Evaluating What the Rockets Could Give up to Move into the Draft’s First Round

Houston could look to the 2026 NBA Draft for guard help.

Oct 2, 2022; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets general manager Rafael Stone smiles before the preseason game against the San Antonio Spurs at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The 2026 NBA Draft is a few weeks away, and while the Houston Rockets don’t have a first-round pick, the class offers plenty of what they need: guards.

Houston struggled to find its point guard last season, with veteran Fred VanVleet missing the entirety of the season due to an ACL injury, and players like Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard not quite able to take on true lead reps.

While VanVleet will return in the 2026-27 season, and the young players are sure to have taken strides, it still feels as if Houston could use some point guard insurance. Enter the 2026 NBA Draft, which could see as many as seven point guards taken in the first round alone.

There will be high-end and middling options for Houston in players like Labaron Philon, Ebuko Okorie, Bennett Stirtz, Christian Anderson and more, all of which could help Houston as early as next season.

Additionally, there are also teams with multiple first-round picks such as the Thunder, Hornets and Grizzlies, who could potentially be looking to kick picks down the road.

There are likely deals to be done which could net the Rockets some point guard help, but in a reportedly deep NBA Draft class — especially at the guard position — teams will be looking to return equal value.

For starters, without giving up players, the Rockets will need to send out a first-round pick. Right now, the team has a 2027 unprotected first from the Suns, swap rights with Brooklyn in 2027, swap rights with Dallas and Phoenix in 2029, as well as its own first-round picks in 2028, 2030, 2031 and 2032.

Almost all of those assets could likely be used singularly to move into the middle part of the 2026 NBA Draft, though Houston will need to assess if it’s the right time and right value to pull that trigger. Given they need the guard help now and the class is chock full of contributors, it stands to reason they could be willing to swap picks.

On the player front, the Rockets stand in a tough position to make a trade. The team’s top-end players simply have more value that one middle-to-late first-round pick, though the back-end rotation pieces aren’t quite enough to net a good draft selection. That insinuates that a much larger and more advanced deal would have to be put together, which the team likely doesn’t want at this point.

The teams in those draft selections will have the leverage, though Houston has the means to get a deal done with capital alone, which makes draft-night interesting for the Rockets, even as they enter without a first-round pick.