Houston Rockets: 3 goals for Chris Paul in 2018-19 season

3. Stay healthy

Chris Paul won’t accomplish any major goals if he’s injured and neither will the Rockets. Last season, Paul missed 14 of Houston’s first 15 games of the year due to an injured left knee. Houston lost 10 of the 24 total games that Paul missed in the 2017-18 season.

Luckily, Paul was healthy for the beginning of the postseason. Houston knocked out the Timberwolves in the first round before Paul helped Houston dismantle Utah’s elite defense in the Western Conference Semifinals. CP3 dropped 41 points and 10 assists in an elimination Game 5 against the Jazz and the Rockets looked like the first team in the last two seasons that could potentially knock out the Golden State Warriors.

The Rockets won games 2, 4 and 5 against Golden State, taking a commanding 3-2 lead with Game 7 being held in Toyota Center. Unfortunately, Paul injured his right hamstring on a drive late in Game 5 and he couldn’t return in the last two games of the series. Without Paul, the Rockets just didn’t have the offensive firepower to hang with Golden State.

In order to add more depth at point guard, the Rockets signed Michael Carter-Williams, an additional playmaker that could come in handy if one of Houston’s starting guards suffers an injury. But make no mistake about it, if the Rockets want to knock out the defending champs, Chris Paul has to be healthy.

Next: No. 2