Houston Rockets Daily Rocket Science: One day closer

One day closer to the trade deadline means one less day to figure things out.

We’re one day into the All-Star weekend and there isn’t much new news to report. The Houston Rockets are still shopping Dwight Howard around and probably considering other trade options. They still sit at 9th place and are in the middle of dealing with locker room turmoil. Same old story.

So, where does this leave us as fans? It leaves us wondering just what exactly will happen between now and Thursday, the trade deadline. There are a near-endless amount of directions that GM Daryl Morey could take this team, and any guess is as good as another with how little inside information has been made available. The only thing that’s sure is that whatever happens, it’ll happen soon.

Fasten your seatbelts, folks.

Houston Rockets news and notes from around the web

It’s a pretty bad sign when a team’s dysfunction is the front-page featured story on NBA.com, but such was the case for Houston yesterday. The news of Morey contacting teams about a Howard trade let the world know that things inside the Rockets organization were just about as bad as could be. The NBA’s Fran Blinebury wrote the site’s headliner, detailing just how bad the situation is and what implications it has for the future of the club: Houston Has a Problem

"For three seasons with Harden and Howard, the Rockets have lacked leadership on the court and are not seen by opponents as a team that works hard. Both want the perks and trappings of being the big dog pulling the wagon, but neither will do the real work. Howard smiles and says everybody should keep positive thoughts. Harden shrugs his head and goes back to seeking his next 40-point game."

I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago that the Rockets are probably looking at all sorts of different trade options in addition to the Howard blockbuster potential. We at Space City Scoop are no different. Staff writer Joshua Van Horn continued our trade deadline series with an answer to the question, What Would it Take for Houston Rockets to Trade Ty Lawson? There are a multitude of reasons to trade him (seeing as the experiment has been a total failure) and not that many to keep him around, so look for Houston to strike up a Lawson deal with somebody (even if his trade value is close to nonexistent).

"The problem with trading Ty Lawson is that his value is so low because of his performance as a Rocket. Though Lawson may thrive on a team that is a better fit for his style of play, teams that would be interested in acquiring Lawson would have a lot of leverage in negotiations with the Rockets because they know the Rockets are trying to unload him."

More from Space City Scoop

All these rumors and stories of dysfunction have many fans wondering what it means for the Rockets in the here and now. After the All-Star break, play resumes quickly and the team, whether they want to or not, has to go back to playing basketball together. If the season ended right now, they wouldn’t make the playoffs. Paul McGuire of ESPN Affiliate Red94 addressed the chances that that will change by the end of the regular season. It’s a close race between several different teams to finish at 8th or better, and it could go either way for Houston: Ball is Life: A look at the Houston Rockets’s NBA playoff chances

The first thing to do is to understand who Houston’s competitors are for the honor of getting blown out four times against the Spurs and Warriors.

While the Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings are not that far above and below the Rockets, Houston should focus on the Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz. Both teams are sitting at .500, half a game ahead of the Rockets.

As I’ve said many times before, there’s absolutely no telling what’ll happen in the Rockets near future (or in the long run, for that matter). Morey is a crafty, aggressive GM and even he is surely losing sleep over what to do.

The only thing there is to do now is wait and see, and pray whatever happens doesn’t blow up in James Harden‘s bearded face.

Send our Editor any Rockets-related article/video/tweet/gram/vine that we may have missed via Twitter direct message to @TTOTambz.

Next: Reading between the lines of James Harden's All-Star interview

With the trade deadline around the corner, make sure you visit Space City Scoop on a daily basis for our trade series. Each day, SCS will feature an article on who the Rockets should trade for or what it would take to part ways with the players currently on the roster. Finally, we’ll assess the Rockets and each team in the Association in terms of what their needs are, if they should be buyers or sellers, and also speculate on who would be the ideal trade target.

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