When I initially received the Bleacher Report notification on my phone, I didn’t think anything of it. A little buzz of my phone in my back pocket, which seconds later I will already have forgotten about it. Little did I know that the inadvertent vibration of my phone in my back pocket which I so easily dismissed was actually a culmination of this off season’s NBA version of an arms race. The Houston Rocket’s Red Army has just added the Tsar Bomba — the warhead necessary to compete with the Warrior’s Castle Bravo-like addition of Kevin Durant. Well, maybe not, but one thing’s for sure; this NBA off season is crazy. JR Smith said it best: “It’s just the way the league is going. The league is in frenzy because of the Warriors.”

However, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was initially concerned at the fit that CP3 would have with the Rockets. At first glance this made virtually no sense as far as fit goes. Several concerns were raised by this trade, chief among them the idea of somehow fitting the two most ball dominant guards in the league in the same offense. It just didn’t make sense, why would the two want to be on the same team together? However, upon closer inspection this trade actually makes a whole lot of sense for everyone involved — more so than one might think.

The most glaring issue is an apparent conundrum; how would the two most ball dominant guards in the league benefit from being on the floor at the same time? After D’Antoni moved Harden over to point guard last season — which yielded unearthly results — it would seem now that they’re going to move Harden off ball again. However, this is something of a non issue. First of all, Harden and Paul are superb spot up shooters. Chris Paul hits 40.1% of his spot up three point shots, whereas Harden hits 41.1% on spot up attempts. The amount of spacing these two will offer when on the floor only benefit both of their games, giving Harden all the more room to drive to the hoop and giving Chris Paul a whole lot of extra space to execute a drive and kick to a team stacked with superb three point shooters. Is Harden at his best when he has the ball in his hands? Sure, but he can also accomplish a lot off the ball, and you should never turn down the opportunity to add more play making to your team. I would liken it to Kyrie and Lebron, and the way that they take turns bringing the ball up the court. Are Lebron and Kyrie both at their best when they have the ball in their hands? Again, yes, however they sure seem to accomplish a heck of a lot off the ball whilst the other brings it up the court.

Furthermore, the Rockets most glaring issue last season was that when Harden took a seat on the pine, their offense completely stagnated. That’s not a problem anymore. If D’Antoni properly staggers Paul and Harden’s minutes, one of them will be on the floor at all times, and if nothing else, that is most certainly a recipe for success. Furthermore, Chris Paul offers exactly what Patrick Beverly offered on the defensive end of the ball (as shown by his First Team All Defense selection), but instead he actually has an offensive game. Besides, there’s no such thing as too much star power. As Harden showed us in this years playoffs, a one man show only gets you so far. Now, opponents will no longer be able to hone in and target Harden on defense, making the Rockets’ already superb offense that much harder to guard. Basketball is slowly transitioning into a position-less game, and this mad science experiment can only benefit from that.

Another concern that a lot of people have raised is the issue of how Chris Paul fits into Moreyball. Moreyball is the system of basketball which Houston plays, based of off GM Daryl Morey’s ideology that the only shots worth taking in basketball are layups and three point shots. In other words, no mid range jumpers. This raises some serious concerns about Chris Paul’s fits with the Rockets naturally, considering one of the most important facets of Paul’s game is the mid-range jumper. This is made abundantly clear when you look at the number of attempts per game from Chris Paul in the ’16 – ’17 season, 3.8 attempts per game, and compare it to that of the entire Rockets team, also 3.8 attempts per game. However, one thing people generally forget when they talk about this, is that this whole ideology of Moreyball is completely predicated upon the idea that mid-range jump shots are quite simply inefficient. The idea is, why would you take a mid-range jumper which has the same efficiency as a 3-point shot, when the three-point shot is worth an extra point? In other words, the Rockets hate mid-rangers because there are almost no NBA players who shoot it efficiently enough to be worth attempting. However, Chris Paul is the exception to the rule.

