If the Houston Rockets can’t lure one former Brooklyn Nets star to the Lone Star State, then they could take a swing at trying to pursue a different one.
The Rockets have not made it a secret that they’d like to bring James Harden back to Houston, but the latest reports suggest that he is torn between staying with the Philadelphia 76ers and returning to the city he played the majority of his career in.
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And, according to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Rockets’ potential Plan B could be an interesting one.
Houston will have $AUD87 million in cap space this offseason and the Rockets could use that to try and add mercurial NBA superstar Kyrie Irving into the fold if they miss out on Harden.
The Rockets have been a team that has been “increasingly cited” as one that could go after Irving, Stein wrote in his latest newsletter.
The Dallas Mavericks have been the only concrete team that has an interest in signing Irving.
The Nets traded Irving to Dallas around the NBA trade deadline in February after demanding to be dealt out of Kings County.
His departure facilitated the quick end of the superstar era in Brooklyn.
Ironically, it was Harden’s desire to leave Brooklyn a year earlier that began the end for a Nets team that at one time boasted Harden, Irving and Kevin Durant.
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The Rockets have been linked to a few other players aside from a possible interest in Irving.
Stein mentioned names such as Toronto’s Fred VanVleet, Nets restricted free agent Cam Johnson, Memphis’ Dillon Brooks and Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez.
However, Irving remains somewhat surprising considering the reputation that he comes with and the fact the Rockets already have guards Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green.
Irving is still one of the best players at his position in the game.
Between the Nets and Mavericks last season, he put up 27.1 points a game and 5.5 assists.
While the Rockets have plenty of salary cap space, it would also be hard to imagine Houston convincing both Harden and Irving in joining up to play with one another again after the way things ended in Brooklyn.
While a reunion between Harden and the Rockets became a little less certain with the report that he was torn on what to do, the odds still seem good that he’ll end up back with the Rockets — though the Suns have been floated as a potentially interested party.
As for Irving’s future, it was reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania last week that he had reached out to LeBron James to see if he’d join forces with him in Dallas.
James and Irving have been linked to one another since last season as things with the Nets started to deteriorate.
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission