Rockets rumors: Houston’s lame spin for quiet trade deadline after losing to Lakers

Everything seemed set up for the Houston Rockets to make a run to at least the second round of the NBA playoffs this season. Despite only getting in as the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, the Rockets drew a shorthanded Lakers squad that was missing Luka Doncic and had Austin Reaves recovering from injury.

However, things didn’t go according to plan for the Rockets. They fell behind 3-0 in the series after blowing Game 3 in historic fashion, and lost Kevin Durant to knee and ankle injuries in the process. Despite making a spirited comeback to force a Game 6, they were put to bed in that sixth game in front of their home fans.

There are a lot of fingers to point at the Rockets for this loss. Doncic missed all six games of this series, and Reaves missed the first four. Some of the blame can go to the front office, which had a chance to improve the roster at the trade deadline and did not end up doing so.

Now that the Rockets have lost, the reason for that passiveness has been unveiled, via NBA insider Marc Stein.

“After losing Fred VanVleet’s floor (and daily vibes) leadership before the season even started, Houston accepted it wasn’t close to championship contention this season, league sources say, when it opted not to aggressively pursue roster reinforcements at February’s trade deadline,” Stein wrote. “In addition to VanVleet’s season-ending knee injury, sources say team officials also viewed Steven Adams’ season-ending ankle injury in January as the loss of a foundational piece.”

While that is a defensible stance, especially after losing Adams on top of VanVleet, fans will counter with Durant’s age creeping closer to 40. The Rockets don’t have many years to compete with Durant on the roster, and adding more reinforcements at the trade deadline would have given them the best chance to do that this season.

Now, the Rockets have a lot of questions to answer moving forward about what the roster looks like, with or without Durant in the lineup, this offseason.

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