The Houston Rockets are reportedly willing to do whatever it takes to pair Jimmy Butler with James Harden and Chris Paul, but because of their lack of salary cap space, the way for them to pull that off would be for Butler to force a sign-and-trade from the Philadelphia 76ers.
The issue is that Houston would have to trade some combination of Clint Capela, Eric Gordon, and P.J. Tucker, but there are reasons to believe they wouldn’t be perfect fits in Philly. As such, a new report indicates that the Rockets are looking around to see if they can get anything for that trio of players.
Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe of ESPN bring word that Capela, Gordon, and Tucker are very much on the trade block, with Houston trying to get their hands on a first round pick for any of them that could be flipped for Butler.
Reporting w/ @ZachLowe: Houston’s offering Clint Capela, Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker individually to teams w/ space to absorb salary. Rockets trying for best available first-rounder for any of those three, hoping to redirect pick to Philly in pursuit of Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 26, 2019
It’s a risky move — there is no guarantee that the Sixers would want to trade Butler even if he demands a sign-and-trade, there is no guarantee that the pick would be especially valuable, and there’s no guarantee that Butler would even want to leave Philly in the first place. It also goes against what one Rockets player reportedly told Tim MacMahon of ESPN about how blowing it up would be shortsighted when, in his eyes, the team is on the cusp of doing something special.
Houston player to me recently: “I hope they don’t panic. I hope they don’t make drastic moves. We are right there. We’ve just got to figure out some things, fine tune some things, but we are right there. We don’t need to change much. It’s not the time to f—ing panic.” https://t.co/JmwX47K2ej
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) June 26, 2019
The Rockets’ entire summer has been quite strange, and while you can very easily make the case that they’re in a good spot if they run it back, there is an apparent desire to go star hunting and putting all their eggs in the Butler-Harden-Paul basket.
