{"id":352800,"date":"2026-06-27T17:20:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T17:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352800\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T17:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T17:20:25","slug":"big-update-on-houston-rockets-bringing-ime-udoka-favorites-jaylen-brown-marcus-smart-to-h-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352800\/","title":{"rendered":"BIG Update on Houston Rockets Bringing Ime Udoka Favorites, Jaylen Brown & Marcus Smart, to H-Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

A big update has emerged on the possibility of the Houston Rockets<\/a> adding a couple of favorites from Ime Udoka\u2019s<\/a> lone season as head coach of the Boston Celtics<\/a> \u2014 Jaylen Brown<\/a> and Marcus Smart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Rockets had very high hopes entering this season. They had a young, talented, defensive-minded team that grew a lot in 2024-25. And they added future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant<\/a> to that youthful core. However, as the season played out, they regressed as a team, and Fred VanVleet\u2019s<\/a> absence became more noticeable.<\/p>\n

When they were surprisingly eliminated from the opening round of the playoffs by a banged-up Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> team, speculation quickly began on the changes they might make this offseason. One name that has been linked to Houston over the last couple of years is Brown. With the Celtics currently in active trade talks for the five-time All-Star<\/a>, fans might assume the Rockets are among those looking to strike a deal.<\/p>\n

However, according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, the word around the league is the Rockets haven\u2019t been involved in the ongoing Jaylen Brown trade talks at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cSources insist the Rockets have had no recent discussions with Boston about a Brown deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Marc Stein & Jake Fischer<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the NBA insiders do offer up three reasons why talks eventually happening can\u2019t be ruled out. First, \u201cHouston vowed for months not to pursue Kevin Durant,\u201d then they swung a trade a year ago. They noted \u201cthere is obviously a strong connection between Brown and Rockets coach Ime Udoka\u201d from their year together in 2021-22. Lastly, \u201cBoston\u2019s longstanding interest in Houston\u2019s Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn<\/a> is also well known.\u201d The two-time All-Star is sure to be included in any trade for Brown.<\/p>\n

Houston Rockets expected to be a contender if Marcus Smart opts out of contract<\/p>\n

While things don\u2019t look so good for the Rockets on the trade front for the five-time All-Star, Stein and Fischer suggested that Houston will definitely be a player in a potential free agent market for Lakers reserve Smart.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeague sources say that Smart, who is expected to draw interest from Houston and possibly other teams in free agency, is very much giving consideration to declining his $5.4 million player option for next season with the Lakers before Monday\u2019s deadline to do so and then proceed to the open market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Marc Stein & Jake Fischer<\/p>\n

The 12-year veteran had the best season of his career in 2021-22 with the Celtics under Udoka\u2019s guidance. He earned Defensive Player of the Year honors and played a notable role in Boston reaching the NBA Finals that season. He was rock-solid for LA this year, averaging 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 28.5 minutes a night.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tAfter earning his journalism degree in 2017, Jason Burgos served as a contributor to several sites, including MMA Sucka … More about Jason Burgos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A big update has emerged on the possibility of the Houston Rockets adding a couple of favorites from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,4854,20729,58264],"class_list":["post-352800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-marcus-smart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}