It wasn’t supposed to be this easy. When Chris Paul was traded to Houston this past summer, even the most optimistic projections assumed it would take some time for him to gel with James Harden and the Rockets’ offense. Only time would tell if Paul could co-exist with Harden, or make sense in Mike D’Antoni’s overall scheme. A lot of it was put on the coach rather than the two All-Stars, who were presumably set in their ways. This was an experiment, one that even the league’s resident mad scientist might not be up to.

All that hand-wringing proved unnecessary. The Rockets, already operating at peak proficiency, sit atop the Western Conference at a league best 18-4 record. They’re averaging a blistering 114 points a game (second behind Golden State) and holding opponents to respectable 103 per night, good for seventh overall. They’ve gone 8-0 since Paul returned from an opening night knee injury. Harden, an early favorite for MVP, is having a monster year even by his standards, averaging 31.7 points, 9.7 assists, and 5.1 rebounds. Paul has been a model of precision since returning, dishing out nearly 10 assists a night with minimal turnovers.

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In hindsight, the Rockets were bound to improve. Impressive as they were in 2016-17, it was D’Antoni’s first season with the team. The pieces weren’t necessarily in place and his approach to the game hadn’t yet been fully assimilated. But Houston isn’t just making steady progress. They’ve gone from a novelty act that could get hot and beat great teams to a great team themselves, a leap that pretty much no one saw coming because it rewires the way we think about Harden, Paul, and the Rockets writ large.

Improbably, James Harden got even better at basketball. Anyone who says they saw this coming is a flat-out liar. The perennial MVP candidate is a now a full-on marvel playing for a place in history. He has never made the game look easier or displayed more on-court acuity. Harden’s been impossible to guard for a minute now; opponents struggle with the lefty’s skewed sense of space and jagged accents. But his brilliance was so casual—not to mention, often just plain weird—that it sometimes didn’t truly sink in.

"If dominance is as much a mood as a series of facts, Harden has made a crucial leap, leaving a psychic footprint in the same way as a LeBron James or Russell Westbrook. He’s no longer just impressive in the moment."

This season, Harden seems intent on making a statement. It’s hard to say exactly what’s changed—maybe it’s a greater familiarity with the system, maybe he’s developed a chip on his shoulder, maybe the minutes he shares with Paul ease his workload—but he’s taking more chances and adding more emphasis than ever before. If dominance is as much a mood as a series of facts, Harden has made a crucial leap, leaving a psychic footprint in the same way as a LeBron James or Russell Westbrook. He’s no longer just impressive in the moment. There’s a queasy, wondrous feeling before, sometimes as soon as the ball is in his hands, and after, as you reel from the shock of what you’ve just seen.

Chris Paul has turned his narrative inside-out. His stock was at an all-time low when he was dealt to Houston. He wasn’t getting any younger. The game, which has all but dispensed with pure point guards, had seemingly passed him by. The lack of postseason success continued to dog him. And rumors abounded that his leadership style—a quarterback mentality that now seemed to belong to a different era—hadn’t exactly endeared himself to teammates. The Rockets weren’t the most logical destination. For one, they already had Harden as their primary ball handler. And Paul was a half-court-oriented, mid-range-happy, top-down floor general whose greatest strength was his micromanaging—everything that Harden and the Rockets were not.

As it turns out, Paul has proven perfectly amenable to, well, everything that the Rockets do, blending in seamlessly while adding a whole new wrinkle to their attack. As a playmakers and a scorer, Paul rigorously fills in some gaps in what was previously an at times precariously wide-open offense, much like Kevin Durant does in Golden State. He’s adapted gamely to Houston’s preferred tempo, hell-bent shooting, and the herky-jerky, Harden-inspired rhythms that are the team’s lingua franca. But he’s had a definite impact of his own. His ability to control the half-court has been invaluable, as has the mid-range game that brought out skeptics in drove. More broadly, he’s applied a degree of rigor to Houston’s game plan without compromising its spirit.

Paul seems to be having the time of life, even if he didn’t understand before exactly what he was looking for. And when he shared the floor with Harden, the chemistry and Paul is undeniable. Their capacity to accommodate, appreciate, and play off of each other makes them one of the more iconic NBA duos in recent memory. And barring any major setbacks, they’re going to continue to evolve in tandem. It’s nice to think that they’re influencing each other, with Paul’s piss-and-vinegar mentality rubbing off on the formerly carefree Harden, and Harden’s detachment helping loosen up Paul.

It’s hard to say just how far the Rockets will go. The Warriors are right behind them at 18-6, they’re still the Warriors, and there’s every reason to believe they’ll eventually go on to capture the title. As robust as the Rockets’ defense has been, and as clichéd as this sounds, it’s yet be tested by the postseason. Teams are encountering the Harden/Paul combo for the first time, and there’s every reason to think they’ll make adjustments going forward.

But the Warriors may have shifted the ways we gauge success in the NBA. This team isn’t only being judged in terms of titles—what they accomplish. How they do it, and what it feels like to watch them, also counts for something and this team racks up style points like nobody’s business. There’s also the chance that, as with D’Antoni’s perpetually-thwarted SSOL Suns teams, we’re getting a glimpse at a future whose time has not yet come. Singular as the backcourt may be, the Rockets are advancing a version of basketball we’ve never seen before.

For Harden and Paul, though, the present is itself a culmination. Harden is now starting to burnish a legacy in an era where a championship may simply be off the table. And Paul, who we thought was winding down, has surprised us in ways that make him a more exciting (and sympathetic) figure. In this sense, this pairing has been a triumph; by traditional standards, both Harden and Paul will continue to come up short.