Rafael Stone: Rockets using very different trade deadline approach in 2022

The Rockets were very active before the NBA’s 2021 trade deadline, shipping out veterans PJ Tucker and Victor Oladipo. That does not mean, however, that Houston will have a repeat showing in 2022.

In an interview Monday with Matt Thomas of SportsTalk 790, the flagship radio station of the Rockets in Houston, Stone noted that nearly every member of his team is already under contract for the 2022-23 season. Thus, there isn’t the fear of potentially losing them for no compensation if a deal isn’t made, which was the case a year ago.

“Our entire team is on very long-term deals,” Stone told Thomas. “We have no one that if we don’t do something with now, we would lose this summer, in terms of our young core. The fact is, we have people on deals that we really like and are comfortable with.”

With the Feb. 10 trade deadline now 10 days away, Stone elaborated on the differences in his 2022 approach, relative to 2021:

We’re in a very different spot than we were last year at the same time. In fact, it’s a different spot than we’ve ever been in, since I’ve been here (2005). I do think our approach at this trade deadline will be considerably different than last year.

We are getting more inbound calls than we’ve ever gotten, at least since I’ve been with the Rockets. Last year, we knew we were going to do a couple of deals, and it was just what the structure was going to be. We knew we were going to send a couple of players out.

This year, it’s really different, because we’re really comfortable with our team. If you’d have asked me, last summer, where we wanted to be in February, I think we’re actually really pretty close to where we hoped to be. It’s been a good season in the macro. We like our roster, we like our players. There’s not something that we just have to do.

Those comments by Stone seem to jive with recent reporting that the Rockets are less likely to move marquee veterans such as Eric Gordon and Christian Wood before the 2021-22 season’s trade deadline. While deals are certainly possible, it depends on the other team paying a premium.

“We’re having a lot of conversations,” Stone said of his current approach. “Are there things that make sense for us and for other teams? We’re having so many (conversations) that the odds are we’ll probably do something, I suppose, but it is very different than last year.”

“It feels right now like there’s nobody (among players) that I need to be saying, ‘Hey, it looks like there’s something done, or this is going to happen.’ We are pretty happy with our roster. From the outside looking in, people may be perceiving that we’re going to do stuff that maybe we’re not going to do. We want to get better, we want to do the right deals, and doing the right deal is very different from doing a deal.”

Stone also seemed to confirm recent reports that Houston isn’t too interested in other 2022 draft picks, unless they are high in the order.

“We just want to get better, organically and systematically, in such a way that we can continue to build year over year over year,” he said. “That can come in the form of draft picks, and it can come in the form of players. We’re open to either. But we do like our current construct, and we think that there should be a decent amount of internal growth.”

“The result of that last statement is we don’t feel pressure to do deals to acquire draft picks or young players outside the organization. Certainly, if you can acquire a great draft pick, you do it. If you can acquire a great young player, you do it. But a late first in this year’s draft doesn’t maybe have the same meaning for us this year that it did last year.”

“Some of the deals that we’ve done in the past have set us up well, to where we’re going to have multiple picks in multiple drafts,” Stone concluded. “You are constrained by roster spots.”

The complete interview can be listened to below.