[Lowe]'They're not guarding us': Inside Houston's shot to stop a dynasty

zeeshan2 · Dec 22, 2017

James Harden, the incumbent star who sometimes approaches defense with the slumped indifference of a teenager asked to take out the garbage, was familiar with Paul's militancy by then. He accepted it when he urged Daryl Morey, Houston's GM, to nab Paul after years of unrequited pursuit. He had witnessed it face to face a few days after the trade, when Paul reached Harden at night and said he wanted to meet -- right then -- at a restaurant in Los Angeles.

Paul had been waiting to ask Harden one question: "What is your ultimate goal in basketball?" Harden said he wanted a title. "He said he was excited about not having to do it all -- about getting the ball out of his hands a bit," Paul remembers.

That's easy to say in July. It's also easy to say when you're 25-5 with a historic offense and rugged, switchable defense, the first true non-LeBron threat to Golden State's hegemony, but the two stars have felt the benefits of the arrangement sooner and more profoundly than they expected.

After Monday's win over Utah, Mike D'Antoni, Houston's coach, apologized to Paul for playing him 34 minutes -- more than their target. Paul waved him away. "Thirty-four here is like 25 in L.A.," Paul told D'Antoni. "Not having to dribble the ball up every time -- this is a breeze."

Paul knows he is caricatured as a walk-it-up general who likes to bark orders and signal plays. He insists that is wrong. "It's neither here nor there at this point, but I was asking for a while to get the ball out of my hands," Paul says.

When told of skepticism about that, Paul sits up in his chair. "How many times have we run floppy this season?" he asks, referring to a curl play for J.J. Redick he might have called a thousand times. A visitor shrugs. "Come on, guess." Ten? "Ze-ro," Paul exclaims. "Zero. We don't even have floppy in the playbook." D'Antoni hasn't installed a single Paul-specific action.

Meanwhile, Harden wilted in last season's conference semifinals. Houston officials insist they saw exhaustion sapping him as early as Game 1 against the Spurs -- in part the toll of Harden's relentless pursuit of the MVP award. "He should want to win MVP," D'Antoni says, "but we have to be careful." Irv Roland, a Rockets player development coach who has been among Harden's closest confidantes for almost a decade, says the two have still never discussed Harden's season-ending, 2-of-11 dud.

If they were willing, the stars could help each other stay fresh deep into the playoffs. Morey first had that vision in the summer of 2013. Paul's representatives have told Morey the Rockets might have nabbed Paul then had the Clippers not finalized their deal for Doc Rivers before the start of free agency, Morey says. The Rockets signed Dwight Howard instead.

As Jackie MacMullan reported in the fall, Paul kept the custom bobbleheads Houston prepared for that 2013 courtship. The Rockets traded for him this time around, but after the deal, Paul insisted on watching the videos (displayed below) Houston put together for the July 1st free agency pitch meeting that never happened -- "even the iPad stuff everyone makes fun of us for," Morey says.

Morey and D'Antoni expected some early awkwardness. They thought Paul would need time to absorb the freedom and pace of D'Antoni's offense. Even role players do. In one of Raja Bell's first games under D'Antoni in Phoenix, he bricked a catch-and-shoot 3 early in the shot clock and sheepishly asked his coach: "Was that a bad shot?" the two recall. D'Antoni answered with a question: "Did you think you were gonna make it, Raja?" Bell did. "Make it next time, and it'll be a good shot," D'Antoni concluded.

"I thought we'd have some bumps," D'Antoni said. "But from Day 1, they just figured it out."

The results have been scary. Houston looks like a legitimate challenger to the Warriors, and they have only begun experimenting with some lineups variations -- small-ball looks with P.J. Tucker at center, and hyper-speed groups featuring Harden, Paul and Eric Gordon. They are daring to imagine how those three-guard lineups would match up against the Warriors: Who would play power forward? Would one of the three Houston guards defend Draymond Green, so that nominal power forward could chase Durant?

