The Houston Rockets made a trade on Friday morning to acquire Josh Smith, a guy that helped them get to the Western Conference Finals last season. Most of the chatter around the Rockets lately though has been about players they might trade away like Dwight Howard and Ty Lawson among others. The expectation is that the Rockets should remain fairly quiet over the next month and that Lawson will be retained for the rest of the season despite the rumors, according to Sam Amick of USA Today Sports.
The Rockets have been extremely underwhelming so far this season as they are 22-22 and in seventh place in the Western Conference. Acquiring Smith gives Houston basically their whole team from last year back with the addition of Lawson and Marcus Thornton. Houston hoped that Lawson would be the missing piece to get them over the hump this season but he hasn't been and overall the team has regressed.
Lawson is now coming off the bench for the Rockets and his role has been all over the place but it seems like Houston is intent on sticking with him for the rest of the season and seeing how far the team could go as currently constructed. Lawson has been on the block for the majority of this season as the Rockets figured out pretty early on that the fit wasn't great but Houston didn't like any of the offers they have received.
Most recently Lawson has been linked to the Milwaukee Bucks but that seems extremely unlikely now. Lawson's value is very low right now so the Rockets see having him on their team as a backup as more valuable than what they would be able to get back for him in a trade. Lawson is coming off a game where he scored 18 points on 8-13 shooting and added five assists but his play overall has been very sporadic.
Lawson is on the books for $12 million this season, which also likely made making a deal very difficult, but his salary for next season is non-guaranteed. It is a near certainty that the Rockets cut Lawson before his salary does become guaranteed which will then make him an unrestricted free agent this summer. Lawson's last game could be a sign that he is getting back to the player we always saw in Denver but we will likely have to wait until next season to fully see him back because the Rockets don't intend to trade him away.
