With up to $60 million in potential salary cap room, the 2023 offseason has long been looked at as a pivot point for the rebuilding Houston Rockets. With future draft obligations to Oklahoma City coming back into play with the 2023-24 season, there’s also no longer any clear organizational incentive to lose games for draft reasons.
Thus, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone is expected by many to be aggressive this offseason, and with good reason.
However, there is at least one caveat. Stone explains further in his latest interview with Kelly Iko of The Athletic:
We’re gonna be super aggressive. It doesn’t mean that we will be successful. And what we won’t do is chase things that we don’t think are long-term in our best interests. But we’re going to be super aggressive trying to be as good as we can next year, with an eye towards being even better in the future. We’re trying to build a championship team. And we’re going to be very aggressive along that front.
What that does not mean is doing what we consider to be dumb things that prioritize next year over the year after, for example. We are trying to keep in mind the firm goal of building a championship team. You’re on the NBA circuit, one thing I think we’ve got is a reputation for being aggressive. So we’re gonna continue that.
There’s talent in Houston. Putting it together has proven difficult.
Still, optimism remains.
Rockets GM Rafael Stone opens up about an important offseason and the rebuilding process.
Exclusive with @KellyIko: https://t.co/njt2cIjNCf pic.twitter.com/XvbhBHAMUt
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) February 23, 2023
For the Rockets, this offseason’s spending is viewed as a means to an eventual end, which they see as championship contention.
To say the least, with the NBA’s worst record (13-45) to this point of the current season, it’s quite unlikely that title contention is realistic in 2023-24 — regardless of who they acquire this summer.
Thus, any free agency signing or trade considered by the Rockets should be viewed as part of a broader process, as opposed to strictly how much it might improve their record next season.
For example, how might a hypothetical offseason target influence the development of Houston’s existing young core? Would a certain contract structure prohibit Stone’s ability to put the finishing touches on a contending roster in the future?
In 2016, when the Rockets last went into an offseason under the NBA’s salary cap , Daryl Morey (general manager at that time) signed veteran forward Ryan Anderson to a four-year, $80-million deal that was widely viewed as a potential overpay at that time.
However, because the Rockets had James Harden in his prime, it still made sense for Houston to upgrade its short-term prospects with Anderson and worry about everything else later. That type of bet would not make sense in 2023, given the surrounding roster.
Expect Stone to be aggressive this offseason, but it will be more of a balancing act between the short-term and longer-term.