I find that his ability to shoot the mid-range shot is a tad overblown. One thing you have to understand is that Chris Paul is a very efficient player, and he never takes a shot he doesn’t like. In fact, the mid-range jumper is actually Chris Paul’s least efficient shot (contrary to popular belief). CP3 shot 49.8% in between 16 feet out to the 3-point line (in essence, 50%), which is pretty much the best mark in the league for the volume at which he shoots them. However, the Rockets effective field goal percentage last season was 55% — meaning that an average Rocket attempt is still better than a Chris Paul mid range jumper. But have no fear Rockets fans, this is not cause for alarm.

One of the ways which the Spurs absolutely killed the Rockets in this years play off series was completely shying away from the mid range on defense. The Spurs would clog the paint and badger along the three point line because they knew the Rockets weren’t going to take any mid range jumpers; they completely left the area from 16 feet out to the 3-point line unguarded. The addition of Chris Paul’s mid range game helps diversify the Rockets offense and will hopefully remedy Morey’s system’s biggest weakness; predictability. Besides, imagine how much more efficient Paul’s jump shot becomes when he’s surrounded by a completely spaced floor, courtesy of Harden, Ryan Anderson, and Trevor Ariza, compared to the Clippers where DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin clog the lane/paint.

Mike D’Antoni will make a perfect coach for Chris Paul. They call D’Antoni the “Point Whisperer” and it’s not hard to see why after the transformations his system has done for other point guards like Steve Nash, and even the explosion of James Harden last year. The scariest part, is Chris Paul might be the best point guard D’Antoni has ever coached (and before anyone starts objecting with their Steve Nash takes, Chris Paul really is better than MVP Steve Nash)! It’s crazy to think what Coach of the Year D’Antoni could do with this new toy in his system; if there’s anyone who can make the CP3-Harden pairing work, it’s most certainly D’Antoni.

This deal makes so much more sense than just the fit of it on the court. The fact that a trade was made, rather than Paul being signed out right, makes sense for every party involved; Chris Paul, the Clippers, and even Houston. For the Clippers, the value in this trade is rather salient. They received a great haul for a player that would’ve left for nothing in free agency. What’s more, it was clear that a reset was needed for the Clippers franchise, and this should be just the kick in the pants they need to do so. For the Rockets, by acquiring Harden via trade they’re able to retain his bird rights (in order to offer him the super max, which is probably what enticed him there in the first place — but more on that later), and through some Daryl Morey magical cap manipulation were able to create an $11 million trade exception, and created a mid-level exception which they can later use to absorb other players contracts. And since the Rockets have Paul on his old contract, they can actually go out and get another top tier player within their cap, and then sign Chris Paul to his supermax deal next summer (provided they’re willing to be engulfed in cap-hell). Plus, now from the very offset of free agency, the Rockets have another star they can use as a lure for potential free agent targets.

But the real winner throughout all of this is none other than Chris Paul. Now, by opting into the final year of his contract, Chris Paul will be slated for the 2018 Free Agency class (Should be dully noted that that is the same class as Dwayne Wade and LeBron James). This will give Chris Paul not only more money, but also more flexibility. For the coming year, he can test the waters and see if this crazy experiment will really work. If not? He’s got the ability to leave to greener pastures in the coming offseason. What’s more is that if this does indeed work out, and Chris Paul finds that he does want to play with the Rockets for the rest of his career, because the Rockets now have his bird rights, he will be eligible for a five-year supermax deal. Did I mention CP3 has a trade kicker? If nothing else, this man is about to be paid. Chris Paul’s two options were going to the Spurs, which would have went all in for winning a title, or staying with the Clippers, a move which meant going all in for the money. However, the Rockets was the perfect Goldilocks-esque option which allowed Chris Paul to straddle the line between the two and accomplish both of his goals; money, and contention.

So, is this new CP3-Harden-Ariza-Gordon-Capela line-up the second coming of Basketball Jesus Christ? Well, only time will tell, but in the end it sure makes a lot of sense for everyone involved.