Houston Rockets: The case for, and against, trading Christian Wood

The case against the Houston Rockets trading Chrisitan Wood: Culture

The Darryl Morey era was the second-best in Houston Rockets history. It is basically unassailable. Stone, his long-time protégé, would be wise to take several pages from his book.

However, one he may want to rip out, burn, and bury the ashes of is the perception that players are mere assets. It’s time for the analytics-driven, star-hungry Houston Rockets machine to humanize.

That doesn’t mean clinging to bad contracts for the sake of being nice: the NBA will always be a business. It just may well be good business to shift this team’s culture to consider the human element.

The organization’s willingness to cater to James Harden’s whims notoriously alienated valuable role players. Not to mention, Morey’s propensity for wheeling-and-dealing undoutedly left players feeling vulnerable.

Christian Wood is the perfect catalyst to begin that culture shift. The Rockets can take pride in “discovering” him, and stick by their guy. This could be the first step towards building a culture where every player, from the star to the 14th man, takes pride in being a Rocket.

The Rockets enter this offseason with a lot of questions. Some are cause for excitement (who will they take with the second overall pick?) and some are cause for a headache (are they really going to pay John Wall another 45 million dollars?). The question over whether to trade Christian Wood may just be a little bit of both.