Report: Rockets planning to waive Derrick Favors to finalize roster

With the roster deadline looming for the NBA’s 2022-23 regular season, the Rockets plan to release veteran big man Derrick Favors, perShams Charania of The Athletic. Favors was acquired just two weeks ago for salary reasons as part of a trade with Oklahoma City that netted Houston a future second-round draft asset.

Teams can carry up to 20 players in the offseason and throughout training camp, but that must be trimmed to a maximum of 15 standard contracts and two two-way deals by the regular season. While waiving Favors would make the Rockets set among standard contracts, they could still have flexibility with their two-way slots.

Favors is on a $10.3-million guaranteed salary this season, and there was thought he could have been useful to Houston as potential matching salary in future trade scenarios. However, that would have likely forced a release elsewhere in the form of a player such as Daishen Nix, Garrison Mathews, or Boban Marjanovic, and it appears general manager Rafael Stone wasn’t willing to let any of them go.

The argument could also be made that with Houston poised to have significant salary cap space in the 2023 offseason, the odds of executing a major trade during the 2022-23 regular season (which could potentially eat into that room) may be diminished, which would make it less important to have salary filler such as Favors.

Here’s what the #Rockets face getting the roster down to 15. In my view, barring trade, it basically comes down to Garrison Mathews, Derrick Favors and Boban Marjanović — one of them has to go. pic.twitter.com/uPnPm9GIMp

— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) October 9, 2022

The Houston Rockets are planning to waive center Derrick Favors, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Rockets needed to make a roster cut to reach 15 guaranteed spots.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 14, 2022