Wednesday night, Houston unofficially traded Wood to the Dallas Mavericks for Boban Marjanovic, Trey Burke and former Rockets Sterling Brown and Marquese Chriss along with the #26 pick of the 2022 NBA Draft. The trade can’t be made until after the Draft due to the Stepien Rule (Dallas owes their 2023 pick to New York and can’t trade consecutive “future” picks).
All of the players that arrive in the deal have contracts that expire in 2023, so Houston’s projected cap room a year from now remains unaffected. Likely all of them, except potentially Boban, will be bought out/waived.
For the Rockets, getting the 26th pick is what matters on the return, but the main point was to move on from Wood.
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The Rockets have been trying to trade Wood since the 2021 NBA Draft and this was the first offer they’ve received in a year that included a first-round pick, a source told ClutchFans. Also, look for the Rockets to aggressively try to use #17 and #26 to move up OR to move out of the draft by trading one of those picks for a future pick.
Thoughts on the Trade
I was actually in the air, flying from California to Dallas, when news of the trade broke. So when we landed a few hours later, my phone completely blew up. My delayed reaction to sending Christian Wood elsewhere? It’s about time.
Wood’s lower market value is a combination of factors. The NBA market is not great for centers — most teams have one they’re happy with and don’t need a second one like this. Wood puts up good offensive numbers, but his defense was a big problem. He also wasn’t the best influence in the locker room. He was prone to poutiness. He believes he’s a star and his numbers are important to him, especially with a new contract on the line in 2023.
Getting the 26th pick, Houston’s third first-round pick in this draft, seems an underwhelming return on paper based on what we perceived Wood’s value might be (I initially expected it to be around pick #15), but yet it’s absolutely worth it.
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I’d rather have the 26th pick of the draft than Christian Wood. That’s the honest truth. The Rockets get an asset that can be used for the future and we knew Wood was not part of that. They did not have to take back salary beyond 2023. Getting #26 feels like a free asset.
It has the potential to work out for Dallas but it’s definitely good for Houston, so I don’t have a problem with the trade.
Asset Management has to improve
While the trade is fine, I would like to see more from the Rockets as far as getting good value on their investments. The department of Asset Management is where the Rockets really need to shine and they’ve missed on a few.
They traded for Victor Oladipo and then traded him for nothing of future value a few months later. They signed Daniel Theis to a four-year deal and then traded him for nothing of future value a few months later. They gave up the 16th pick of the 2020 NBA Draft in part to get Wood (and a heavily-protected first) and then traded him for very little of future value a few years later.
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I love that the Rockets are going through a true rebuild and doing it the right way. Player development over winning is the mandate until 2023 and GM Rafael Stone has been doing a bang-up job leading it. He’s about to navigate the rebuild to a point where they have two young potential stars as this team’s core in Jalen Green and (likely) Paolo Banchero and that’s what matters the most.
But until they are ready to place winning as the #1 priority, I would like to see the Rockets get a little better return on their rotation investments. At this stage, playing time is a commodity, either to develop players or showcase them. Flipping players that you don’t see as part of your future for assets that could be used in the future is an important part of this process. This is the time to collect young players and picks to be in the very best position to shift gears and make win-now trades in the summer of 2023 because the Rockets are not as loaded with future picks as it may seem.
There's a perception that the #Rockets are loaded with draft assets, but after this draft, there's only a surplus of one first over the next 5 years:
2023 HOU 2023 MIL 2024 BKN 2025 HOU (OKC can swap if outside top-10, HOU can swap w/ BKN) 2026 BKN 2027 HOU (swap rights w/ BKN)
In fairness, the Rockets are operating with a $50 million disadvantage for another year. John Wall is eating up their cap and there’s really no good solution to that. How the Rockets manage assets may not be put to the real test until next offseason when they have cap room to operate with, but still, Wall’s contract had no impact on these decisions.
So losing Christian Wood? That’s a win. Getting the #26 pick? That too is a win. But when it comes to their investments, hopefully we see more doubles and triples instead of sacrifice flies.
Armed with a bizarre fascination for Mario Elie and a deep love of the Houston Rockets, Dave Hardisty started ClutchFans in 1996 under the pen name “Clutch”.
All three were commanding victories, starting with a road victory on Christmas over the Los Angeles Lakers, and they all came with Finney-Smith as a new addition to the rotation. Though he signed with the Rockets in July, Finney-Smith sat out the first 27 games of the 2025-26 regular season due to offseason ankle surgery.
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In 45 minutes over those three games, the Rockets have a +21.0 net rating differential with Finney-Smith on the floor. By defensive rating, they are 14.3 points better when he plays.
Offensively, the versatile 6-foot-7 forward is making 42.9% of his 3-pointers, and that’s coming off a 2024-25 campaign in which he shot a career-best 41.1% from distance (with the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets).
“He’s an underrated feel-for-the-game guy,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlise said prior to Houston’s victory over Indiana on Monday night. “He’s a quiet connector for a team. He’s about all the right stuff. He’s a winner.”
