The Houston Rockets have an elite young coreone where the team plays NBA Cup quarterfinals Wednesday night, a first step toward something that could be much bigger for this group.

Ultimately, the Rockets may need to make a trade to acquire a true top option player who can compete at the highest level, but the team is building to get there. A lot of people outside the organization want to expedite this process – the Rockets are mentioned all the time Trade speculation for star players like Jimmy Butler (Houston native). Both fans and people in other front offices look at the Rockets’ collection of young talent and draft picks and think they will – or at least should – go all-in for a star player at the trade deadline.

Rockets general manager Raphel Stone shot down that idea during an appearance with Justin Termine SiriusXM NBA Radio.

“We like this team. We definitely have no intention of changing anything and I would be shocked if anything changed this season. We like where we are. We want to develop our boys, period. Will I listen to others?” Of course I will, that’s my job. But again, there is no part of me, no part of our decision-making process that suggests we have anything big planned now or in the near future.

“We definitely want this group to be as good as it can be this year and then we will evaluate things at the end of the year. But we really hope that this core group can take us to where we want to go, that – from a transactional perspective – we are largely finished.”

The Rockets have agreed with this message publicly and privately – they have no plans to blow up this roster at the trade deadline. Houston wants to get this group into the playoffs in April and see how it goes (and the NBA Cup is a dress rehearsal for that).

At some point, this Rockets team will have to make some compromises – it has more young talent (and is selecting more) than it can afford as those players get older. It’s also very possible that they need to make a trade for a true No. 1 scoring option, that Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green and Amen Thompson are more likely to be the Nos. 2 and 3 on title teams, not the alpha – but if they do The Rockets will be looking for an age-appropriate player who will fit well into their system. No aging Jimmy Butler wanting another big contract or anything like that.

If this superstar becomes available, expect Stone and the Rockets to be aggressive. But nothing will happen until this summer. The Rockets want to see what this group can do.