With the Heat said to be open to listening to inquiries on star forward Jimmy Butler, the Rockets have been identified multiple times as a possible landing spot for the Houston native. However, while Rafael Stone couldn’t address Butler specifically, the Rockets general manager made it clear during a SiriusXM NBA Radio appearance on Tuesday that he doesn’t plan to pursue a star on the trade market this season (Twitter audio link).
“Of course, my job is to be open to everything, so I’m not going to not do my job,” Stone said. “(But) we like this team. We definitely do not intend to change anything and I would be shocked if something changes this season.
“We like where we’re at. We want to continue to develop our guys, full stop. Will I listen to other teams? Of course I will, that’s my job. But again, there’s no part of me, there’s no part of our decision-making process that suggests that we’re looking to do anything big now or in the near term.
“We definitely want this group to be as good as it can be this year and then we’ll evaluate things at the end of the year. But the hope is very much that this core group can lead us to where we want to go and that – from a transactional perspective – we’re largely done.”
That messaging isn’t new. Reporting from both The Athletic and ESPN in recent weeks indicated the Rockets are spreading the word that they’re not interested in breaking up their core this season. Stone is now expressing that sentiment publicly and even taking it a step further, suggesting that Houston’s belief in its current roster is so strong that the team won’t be looking to shake up the roster even after this season.
Whether Stone and the Rockets stick that stance remains to be seen. It will depend in part on how the rest of the 2024/25 campaign plays out and how the club’s young players continue to develop.
Of course, Stone’s comments and the Rockets’ position could also be a negotiating tactic. That was one point that ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst made during their discussion about Houston’s plans on an episode of the Hoop Collective podcast last week.
“This is exactly what you do when you have 19 interesting trade assets, all these draft picks and all these young guys,” Bontemps said at the time. “You say, ‘Hey, every good thing we’ve got, we’re not sure we’re going to do anything with any of those.’ And then you start to negotiate.”
The 16-8 Rockets, the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, are loaded with valuable trade chips – including players and future draft picks – and are well equipped to make a major deal if the right player is available. Seven players on the roster were first-round picks in the past four drafts and are 23 or younger. Houston also controls an extra first-round pick and draft swap rights in both 2027 and 2029.