Rockets Daryl Morey explains the art behind superstar trades

Morey’s track record

There have been times where the Rockets didn’t necessarily pull off a splash move, but pulled off a trade for a secondary target, a la Iman Shumpert in 2019.

There were also rumors this past season that the Rockets were interested in Tristan Thompson, before the Rockets ultimately settled on Bruno Caboclo, who was certainly a second and potentially even third option. This isn’t to say that the Rockets haven’t tried to make a hard run at a primary target, because that’s certainly been the case before (see Jimmy Butler), but Morey has undoubtedly been able to pivot to other targets if he determines that the asking price is too steep.

But buy and large, Morey has landed his desired target, regardless of the level of difficulty that we may have believed to have been the case. This was the case this past season in regards to Robert Covington, who the Rockets were famously pursuing. It seemed like a difficult deal to pull off at the time, from a financial standpoint, but the Rockets ultimately landed RoCo.

All in all, it was interesting to hear the Houston Rockets executive give us a glimpse into the world of a general manager. One can only imagine who Morey’s next target might be.