With all the smoke around the Rockets making moves this season, surely there is a fire somewhere, right?
Despite the Houston Rockets coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second time this season, this time in front of the world at the Emirates NBA Cup Final, this season has still been a revelation to Rockets fans to this point. In many ways, the season has paralleled this city’s pro football team’s season a year ago. Young, talented, and in many ways out-performing expectations.
The Rockets currently reside in third place in the west, just a half game back of the surging Memphis Grizzlies. While fans were certainly expecting the team to be improved, I do not know anyone who expected that nearly a quarter of the way through the season the Rockets would be near the top of the standings.
This amount of success has many thinking the Rockets need to accelerate their timeline and make a big move now to put themselves in the realm of true contenders. Once again the Rockets find themselves in the midst of NBA trade rumors, this time for Heat forward/guard and Tomball native, Jimmy Butler.
By now you may have heard that Shams Charania is beefing with Jimmy Butler’s agent over trade rumors that have included the Rockets among teams that Butler is “open to” as a trade destination. Regardless of who is being honest in this situation it’s noticeably clear that the Rockets are a team that many have wanted to invoke in these types of rumors because of the wealth of young talent on the team, in combination with the level of success they are enjoying while not having a “superstar” on the team.
I’ve expressed exhaustingly how I feel about the Rockets making a move for a “superstar”, but one might wonder, with all this smoke surrounding the team, is there a fire? Someone in the Rockets front office must be giving off the vibe that the Rockets have interest in making this type of move right? Well, Rafael Stone was asked again about trade rumors surrounding the Rockets when he appeared on SiriusXM NBA Radio with Justin Termine.
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
“Of course, my job is to be open to everything, so I’m not gonna not do my job. We like this team, we definitely do not intend to change it, and I would be shocked if something changes.”
This is not the first time the Rockets GM has expressed his intent to stand pat with the current roster publicly. So why do these rumors keep coming up? Perhaps it’s the culture of media these days. It is a fact that people love trade rumors and speculation. ESPN has their own NBA trade machine on their website because they know NBA fans love to make their own trade scenarios, just to see if it is even possible to make certain moves, with zero payoff in the end. Trade rumor articles are even typically the most highly read posts here at our beloved TDS.
The feud between Shams and Jimmy Butlers agent Bernard Lee makes the question arise, are media members as the youngsters would say, “cappin’” for the sake of appearing plugged in? Or are the agents and GMs trying to keep everything close to the chest and publicly denying what is in fact accurate reporting? That is the game, and fans are often left hanging at the edge of their seats until the trade deadline comes and goes.
Fact is the Rockets on court performance and rise to relevance is going to keep them in these conversations for seasons to come more than likely. From my interaction with fans both here on TDS, and listeners / viewers of the Houston Sports State of the Union Podcast, it’s clear that fans are split on whether or not the team should be looking to make a move for an established “star”. Many are of the belief that aside from Alperen Sengun, there is no one on the roster that can be a true superstar. Others believe that everything the Rockets need exists on this roster, in young players who still need patience and time to develop.
It looks as if the Rockets will be going home with who they brought to the party this season. In my next piece I’d like to explore players on this roster that I believe can be the difference makers between the Rockets being just a feel-good story and true contenders.