There have been several columns and reports, most recently one by ESPN Insider, that mention the Rockets potentially including their 2011 first round draft choice in a trade.
There have been several columns and reports, most recently one by ESPN Insider, that mention the Rockets potentially including their 2011 first round draft choice in a trade.
Only one problem — they can’t.
ClutchFans confirmed on Friday that, due to the Ted Stepien rule that restricts teams from trading away future first rounders in consecutive years, the Rockets can not currently trade their first round pick for this summer’s draft. The Terrence Williams trade, which sent Houston’s lottery-protected 2012 pick to New Jersey, has restricted the Rockets in the same fashion as the Knicks were handcuffed by the Tracy McGrady-Jordan Hill+picks deal last February.
But wait — don’t the Rockets have a 2012 pick? Technically they may have two. If the Rockets finish in the lottery in 2011-12, they keep their pick. If the Knicks’ pick doesn’t end up in the top 5, it goes to Houston.
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However, the Rockets do not have a guaranteed pick that year. If the Rockets make the playoffs and New York’s pick strikes top-5 gold, the Rockets have nothing.
There are some loopholes. The Rockets can be free of that restriction by acquiring another team’s unconditional 2011 pick or an unconditional 2012 pick. If not, they will be able to trade the pick on draft day the moment the selection is made, so technically they could work a deal beforehand and make the pick for another team, similar to what they did when they picked Rudy Gay for the Memphis Grizzlies at #8 in 2006.
One other draft pick asset to keep an eye on — the 2011 second round draft choice of the Los Angeles Clippers. The Rockets have the option to switch second round picks with the Clippers by virtue of the Steve Novak trade in 2008. The Clips are looking like a bottom five team once again, which could make that a high second rounder (the kind that Daryl Morey and the Rockets love).
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”.
Just prior to training camp, the Houston Rockets lost veteran point guard Fred VanVleet (right knee ACL repair) to a potentially season ending injury.
That development led many observers around the league to speculate that Houston might pursue an external upgrade at point guard.
Yet, six games into the 2025-26 season, the Rockets (4-2) own the NBA’s best offense. They also have the majority of their point-guard reps going to Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard, two promising young talents who should only improve as the year progresses.
With that in mind, even as tensions seemingly rise in Memphis between the Grizzlies and two-time All-Star Ja Morant, it doesn’t seem as though Houston is interested in pursuing a trade (should the 26-year-old eventually hit the market).
The Grizzlies’ next opponent, the Houston Rockets, need a point guard after losing Fred Van Vleet to a torn ACL in the preseason… but, per a team source, are unlikely to pursue him.
But from a Houston perspective, the logic appears to be basketball-related.
The Rockets have an elite offense, as is, so why would GM Rafael Stone bring in a high-usage player who would potentially take away touches and playmaking opportunities from the likes of Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Alperen Sengun?
Should the on-court results significantly change, it’s possible that Stone and the Rockets could revisit the Morant option by the in-season trade deadline of Feb. 5, 2026. But based on what we know now, it doesn’t appear likely that Houston will be involved in any bidding.
HOUSTON — Amen Thompson may not look like a traditional point guard, but he’s filling in capably for the Rockets in the absence of veteran Fred VanVleet.
The Rockets (3-2) entered Monday’s home game versus Dallas (2-4) on a three-game winning streak, and their 22-year-old rising star was +77 when playing during those games.
For the season, Thompson is averaging 15.0 points (46.7% FG), 6.0 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and 2.6 turnovers per game, and the versatile 6-foot-7 prospect remains best known for his defense (Thompson earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors last season).
Yet, in pregame comments from Toyota Center, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd — a Hall of Fame point guard from his NBA playing days — went out of his way to praise Thompson’s abilities on offense.
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When asked about Thompson’s defense, Kidd replied:
He’s playing the game at a very high level, not just on defense but on the offensive end, too. Driving the ball, and putting a lot of pressure on the defense at the rim.
I know everyone talks about his defense, but the way he’s handling the ball, it puts a lot of pressure (on the opponent).
Houston continues to rank No. 1 in the NBA in offensive rating, so Thompson’s individual contributions are clearly making it work for the Rockets as a team, as well.
The Rockets are without Jabari Smith Jr. (right ankle sprain) in Monday’s game, so Thompson started alongside Kevin Durant, Josh Okogie, Tari Eason, and Alperen Sengun.
After losing Fred VanVleet to a potentially season ending knee injury, the Rockets aren’t starting a traditional point guard. The closest thing in Houston’s starting lineup, Amen Thompson, hasn’t even made a single 3-pointer through four games.
