{"id":391372,"date":"2026-01-04T16:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/391372\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T16:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:19:13","slug":"rockets-get-guard-depth-from-struggling-west-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/391372\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Get Guard Depth from Struggling West Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">The Houston Rockets are in a comfortable position at 21-10, good for third in the Western Conference heading into Saturday&#8217;s matchup against the Dallas Mavericks. They have the pieces to go far in the playoffs, and after a rough stretch of basketball in early to mid-December, Houston has rattled off four wins in a row.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">Still, that doesn&#8217;t mean the Rockets have zero weaknesses. Their most glaring problem comes on the offensive end despite ranking second in such rating (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=OFF_RATING\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">121.8<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">Houston has had a turnover issue amid the absence of Fred VanVleet (torn ACL). The team lacks a true point guard with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;dir=D&amp;sort=TM_TOV_PCT\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">16.4% turnover rate<\/a>, good for 29th in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">The Rockets aren&#8217;t expected to make any significant trades ahead of the Feb. 5 deadline, but if this problem is accentuated in January, perhaps the front office could look for the right deal. There are a few potential targets, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/rockets\/onsi\/news\/rockets-top-three-trade-targets-all-have-one-thing-in-common\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">as listed by Bleacher Report&#8217;s Dan Favale<\/a>. One of these three point guards could be available for a low price.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\">Cam Spencer of the Memphis Grizzlies has had somewhat of a breakout second season. Across 33 games, he&#8217;s averaging 12 points and 4.8 assists on incredible 50-49-92 shooting splits.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">Spencer would be the perfect player to help fix Houston&#8217;s turnover problem and accentuate three-point shooting. The Rockets could get him for a solid price, too.<\/p>\n<p>Memphis Grizzlies receive: Aaron Holiday, Tyler Smith, 2026 second-round pick (via CHI), 2028 first-round pick swapHouston Rockets receive: Cam Spencer<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"72\">The Grizzlies are ninth in the Western Conference, but clearly aren&#8217;t going anywhere far with a 15-19 record. With drama regarding star point guard Ja Morant, there&#8217;s a good chance Memphis could blow things up in 2026.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">Spencer, despite having less than two full seasons played in the league, is already 25 years old. His floor is higher than most, but his ceiling is extremely low. That&#8217;s the kind of player the Grizzlies, who could be in for a rebuild, should be willing to give up. It&#8217;s also someone the Rockets need as they enter title contention.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">The 6-foot-3 sniper could either start as a facilitating shooter or come off the bench and be a spark plug as he is right now. Given just 22.9 minutes per game in Memphis, he deserves more of an opportunity on a winning team. Spencer would be a great player to have in Ime Udoka&#8217;s system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Rockets are in a comfortable position at 21-10, good for third in the Western Conference heading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-391372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}