Rockets Cited as Dream Landing Spot for Ja Morant

It's no secret that the NBA is a player's league. Owners surely hate it but players dictate terms.

Even if signed to a long-term contract, players can navigate their way out of deals. And all it takes is for them to realize that they have no way of viable contending for a title.

Or at least think that.

We've seen countless examples of it. And those situations can get murky. And downright disrespectful and dirty.

For players, the uglier it gets, the better. Especially if they're superstars.

Because the franchise likely never wants to move them. Their best path to title contention almost always includes those players.

But they'll only deal with so much embarrassment or egg on their face, because that becomes a bad look after awhile. And it also gets old rather quickly.

Which is why players continue to do it. It's a highly successful approach.

Just ask James Harden, who has employed such measures and has effectively pulled it off 100 percent of the time.

He's batting one thousand when it comes to that. But he's also grown shameless when resorting to such measures.

He first pulled it off with the Houston Rockets, deciding that the title contending days were over and deeming the Brooklyn Nets as a more viable path.

Shortly afterwards, it was time to change teams once more, as he re-joined Daryl Morey --his old business partner -- with the Philadelphia 76ers. After they fell out, Harden went back to his native Los Angeles to join the LA Clippers.

No one can necessarily blame him for such moves. He was doing what he felt was best for his career.

Jimmy Butler has done the same with multiple teams, including mainly the Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Heat, forcing both teams' hand at a trade.

The latest culprit seems to be Ja Morant, whose fairytale, small-market union with the Memphis Grizzlies appears on the cusp of divorce.

Morant has turned to the media to question the coaching staff and air out private conversations between he and the franchise, and later noted that he isn't taking the court with the same joy that he once had (taking a page out of Butler's book).

Multiple teams have been monitoring the situation, hoping to maximize the opportunity to land a young superstar for pennies on the dollar, for self-imposed reasons.

The Rockets were recently dubbed the ideal destination for Morant.

"He’s not the ideal long-range shooter to unlock their offense, but he’d give the Rockets a major upgrade at the point guard position. The sheer thought of watching him run pick-and-rolls with Kevin Durant should be enough to get every NBA fan’s juices flowing. Let’s make it happen, Grizzlies and Rockets."

This is likely something that won't happen, for numerous reasons. For starters, Memphis is trying their best to not move him.

Also, Morant's presence would take the ball out of Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun's hands, which has worked tremendously for Houston thus far, to the tune of the top-ranked offense in the league.

Would the Rockets really want to risk breaking that up? And if so, would it really be worth it, considering what they'd have to deal with off the court, not to mention his defensive warts?