Why Houston Rockets Made NO MOVES At NBA Trade Deadline, Possible Big Picture Plans & Star Chasing

Why Houston Rockets Made NO MOVES At NBA Trade Deadline, Possible Big Picture Plans & Star Chasing

On today’s show a very quiet NBA traded line for the Houston Rockets why didn’t we see the Rockets make any moves what it kind of tells us about what we think their plan is moving forward possible front office concerns and the risks of chasing star level players we’re going

To unpack all that right here at lockdown Rockets this is Mission Control Houston ignition sequence start throw it up to jayen Green shenon here in a short row oh my that’s the no Jabari for three and the win look at T here comes at 15 seconds guidance is internal

The Houston Rockets select amen Thompson and cam Whitmore one thing I have never done is not made the playoffs and so we want to take that step here as well 6 5 4 3 2 one the NBA trade deadline has come and gone and the Houston Rockets look the

Exact same what’s up and welcome to another edition of locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball as always I’m your host Jackson Gatlin native Eon a credential media member I’m also the host of locked on NBA Mondays be sure to follow along on Twitter at JT Gatlin and

The show of course lockon Rockets free and available wherever you listen to your podcast including YouTube where I want your thoughts I want your feelings I want your reaction actions to what the Houston Rockets did or didn’t do at the NBA trade deadline let me know in the

YouTube comments and as always thank you so much for making lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day whether it’s on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym thank you for being in every day or making the show part of your day every single day Rockets didn’t

Do anything now that not that’s not technically true they made the Stephen Adams trade but that was a little bit before the deadline so that was the only move that the Houston Rockets made the only midseason move that the Rockets made uh at this year’s NBA trade deadline

They did not manage to address the clear the two biggest problems with this roster the clear lack of shooting as well as the clear lack of a backup uh Center for this season I understand Stephen Adams great trade for next year if you haven’t watched our reaction show

Breakdown of of of that signing and what it means for the team go do that I’m not going to spend much time talking about it today if at all so let’s start with the elephant in the room why didn’t we see the Houston Rockets make any moves uh I think it’s a

I think it’s a very disappointing thing like if I had to just on the surface it was it’s a good trade deadline or a bad trade deadline for the Rockets I think it’s kind of bad I think it’s kind of disappointing that we had an NBA trade

Deadline where we saw a lot of very serviceable role players being moved around and shuffled and this that and the other thing for as little as you know a couple second rounders here and there and the Rockets decided to stand Pat sit on their hands do nothing now

Doing nothing is not inherently a bad thing sometimes doing nothing is better than doing something just for the sake of doing something or doing something and it turning out to be a bad move so doing nothing is not inherently bad but when the Rockets clearly had two areas

Of need shooting and a backup big man and neither of those two areas got addressed even when there’s still the possibility of like here here’s the the biggest issue I take with what happened or again didn’t happen at the at the at the trade deadline for the Rockets is at

A minimum the Rockets could have resolved or should or could still knock on would potentially resolve their backup big man situation they didn’t trade for a backup big man but you can easily go out and get a buyout candidate you know off waivers bismack bambo is

Still a free agent and he’s a name that the Rockets could potentially go sign uh Robin Lopez is another name that got shuffled about in I think a couple different trades but he got waved so that’s another veteran big man that you could sign and bring to Houston and hey

You miss out on Brook Lopez over the summer so why not get the next best thing his his his brother Robin I I I kid but you know legitimately those are two possible options that the Rockets could still go after and at a minimum I would like to

See the Rockets you know wave boban marianovich who doesn’t play is not part of the rotation anyways and actually go sign a center that they can give 10 to 15 minutes A Night to when you need a legitimate rebounding presence a bigger body to throw on guys you know so you

Can give Alper and shenon a legitimate backup five and you don’t have to exclusively rely on Jeff Green to be your backup five when he’s more of a small ball five a guy that should be used situationally so I think depending on what happens with the buyout candidates um I I still

