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The Houston Rockets moved to permanent “small ball” in February 2020 by trading center Clint Capela for forward Robert Covington.
As it turns out, the transition nearly happened about eight months earlier.
Numerous media reports from June 2019 indicated that Houston was confident in landing superstar wing Jimmy Butler, who was an impending free agent. Since the Rockets were and are well above the league’s salary cap, they would have had to send out Capela and veteran guard Eric Gordon to have room for taking on Butler’s maximum contract.
However, Butler rebuffed his hometown team to sign in Miami, and the Rockets pivoted about a week later to a trade involving Chris Paul and various draft considerations for Russell Westbrook. In recent months, Westbrook has been cited as a primary motivation for the switch to a smaller lineup, which has opened up more driving lanes.
But in a playoff preview story published Monday by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, it appears head coach Mike D’Antoni and GM Daryl Morey were already sold on playing without a center, even before Westbrook had entered the picture. MacMahon writes:
The Rockets were ready to commit to full-time small ball if they could get Jimmy Butler last summer, according to team sources. A Butler sign-and-trade would have required Morey to perform some salary cap gymnastics, but as was reported at the time, he had trades lined up to move the eight-figure salaries of Capela and Eric Gordon, contingent on Butler’s commitment.
That was the Rockets’ Plan A, and they were optimistic that they’d be able to pull it off as free agency neared, based on Butler’s discussions with Harden. Then, according to a team source, Butler “ghosted” them, not returning calls and texts before he agreed to a deal with the Miami Heat.
“You can’t muddy the waters. You can’t just go halfway.”
How regrets from Mike D’Antoni’s run with the Seven Seconds or Less Suns served as fuel for the Rockets to you all in on 6-foot-7 or less: https://t.co/uLfGa3yDOi
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) August 17, 2020
To shed the salaries of Capela and Gordon and incentivize Philadelphia to sign-and-trade Butler, Houston almost certainly would have had to trade future draft considerations to pull it all off. As a result, they probably would not have had the draft capital for the Paul-Westbrook deal.
In effect, rather than now having Westbrook, Covington (who Capela was eventually traded for) and Gordon, the Rockets would likely have Butler, Paul, and whatever bargain moves that Morey would have then pulled off with limited financial resources to fill out the roster.
As it is, Butler spurned them for South Beach, and the Rockets certainly aren’t unhappy with Westbrook — who averaged 27.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 7.0 assists per game during a brilliant debut season. Both the Rockets (44-28) and Heat (44-29) are 2020 playoff teams, and Westbrook and Butler were each All-Stars in the Western and Eastern Conference. There may not be any lingering hard feelings.
As for Harden’s relationship with Butler after being “ghosted,” Butler named Harden as the NBA’s most unstoppable player in a November 2019 interview. So there doesn’t seem to be any bad blood there, either.
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Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that the Rockets were already prepared to walk away from Capela and the traditional center model, even before Westbrook entered the picture. With Westbrook unavailable to start the 2020 playoffs due to a right quad strain, it signals that Houston’s belief in its unique approach runs much deeper than maximizing one player.
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