Eric Gordon has survived, at least to this point, the onslaught of rumors surrounding the Houston Rockets in the wake of a second consecutive playoff exit at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey ployed to trade for Jimmy Butler, and there have been some rumors about trading for Russell Westbrook.
Due to the chunky nature of the max contracts to James Harden (supermax) and Chris Paul, the only pieces available for a trade are Gordon, center Clint Capela and forward PJ Tucker, as their smaller yearly salary could be used in exchange for a star, potentially in a three-way trade.
Yet Gordon thinks no changes need to be made, arguing that the Warriors' fall from grace could be the grand opening that puts his team in the driver's seat to take over the Western Conference after Golden State's five-year reign:
“No need really to make changes when you're so close,” said Gordon, who is heading into the final season of his contract and said he would like to reach agreement on an extension, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “All we did is lose to a team like Golden State. They had a dynasty of a team. But they had a lot of injuries so it's wide open.
“Each game we were a couple possessions away from winning. We just have to take advantage of what's ahead of us.”
The Rockets took the Warriors to seven games in 2018 and lost, but they fell disappointingly shy of another seven-game series by losing to a Kevin Durant-less roster in Game 6 at home this season.
Morey is still looking for ways to amass talent, as usual, but it could prove a challenge to make it work with so many teams tying up their assets into recent deals with a bombastic free-agency period. Gordon and his teammates might just be safe after all.
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