Ranking the 5 teams most likely to win the 2019 NBA Finals

2. Houston Rockets

More than likely, the Houston Rockets‘ best path to returning to the NBA Finals is just running it back. Re-sign Chris Paul, match any offer for Clint Capela, bring back Trevor Ariza and/or Luc Mbah a Moute for cheap, try to trade Ryan Anderson for more shooting and defense if you can, but overall, don’t do anything too flashy. After all, this team was one Chris Paul injury away from possibly unseating the mighty Warriors in the conference finals.

No one has had more success against the Dubs since Kevin Durant came to town, and watching Golden State steamroll Cleveland in a quick Finals sweep revealed just how impressive Houston’s postseason was, especially with CP3 out for Games 6 and 7.

However, the Rockets could put themselves in position for LeBron James (or Paul George) this summer if they wanted. It’d be exceedingly difficult, and they’d have to gut the roster’s depth, but a Big Four of Harden, LeBron, CP3 and Capela would be pretty tantalizing.

Again, that idyllic scenario would come with quite a bit of sacrifice. LeBron would have to opt in to the final year of his contract and the Cavs would have to agree to a sign-and-trade knowing they’d lose him anyway. CP3 would have to take a discount and Capela would either have to do the same by not signing an offer sheet from another team, or hope the Rockets willing to pay a looooot of salary tax money in the event they had to match a big offer.

On top of that, Houston would have to throw in multiple draft picks to get Ryan Anderson’s contract off the books, and you could say goodbye perennial sixth man to Eric Gordon, Luc Mbah a Moute, P.J. Tucker, Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green, unless the free agents in that group were willing to re-sign for the veteran minimum.

This might be the rare scenario where retooling is the preferred path for Daryl Morey, because even one of the league’s most creative GMs would struggle to put adequate depth around that Big Four.

Still, with the possibility of a Banana Boat reunion looming and the prospect of retooling a roster that took Golden State the full distance representing a pretty solid alternative, the Rockets will be a legitimate title threat in 2019 either way.