Report: Rockets will try to take ‘big swing’ in trade market in offseason
There is no NBA team hotter than the Houston Rockets right now.
Winners of 11 straight since March 7, they have climbed to 38-35 and are now just one game back of the Golden State Warriors for the fourth-and-final play-in spot in the Western Conference with 10 games remaining. Since the All-Star break, Houston is 14-5, tied for the second-best record in the West and the third-best in the NBA with the league’s 8th-best NET Rating (plus-4.7) over that span.
They have done so without starting center Alperen Sengun; Jalen Green is playing at a near-elite level while they’re getting much-needed production from second-year forward Jabari Smith Jr. plus veterans Jeff Green and Jock Landale–their small-ball bigs.
But despite this being the first year of this new build, the Rockets might be looking to fast-track it this offseason, according to ESPN NBA insider Tim MacMahon.
“They [Rockets] absolutely want to take a big, big swing at the trade market sooner than later,” MacMahon said earlier this week. “They’ve got a ton of young talent. I don’t know if both Alperen Şengün and Jalen Green are going to be here long term–but my guess is that one of them will end up getting moved at some point for them when they take their big swing.”
MacMahon notes that the Rockets have the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected firsts in 2024 and 2026 with swaps in 2025 and 2027 available to trade. On draft night, their 2031 first-round selection will also be available to trade that it can use in any potential package.
You have to trade something to get something, but the process of trading one of Green or Sengun–while their value is high–feels puzzling.
Green’s playing the best basketball of his life, but still hasn’t reached his full offensive potential, which would make any trade away that much more difficult. Sengun’s one of the best young centers in the league who can orchestrate an offense in myriad ways; he too is only scratching the surface as a hub offensively.
It’s worth noting that Green and Sengun are both extension-eligible this offseason; the Rockets already have $105.3 million allocated to seven players in 2025-26, the first year that those extensions would kick in, per Spotrac. We won’t have a better idea about what the cap could be this offseason, but there’s a world where they ink both and remain below the second apron.
Houston’s only move ahead of the trade deadline was acquiring center Steven Adams. They didn’t make any other moves, even though Rockets general manager Rafael Stone said after the deadline that they were “exploring options that we thought made sense for us, both in the present and the future.”
Who knows who will be available to them on the trade market this offseason and who they attempt to target? You could imagine another team asking for Sengun or Green as a first negotiation; that doesn’t mean Stone will (or should) accept, depending on the player they’re looking at.
Don’t be surprised if they attempt to make a big splash this offseason … if MacMahon’s report is anywhere close to being true.
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