Carlisle previously coached Finney-Smith for multiple seasons with the Dallas Mavericks.
“It feels amazing,” Finney-Smith said of his health and how he’s currently feeling. “Just happy to be out there. Once I’m on the court, I don’t feel anything. Winning is the most important thing, and I’m just grateful to be out there.”
Ime Udoka, head coach of the Rockets, pointed to “more versatility” as one of the primary benefits of Finney-Smith’s return.
“He is a seasoned veteran, high IQ, and communicator,” Udoka said (via Brian Barefield, Rockets Wire) “Something we have lacked at times is our communication. I think his awareness of every situation is really high. He has been around and done all those roles.”
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For the time being, Finney-Smith is limited to approximately 15 minutes per game. Prior to his three appearances in recent days, he hadn’t played in an NBA game since last April, so the Rockets will be understandably cautious as they ramp up his activity.
But that minutes limitation is expected to gradually increase over the weeks ahead, and the Rockets are hopeful that Finney-Smith will be a major contributor by the time the 2026 Western Conference playoffs begin in April. Ideally, he can replace much of what the Rockets lost when they sent Dillon Brooks to the Phoenix Suns in the Kevin Durant trade.
“Whether it is off the bench or starting, he gives us a little more depth at the wing, and he can guard up or guard down,” Udoka says of Finney-Smith. The 32-year-old is widely known around the league for his “3-and-D” skill set on the wing, when healthy.
With an improving defense, Houston (20-10) enters calendar-year 2026 with three consecutive victories and a spot at No. 4 in the Western Conference standings. Next up is a New Year’s Day clash at Brooklyn, where Finney-Smith played for portions of the past three seasons.
In this roundtable conversation, ClutchFans Editor Dave Hardisty joins Ben DuBose and Paulo Alves to preview the NBA’s upcoming transaction window and its potential implications for the 16-7 Houston Rockets.
December 15 is when players who signed contracts in the preceding offseason become trade eligible, so the period from Monday until the in-season deadline of February 5, 2026, is likely to be among the most active on the 2025-26 calendar.
Discussion topics include roster needs and potential trade targets across the board, including the likelihood of bigger-name deals (such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, and James Harden) and smaller acquisitions along the lines of Keon Ellis, Chris Paul, and Ayo Dosunmu.
The show also explores Houston’s potential desirability on the buyout market and the team’s long-term timeline for title contention, and specifically why those factors might make this a relatively quiet trade window for the Rockets.
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Editor’s note: Hardisty and DuBose also host regular “ClutchFans Live” postgame recap shows on YouTube, while DuBose and Alves are co-hosts of the Rockets LaunchPod podcast, presented by ClutchFans and with support from SportsTalk 790 — official flagship radio station of the Rockets. Tune in to both shows for more coverage!
At 15-6, the Rockets are currently tied for the second-fewest losses in the Western Conference standings, and they own the NBA’s No. 2 net rating.
And yet, just two years ago, Houston was coming off three straight rebuilding seasons with the worst record in the West.
It’s been a remarkable rise under the guidance of general manager Rafael Stone, who has combined the development of young players such as Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., and Reed Sheppard with the acquisition of impact veterans — namely, Kevin Durant, Steven Adams, and the injured Fred VanVleet.
Making matters even better, the Rockets added and developed all that talent while still retaining several high-end future draft assets, to boot. Houston believes that draft equity can make it a sustainable contender for years to come, both in terms of having desirable trade assets and an ability to replenish its roster depth in cost-efficient ways.
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With the 2025-26 regular season now at approximately its quarter pole, The Athletic recently canvassed 36 executives across the league — presidents, general managers, vice presidents, and assistant GMs — to rank the NBA’s top front offices.
Led by Stone, the Rockets’ front office comes in at No. 3, trailing only the last two champions — the Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics.
“High-end talent, a willingness to be bold, (and) good asset management,” one executive told The Athletic, when asked to sum up the Rockets.
Time for our annual crowdsourcing to determine the NBA's top front offices – ranked by the NBA's front offices. We found 36 team executives to give us their picks of the best ones right now, and their pick of one FO that is up and coming. In @TheAthletic:https://t.co/9QRrkK8R0b
Houston finished with one first-place vote; six second- and third-place votes, apiece; five fourth-place votes; and three fifth-place votes.
“They have drafted well, built a deep team in a tough Western Conference while managing tax aprons,” said one executive who voted the Rockets second. “(They) hired a good coach (Ime Udoka) and built an overall team identity, then added KD for cheap. From where they were only a few years ago, they have done a good job turning it around.”
Per Sam Amick of The Athletic, Stone “values this young core greatly and has frequently resisted the temptation to reach for overpriced roster shortcuts.” Udoka has an “influential voice” with the front office, as well, Amick adds.
Amick notes that the Durant trade came at a relatively low asset cost, adding that the Rockets are uninterested in pursuing a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies for disgruntled star Ja Morant.
The Athletic’s complete front-office rankings can be viewed here. This time a year ago, in the same exercise, Houston finished in a tie for the No. 11 spot.
