Houston Rockets ambitious about staying competitive despite their failure to land Dwight Howard – NBA Update
The Houston Rockets had been lining up a bid to land Dwight Howard this off-season and made some big time moves to make the move possible. However they saw their plans go to shambles as the Los Angeles Lakers churned out a four
team block buster trade which saw the Orlando Magic big man make his way to Hollywood.
But the Rockets are not giving up on their ambitions of landing an All-Star calibre player who will help them get out of NBA’s middle ground – Somewhere they have been stuck for the past few seasons.
"The moves we made were designed to be the right moves whether we pulled off a bigger trade or not," said Daryl Morey. "We want every player on the team to be one who has a chance to become an All-Star level player or give us the
cap flexibility to sign that kind of a player.”
"This trade didn't work out. We took a hack, and it didn't work out. But it doesn't mean we're abandoning our plan.”
It is a risk that the Rockets management were willing to take early this user and continue to do so in a hope that it may pay off eventually in the longer run. It will take some time but Morey believes that the Rockets need to
keep trying in their bid to land a star.
For now, the goal is to keep fighting with the resources at hand. That however seems a bit difficult considering the moves made during the off season. The Rockets parted ways with Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic – both quality point
guards – and later during the off-season, they used the amnesty clause on Luis Scola, who had been their best player for the past two seasons.
As the current roster stands, the Rockets only have two players who are over the age of 26 while the remaining players are either rookies or young prospects, who are in the learning stage.
This however does not mean that Houston failed to make any successful moves. They brought Jeremy Lin from New York Knicks and Omer Asik from the Chicago Bulls by using back loaded deals and are relying on these two, plus Kevin
Martin, to carry the franchise for this season at least.
The trio will have a young core group which includes the likes of Royce White, Jeremy Lamb and Terrence Jones by their side and the Rockets will be hoping for a breakout season from at least one of them.
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