The Houston Rockets have an elite young core, one that has the team playing in the NBA Cup quarterfinals Wednesday night, a first step to what could be much bigger things for this group.
Ultimately, the Rockets may need to make a trade to land a true No. 1 option player to compete at the highest levels, but the team is building to get there. A lot of people outside the organization want to rush that process — the Rockets are constantly mentioned in trade speculation for star players such as Jimmy Butler (a Houston native). Both fans and people in other front offices look at the Rockets collection of young talent and draft picks and think they will — or at least should — go all in for a star player at the trade deadline.
Rockets General Manager Raphel Stone shot that idea down in an appearance with Justin Termine on SiriusXM NBA Radio.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Miami Heat are open to listening to offers for Jimmy Butler.
Houston’s General Manager, Rafael Stone, shares his thoughts with @TermineRadio on trade speculation involving the Rockets. pic.twitter.com/cCclysaUZF
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) December 10, 2024
“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.”
The Rockets have been consistent with this message publicly and privately — they have no plans to blow up this roster at the trade deadline. Houston wants to take this group into the playoffs this April and see how things go (and the NBA Cup is a dress rehearsal for that).
Eventually, this Rockets team will have to make some trades — it has more young talent (and picks for more) than it can afford to pay when those players get older. It’s also very possible they need to make a trade for a true No. 1 scoring option, that Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green and Amen Thompson are more No. 2s and No. 3 guys on title teams, not the Alpha — but when they do the Rockets will look for an age-appropriate player and a good fit with their system. Not an aging Jimmy Butler who wants another big contract, or others of that ilk.
If and when that superstar becomes available, expect Stone and the Rockets to be aggressive. But nothing is happening until this summer. The Rockets want to see what this group can do.