So much of the Clippers comeback was orchestrated by the players that Los Angeles got back when they sent Chris Paul to Houston. Patrick Beverly led the way with pestering defense and Lou Williams seemed almost unstoppable at times. Montrez Harrell contributed 25 points and 10 boards. All three came from Houston and all three balled out vs the best team in the NBA.

What if Houston didn’t trade for Chris Paul? What if they stuck with the guys they had? Would they be better? Could they be a lot better?

Clint Capela

Trez Harrell

Lou Williams

Pat Beverly 

James Harden

PJ Tucker

(Player Unknown) Morey can’t help himself he trades Eric Gordon and Sam Dekker and maybe a future pick for a better rotation guy. Who knows maybe THEY end up getting Gallinari and pairing him with DiAntoni again. At worst this is Eric Gordon still.

Trevor Ariza: not paying Paul a shit ton of money allows them to keep Ariza

This is a rotation that would give the warriors fits, this is a basketball team. This is a team that could really stir up some shit. Instead, Morrey is obsessed with the idea of adding stars. I love stars, who doesn’t? But it has to be the right star. 32-year-old Chris Paul is not the right star. That’s not a star in it’s prime, I don’t care what the Rockets GM says.

The funny thing about this trade is that it worked so well in the short term that it’s never going to be looked at as a bad trade. The Rockets pushed the Warriors to seven games last season and right now they look like the biggest competition to the Warriors in the West. Nobody is saying the Paul trade was bad.

Except maybe it was? If the Rockets don’t win a title with Harden and Paul then the experiment failed. The “What-if Rockets” 8-man rotation I listed seems more formidable than what they put out there now with Paul. It’s fun to think of what-ifs but they are of little consequence, the trade happened and I bet the Clippers are glad that it did. Next season Los Angeles will have the cap flexibility to add multiple star players without trading anyone away while Houston will be paying a 34-year-old Paul 38.5 million dollars. Sheesh!

Enjoy the playoffs: A-Train Out