While the Houston Rockets don't seem to be viable options for LeBron James' free agency decision, he and Chris Paul are great friends. Reports say that the star guard is recruiting James to the Rockets.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Paul has his eyes set on luring James to Houston (h/t ClutchPoints' Tomer Azarly).

Paul and James' friendship has been well-documented via photos of their vacation and several interviews of them speaking about one another. About three years ago, James admitted that Paul is one of his best friends in the league, as per Joe Vardon of cleveland.com:

“First of all, I've got three very good friends in this league, and that's Carmelo (Anthony), and that's C.P. (Chris Paul), and that's D-Wade. And after that I have a bunch of teammates. I have guys I ride for every day.”

Their friendship is definitely a great asset. But will it be enough to convince James and form a powerhouse in Houston? It should be noted that Paul is a free agent. He is reportedly not willing to take a pay cut. As per Woj, the Rockets need to offer him max money if they want to keep him:

“When the Rockets made that deal for Chris Paul, knowing they would re-sign him [once he hit free agency], they made a conscious decision that they were gonna have to live with [paying him] $46, $47 million a year salary when he’s not nearly the player anymore in his late 30s, but, ‘we’re gonna make a run at it now, we wanna win a championship now.