With the roster deadline looming for the NBA’s 2022-23 regular season, the Rockets plan to release veteran big man Derrick Favors, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Favors was acquired just two weeks ago for salary reasons as part of a trade with Oklahoma City that netted Houston a second-round draft asset.
Teams can carry up to 20 players in the offseason and throughout training camp, but that must be trimmed to a maximum of 15 standard contracts and two two-way deals by the regular season. While waiving Favors would make the Rockets set among standard contracts, they could still have flexibility with their two-way slots.
Favors is on a $10.3-million guaranteed salary this season, and there was thought he could have been useful to Houston as potential matching salary in trade discussions. However, that would have forced a the team to release someone else, such as Daishen Nix, Garrison Mathews or Boban Marjanovic. It appears general manager Rafael Stone wasn’t willing to let any of them go.
The argument could also be made that with Houston poised to have significant salary cap space in the 2023 offseason, the odds of executing a major trade during the 2022-23 regular season (which could potentially eat into that room) might be diminished, which would make it less important to have a salary filler such as Favors.
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Here's what the #Rockets face getting the roster down to 15. In my view, barring trade, it basically comes down to Garrison Mathews, Derrick Favors and Boban Marjanović — one of them has to go. pic.twitter.com/uPnPm9GIMp
— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) October 9, 2022
The Houston Rockets are planning to waive center Derrick Favors, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Rockets needed to make a roster cut to reach 15 guaranteed spots.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 14, 2022
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