If the Rockets are going to spend the season searching for extra shooting, the front office already has a pretty clear type in mind. That much comes through fast: this roster still needs more players who can make defenses pay from the perimeter, and the deadline would be a natural place to look.
Duncan Robinson of the Detroit Pistons fits that need in the most obvious way. After Reed Sheppard and Kevin Durant, there are no Rockets who force opponents into desperate closeouts from deep.
Jabari Smith Jr. can shoot it at 6’11”, but an open Smith three is a manageable result for a defense, not a breakdown. And with Marcus Smart now in the mix, it feels unlikely Sheppard’s minutes are going to jump.
That makes Robinson the kind of name that starts to make sense when Houston is again reminded it still does not have enough dependable three-point shooting to win the math game. He isn’t a defensive stopper, but at 6’7”, he is easier to work around than the smaller Sheppard.
Robinson shot 41.0% from three last season, which was basically another Duncan Robinson year, and he has quietly become more capable as a ball-handler and playmaker. Still, there’s no guarantee Udoka would actually play him either.
Ty Jerome brings a different kind of appeal, and a different set of problems. The biggest one is durability.
Injuries have followed him for years, and last season looked like a breakout until it ended after 15 games. In that stretch, he put up 19.7 points and 5.7 assists per game while hitting 42.0% of his threes.
That’s real production. He can operate on or off the ball, and he has the kind of reputation as a smart team defender that Udoka, at minimum, probably wouldn’t despise.
The catch for Houston is simple: Jerome is another backcourt player, and bringing him in would amount to conceding something about Reed Sheppard. If that’s where the Rockets are headed anyway, he belongs on the board.
Then there’s Zeke Nnaji of the Denver Nuggets, the big man option. Houston has added plenty of size in recent years, but not much of it stretches the floor.
The debate over stretch bigs is always there - if a player can’t really shoot, does it matter that he shoots? - but in a vacuum, the Rockets have a legitimate case for wanting one, especially with Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun on the roster. Nnaji brings versatility on defense and has made 34.5% of his threes across six NBA seasons.
He is not the kind of shooter who makes a defense panic, but he could still ease some of the spacing problems Houston faces. He would allow the Rockets to play four-out groups around Amen Thompson with Nnaji at center, and he could also handle a few minutes with Sengun at the 4.
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For Houston, the intrigue is obvious. The Rockets have been building toward a bigger jump, and any conversation about Davis naturally changes the way their ceiling is viewed if Washington gets off to a rocky start. There is already speculation that a slow opening in Washington could lead to more trade chatter, with Houston among the teams mentioned as a possible landing spot, which is the kind of development that can shift a contenders timeline in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]