I will reserve a little bit of judgment to see if the rocks are able to scoop up a name somewhere somehow to be a serviceable backup five man for this roster uh but I’m not going to hold my breath because the problem is now you are in direct contention with the other

Teams that are actually legitimate playoff threats or or possible Championship contenders because those teams are going to be lining up to flesh out their rosters first and I’m sure that bismack bambo and Robin Lopez would rather go play for one of those teams that they have aspirations about you

Know pursuing a title and and getting a getting a ring rather than signing with the Houston Rockets who are kind of On The Fringe you know of even making the play in which doesn’t even look like a guarantee at this point so there’s there’s that

Um and at a minimum I would have you know so so that’s kind of at a minimum and I would have liked to see the team actually explore some trades with Reggie Bullock and Jan Tate because those are two guys that feels like Reggie Bullock’s already not playing Jan Tate’s

Minutes have been steadily decreasing over the season and once tar een returns from injury which is is right around the corner we’re nearing a tar e return probably I would hope immediately after All-Star break or soon after All-Star break there’s not going to be any minutes for J Shanti once tar e comes

Back and is playing ideally 25 or 30 plus minutes a night for the Rockets there’s not going to be any minutes for guys like Reggie Bullock like Jan Tate so at a minimum you could have flipped those two guys for second round draft picks or or you know potentially a late

First if there was one on the table for a guy like Jan Tate and that is is a little problematic that this Rockets front office and that kind of gets into maybe some of the concerns that you might have with the front office about their approach to the NBA trade deadline

And and some of you know some of the criticisms in the past that we’ve had about their uh reactive nature instead of being proactive in seeking deals and maybe holding on to players for a little bit longer than they probably should have it was reported by the Athletics

Kelly e that the Houston Rockets had two second round picks on the table for Jan Tate from the Dallas Mavericks and they declined the trade which at this point I think is a bit of a mistake uh because again if J Shante is not going to have a

Spot in the rotation if he’s going to lose out his spot because of the emergence of Cam Whitmore and tar E’s return getting value for a guy like that would probably make a ton of sense but instead the Rockets are going to hold on to him and you know potentially re

Revisit things in the summer now with J shant Tate it’s not the absolute end of the world because he does still have uh another year left on his contract he is aggregatable salary and one of the I guess bigger more long-term plays that it looks like the Rockets are teeing

Themselves up for is the ability to go Star chasing either this summer or next trade deadline or potentially uh in summer 2025 a year and a half from now and we’re going to unpack why that is and and why that looks to be the case but overall I think I’m just kind of

Disappointed with this trade deadline for the Rockets you had two very clear areas of need didn’t address either one of them now if it’s because you didn’t want to you know you didn’t want to give up assets for a marginal like half Season Rental of certain guys like like

Buddy hee got moved at the deadline but it cost three second round picks to get him he’s only got a half season left on his contract so maybe that’s maybe the market just wasn’t where it needed to be for the Rockets front office to make uh a trade for an impact contributor that

Could be available right now for this season and that’s fine that makes sense if that’s the case but at the same time the fact that you couldn’t even accomplish a marginal Improvement for the backup fiveman spot uh is a bit concerning so I do think that there are some legitimate concerns to be

Had about the approach with what you know with the fact that the front office didn’t do anything this trade deadline um but I want to try and unpack why or what I think the Rockets kind of Grand Master Plan here is as well as further getting into some of the again the

Concerns about Asset Management from the front office and uh the risks associated with potentially chasing stars as well as we’ll take a look around the NBA landscape and kind of see uh checking on some of the winners and losers from the NBA trade deadline and we’ll also visit

Or revisit with the uh Brooklyn Nets kind of see what they did no male Bridges trade from the Nets so we’ll take stock of what that means for the Brooklyn Nets picks moving forward we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought

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Themselves up for if they didn’t make any moves at this deadline uh I kind of to it already in the first segment but a big part of I think the reasoning for why we didn’t see anything happen with guys like J shant Tate or jock landale

