Amen Thompson’s name is starting to land in a different category around the NBA: not as a trade chip, but as the kind of player a team builds around and refuses to move.
That’s the sense coming out of Houston after Thompson’s third season with the Rockets, a year in which he put up 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals across 79 games. His value isn’t just tied to the box score, either. Thompson’s versatility, burst and defense have pushed him into franchise-player territory for the Rockets, and the front office backed that belief by signing him to a five-year, $208 million extension.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said the organization sees Thompson as one of the league’s premier pieces, going as far as to frame him as the one player Houston wouldn’t seriously consider moving.
“I’ve been telling you for a while how much the Rockets value Amen Thompson. I mean if there’s one untradable player on the roster it is him. According to their metrics, they think he is one of the top 10 and I might be inflating that number, most valuable player in the league.”
At this stage, there’s no sign Houston is even entertaining the idea of shopping him. If anything, the safer read is that Thompson is basically off limits unless another team comes with something extraordinary.
The 23-year-old’s workload last season only strengthened that case. He logged a league-high 2,953 minutes in the 2025-2026 season while handling point guard duties after Fred VanVleet was sidelined by injury. He also finished in the top 10 in Defensive Player of the Year voting for the second year in a row.
There’s more on the résumé too. Thompson ranked fifth in win shares across the NBA last season, a number that adds another layer to the argument that he’s already one of Houston’s most important players. With the Rockets back at full strength, he should have the kind of environment that lets his game keep expanding.
The obvious swing skill remains the jumper. Thompson still has work to do from mid-range and beyond the arc, where he’s shooting 21.9 percent from three. The hope inside the organization is that working with new Rockets assistant coach Chip Engelland can help clean up his mechanics.
Even with all that upside, Thompson hasn’t reached All-Star status yet, and he’s still not in the MVP conversation. Houston is projected to land in the upper half of the Western Conference standings, and 2027 is being framed as the real checkpoint for how high his ceiling can go.
For now, though, the Rockets don’t appear interested in moving him for anything short of a true franchise cornerstone. Anthony Edwards and Donovan Mitchell were cited as the kind of elite talents who would be hard to turn down, and even then, Thompson’s value is rooted in what he might become as much as what he already is.
That’s what makes any realistic trade pursuit feel like a long shot. Another team would have to build an offer that is both appealing and believable, and that’s a tough ask when Houston already views Thompson as a core piece. All signs point to him being firmly off the table.
In Other News...
Rockets May Value Amen Thompson Far More Than Anyone Expected
Amen Thompsons rise inside Houston has become one of the more intriguing threads around the Rockets, especially as his growth keeps drawing attention beyond the usual box score conversation. Publicly available metrics already paint him as an impact player, but the deeper question is how the organization itself is measuring his value as he continues to sharpen the athleticism and shooting that made him such a fascinating prospect in the first place.
What makes the situation worth watching is what Houston may be saying without really saying it. The team has every reason to view Thompson as a core piece, and the way his profile is being framed suggests the Rockets are far more inclined to build around him than entertain outside interest. For a player still early in his development, that kind of internal belief can matter just as much as the numbers attached to him. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Face A Kevin Durant Debate That Could Reshape Their Core
Kevin Durants name keeps surfacing in Houston conversations because the Rockets are still trying to sort out how aggressive they want to be around a player who just turned in an All-NBA Second Team season at 37. He averaged 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists last season, production that makes any discussion about his future feel less like idle rumor and more like a real front-office dilemma for a team weighing its timeline against star power.
The debate gets even sharper when other teams enter the picture, with the Knicks among those being floated as a possible landing spot if the Rockets ever decide to move on. The fit and the cost would have to be sorted out carefully, and even around the league there is a sense that this is more of a later decision than a deadline rush, which leaves Houston with a complicated question to answer long before the market forces its hand. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Fans May Hate Which Core Piece Gets Left Exposed
Adam Silvers latest update on possible NBA expansion has reopened a familiar what-if around Houston, even if nothing is close to official yet. With Las Vegas and Seattle still in the conversation but no final vote on the table, the Rockets suddenly have another layer of roster planning to think about, and the exercise is less about fantasy than it is about which young core pieces would be too valuable to risk.
Under the old 2004 expansion rules, Houston would have to make some hard choices about who stays protected and who gets left exposed. The obvious center of the discussion is the top of the roster, but the real discomfort comes after that, when the margin gets thin and the final protected spots start to matter. For a team trying to build around its core, the possibility of losing a useful piece for nothing is exactly the sort of complication that makes expansion talk feel a little too real. [Read more 🡒]