According to Rockets GM Daryl Morey, superstar James Harden was initially hoping for Houston to acquire Russell Westbrook this offseason without losing Chris Paul in the deal.
The revelation was captured by The Athletic‘s Sam Amick, who spoke with Morey in recent days for an exclusive interview.
Of course, because the Rockets are well above the NBA’s salary cap, they had to send out nearly as much money in the transaction as what they took in. With Westbrook making just under $40 million this season and Harden obviously off the table, that left Paul as the only realistic way to make the math work on a trade.
Here’s how Morey explained Harden’s role to The Athletic‘s Amick:
He was curious if there was a way to do it where we could keep everyone and not have to give up anything [laughs]. Unfortunately the math of the deal required Chris going out.
His mind is always [going] first to ‘How [can we be] completely stacked?’ So I had to sort of explain. He gets it roughly, but obviously he leaves the details to us. Besides the high level [talks] where he thought that Russ would be a great fit here, there’s not a ton of interaction after that point.
The news does seem to indicate that for Harden, the transaction was about adding Westbrook, as opposed to ditching Paul — which runs counter to many offseason narratives.
Paul and the Thunder are back in Houston on Monday in what will also be Westbrook’s first game against his former franchise. Expect the Rockets to have a lengthy tribute video thanking Paul, a future Hall of Famer, for his contributions over two great seasons in Houston, with Harden likely leading the applause at Toyota Center.