Or Jeff Green or any number of the players on the roster is because the Rockets right now are actually set up pretty beautifully to make a splashy trade to you know pursue a blockbuster trade if you will either this upcoming off season or at next NBA tread deadline

Or if they don’t make a trade for a bigname player at either of those two uh spots then they could just be poised to have I believe roughly like $80 million give or take of expiring salary in summer 2025 so that’s a decent spot to be in if

You’re the Houston Rockets it gives you some Financial flexibility it gives you options it allows you to go Star hunting and chasing and for the next distressed asset or disgruntled star player who wants out of a bad situation great you have the ability and you’ve got the

Salary to make it happen and to go pursue one of those guys the reason being again you’ve got J Shante Jack landale Jeff Green uh Stephen Adams is another contract that’s expiring uh and also consider Fred Van vet who is going to be on a massive expiring deal since it’s a

Team option in year three of his contract that’s a ton of financial flexibility now here’s the rub and here’s the the the frustrating part in all this banking on being able to trade for a star-level player is a risky approach right we saw for years darl muray was obsessed with star chasing and

Trying to pair a star player with James Harden and you know he success he he was able to do it with the Dwight Howard signing and then that didn’t work out then he tried for a little while longer was able to finally trade for Chris Paul

Who was probably a little over the hill at that point um but was still incredibly effective the best Star teammate that James Harden had ever played with up to that point in his career uh or at least in Houston I apologize no disrespect to uh OKC Westbrook and and Kevin Durant but uh

And then after that right they they traded Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook and I think there’s a level of obsession with star chasing that can kind of backfire uh and where the Rockets find themselves and why I think it’s a risky proposition to try and put yourself in

Position to trade for a star player like that is because the Rockets do not have the best offer on the market they just don’t uh that’s just facts because there are multiple teams out there that can outbid the rockets for a potential Star level player like let’s just hypothetical right let’s say this

Offseason Joel embiid is like get me out of Philadelphia I demand a trade uh the teams that are very clearly ahead of the Rockets from an asset management perspective are first off OKC is ahead of everybody else in the NBA Sam pry is has run a master class he’s

Got his team is at the top of the Western Conference they’re one of the best teams in the NBA and they have more assets and young pieces than anybody else in the league does they are set up for insane future long-term success they can outbid anybody following them the

Utah Jazz are in a really great spot as well they have a ton of picks from dealing Donovan Mitchell and Rudy gobear the San Antonio Spurs are sitting on a decent chunk of picks uh from the original framework of the dejonte Murray trade as well as their own draft picks

Moving forward plus they’ve got a lot of young Talent a lot of young kind of blue prospects that could be included in a potential Blockbuster type deal so those are just three teams that could potentially outbid the rockets and I haven’t done you know I haven’t dug into

Every team in the association to know if there’s another couple teams that might be out there that have a marginally better offer than the Houston Rockets do but I think there’s been this kind of misconception that the Rockets have this like you know insane amount of draft picks to work

With to just you know with with the left with what they have left of the Brooklyn Nets picks they really don’t and unfortunately for the Rockets now that the Brooklyn Nets have have left this NBA trade deadline and they didn’t do any major moves I think there’s you

Can maybe make an argument that the Nets got a little bit better because they swapped Spencer deny for Dennis shuder but they also traded Royce O’Neal and he was you know a decent player for them so you can make the argument they got a little better you can maybe make the

Argument that they got a little worse more or less the Nets didn’t shake up anything crazy so they’re still kind of a middling you know play-in tournament esque team in a weak Eastern conference the pick isn’t going to be incredible the pick this year is not going to be

Incredible and as long as the Nets maintain this current course that they’re on of mediocrity the picks are never going to be phenomenal they’re going to be somewhere in that you know 8 to 12 13 range in the lottery that’s not great to work with um so unfortunately I don’t think the Rockets

Are in a great position to bid for a potential upset star caliber player if one does does ultimately demand a trade because of the position that the other teams are in and on top of that they would probably have to include multiple of the core six to get a team interested

