Houston Rockets: Daryl Morey refuses to field trade offers for Chris Paul

Houston Rockets Daryl Morey talked with the media Monday morning and has said that Chris Paul has not requested a trade. What’s going on? Look.

Houston Rockets fans — the unpredictability of this franchise over this past offseason is something to likes of which I’ve never seen. The rumors continue to fly about how this team is going to look next season and it’s something that I find that’s quite peculiar as opposed to past periods of when the season is not going on.

There have been a slew of rumors of his this team is going to look next season — whether or not the team will bust up the core, if Mike D’Antoni will be the head coach of the team and if the Houston Rockets will have the guts to go over the luxury tax to keep the team competitive.

All of this hearsay had been going on and we haven’t heard much from what the Houston Rockets psyche is but for the first time in a while, Houston Rockets general manager spoke freely to media and he let us know what the likely situation we should expect to see when the season starts.

Morey jumped onto SportsRadio 790 AM earlier this morning on Sean Salisbury’s show for about 15 minutes and talked about all-things Houston Rockets and the big picture ahead.

You can listen to the segment here.

The biggest nugget that Morey dropped was that he admonished that Chris Paul not only has not requested a trade from the Houston Rockets but does not want one.

This contradicts a Friday afternoon report from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on his weekday radio show where he indicated that his sources were telling him that CP3 “wanted out.”

Salisbury also asked Morey if he’d field calls for a Paul trade and he said that he wouldn’t do such a thing. Quite honestly, it’d be tough for him trade such a hefty contract that’s still worth $120 million over the next three seasons.

In other tidbits, Morey talked about how “wide open” the West is now with the shift in power from

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the Anthony Davis trade and the importance of keeping the core starting five together for the upcoming season.

Morey did say that D’Antoni will be back next season — not too surprising — and that the negotiations are ongoing for an extension beyond then. Although he didn’t seem overly endorsing of a contract extension for him, he and Tilman Fertitta sound committed to making their earnest efforts to try to get a deal done.

Morey also told Salisbury that he wanted to add a third star to the mix; and although there are not many available this offseason, they want to use their mid-level exception on that player to which I think would likely be a small forward to help reduce Eric Gordon minutes. Gordon could hopefully return to the bench and be the terrific sixth man that he was when he first donned a Houston Rockets‘ uniform.

The mid-level exception for 2019-20 could be worth as much as $9 million depending on how things shake out this offseason.

The Boston Celtics still have Clint Capela in their bullseye. dark. Next

So there you have it — Morey has alleviated most of my concerns about how the team will look next season and I’d have to take him at his word. This doesn’t sound like a wolf sheep’s clothing appearance and what he has said is exactly what he means.

Thank goodness — let’s go Houston Rockets!

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