"They set the bar," D'Antoni says. "But we think, modestly, that we match up well against them."

They are underdogs, maybe big ones, but Morey has long promised that he will go for it if he thinks Houston has even a 5 percent chance of winning a ring. He will hunt likely LeBron this summer, per league sources, and hopes to sign Paul to another long-term deal. With Clint Capela and Trevor Ariza headed toward free agency, just bringing this group back could vault Houston well into the luxury tax. Tilman Fertitta, the team's new owner, has said he would pay the tax to preserve a contender.

"We think we have a five-year window with Chris and James," D'Antoni says. A max deal for Paul would be a risk given his age and injury nicks, but Morey will gamble to wring everything from Harden's prime. "It will be up to Chris," Morey says, "but we feel good about it."

When the coaches broke last May, they vowed to make it a daily talking point. In every practice, they run drills that simulate rebounding in specific situations -- including after switches, when Houston must gang rebound to help little guys stuck boxing out behemoths. "We realized that we can't get frustrated about something if we don't emphasize it," Bzdelik says.

The coaches often distribute charts showing players how many more points per possession Houston scores after a stop. The message: Do the grunt work, and you will eventually reap some glory.

Houston ranks eighth in points allowed per possession. We'll see if it holds. They yield a ton of shots at the rim and a decent number of 3s. Their transition defense, the bane of Bzdelik's life for two years now, is rickety. "We can't be one-way runners," he says.

But the personnel outside of Harden and Anderson is solid. They mostly play hard, moving together on a string, and they're well-prepared for each opponent. They have shown an extra gear for big moments.

Paul will not let them rest, anyway. When opponents call timeout to interrupt a Houston scoring spasm, Paul is fond of gathering his teammates and exhorting: "The next stop is the most important stop!"

"It reminds me of Miami," says Bzdelik, who coached there under Pat Riley in the late 1990s. "We had Zo [Alonzo Mourning], Dan Majerle, all these veterans who would say: 'Let's keep kicking their butts and have ice on our knees in the fourth quarter.'"

D'Antoni wants to save their legs, too. He is battling both his instincts to overplay a short rotation and Harden's MVP obsession -- Harden's pure, ironman love of playing. D'Antoni has already scrapped morning shootarounds so players can sleep more, and believe it or not, Harden was the last holdout. He craved a deadline to get him going in the morning.

Paul is finding the balance between keeping things fun and maintaining a focus on the big picture. He is having everyone on the team fitted for personal bowling balls, and the Rockets laugh together a lot. But they know what is at stake. They will need some luck to beat the Warriors -- if they even get there -- and Paul promises they will be ready if the basketball gods provide it.

"We have a chance," Paul says, "to become special."
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Haymitch · Dec 22, 2017

Media conspiring to crawl back

Stormy1234 · Dec 22, 2017

Stormy1234 · Dec 22, 2017

durvasa · Dec 22, 2017

Great, great article. Though, this will likely make fans of opposing teams hate the Rockets even more. If we care about that sort of thing.

Invisible Fan · Dec 22, 2017

Mauri with them iPads.

Beardaholic13 · Dec 22, 2017

"I've never been known as a defender," Anderson chuckles. "I'd like to be known now as maybe, somewhat of a defender. Just a little bit?"

how did this airhead get 20 million i mean come on .....

MghtyPtrck · Dec 22, 2017

great article and awesome that rockets released their recruitment video!

Williamson · Dec 22, 2017

I'm kind of sick at my stomach to learn that the Rockets nearly had Chris Paul in 2013. You mean to tell me we could have had this all along?

TheresTheDagger · Dec 22, 2017

I found this paragraph interesting....and not nearly talked about enough if at all...