In doing a trade with the Rockets um there’s no way that the Nets picks are going to be enough when you’re trying to out bid teams like OKC and Utah and San Antonio for a potential star- level player now the one area that I do think Rockets fans should be encouraged by and

Where I’m encouraged is is Oka is a coach with a lot of cache around the NBA landscape players love absolutely adore Oka and lots of players would love to play for Oka so it’s very possible that the next star player that does want out of a bad situation or wants to be moved

And get a change of scenery all that if that player comes out and says I’m demanding a trade to Houston or I only want to be traded to Houston or I’ll only resign a new contract in Houston any variation of the above right because they want to come to Houston because

They see the young Talent they see the direction the team is headed they see Oka as the head coaching like that’s a situation that I want to be in that is a distinct possibility and we’ve seen it happen before where star players submit their demands and by and large star

Players kind of get what they want in today’s NBA that’s the era of player empowerment and we saw it with James Harden right he forced his way out of Houston he got exactly where he wanted to go he wanted to go to Philadelphia or Brooklyn he got to Brooklyn and the

Rockets got all the the Net’s picks back because of it so the Rockets are going to be in a position where they can potentially you know make a play for a star player but it’s going to require some Potential leveraging from that star because if a star just says get me out

Of here I don’t care where I go there’s multiple other teams that are going to have better offers in front of the Rockets but if that star player says Nah I only want to go to Houston then that gives the Rockets a lot of Leverage in those negotiations and they can utilize

Some of their own draft picks that are much further down the line or the Nets picks or some combination of the young players that they do have have on hand to be able to make a deal happen so there’s at least some reason for cautious optimism that the star chasing

Won’t be totally Bleak um but again I just think it’s a risky proposition to put yourself in that business where you’re you’re trying to chase for Star guys because you never know if one’s going to come loose you don’t know who you’re bidding against um and that’s

Kind of where it looks like the Rockets are headed currently where they’ve got all this expiring salary they’re going to revisit things this summer uh I really hope that they don’t draft that Nets pick the 2024 pick I would I would hope at this point you’re going to have

To try and maybe fashion together a draft night trade to not make that selection because the moment you make that selection that’s yet another young player that you’re going to have to have a plan for either figuring out how you’re going to grow and develop them or

Trading them to another team or whatever it just becomes a lot harder to make that happen if you don’t have a concrete idea of how you’re going to to develop and and get that guy into the rotation especially when you have so many other young guys already on the

Roster coming up I do want to get into some more thoughts from this trade deadline some of the potential concerns with the Rockets front office about the asset management perspective of what we’ve seen from this Rockets front office uh as well as taking a quick glance around the

NBA uh and kind of what some of the other teams did some of the winners and losers from the NBA trade deadline we’re going to get there in just just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by Nissan are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a

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Pathfinder and go find your next big adventure shop nissanusa.com and final segment here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball now I’m not even going to be able to unpack fully all my thoughts on this in you know what this trade

Deadline means for the rockets and kind of how it how we have to unpack what this team is going to be capable of moving forward I mentioned early on I’m a little disappointed in the outcome of this deadline it’s not the end of the world because let’s face it the Rockets have

Probably already performed have probably exceeded expectations of where a lot of people thought this team would be at this season they’ve had some adversity they’ve had major injuries not having tar een for so much of the season has definitely adversely impacted this team missing Dylan Brooks for that stretch of

Games now they’re missing Fred Van bleet it hasn’t been a perfect season I think they still exceeded expectations they’re still on track for where you would hope this team would be they might miss the playing tournament this year it is what it is but for me I do think that there are very

Legitimate concerns about what we have seen or haven’t seen from the Rockets front office and a big part of that is again moves at the margins you know talking about early on you know some of the players that have been moved around this deadline for second picks or the

Fact that we didn’t see any of those kind of smaller moves being made by the Rockets front office at this deadline and maybe it’s just because the Rockets front office doesn’t necessarily care about some of these smaller moves uh at the end of the day but when you see so

