Who are the Rockets waiting for? The 14th man on the roster has basically been locked!

Through in-depth analysis and exclusion of the buyout market, trading market and free market, we can basically confirm that the 14th man on the Rockets' roster is likely to be Brogdon.

As Bill chose to sign with the Clippers, Lillard returned to the Trail Blazers, and Smart joined teams such as the Lakers, the popular players in the buyout market have basically found a place to settle down, and the buyout market will gradually return to peace in the future. Especially after Smart was bought out, CJ and Middleton, who had been rumored to have been basically sure that they would not appear in the buyout market again; after all, the Wizards still need to fill the salary gap. For the Rockets, it seems that it is not feasible to strengthen the defender's strength through the buyout market.

Whitmore, the trading chip that was previously highly anticipated, has also been sent away, but it has not received any backcourt players' joining. In addition, Shepard's performance in the preseason was not ideal, causing his trading value to almost drop to the bottom. It is basically difficult to get players with Shepard as the core, so the Rockets may need to give him another year of training to evaluate his potential.

Although Holiday can still consider it in trading, his contract amount is small and his overall value is not high. Even if it is traded, it is just "changing benches for benches" and has no substantial significance. As for the other 12 existing players of the Rockets, whether in terms of contract status or in the team's functionality, they almost match the team's needs, so they are likely not to appear on the trading list. There are still some good backcourt players to choose from in the free market, such as Gidey, Thomas, known as the "Little Train", and Grimes and others. These young players are very strong and have good growth potential, so the Rockets are naturally very eager to introduce them. However, the reality is very cruel, and the Rockets don't have enough cap space to complete these deals.

In previous analysis, I have explained in detail the current salary status of the Rockets: the current salary space is 4.87 million, and there are two transaction special cases, namely 3.6 million and 1.8 million. The Rockets currently have only 13 players on the roster, and two places still need to be filled. In this case, the greatest possibility is: First, use 4.87 million salary space and 1.8 million transaction exceptions to sign a player with a total value of 6.67 million; Second, use 3.6 million transaction exceptions alone to sign a veteran with more than 10 years of experience.

The psychological price of the above three young players is around 30 million. Although each team has not made any offer so far, at least they will accept the qualification offer from the parent team, or sign a short-term middle-class contract with player options (such as 30 million for two years and player options for the second year), and none of these conditions will be met by the Rockets team! After this consideration, Brogdon became the only candidate who meets the criteria.