Daryl Morey says Houston Rockets will keep core players

Despite recent rumors that the Houston Rockets were willing to move any player, Daryl Morey says the team will hold on to its core players.

The Houston Rockets have appeared ready to make some huge changes to the roster this summer.

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Houston had made it’s entire roster available for trade. The Rockets are of course very unlikely to trade James Harden, but it seemed like they would move Chris Paul or Clint Capela in the right deal.

Despite the recent reports, Daryl Morey told reporters that Houston’s starting five would likely return next season, according to Basketball RealGM.

“My job is to make the best team possible, give us a chance to win a championship. My job is to look at every aspect of the organization. How can we improve? Whether that be players, … yeah we’re going to look for better players.”

“Our starting five this year I would put up there with anyone. If there’s a trade out there that helps we’ll do that. We’re going to keep all of our key people.”

Houston’s starting five is indeed very talented, although their starters are a bit undersized and it really hurt Houston on the glass last season. They could use another Trevor Ariza-like forward in their starting lineup, which would help the Rockets secure defensive rebounds and would make sense in their switch everything defensive scheme.

Obviously, Morey knew he would be questioned heavily on potential roster moves given the recent reports. He said the Rockets will make a trade if it helps them get better, but he also mentioned that he expects to keep all of the key players.

This could just be GM speak. General managers aren’t usually going to come out and say they’re looking to make a big change, they just complete the deals that make their teams better and move on.

After Woj dropped his most recent bomb about the Rockets, other reports surfaced that the Rockets would be willing to make a big move for a player like Kawhi Leonard and that Houston was interested in securing a lottery pick. If just one of these rumors are true, the Rockets would likely have to move multiple core players to make such a deal.