Many different players being moved around for second round draft picks two seconds 3 seconds here and there and you look at the future for the Houston Rockets they only have five available second round draft picks and you look at like what brought them to this point it

Cost them seven draft picks to get an injured Steven Adams who’s not even he’s not even playing this season and we don’t know what he’s going to look like as he rehabilitates and tries to get back to you know NBA shape and all that hopefully he’s able to be you know 70 or

80% of what he was previously before he was injured but that’s that’s the cautious optimism but because of the shenanigans that took place over the summer their pursuit of Brook Lopez that kind of fell through it cost them a couple second round draft picks to offload the contract of Tai Tha

Washington USAG Aruba all that stuff this past free agency then it cost them two more second round draft picks to trade Kevin Porter Jr’s contract for Victor Oladipo and then they traded the Victor Oladipo contract for Stephen Adams and that cost them three second round draft picks so seven total second

Round draft picks for a backup center who’s not even healthy right now this season I think that’s a little concerning I don’t and again I in a in a I don’t I don’t hate the Stephen Adams trade in a vacuum it’s just you you see some of the other deals that other GMS

Around the association make and how they stockpile assets and make these kind of really smart clever on the margin moves and you just don’t see the rockets doing many of those deals now they have in the past um they they had that one deal with the Nets I cannot remember the players’s

Name uh D dooma maybe something like that that they traded with the Nets and they got a second round draft pick from doing that deal for like very it was a small kind of margin move that was a clever deal they had the one with OKC uh

A couple seasons ago where that involved David NOA that ultimately it was like a a big Shuffle of a bunch of players Derrick favers was involved in that deal and ultimately it wound up being this weird Shuffle of a bunch of expiring contracts but the Rockets netted a

Second round draft pick out of it so deals like that we’ve seen the Rockets run off has do it a couple times but not consistently enough and for the people who like to you know clown what has been dubbed uh Asset Management Twitter or those of us who are concerned with those

Moves kind of at the margins that that’s what separates a team from being I don’t know a perennial first round exit or a team that wants to sit on the treadmill of mediocrity or just a a poorly mismanaged team in general that’s what separates those teams from the teams

That find sustainable long-term success from the teams that are legitimate have legitimate Championship front office Executives guys who understand hey for us to build a contender we’re going to need a ton of second round draft picks down the line to be able to throw and

Pick up guys who are you know on cheap deals or or you know you know role players that other teams might not want those second round picks are important currency in the NBA landscape we’ve seen again at this very trade deadline we saw a lot of different role players you know

Get shopped around moved to other Playoff hopefuls possible contenders teams making Acquisitions using multiple second round draft picks it’s kind of the new NBA currency it used to be you saw late first rounders getting moved all the time now you’re seeing two three sometimes four or five second round

Draft picks being all attached together and thrown at players at serviceable role players so I do think there are valid concerns and criticisms I I think some of them are probably a bit overblown because they some of the big picture stuff some of the bigger M you know uh choices that

This front office have had to make they’ve gotten right they’ve they’ve made some solid choices they’ve drafted well um Alper and shenon knocked it out of the park uh kind of TBD at this point on Jaylen green with that number two overall pick uh what his future looks

Like and how that draft pick is going to be reflected on uh we as we get further and further away from the 2021 NBA draft Jabari and tar look awesome Cam and a men look great so far so there are some things that you want to give the front

Office credit for and that they’ve gotten right but then there’s also things that you can be critical of and think hey you know maybe we would have liked to see some different choices being made here or you know being a little bit more proactive instead of

Reactive um but I’m not going to Drudge up and try and tackle the entire history of what Rael Stone and the rockets front office have done or haven’t done uh over these last 3 four years but I do think that it’s just worth noting that there are some legitimate concerns

About this front office and their approach to certain things so we’ll see how it all plays out ultimately for this Rockets team what they’re able to potentially do in free agency in the offseason you know what their what their ultimate plan is and that’s kind of my

