The Houston Rockets are reportedly hot on the trail of soon-to-be free agent All Star Jimmy Butler, but they'll need to pull off a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers if they want to pair Butler with Chris Paul and James Harden.
Butler is expected to sign a max contract this summer and because Houston doesn't have the cap space to offer such a deal, the team has begun exploring a sign-and-trade scenario with the Sixers. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Rockets are now actively looking to trade PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon and/or Clint Capela in an effort to free up cap space.
Woj also notes that Houston is looking to acquire first round picks as part of any trade, which they intend to flip to Philadelphia as part of a Butler sign-and-trade.
With that in mind, ESPN's Tim MacMahon reports that a Rockets player recently told him, "I hope they don’t panic. I hope they don’t make drastic moves. We are right there. We’ve just got to figure out some things, fine tune some things, but we are right there. We don’t need to change much. It’s not the time to f---ing panic.”
Houston finished with a 53-29 record this past season, good enough for third in the Western Conference. As their roster stands now, the team is considered to be a favorite in the West heading into the 2019-20 season.