Houston Rockets: 3 trade deadline do’s and don’ts

The NBA trade deadline is almost upon us and the Houston Rockets still have a lot of house cleaning to do. The franchise is in a position to land a pick at the top of the draft and trying to salvage the season, at this point, would only have negative consequences because if their pick falls outside of the top-four it’ll head to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Rockets need to move as many players as possible before the deadline ends to build up their asset cupboard and to ensure they don’t have a late-season surge. As sad as it is to say, the Rockets need to lose as many games as possible from here on out and hope they keep their first-round pick.

The trade deadline is a great time to offload players for future assets but it can also be a great time to bring in new players for seasons ahead. The Rockets would love to add a star but bringing in quality players right now shouldn’t be completely off the table.

While the Rockets have plenty of valuable players, they’d be foolish to look to trade everyone with a pulse. Christian Wood appears to be a franchise cornerstone and Jae’Sean Tate has been impressive in his rookie season.

Figuring out which players on expiring deals have a future with the team will be paramount and the Rockets should hold on to a few players for next season, even if they have trade offers. The NBA trade deadline is a great time to extract value from talent-hungry teams and the Rockets need to capitalize.

With the expanded playoffs there are more buyers at the deadline than ever before and that means that bidding could get intense. These are three trade deadline do’s and don’ts for the Houston Rockets.

Next: Trade deadline do #3