the roster. People forget they had over $60 million in salary dead money last season, which limits the roster considerably.
Kyrie will be a Laker… the question is who will take the 10th, 17th, Beasley, D.Russel, and Mo in a 3 way trade with the Mavs? And what will the Mavs take in order to not get @&$&@ in the deal. Toronto?
Kyrie was on his best behavior under Kyrie
I think the Rockets should go get both and add a veteran scorer, some like Kevin Durant. That big 3 would go on a tear and win several titles.
HOU needs a new FO. The current one is a group of 2k’ers. They can’t build a real basketball team, and it’s becoming clear they don’t understand that the concept involves more than compiling talented players on their roster, and getting them playing time. They’re going into Year 4. After 3 years of hapless losing and determined resistance to anything that might result in a real NBA locker room or God forbid winning, now, they’ve decided it’s time to add veterans to the mix? And it starts with Harden? And just to show the idea isn’t specific to Harden (which might be explained by sentiment), if he’s not available, they’ll go after Kyrie.
You said a lot of wrong things. First, this is their 3rd draft in the rebuild. Only 3. Second, the FO had to take over a championship contending team that they were forced to break up and start over. So they had to navigate getting as much value as possible while also trying to help send away veterans to places they wanted to go (unfortunately you have to do this or it becomes hard getting future FAs to sign). Because of all this, this is the first offseason that they actually have any cap space. So they didn’t just decide to add veterans now, they couldn’t until now based on their cap space. Because of this, they have a team of 20 year olds, which is fine because they are rebuilding, but it’s silly to expect them to act and play like a team of veterans. And you clearly don’t follow the team so I’ll tell you that nothing the team has said or done would indicate at all that they are going after harden or Kyrie. In fact every move they’ve made and thing they’ve said would indicate the opposite. Unfortunately, people such as yourself are easily persuaded by reading headlines either created for sensationalism by the national media for clicks, or by the camps of said players to try to create leverage and drive their price up. It’s cool if you don’t follow the team and/or basketball. But maybe just don’t comment like you do DXC.
Slow day for Marc.
Nothing but speculation to talk about until the 30th I guess.
Lazy Media.