Thing is I just I would just like there to be what seems to be a concrete plan because at the beginning of this season they talked about phase two of the rebuild and and you know emay talked about never missing the playoffs and it kind of seemed like the plan was for

Them to be aggressive and and make the play in tournament this year it seemed like that was kind of their the bar that they set for themselves and then we even saw eay very early on in the season right the benchings of Jaylen green of Jabari Smith Jr Alper sh right benching the

Young guys in favor of playing the veterans to try and win basketball games kind of seemed like development was secondary and that winning games was the primary goal this season and then that kind of shifted to where we started seeing you know more reps you know developmental reps being poured into

Certain guys we we’ve seen the Jaylen green experiment look a variety of different ways this season having him run with the second unit having him get more reps with the starters all this stuff so I I wonder if internally the goals kind of shifted back to hey maybe

We’re not good enough to make the play in this year we’ll just focus on development and we’ll reassess kind of where we’re at this off season and and make the the necessary moves to be a more competitive team next year but I think it’s really hard to make that leap

From if you miss the playing tournament again this season so no postseason basketball if you finish in the 11th or 12th spot in the Western Conference this year I think it’s really hard to make that leap from being the 11th or 12th best team in the west

To at that point next year when you’re in year two of what is supposed to be phase two of the rebuild what is the what’s the uh bottom where’s your your level of success at at that point is it okay to just barely make the play in are

You going to be okay with a ninth or 10th seed or does the expectation shift to hey okay we missed a play in that first year this year we should be like the seventh or eighth seed I just wonder what what the internal expectations are organizationally for where the Rockets

Are at where they want to be at um because there’s there are legitimate arguments on both sides the sides you know the side of people who wanted to see some moves being made and maybe pushing for you know getting to the play in this year

Again not if it’s going to cost you an unreasonable amount of assets to get impact players or guys who could potentially have been contributors on this team you don’t want to overdo it there the Rockets definitely aren’t at a point where you want to push a bunch of

Chips into the table for a ninth or 10th seed push but that’s also why when you look at their asset management and you look at the fact that they don’t have what I’ve like to refer to now as like a confetti cannon full of second round draft picks to just blast at potential

Targets that’s concerning because if they had had I don’t know 12 second round draft picks to work with at this deadline instead of only the five that they had or I guess eight before the stepen Adams trade if they had had more second round draft picks to work with

Then maybe we could have seen them pick up a shooter or a backup big or something like that rather than just choosing to do nothing so that’s why and sorry if this conversation feels cir or if I’m you know rehashing certain things I’m just trying to wrap my head around the approach

Um and again ultimately uh I don’t think they I don’t I don’t think the Rockets like hurt themselves by not doing anything at this deadline I just wonder if it means that internally their expectations have shifted they’re not as worried about making the play in and they’re more so

Focused on the future of what this team can be and they’re ready to just hey we’re just gonna play out the rest of the season wherever you know wherever the chips may fall so be it if we make the plan cool if we don’t make the plan we still had a

Really good season there’s a lot of data points for Oka to understand what he has with this young group of guys who’s going to stick around long term who are we going to commit to all that stuff now it is worth noting uh as a as another point that I

Want to bring up here uh this upcoming off season is when Alper and shenon and Jaylen green both become extension eligible but as brought up and highlighted by uh resident Rockets uh capologist uh and assistant to the general manager beug on social media on Twitter he’s highlighting and said that he don’t he

Doesn’t think it’s a guarantee that the Rockets actually extend either of jayen green or Alper and Shon this upcoming off season because what it would allow the Rockets to do is if they didn’t extend either Jaylen or alpie this offseason it would give them that 80 million something

Dollars to work with next offseason so summer 2025 to be able to have a Max contract slot to to throw at potential free agents multiple multiple slots to throw out potential free agents because then you just have this very small cap hold from jayen and alpie instead of

Inking them to this massive deal that is then going to actively prevent you from signing a bigname player or two down the line so maybe that’s their approach maybe they really are just targeting summer 2025 and we’re going to kind of stuck in a bit of a holding pattern till

