Should Surging Houston Rockets Develop or Trade?

The Houston Rockets are on the brink of contention.

They own one of the biggest and most talented cores in the entire league, and currently hold the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference, signaling their likely arrival to the postseason at the end of the season.

It’s been a long time coming for the organization, who frequented the top of the NBA Draft for the last half-decade, grabbing players like Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Amen Thompson and more that are now helping the team surge in the West.

Another boon to the team’s standing was the signing of free agents an offseason ago. Point guard Fred VanVleet and forward Dillon Brooks were both added to the team’s sheet, and have subsequently helped in numerous ways, both on and off-court.

As it stands now, the Rockets have a good basketball team. But where do they go from here? To simplify a none too simple process, there are two main options.

The first includes riding it out with their current core, which doesn’t look to be a bad option given their recent success.

Houston could continue to develop its core of youngsters in the hopes of even more internal developments and continuity. Their young players are sure to get even better in the coming years — especially those like Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard, who are still in their initial years in the NBA.

Option A would be trusting the front office’s team-building, hoping that the pieces added are good enough to mesh together and eventually make a run at the title. The lone issue with this option being there’s going to be odd players out, like forward Cam Whitmore is already seeing in his second season.

In this scenario, Houston likely waits out the contracts of VanVleet and Brooks while continuing to lean into the entire core of young players, eventually signing those who rise to the top while filling in the gaps with extra money in free agency.

Option No. 2, which is undoubtedly the more exciting of the two, is to consolidate its core in order to upgrade the roster on the trade market.

Here, the Rockets could package players such as Smith, Sheppard, Whitmore, eventually Green, along with the team’s big contracts in VanVleet and Brooks in order to add a star. This is an obvious gamble considering the young players could further pan out. But there’s, of course, a chance they don’t with so much ball to go around.

There’s no way to know what the right answer is for Houston at the moment.

Team’s have pushed the bright green “GO” button much too early on trades. Atlanta added Dejounte Murray after an Eastern Conference Finals bid only to make it no further since. But the Bucks sold out for Jrue Holiday, who eventually helped the team earn its first-ever title.

One thing is certain: how an up-and-coming franchise tows this line is often the difference between good and elite ones.

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