The Houston Rockets have big offseason plans in 2014 and targets include a trade for Rajon Rondo or Kevin Love, signing Carmelo Anthony as a free agent while also looking at bringing in other players in free agency like Chris Bosh or Pau Gasol if they can't get Anthony and that all is predicated on whether they can trade Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin as well as what Daryl Morey does with Chandler Parsons and his contract.
The Rockets are coming into the offseason after losing to the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs and general manager Daryl Morey is looking to create his own Big 3 with Dwight Howard and James Harden. According to ESPN.com, the Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets are the two teams that will make the strongest push for Carmelo Anthony, who is expected to opt out of his contract with the New York Knicks. The Knicks are still looking to sign Anthony to a big deal and feel that they can do it, but the Rockets and Bulls could be very tempting for Melo.
The Rockets come in needing to make some major moves to get Anthony or a deal for Rondo or Love, as they have players with massive contracts in Lin and Asik and they have to move those to get any type of deal done this summer. The Rockets also have to figure out what to do about Chandler Parsons and his option, as it will dictate whether they can keep him or not and what they can do this summer. According to Yahoo Sports, the Rockets are planning on declining the option for Parsons, making him a restricted free agent now rather than an unrestricted free agent after this season in the hopes of signing him back.
The team risks losing him to another team if they give him a contract they can't match, but the Rockets did that with Lin and the Knicks, so they can't really be too mad about that. The Yahoo report says that the team is planning on going after free agents and trades for players like LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Love, but to get any one of those players, the team has to move Asik and Lin and even then the salary cap situation is dicey. Morey has been an outside the box thinker in the past with the Harden deal and he will have to get creative again.
The Rockets and Celtics nearly had a deal last season for Asik and that fell through because the Rockets did not want to add Parsons and now they may lose him anyway. The team definitely needs to trade Lin and Asik and to get players like Bosh, James or Anthony, they have more moves to make and Morey is hoping he can keep Parsons even if he pulls off one of those deals. The Rockets lost in the first round and the team realizes the window is only so big with Howard and Harden and that is why they want to bring in a player like Rondo.