With a roster this stacked with talent and value, ranking the Rockets from untouchable to trade candidate is a lot harder than it sounds. Still, someone has to do it.<\/p>\n
The top of the list should be mostly obvious. The middle is where things start getting a bit controversial.<\/p>\n
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Here\u2019s where everybody lands.<\/p>\n
1. Amen Thompson<\/p>\n
The closest thing Houston has to a truly untouchable asset.<\/p>\n
2. Alperen Sengun<\/p>\n
The offensive centerpiece. Moving him would force the Rockets to rethink their entire identity.<\/p>\n
3. Kevin Durant<\/p>\n
The Rockets didn\u2019t make a win-now move to reverse course a year later.<\/p>\n
4. Reed Sheppard<\/p>\n
Rising star shooter. He\u2019s still on a rookie contract, and showed drastic on and off ball improvement this year.<\/p>\n
5. Fred VanVleet<\/p>\n
One of Ime Udoka\u2019s most trusted players and one of the few veterans on the roster with championship experience.<\/p>\n
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6. Tari Eason<\/p>\n
Every team wants players like Tari Eason. He impacts winning on both ends of the floor and brings a level of energy that\u2019s difficult to replace.<\/p>\n
7. Jabari Smith Jr.<\/p>\n
A difficult evaluation. Houston still believes in the upside, but his name would likely surface in any major trade discussion.<\/p>\n
8. Steven Adams<\/p>\n
Valuable veteran. Not untouchable.<\/p>\n
9. Dorian Finney-Smith<\/p>\n
Exactly the type of role player contenders love to acquire.<\/p>\n
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10. Clint Capela<\/p>\n
Three centers. One position. That\u2019s a tough roster equation.<\/p>\n
11. Jae\u2019Sean Tate<\/p>\n
A respected veteran whose role has steadily decreased.<\/p>\n
12. Aaron Holiday<\/p>\n
Useful depth piece, but likely the easiest player on this list to replace.<\/p>\n
Ask ten Rockets fans where Tari Eason belongs on this list, and you\u2019ll probably get ten different answers. The same is probably true for Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard, and Fred VanVleet.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good problem to have. It means Houston has built enough depth that the toughest decisions aren\u2019t at the top of the roster- they\u2019re in the middle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a roster this stacked with talent and value, ranking the Rockets from untouchable to trade candidate is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[42560,44390,35035,49,48,81826,6702,83288,1443,24606,6695,459,84203,6705,82,42562,18721,40998],"class_list":["post-703238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-holiday","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-amen-thompson","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-clint-capela","tag-dorian-finney-smith","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-houston","tag-jabari-smith-jr","tag-kevin-durant","tag-nba","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-rockets","tag-sports","tag-steven-adams","tag-tari-eason","tag-the-rockets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}