After their Emirates NBA Cup 2025 elimination, the Rockets (12-4) learned two additional December dates for their 2025-26 regular season.
As announced Saturday by the league office, the Los Angeles Clippers (5-14) will visit Houston on Thursday, Dec. 11. Tipoff at Toyota Center will be at 7:00 p.m. Central.
Meanwhile, the Rockets (12-4) will then head to Denver on Monday, Dec. 15, where tipoff versus the Nuggets (13-5) is at 8:30 p.m. Central.
During Cup games, all three of the Clippers, Nuggets, and Rockets went 2-2 in Western Conference group-stage play. Because only four teams out of the 15 in each conference advance to the knockout rounds, a 2-2 record in group games isn’t usually enough to finish among the top four, and that was again the case this year.
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To ensure that all teams play 82 regular-season games, teams who don’t advance then have two additional December games scheduled versus same-conference opponents who also did not advance.
In most cases, these add-on matchups come down to a formula. Taking Houston as an example, each season’s schedule includes two games (one home, one away) versus all East opponents and four games (two home, two away) versus most West opponents.
However, if that was the case for all same-conference opponents, the schedule would be at 86 games in length. So, there is a select group — rotating each year — of same-conference opponents on the docket only three times.
To trim down to 80 games (to account for the possibility of Cup advancement), the six West teams with only three dates on Houston’s initial 2025-26 schedule were the Clippers, Nuggets, Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Lakers.
Add-on games are typically chosen from that group, and the Thunder and Lakers advanced in Cup play, thus taking them off the table. So, it came down to two teams from the other four.
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Led by James Harden, the reeling Clippers have yet to play Houston this season, though they will meet again on Dec. 23 in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets enjoyed a close Nov. 21 victory in Houston. For the Rockets, Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun each struggled in that game.
Now, less than a month later — in a matchup that could prove pivotal in the West standings race — Durant and Sengun (assuming health) will get an opportunity to make amends.
Denver and Houston are currently tied for the No. 3 spot in the West (trailing the Thunder and Lakers), though the Rockets are technically ahead by percentage points due to playing two fewer games. Thus, that Dec. 15 rematch could have significant stakes for both sides.
Relative to their expected formula from the 2025 offseason, the Rockets were missing five rotation players in Wednesday’s Thanksgiving Eve playoff rematch versus the Warriors.
Kevin Durant (personal reasons), Steven Adams (right ankle tendinopathy), and Tari Eason (right oblique strain) were all sidelined, and veterans Fred VanVleet (right knee) and Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle) remain on the shelf after offseason surgeries.
Yet, the Rockets (12-4) still won for a 12th time in 14 games, and they overcame a 14-point road deficit against a high-profile Golden State squad featuring the likes of Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green.
The biggest reason was second-year guard Reed Sheppard, who set career-highs in points (31) and rebounds (9) while making 12-of-25 shots (48.0%), including four 3-pointers.
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“He was big,” said head coach Ime Udoka, whose Rockets won despite shooting below 40% overall and 30% from 3-point range. “Reed really held us together when guys were struggling.”
For the season, Sheppard — a starter for Udoka over the past two games — is averaging 14.3 points, 3.3 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.6 steals in 24.9 minutes per game. He’s shooting 48.8% overall and 45.5% on 3-pointers, with the latter figure coming in at No. 11 among hundreds of qualified NBA players.
But the advanced metrics are even more impressive. Per Basketball Reference, here’s where Sheppard ranks among his NBA peers in several impact categories:
The only players with a superior BPM are a quartet of annual Most Valuable Player (MVP) frontrunners in Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Doncic. At the moment, Sheppard is the league’s highest-rated American player!
To say the least, those are remarkable efficiency metrics for a 21-year-old in his second NBA season. And it’s not as if Sheppard is posting those in low-leverage minutes, as evidenced by the key plays he made in the fourth quarter to help put the Warriors away.
“Defensively is where he’s shown the most improvement, overall,” Udoka said from San Francisco. “I think he’s taking on the challenge. The blow-bys are getting less and less. He’s catching up with the physicality of the game. Teams are going to try to attack him, at times, but like we said last year and during this summer, make them go east and west and stay in front of them. Help will come. He’s doing a great job of that.”
Sixteen games in, it’s no longer a particularly small sample. Rounding, it’s actually 20% of the 82-game regular season!
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Assuming relative health, the 2025-26 Rockets had a high floor entering the season due to the All-Star presence of Durant and Alperen Sengun. But whether they could achieve a championship ceiling likely depended on further leaps from young players — most notably, the high-upside ones like Sheppard and Amen Thompson.
With Durant out, Thompson was the headliner in Monday’s road victory in Phoenix, and Sheppard stole the show two nights later at Golden State.
For everyone surrounding the organization, it’s an appropriate time to be thankful. With these leaps being shown from players who are extremely young and still improving, the Rockets appear set up to be a force in the Western Conference for quite some time.
“It’s going to be exciting when we get fully healthy and whole,” Udoka surmised.
