This offseason has not gone according to plan for the Houston Rockets, as they’ve seen two key rotation pieces from last season’s squad that pushed the Warriors to seven games leave in free agency.
First, it was Trevor Ariza bolting for a one-year, $15 million in Phoenix, leaving them without their veteran wing starter. On Monday, they watched as Luc Richard Mbah A Moute left for a return to the Clippers on a one-year, $4.3 million deal, losing one of their more versatile forwards and a strong defensive presence off the bench.
For a team that already operated with a short bench in the postseason, the departures of Ariza and Mbah A Moute figure to hurt their depth even more and will force them to search elsewhere for help on the wing and in the frontcourt. They apparently already have their main target in mind, as they are laser focused on landing Carmelo Anthony the former All-Star parts ways with the Thunder, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Rockets lose two forwards now — including Ariza — from NBA’s best regular season team. Houston is detemined to sign Carmelo Anthony once he becomes free in OKC, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/SfHAWntNlH
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 9, 2018
Chris Paul is close friends with Anthony, so it makes sense from that perspective that the Rockets would have interest, plus Mike D’Antoni coached him in New York, so he must believe he can get more out of Anthony than what the Thunder got last year. However, there has to be some concern that Anthony is going to continue to decline at 34 years old given his struggles in Oklahoma City last year.
Anthony had issues adjusting to an off-ball role next to Russell Westbrook and Paul George, and things wouldn’t be all that much different playing with James Harden and Paul in Houston. It’s possible that playing with his friend might make him more willing to commit to a catch-and-shoot role, but given his stubbornness in changing roles in OKC, I have my doubts it would be a smooth transition in Houston.
Anthony is also a defensive liability and one of the strengths of the Rockets in the conference finals was the way they attacked the Warriors on that end. As strange as it may sound, swapping Anthony for Ariza is likely a step back in 2018 for the Rockets. That said, Houston needs someone in that position and Anthony could be a relatively cheap option if he’s bought out. If they added Anthony and another wing shooter like Wayne Ellington, while keeping Clint Capela in restricted free agency, they still should be the second-best team in the West and could mitigate their losses this summer.