Switching on defense powers Houston's offense. It jumbles the matchups so that after a stop, opponents have to either accept mismatches or crisscross the court in search of their normal assignments -- chaos that leaves shooters open in its wake. Houston's switching is predatory as much as it is reactive.
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Spacemoth · Dec 22, 2017

The Spurs last year defended us as well as could have possibly been done. Sometimes I think Popovich has a secret AI he goes back to at night, a Deepmind with reinforcement learning and that kinda stuff, to tell him how to gameplan against other teams. With so much less talent he always finds a way. Like my friend said, they are the Borg.

dobro1229 · Dec 22, 2017

jmwilliamson said: ↑

I'm kind of sick at my stomach to learn that the Rockets nearly had Chris Paul in 2013. You mean to tell me we could have had this all along?
Click to expand...

CP3 and Harden..... and Kevin McHale coaching them..... yeah.

Roc Paint · Dec 22, 2017

Now let's see the one the Rockets prepared for LeBron James

Matt78777 · Dec 22, 2017

unpopular opinion alert: the rockets CP3 video is super cheesy and kinda sloppy. Maybe because I'm a lifelong fan and nostalgia wins me over, but I prefer their history-laced pre-game videos.

Good article to read nonetheless.

J Sizzle · Dec 22, 2017

Still sucks to hear that D'Antoni "instinctually" overplays short rotations. He doesn't understand the value of rest still. Not a good sign.

ElPigto · Dec 22, 2017

Spacemoth said: ↑

The Spurs last year defended us as well as could have possibly been done. Sometimes I think Popovich has a secret AI he goes back to at night, a Deepmind with reinforcement learning and that kinda stuff, to tell him how to gameplan against other teams. With so much less talent he always finds a way. Like my friend said, they are the Borg.
Click to expand...

To think that we were so close to beating them in game 5 and I'm pretty sure with that momentum we would taken game 6. What could of been.

zeeshan2 · Dec 22, 2017

They are underdogs, maybe big ones, but Morey has long promised that he will go for it if he thinks Houston has even a 5 percent chance of winning a ring. He will hunt likely LeBron this summer, per league sources, and hopes to sign Paul to another long-term deal. With Clint Capela and Trevor Ariza headed toward free agency, just bringing this group back could vault Houston well into the luxury tax. Tilman Fertitta, the team's new owner, has said he would pay the tax to preserve a contender.

"We think we have a five-year window with Chris and James," D'Antoni says. A max deal for Paul would be a risk given his age and injury nicks, but Morey will gamble to wring everything from Harden's prime. "It will be up to Chris," Morey says, "but we feel good about it."
Click to expand...

ElPigto · Dec 22, 2017

J Sizzle said: ↑

Still sucks to hear that D'Antoni "instinctually" overplays short rotations. He doesn't understand the value of rest still. Not a good sign.
Click to expand...

I been telling you guys since we hired Mike. He doesn't believe in expanding rotations. The only hope that we have is that Morey releases some of the rookies that will not see the light of day under Mike and get him some veterans he would potentially play.

Look at moute, Dantoni typically doesn't give a 8th/9th man that much playing time, but with luc he is forced to because luc is a good player. Mike has never been big on player development so it is Moreys job to stop screwing around with the Chinanus of the world and get more legimate help.

hakeem94 · Dec 22, 2017

J Sizzle said: ↑

Still sucks to hear that D'Antoni "instinctually" overplays short rotations. He doesn't understand the value of rest still. Not a good sign.
Click to expand...

you should pm morey

hakeem94 · Dec 22, 2017

ElPigto said: ↑

I been telling you guys since we hired Mike. He doesn't believe in expanding rotations. The only hope that we have is that Morey releases some of the rookies that will not see the light of day under Mike and get him some veterans he would potentially play.

Look at moute, Dantoni typically doesn't give a 8th/9th man that much playing time, but with luc he is forced to because luc is a good player. Mike has never been big on player development so it is Moreys job to stop screwing around with the Chinanus of the world and get more legimate help.
Click to expand...

you should pm morey

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[Lowe]'They're not guarding us': Inside Houston's shot to stop a dynasty

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