Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey: 'We Believe in This Group'

DETROIT — On the day Kevin McHale was fired, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said more changes would come if things did not turn around.

“We will change until it’s working,” Morey said two weeks ago. “We win at the Rockets. Mr. [Leslie] Alexander does not accept losing. I don’t accept losing. The players, no one accepts losing. We’ve been the fifth-most winning franchise since Mr. Alexander’s owned the team. We’re going to do whatever it takes to win.”

The Rockets have not turned things around in the seven games since, though. More change would seem certain.

"You can't fire the players."

As often as that is said when a coach is surprisingly fired, the Rockets are quickly approaching the date, Dec. 15, when they can trade new acquisitions from the offseason.

However, when Morey mentioned "change" would keep coming, he was not specifically talking about the roster.

“What I meant by that is we’re going to work on everything,” Morey said before the Rockets faced the Detroit Pistons on Monday. “[The trade option] is just one thing. The coaching staff is working on changes continuously. I think people are seeing different guys playing, different rotations, different starters.

“In general, yeah, we need to keep plugging away until we get to a level of winning we feel we should be at. But that doesn’t just mean trades.”

Morey, of course, cannot rule out trades. He has never let a trade deadline pass without a move. Even in 2013, when Morey was so certain no trades were needed and he told his owner the Rockets would stand pat, he traded his starting power forward (Patrick Patterson) and his backup (Marcus Morris) hours later.

That was at the February trade deadline, when teams are much more aggressive in trade talks than in December, when there is usually much more talk than actual trades.

Beyond that, however, he said to look deeper.

The Rockets fired McHale because they believed they had a championship-caliber roster. Just two weeks later, they have not changed their position so dramatically that they would begin a fire sale.

“We believe in this group,” Morey said. “The priority really isn’t trade. The priority is getting this group back to its winning ways. Part of us having less flexibility, which I think is more or less true relative to what we had in the past, is because we do believe in the guys we have right now.”

And Morey's right. For the first time in his tenure, the Rockets entered the season without much flexibility to deal. They are close to being hard-capped. They don’t have a first-round pick to offer, having sent it to Denver for Ty Lawson (lottery protected).

Breaking Down The Rockets' Trade Assets

Lawson would seem the most likely player to be moved, having gone from starting to barely being in the rotation at all. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff benched him for the entire second half against Memphis, playing him less than three minutes in the game, last week. And he did not play at all in New York on Sunday.

The mix with James Harden does not seem likely to improve, nor does having him come off the bench.

Pat Sullivan/Associated Press

The rebuilding Nuggets were willing to sell low, allowing the Rockets to get Lawson without giving up a rotation piece. The Rockets generally have only made that kind of deal when clearing cap room for the next acquisition, a motivation they do not have while nearly $15 million over the salary cap.

Lawson gave up the guarantee on his contract next season, making it in effect an expiring contract. But he earns $12.4 million this season. The Rockets would have to take on roughly that much in a deal, making it more of a blockbuster than the offer of a struggling point guard who has had off-court issues is likely to inspire.

Deals involving that sort of contract—despite last season’s trade of Rajon Rondo from Boston to Dallas—are extremely rare in December.

Terrence Jones has also been bumped from the starting lineup. He's in his fourth season but is still considered an intriguing prospect.

But Jones’ modest rookie deal and pending restricted free agency might make a mid-season trade difficult. And dealing Jones would represent the sort of enormous change of thinking Morey said he has not made.

Bob Levey/Associated Press

Patrick Beverley is in the first season of a new deal, but he's back in the starting lineup and central to the Rockets’ determination to play with greater toughness. Corey Brewer has struggled, but the Rockets were able to get him without giving up a rotation player last season. They would be unlikely to get much more back for him.

None of that means the Rockets won’t deal. Eventually, they always do. They were willing to replace McHale with Bickerstaff. But they made that move because they believed their roster was better than the results. They still do.

“Obviously, we had a very tough start, but our focus hasn’t changed,” Morey said. “Our ultimate goal is to get deep in the playoffs and ultimately farther than we have last year, even.  Obviously, in the middle of us not playing well, that seems like a tougher statement to make, but our focus hasn’t changed.”

Jonathan Feigen covers the Houston Rockets for the Houston Chronicle and Bleacher Report. Follow Jonathan Feigen on Twitter @Jonathan_Feigen for more Rockets news and wisdom. 

All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.