The Houston Rockets have been sorely disappointing in the first month of the season. The team has started with an 8-11 record and the poor start has even led to the team quickly firing former head coach Kevin McHale. With the firing having no immediate impact on the team, some have wondered about the team potentially making some personnel moves. Chief among those rumors has been floated ideas of the Rockets trading recent free agent acquisition Ty Lawson who has struggled to perform since joining the Rockets.
Despite all of these rumors, Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey wants to make absolutely clear that the team is not looking to make any trades (via Bleacher Report):
We believe in this group. The priority really isn’t trade. The priority is getting this group back to its winning ways. Part of us having less flexibility, which I think is more or less true relative to what we had in the past, is because we do believe in the guys we have right now.
This is an interesting quote from a general manager who was quick to fire the head coach when there was no clear reason to do so. There is no telling whether a trade is what the Rockets need right now, but there are some glaring problems in regards to the personnel on the team. The Rockets lack good defenders (and more importantly, players who try on that end of the floor) and they also lack shooters, a crucial part of a team that prefers to shoot shots at the rim or behind the arc.
Finding a beneficial trade is difficult and it may be way too soon to even consider making any moves. However, the fact that Morey was quick to pull the trigger on McHale is even more strange after giving this quote.