Then I think that’s probably a little unrealistic which is why the Rockets are also teed up to potentially trade for a star player rather than just having to outright sign one but I also would hate to see this team be stuck in in limbo for the next year and a half until not

This summer but next summer to try and get a star- level player hopefully by then you know Alper and shingun already looks like an All-Star hopefully by then we have a better idea maybe maybe Jabari starts to look like an Allstar next season season or maybe Amin or Cam they

Start to really hit or maybe Jaylen green has really turned the corner and he’s going to look like a a future star for the back half of this season and the rockets are going to lock in and he’s definitely going to be a part of the

Future moving forward but a lot of those are are unknowns a lot of those are big question marks we don’t know how that stuff’s going to play out so I think I’ve tackled most of the points that I wanted to address in this episode about uh uh about what the

Rockets have done about how they could still improve with the buyout candidates about what we would have liked to see them try and do at the deadline um double check I’m I’m going through my notes here I’m trying to make sure I don’t miss a single thing emok

Cache with players cool cool cool cool cool all right I think I’ve mostly gotten everything that I wanted to address I will say uh I I am very curious I I put it out there on social media and I put it out there on the the YouTube comments asking people’s

Reactions to uh what the Rockets did or again didn’t do at this NBA traded line a lot of people are upset a lot of people are very frustrated with what the Rockets did um there’s also a lot of people that said that they’re okay and again I I see arguments from both sides

Uh I’m not going to over I’m not going to completely overreact yet I think I’m leaning more again I mentioned earlier I’m disappointed with um I didn’t even mention Jack landale earlier when I was talking about expiring contracts my goodness uh I’m reading a comment that says ja landale now so that that

Triggered that memory um but look I get it and it probably is a bit of a disappointing trade deadline that’s kind of where I’ve where I’ve settled in but there’s still there’s at least a somewhat of a kind of a big picture uh approach that the Rockets are

Trying to adhere to it very clearly looks like their plan is to go Star chasing I’ve expressed my concerns with that approach but at the same time I don’t think you have to trade for a star that’s that’s maybe the final point that I want to bring up here before uh couple

More thoughts about the trade deadline in general but you don’t have to go nail or you know pick up another star player because you could just grow your own star player it’s very possible look shingun already looks like an All-Star we don’t know what his true ceiling is

Is is shingun capable of being a top 10 top 15 player in the NBA one day maybe we really don’t know what his ceiling is but he already looks like an All-Star which is an incredibly promising site to see maybe jayen green still has star potential Jabari tari amen cam so there

Is Merit to the to the slow playay idea that you just want to hold on you want to wait and see what you have with these guys but at the same time there’s an opportunity cost to that and I did you know in in kind of

Discussing uh why I was in favor of the michale bridges trade in the first place is there’s an opportunity cost associated with keeping Jaylen Green in this role and and holding on to him and and and sticking with him even if you’re bought in if you think he’s got future

Star potentially you don’t want to give up on him I get all that and I would love for Jaylen to become a future star my argument comes from at some point you have to decide are these players sticking or are they going right at some player you at some point you’ve

Got to decide a player is who he is is it premature to make that choice about Jaylen green two and a half years into his career quite possibly yeah absolutely and that’s why I see the other side of the argument from people who don’t want to trade Jaylen green who

Are probably breathing a sigh of relief that he didn’t get traded at this deadline I absolutely get that but at a certain point you have you’re you’re you’re just you’re collecting data on these players and at certain point you have to make a hard decision about does

This player stick around do we think they can still be a star do we still think that they can be a part of a winning team in some capacity maybe it’s not as a star player maybe it’s using Jaylen as an as the example maybe it’s

As a sixth man or maybe you change his role a little bit who knows but that’s why why you have to that’s why these GMS and front office Executives get paid the big bucks because you’re going to have to take a gamble at some point you’re either taking a gamble on sticking with

