King James Gospel
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The Houston Rockets don’t want LeBron James?

By Quenton S. Albertie

HOUSTON, TX - NOVEMBER 9: Chris Paul #3 of the Houston Rockets talks with LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers on NOVEMBER 9, 2017 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - NOVEMBER 9: Chris Paul #3 of the Houston Rockets talks with LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers on NOVEMBER 9, 2017 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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When Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James enters free agency in the summer, the Houston Rockets may not be one of his suitors.

Whenever a larger-than-life superstar like LeBron James is set to become a player in free agency, there will be teams lining up from Los Angeles to Charlotte, Toronto to Dallas, that will want their services. Yet, when it comes to the Houston Rockets, a team that’s been rumored to have interest in James and a great chance at stealing him away from Cleveland if James should choose to leave his kingdom again, there’s a hesitancy on their part about adding a talent like James.

Quote from Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins transcribed by HoopsHype:

"“I asked a couple people in Houston about it [LeBron James potentially joining the Rockets in free agency] and there was sort of a like a look of, ‘Why would we break this up right now?’Because they know everything they would have to give up and the moves they would have [to make it feasible].”"

Despite how absurd it may seem to some, that’s a perfectly logical train of thought for the Rockets’ front brass.

In the offseason, even if the Rockets were to renounce their free agent rights to all of their upcoming free agents (Chris Paul, Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela, Gerald Green and Luc Mbah a Moute included amongst them), they would only have $21 million in cap room at max.

From there, the Rockets would have to move the contract of Ryan Anderson — a player they’ve been unable to move in a trade for years — or Eric Gordon just to be able to sign James to a max contract.

Why would the Rockets do that? They’d lose every cog of their machine except for James Harden at the expense of signing James. They just finished the season with a 65-17 record, the best in the NBA, despite Paul missing 24 games. They currently hold a 2-1 lead over the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Semifinals.

James, a 33-year-old forward who has proven to be the best player of the millennium and arguably the greatest player ever, has had fans from the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers and even the Cleveland Cavaliers try to sway his decision-making with billboards.

It would be wise to assume that dungeon-dwellers like the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns or teams that haven’t gotten over the hump like the Milwaukee Bucks or Washington Wizards will come calling James, or his agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. However, some teams already have a formula that seems to work and adding James, no matter his talent level, would fly in the face of that.

The Rockets seem to be one of those teams.

With that news, there’s a greater chance that the Cleveland Cavaliers can keep James in free agency as the list of teams that James would seriously consider only seemed to include the Rockets and Sixers.

The Sixers, who are losing 0-2 to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, could use a player like James and James could use their young talent.

The Cleveland Cavaliers currently lead the Toronto Raptors 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. However, outside of J.R. Smith, Kyle Korver and Tristan Thompson, players outside of James aren’t consistently showing up.

Considering that Smith and Thompson are two players that the team tried their best to trade ahead of the trade deadline and Korver is a 37-year-old guard who consistently deals with foot problems, the grass may look greener on the other side when free agency hits.

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