One enormous reason for that success is rebounding. In Wednesday’s victory at Toronto, the Rockets overwhelmed the Raptors on the glass, 64-29.
In a podcast released after that game, The Ringer’s Zach Lowe singled out Houston’s “double big” lineups featuring both Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams.
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“Who has the No. 1 offense in the entire NBA? The Houston freaking Rockets, who are proving that you can do it in a lot of different ways,” Lowe explained.
“If you’re big enough and mean enough and you have Amen Thompson and Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun, and Steven freaking Adams getting every offensive rebound, you can live at the foul line,” Lowe continued. “You can get second, third, and fourth possessions, and you can build an elite offense despite taking almost no 3s and having no traditional point guard, other than Reed Sheppard coming off the bench… who’s been just okay.”
“I feel like I’m watching a scientific experiment every time I watch them. With Sengun and Adams on the floor together, they’re +37 in 70 minutes. This continues to be the greatest accidental discovery in recent basketball history.”
“Steven Adams cannot be kept off the offensive glass. You know what their offensive rebounding rate is with those two guys on the floor? 47 percent. If they shoot and miss, there’s a 50-50 chance they’re getting it back. There was a possession in Toronto where they got two or three offensive rebounds in a row, and on the second one, Scottie Barnes was under the rim trying to box out Adams, I think. And mid-possession, seeing that the Rockets were going to get the ball back, he just slumped his shoulders and kind of stopped playing for a minute, because it’s so demoralizing to play against this big, nasty, physical team.”
To Lowe’s point, it should be noted that head coach Ime Udoka and general manager Rafael Stone clearly didn’t anticipate the two-center lineups functioning as well as they have.
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“The double big (success), that did surprise me,” Stone said prior to training camp. “If it didn’t, then it would be shame on me for not doing it at the beginning of the season. But good basketball players can play with good basketball players, and I do think Steven is a very high-IQ player, and Alperen is, too.”
With a limited offensive team in 2024-25, and particularly in halfcourt situations, the Rockets found late in the year that leaning into the high offensive rebounding rate of those Sengun-Adams lineups helped mitigate those deficiencies.
After acquiring Durant in the 2025 offseason, the thought was that Houston’s 2025-26 offense might look a bit more traditional in its approach. But VanVleet’s September injury changed the plan — and so far, the Sengun-Adams pairing is once again working its magic to help overcome those perceived shortcomings.
Lowe’s complete podcast can be viewed here, with the Houston discussion starting approximately 81 minutes in.
With Wednesday’s 139-121 victory at Toronto, the Rockets (2-2) secured their first winning streak of the 2025-26 campaign and are now NBA’s top-rated offense of the young season.
Featuring Dave Hardisty, Ben DuBose, and Paulo Alves, our “ClutchFans Live” postgame show recaps all the key storylines from that showing against the Raptors.
Discussion topics include big scoring games from Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr.; a dominant rebounding performance, led by interior strength from Steven Adams and Alperen Sengun; a subpar shooting night by Reed Sheppard; and potential concerns on defense, where the Rockets currently rank in the bottom half of the league.
In the win at Toronto (box score), Durant, Smith, Sengun, and Amen Thompson combined for a whopping 92 points, with each shooting at least 50% from the field.
The Rockets and Durant’s business manager and partner, Rich Kleiman, they’ve been in constant communication about a long-term contract extension.
He can sign a two-year extension, and I’m told there is optimism about a deal getting done before the start of the regular season.
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Now 37 years old, Durant is currently under contract for just the 2025-26 season at $54.7 million, and he is eligible to sign a two-year deal (no more than that due to the NBA’s age-38 rule) for just above $120 million in total value.
But even though Durant remains an All-Star player, all indications are that the deal probably won’t be at the maximum amount.
For starters, if a maximum deal was on the table and Durant had already communicated his desire to extend (as he has), why wouldn’t it already be signed? Second, intel from earlier in the offseason were that Durant is open to taking a sub-max deal.
Finally, the Rockets are being cautious with future payrolls and attempting to avoid many of the punitive team-building restrictions placed on expensive teams under the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That is very important for a 2027-28 season in which rising star Amen Thompson will likely be on the books at a much higher salary.
For those reasons, it appears that at least some negotiations are taking place regarding the next Durant contract, and it won’t be as simple as general manager Rafael Stone giving him the maximum amount and years.
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Whatever the case, it sounds as though we won’t have to wait very long to find out the end result. While there is no firm deadline and talks can theoretically drag into the regular season (in contrast to the Oct. 20 rookie-scale extension deadline for Tari Eason), it sounds like a Durant deal is inevitable and fairly imminent.
The regular season opens in less than two weeks on Tuesday, October 21.
