Houston Rockets: Daryl Morey is still itching for another trade to be made

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey spoke freely about his plans for the team ahead and did not mince his words about a trade. What’s going on?

The Houston Rockets just wrapped up introducing their biggest acquisition this offseason in Russell Westbrook. It was the solo shot heard around the world that was engineered by general manager Daryl Morey and what we thought was a pipe dream, is actually now a reality for those onlookers of the team.

I’m still calculating in my head all of the permutations of lineups that could be used involving Russ and James Harden as these two dynamic guards are as good as they get. Morey was able to get younger at the position and Mike D’Antoni is going to have a field day being able to run his offense through those two guys.

I talked about last week on how more isolation will run through the backcourt now that Westbrook is within their battle trenches. It’s really going to throw defenses off because they’re not going to know who to pay more attention to and either of the guys — as well as the rest of the team — will make the double-team pay by knocking down their threes.

At least we hope so.

In the past, teams would focus on shutting down Harden and they knew how cold the rest of the team would get if his ability to create points is limited. It’s likely that the Houston Rockets would lose the game if that were the case.

But with Westbrook in the fold, that’s going to bring up another option and there’s going be a constant in terms of a guy being able to put the ball in the hoop and we won’t see those gut-wrenching, cold-shooting stretches as we saw last season when teams neutered Harden’s incessant knack to score.

That’s what I’m excited about but do you know what else?

Morey is telling us that he still isn’t done with adding guys to this roster. It’s expected for him to say that but he’s going as far to say that he’s still open to making a trade.

Although I watched Russ’ introductory press conference, here’s a tweet from the Chron’s Jonathan Feigen:

Morey said "You know us, we're never done." Said other changes much more likely through trade than a free agent signing.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) July 26, 2019

I’m reading between the lines on this tweet and I think he’s still dead-set on bringing in Andre Iguodala.

Iggy was recently traded to the Memphis Grizzlies after six seasons with the Golden State Warriors to make room for the hottest free agent in D’Angelo Russell.

The Grizz seem content on not offering a buyout to him and let the phones continue to ring on offers for the veteran forward.

It will simply be too easy for the Grizz to let him walk and stretch his contract when they obviously could wait for this thing to transition out and get something sizable in return. It doesn’t appear that franchise is looking to win anytime soon so having Iggy on the roster would be taking up valuable cap space

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that they could use for a minimum-salary type player.

Iguodala is going into the final season of a three-year, $48 million deal that will pay him $17.2 million.

The Grizz reportedly want a first-round pick for Iggy to which I’m definitely for if that’s the most valuable asset in a package in exchange for him being in a Houston Rockets‘ uniform.

Morey may feel that the price is too high and he’s going to wait on things a bit to see if the Grizz lower their asking price.

He also mentioned when that question was being asked at the presser that he’d be looking to make a move before the season or during which certainly alludes that he still has Iggy as the object of his affection.

Will it happen? I’ve got faith that Morey will do everything he can to do so his history of making great trades speaks for itself.

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But if it doesn’t, it won’t be the end of the world as this team is pretty damn good as it is. But it’s never a good situation to be complacent and one should always look for constant improvement.

That’s exactly what Morey has done through his career with the franchise and I’m positive it will continue.

Let’s hope for the best — go Houston Rockets.

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