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NBA Trade Machine: On HoopsMatic over the past 24 hours, Karl-Anthony Towns showed up in 3.6% of all trades built. Among those, he was most often sent to Houston (18.5%), Detroit (9.3%), and Denver (7.4%), and the return pieces that came up most often were Jabari Smith (16.7%), Alperen Sengun (13.0%), and Reed Sheppard (11.1%).
Grant Afseth: Dusty May said Santi Aldama (right knee surgery) was limited in practice. May doesn't expect him to play in Houston, but says he's "getting very close." Max Christie (sore foot) practiced and will play. Tarik Biberović (right heel bursitis) did not practice and is likely out.
Varun Shankar: Rockets announce they've signed Cameron Mathews. It's an Exhibit 10 deal, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. Matthews played for Houston in Summer League + and for G League affiliate last season.
Michael Scotto: The Houston Rockets have waived two-way center Rafael Castro, league sources told @hoopshype. Houston now has an open two-way spot available.
Tony Allen: You was talking about Houston, your time in Houston, you got a chance to play with James Harden, arguably one of the best scorers at the two position in your belief, right? Patrick Beverley: Number three: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Harden.
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Smart told The Chronicle that he chose Houston — where he has cousins, extended family and family friends — despite getting a bigger offer from the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he played the 2025-26 season. At the same time, Smart said the Lakers offer, which he declined to specify, was “disrespectful.” “First off, I played so well that the offer that was ultimately given didn’t match the way that I played,” he said, “especially when you see guys who played way worse than I did, the offers they’re getting. And then it wasn’t any security that we wanted that they were willing to do.”
Smart said the Rockets and the young Celtics teams he came up with are very similar. Both are overachieving squads that entered the playoffs with lofty expectations — but then had to learn how to function without their stars, Boston doing so with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward injured, and Houston doing the same last season with Kevin Durant. “You got some games where you should have won that you end up losing… now your confidence drops a little bit,” he said. “But everything is for a reason, right? You have to go through those battles, those storms, to get to the land.”
Varun Shankar: Tari Eason says it feels amazing to sign an extension with Houston. Says this was his most "diligent" offseason — worked on ballhandling and conditioning.
Ben Dubose: #Rockets GM Rafael Stone tells me that Kevin Durant reiterated at the end of last season “how happy he is here” and that he wants to be in Houston. As things stand, KD has a player option on his contract for the 2027 offseason.
The Chicago Bulls have signed guards Peter Suder and Houston Mallette to training camp deals.
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Marc Stein: I’m told that the Rockets — who just agreed with Amen Thompson on a monster rookie scale extension — will hold Media Day on Sept. 22. The earliest date that Houston and Dallas can practice is Sept. 23. For all other NBA teams: Media Day is Sept. 28; first practice is Sept. 29.
Keith Smith: Rafael Castro's two-way contract with the Houston Rockets is a two-year deal, a league sourced told @spotrac .
NBA Communications: The NBA schedule on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday, Jan. 18) will feature an NBC Sports quadrupleheader. The action begins with a 2026 Eastern Conference Semifinals rematch between the Pistons and Cavaliers, with additional matchups between Philadelphia and Atlanta, Minnesota and New York and Houston and Memphis.
Kingston Flemings wore No. 1 at William J. Brennan High School and No. 4 last season at Houston, both of which were worn by Rose throughout his 15-year career. With No. 1 occupied by Jalen Johnson, Flemings picked No. 4 with the Hawks. "I always liked being No. 1 because of D-Rose," Flemings said last month of Derrick Rose, via the NBA on X. "But D-Rose also wore No. 4."