The Rockets are so stubborn! Giving up Harden and Durant, planning to renew Van Jordan for 100 million in three years, is there no hope of winning the championship?

Editor|Old Kankanqiu

NBA Finals are in full swing, the Thunder and the Pacers are in a match, and the title is not yet clear. At this time, the league's free market transactions also began to heat up. With the rumors about Antetokounmpo, Durant, Holiday and Jaylen Brown, various teams were in a crazy battle of snatching, just as ESPN reporter Shams expected: this is the offseason that the management of the league teams is most anticipated, and this summer is very likely to become the craziest summer in NBA history! According to statistics from the US media "The Athletic", as many as 12 potential players this summer are at the All-Star level, setting a record high in the league in the past decade.

Obviously, there will be many superstars going to and leaving this summer and will be the focus. First of all, Antetokounmpo of the Bucks. The team has been declining since the championship season and has failed in the first round one after another. In addition, the giant Lillard's Achilles tendon has seriously injured their dim future. Although Antetokounmpo said many times that it would not take the initiative to apply for a transaction, many insiders have confirmed that the probability of the two sides continuing to cooperate is extremely small; the same situation also happened to the Celtics. After Tatum's Achilles tendon ruptured, the team's hope of winning the championship was reduced sharply. In addition, the pressure of huge luxury taxes, Holiday and Porzingis have been put on the shelves, and Jaylen Brown is also not ruled out to be traded; and after the Suns formed the "Big Three" in Hao, there was almost no chemical reaction, and Durant was pushed to the forefront, and leaving the team has basically become a foregone conclusion.

Therefore, many teams in the league have begun to throw out olive branches. The Timberwolves, Clippers, Knicks, Spurs and other teams have intentions. However, the Rockets, the most optimistic at the beginning, were suddenly told recently that the team will not split the existing lineup system in order to get Durant. Then ESPN famous reporter Brian Windhorst also confirmed: "The Rockets have no intention of making major deals in the offseason this season, but rather tend to maintain the stability of the existing lineup."

To be honest, the Rockets' management is indeed strong enough. When the team signed in the 2024 offseason, Harden gave up on choosing VanVleet. They firmly believe that chemistry is more precious than superstars! Looking back now, it is still unknown whether this decision is right or wrong, but Van Vleet has organizational effect on the Rockets, but it certainly cannot raise the team's upper limit. In other words, there is no problem playing the regular season. The Rockets once made it to the top of the Western Conference last season, but in the playoffs, when they were struggling at critical moments, Van Vleet could not count on it at all. He was eliminated 4-3 by the elderly Warriors, who were ranked seventh in the West in the first round, and was tragically defeated by the seventh in the black. In these seven games, VanVleet averaged only 18.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. You know, he is the highest-paid player in the team.

Now, even though they failed to win the championship last season, they still did not wake up the Rockets management. They still firmly believe that maintaining the stability of the current lineup is the top priority, and they are indeed stubborn enough. What is most surprising is that according to the latest report by US media TA reporter Sam Vecenie, a reliable source of the team confirmed that the team plans to reject Van Vleet's team option worth $44.9 million next season and instead provide a three-year, long-term contract of $90 million to $100 million. This is not over yet. The team will then sign a three-year, $42-45 million new contract with Adams. Among them, Adams' salary is almost entirely from the space freed by Van Vleet's "pay cut". It can be seen that while maintaining the stability of the lineup, the Rockets management is also very careful.

But ironically, the Rockets' "calculation" is more like buying insurance at a high price, while the claims conditions are full of uncertainty. Not to mention that both Van Vleet and Adams have entered the 31-year-old "age" age. It is just that their injuries and their decline in their condition and efficiency are also dragging down the team's prospects for the championship. Now that the team gave up Durant, just like the team in 2017, when the Rockets were Harden's team, the management gave up chasing the latter because of the pressure of fearing Harden and Durant's inability to coexist and the luxury tax. Now a similar plot is happening again.

You should know that the Rockets have been so careful since the Harden era, and their total salary has basically not exceeded the luxury tax line. Especially last season, the Rockets ranked 27th in the league in total salary, and there is still a gap of more than 3 million US dollars from the first luxury tax line. This is simply unimaginable for a team that is targeting to compete for the championship.

gave up Harden and Durant! The Rockets' trading book seems to have only this belief: avoid risks, seek stability, and reject luxury taxes! But when the Warriors and Celtics use bolder trades to leverage the championship, is the Rockets' shrewd ledger writing a hopeless fate of ever "not good but not good enough"?