The Rockets had one of the best offseasons of any NBA team this summer, most notably acquiring Chris Paul from the Clippers in a trade. Adding Paul gives Houston one of the most formidable offensive backcourts in the league with Paul and last year’s MVP runner-up James Harden.
While we won’t see exactly how the duo will play together in Mike D’Antoni’s system for more than two months, we did get a bit of a sneak preview on Sunday, courtesy of the Drew League. Harden, who is a regular at The Drew at this point, brought his new famous teammate out to Los Angeles to join his LAU squad for a game against the Hometown Favorites, led by the Knicks’ big free agent acquisition Tim Hardaway Jr.
Unsurprisingly, Paul and Harden put on a show with the pro-am competition, and luckily the good folks at Ball Is Life put together a 14-minute long highlight reel of all the best from their game, which they ended up winning in a tight one.
You can see the possibilities with the two on the offensive end of the floor, even in the fragmented and often disjointed world of what is essentially a pick-up game. The chemistry with Paul and Harden will only grow, but both have tremendous vision and creativity with the ball in their hands, and they will be a nightmare to defend.
Paul toying with defenders with his dribble is always a delight to watch, and you can see how Harden will get even better spot-up shooting looks when off the ball thanks to CP3’s ability to collapse the defense on drives and kick the ball out on time. You can’t take too much more from an exhibition game in the summer in which defenses aren’t exactly trying too hard, but it is a fun little taste of the fun that the Rockets are going to be this season.
