Report: Rockets prioritizing trade for wing player by deadline

The Rockets reportedly hope to trade for wing player by the NBA’s Feb. 6 deadline. One big question is if they have enough tradable salary.

With the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline under two weeks away, the Houston Rockets are continuing their search for a wing player, according to a Friday report by The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.

In his latest “Inside Pass” column, Charania writes:

[Daryl] Morey and his front office will continue to scour the league for potential upgrades. The Rockets have prioritized a potential wing player acquisition before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, and are continuing to make future draft picks available for an upgrade, sources say.

Charania did not identify any specific player targets in Friday’s report, though he had previously listed Houston as an interested suitor for Minnesota forward Robert Covington.

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Houston recently benched former starter Danuel House Jr. at small forward, and they’re currently starting undersized Ben McLemore (6-foot-3) there ⁠— which makes it an obvious spot to seek an upgrade.

That’s especially the case since the Rockets (27-16) entered Friday having lost five of their last seven games, and perhaps in need of a spark to help regain their self-proclaimed status as a 2020 title contender.

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As for potential trade assets, the Rockets have their 2020 and 2022 first-round draft picks available, as well as second-round picks in 2021 and 2023. They also have several small trade exceptions at their disposal, as well as most of their cash allotment to help incentivize other teams.

This is a breakdown of Houston’s tradable picks moving forward:

The lost draft picks and swaps in the 2023-26 range are from Houston’s offseason trade of Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook.

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But even after that trade, it’s not as if Houston is devoid of assets. The larger problem is that they don’t have much “filler” salary for deals.

Any trade for a significant salary such as Covington is tricky for the Rockets, who are well above the league’s salary cap. This means they have to send out close to as much money as they take in to make a trade permissible under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Eric Gordon cannot be traded this season due to the timing of his contract extension, and the other four significant contracts on the Rockets (Westbrook, James Harden, Clint Capela, and P.J. Tucker) are unlikely to be dealt because of how essential they are to Houston’s championship chances. Excluding those five, every other player on the current roster makes approximately $3.5 million or less.

Thus, potential Houston acquisitions may need to be at a lower price point (in terms of salary) to make a trade workable. They might be able to trade for players making $10 million or more by combining several smaller salaries, but that would likely require a third- or even fourth-team partner for there to be enough open roster spots to send out so many players.

As of Friday, Morey has 13 days left to work his magic. If the Rockets are unable to strike a deal, they also have an open roster spot of their own at the moment, which could be used on a veteran player who is bought out after the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

But for now, it seems trades are clearly the top priority.

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