Reports have indicated the Rockets would like to re-sign Patrick Beverley and Josh Smith, and GM Daryl Morey tells Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com that the same feeling applies to other Rockets.
“We’re pretty focused on now, but obviously pretty much everyone on this team, we’re going to be focused on trying to bring them back,” Morey said. “We got quite a few free agents, Josh Smith is one, we’re going to address in the offseason. We feel if our team can keep executing, we feel like we can keep getting better with the group that we have here.”
Corey Brewer, Jason Terry and K.J. McDaniels are the team’s other soon-to-be free agents. Here’s more from Houston and elsewhere around the Lone Star State:
- Morey also lauded Kevin McHale in his interview with Watkins, saying that a team’s coach “has a huge impact” on the decisions free agents make when they sign. The Rockets inked McHale to a three-year extension in December.
- Several members of the Mavs organization rolled their eyes after the team announced Wednesday that Rajon Rondo was out indefinitely with a back injury, seemingly dubious that his health has anything to do with his absence from the team, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com examines. Coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged that he doesn’t expect Rondo, set for free agency this summer, to return to Dallas.
- Sources close to Rondo tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that the Mavs have never been an ideal fit for the point guard and that everyone involved has just been trying to make the best of it, as Kyler writes within in NBA AM piece.
- The Spurs and Mavs reportedly believe they’ll have a chance to sign LaMarcus Aldridge this summer, as we passed along earlier.