Jayen green and sticking with him and and you know growing him and developing him and hoping that he can still have that that star potential upside down the line and realize his potential or you gamble on trading a player like that for an already established player who is

What he is or has already kind of showcased what what they can be as an NBA player which is where the male Bridges stuff kind of comes from so I don’t at this point I don’t know if Jaylen Green’s ever going to be as impactful as

A male Bridges type which that’s an all NBA caliber Defender an elite three-point shooter a great a solid second option a fantastic third option on a contending team a guy who’s already been to the finals before that’s a pretty good player that’s why I was in favor of doing the trade but Rockets

Obviously thought otherwise or maybe not the Rockets thought otherwise but the Nets clearly didn’t budge on their desire to not trade male Bridges maybe that changes this offseason um but yeah as far as the Rockets are concerned little disappointing little frustrating not the end of the world

They still have a lot of flexibility moving forward uh they are positioned very well to chase star players uh and there is kind of a long-term picture in place of even if they don’t ultimately trade for a star player they’ve got all that expiring salary and they should be

Able to outright sign One Summer 2025 if one of those players ultimately becomes aaable ailable uh I I haven’t even looked at who the potential free agents are for summer 2025 I probably should have and that is a failure on my part for for this podcast but it’ll absolutely be

Something that we look look at uh in the coming days and weeks actually you know what I take that back uh let’s do this MBA free agents 2025 free agents we’ll do this we’ll just we’ll go ahead and we’ll do it live on the podcast should have had it

Prepped um let’s look at some some of these names on this list uh potentially LeBron James Jimmy Butler Paul George uh Kyrie Irving Drew holiday Jason Tatum that’s an interesting name that’s a that’s one that the Rockets could absolutely pursue pursue I should say Donovan Mitchell uh Brandon

Ingram Jaylen Brunson now as I’m speeding through this list I don’t know which of these guys are like it’s considering team options and then picking up the team option for next season and then expiring summer 2025 that’s always a bit of a a messy thing to consider uh cuz often times these

Players like to opt out of their contract and sign for more money rather than pick up that final player option so yeah like LeBron James has a player option for next season this would uh this would mean he picks up that option and then is a free agent in

Summer 2025 which is more than likely not the case uh but there are going to be names out there if the Rockets can’t trade for a star then they should be able to outright sign one and hopefully by then they are on the upswing enough to where a potential star player would

Want to sign in Houston uh final couple thoughts here from just general NBA trade deadline uh I think that the New York Knicks came out as absolute winners they look really solid um they were able to turn Quinton Grimes Evan forier Maliki Flynn and uh Ryan I

Always struggle with his last name AR artiano I can’t even pronounce his last name I can’t do it I should have looked up the Fanatics um and two second round draft picks for Buon bogdanovich and uh Alec Burks uh so a couple really great pickups for the New York Knicks and then

I think a major loser at this deadline Chicago Bulls they didn’t do anything man like you had to shut down Zack LaVine for surgery uh after all those rumors you didn’t make any other trades any other didn’t do anything of note and you’re kind of this middling team stuck

You know I don’t know Chicago Bulls just feel kind of stuck to me so I think they’re kind of a major loser at this uh NBA trade deadline but I want your thoughts I want your reactions to the Rockets trade deadline let me know how you feel in the YouTube comments whether

You’re listening whether you’re watching on YouTube give me your thoughts on what you know where the Rockets are how confident you are in them moving forward how do you feel about the front office but as always thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening

And we look forward to having you back right here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets Basketball

Why Houston Rockets Made NO MOVES At NBA Trade Deadline, Possible Big Picture Plans & Star Chasing

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) reacts to and discusses the Houston Rockets making NO MOVES at the NBA Trade Deadline, why the Rockets chose to do nothing, the moves we probably *should* have seen them attempt, choosing to maintain flexibility for star hunting by trade or free agency, the associated risks with star hunting, how Ime Udoka is possibly the Rockets secret weapon when it comes to pursuing a star, concerns with Houston’s front office asset management and more.

#Rockets #NBA #Trade

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