No Rockets Trading!
Welcome to The Twelve Takes of Christmas.
These will be short takes, but you’ll get a dozen of them! So you may not celebrate Christmas, nor care about it at all, but this is a perfectly good gimmick, so why waste it?
The way Christmas once was, Advent was a time of reflection, and contemplation, sometimes a level of self-denial somewhat like Lent, before Easter.
Christmas Eve was when the party got rolling (and in some historical periods they REALLY partied) and it continued on, like that counting song with geese, and rings, dairy maids and leaping lords, for twelve days, ending with an even bigger shindig on January 5th, or Twelfth Night.
Our commercial version of Christmas, and modern life, doesn’t really allow for 12 straight days of feasting, frivolity, and gifts.
All you get is this Rockets writing thing. Sorry. It might even include game recaps. That’s all part of what we’ve lost with the 12 Days of Christmas.
For the first take of Christmas, your true love (me) gave to you:
NO ROCKETS TRADING!
The Rockets Don’t Need To Make A Trade.
They don’t.
The Houston Rockets (though things can easily change) are “Currently On Pace” for 57 wins. That’s pretty good.
Their defense would rank basically first or just barely second over the past few seasons, across the entire NBA. It may not seem that way because right now OKC is playing historical levels of defense, in terms of opponent points allowed. The Rockets are merely playing “Would Lead The Whole NBA In Defense In More Normal Modern Seasons” levels of defense.
The Rockets have players to trade, picks to trade, and trade talk is always interesting. People love to talk trades. They especially love to give away promising, inexpensive, Rockets to their favorite team in their various trade proposals.
But why, exactly, does a team currently pacing towards 57 wins, and would in more average seaons lead the NBA in defense need to make a trade?
I just don’t think they do. I don’t see trades that make the Rockets an NBA Championship contender out there, especially with the new apron and salary match cap rules. Barring that sort of very unlikely trade, why mess with success? Let’s see how this season plays out. Sure, the Rockets may be the sort of deep team that does well in the regular season and stalls out in the playoffs. But they might not be. We honestly have no idea until we at least see it. So, let’s see it.
So for your first Take of Christmas: No Trades A Happening.
PS – NBA writers, podcasters, etc. Jalen Green cannot be traded in this season. Moreover, he has a trade kicker to his salary.