Rockets decline fourth-year option on Marquese Chriss

The Houston Rockets have decided against picking up the fourth-year option on one of their summer acquisitions.

The Houston Rockets are in the midst of an injury-ridden, slow start to the season. They are 1-5 and have dealt with many injuries and suspensions, including one to a player they got in the Ryan Anderson trade, Marquese Chriss.

Chriss is a young player that shows flashes of talent that landed him at the No. 8 pick in the 2016 draft. Unfortunately, he hasn’t quite lived up to the hype and has struggled on both ends of the floor with the Phoenix Suns.

A change of scenery was needed, so he was included in the Ryno trade. There’s still hope that he can turn it around with a much more talented team in Houston.

The Rockets will let him become an unrestricted free agent next year, though. Today, they declined his fourth-year option:

Rockets declined 4th-year option on Marquese Chriss, source tells ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 31, 2018

Trade Rumors

Marquese Chriss has been heavily involved in more trade rumors, as well. The Rockets are really looking to acquire Jimmy Butler from the Timberwolves, and Chriss is a fairly decent prospect to throw in there.

He is still just 21 years old and has plenty of promise if he can change up his game a bit. Throwing him in the trade for Butler can spice up the deal a bit and give Minnesota a potential backup center/forward.

Today was the first day that Chriss can be involved in a multi-player deal, so it’s pretty interesting that this news would come out now. The Wolves would want someone that they don’t have to pay after this season in the deal, as cap space is everything when trying to improve your team.

So far for the Rockets, Marquese Chriss has only appeared in one game after missing the first five due to injury. He put up 4 points and 2 rebounds in 8 minutes of work last night against the Trail Blazers as he tries to win the backup center role. His athleticism is intriguing to think about when paired up with Chris Paul and James Harden.

We’ll have to see what happens with Chriss this season, should he remain a Rocket.