Speaking to Sam Amick of The Athletic after Thursday night’s huge overtime win over Golden State, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey confirmed that his club will be in the market for immediate upgrades to its roster at the trade deadline this season.
“We’re definitely a buyer,” Morey said. “I think we’ve been trying to win the title for a while, and we had a couple years before we got James [Harden] where we probably didn’t have as much of a chance to win, where we were probably a little more future-focused. But since James has been here we’ve been buyers at the deadline and hopefully something comes along that we think can help our chances to win the title. We’ve had a few years where we don’t, so we don’t force it, but we’re going to be looking for something to hopefully upgrade the team.”
Houston has climbed all the way up to fourth in the Western Conference standings as a result of its recent hot streak, and we’ve been hearing for months that the team remains on the lookout for wing help, so Morey’s comments don’t come as a surprise. Still, they confirm that the Rockets will be one of the many teams around the NBA scouring what figures to be a seller’s market leading up to February 7.
Although Harden’s heroics as of late have helped mask some of Houston’s lingering issues, the club remains an average to below-average defensive team. Acquiring a big-bodied wing who can make three-pointers will be Morey’s top priority, particularly since James Ennis has battled injuries for much of the season.
The Rockets have been linked to a number of potential trade targets over the last few months, including Kent Bazemore, J.R. Smith, DeMarre Carroll, and Trevor Ariza. Some of those players would be better fits than others, while some would also be more attainable than others. The Rockets have reportedly dangled Brandon Knight and a first-round pick in trade talks for their preferred targets.
Just wondering why this isn’t showing up in the Rockets team feed?
Should be there now.
with the reports of butler and embid having issues is it possible the rox make another run at him ?
What reports are you talking about?
If anything it’s because a change of play style not a chemistry style. Embid has to play differently with other players who are ball options.
May I interest you in one Tim Hardaway Jr or Enes Kanter????
I actually think Hardaway Jr. would be perfect on the Rockets and the Knicks would be more than willing to take some of those draft picks Morey was flaunting a couple of months ago
Can’t see anyone giving picks for Hardaway
Kevin Love and Jr Smith for all the roster fodder and some first round picks.
Dude last night Harden played an unbelievable game, he & Capela alone against all the fire power of the Warriors, plus add the referees they did do the worst call ever in sports to help the Warriors win, but even with all of that nothing can stop Harden, this guy is from another world, really enjoyed the game, fantastic, all basketball fans must have love it!
I’m surprised that Houston hasn’t done something already on the “big wing” front. Not sure I can remember a team that was so close to a title following it up with such a feeble off season. All their additions have been minimum wage signings. Didn’t use their MLE. Their only significant trade was a tax savings deal with the Suns. I get the luxury tax is relevant in all their moves, but their window to compete for a title needs to be valued too.
How about this?
HOU gets Barnes
MEM gets Melo and Matthews
DAL gets Parsons, Otto Porter and Chris’s
WAS gets Knight and MCW
Works on espn TM: link to espn.com
HOU will get a good defender in Barnes who can knock down 45% of threes. They’d would need to send some picks DAL way, probably MEM too. WAS might get a second rounder for OPJ but they really do it for the cap relieve!
DAL parts with valuable veterans but collects assets to use either in a blockbuster trade (AD maybe?) or to find cheap talent when Luka & DSJs max salaries kick in.
Matthews and Melo (maybe) can actually help Memphis pushing for the playoffs. Oh and the Grizz finally get rid of Parsons’ contract (who will be waived by Dallas in July at one final party with Cuban).
Who says no?
what’s wrong with brandon knight? yeh he’s coming off an injury, but he should be good to go and had a nice game before it. i don’t understand the negative sentiment..