Montrezl Harrell: Why the Houston Rockets Would be a Great Fit for LeBron

Everybody has a LeBron James landing spot. Montrezl Harrell has one nobody else is saying out loud.

Asked where he thinks James ends up, Harrell started with what he believes James no longer wants, which is to carry a young roster.

"I feel like he's later on in his stage in his career to the point he's not trying to lead a younger team," Harrell said. "But as far as being the face of the team, I think he understands that. He already had that era. He is that era and already have surpassed that era. He just played what, two seasons with his son."

That, in Harrell's read, points in one direction. James is going to a championship contender, and the field is basically any playoff team from this past season. He floated Philadelphia. He floated Golden State. Then he got to the one he actually wanted to talk about.

"The one that people aren't really thinking about will probably be a Houston," Harrell said.

His case for the Rockets is built on the pieces already in the building. Houston has younger talent and real depth. Fred VanVleet did not get much of a chance to play alongside Kevin Durant this past season. And the frontcourt question that has followed this team around for two years is not really a question anymore.

"They have a big man in Alperen Sengun," Harrell said, running through the same complaint everyone has made about the Rockets. He has got to play big. He has got to play the four. They need a true big.

"Me myself, I think Houston is definitely a sleeper option," Harrell said.

The follow-up came from the perspective of a team that has actually beaten them. Houston's major problem in the playoff series that ended their season, Harrell noted, was the absence of VanVleet. Without him, the Rockets kept running into trouble finding a ball handler, someone who could distribute.

Add James to that group and the problem stops existing. Which is exactly why the pick works.

"That's not a bad dark horse, man," Harrell said.

It is worth sitting with what makes this different from the usual free agency chatter. The Philadelphia and Golden State scenarios get talked to death because they are obvious, and obvious is not the same thing as correct. Harrell's Houston pitch is the rare one that solves a specific basketball problem rather than a narrative one. The Rockets do not need a face. They need someone who can make decisions with the ball when the game slows down in May, and they need it without giving up the young talent that makes them interesting in the first place.

James on a contender that already has size and youth, playing the role of distributor rather than franchise pillar, is not a stretch. It is the version of the ending that fits what Harrell described in the first place.