The Houston Rockets needed to trim their roster down to 15, which meant a young player or a big man would have to go. Daishen Nix, Garrison Mathews and Boban Marjanovic were all mentioned as players who could be let go.
Instead, big man Derrick Favors — who the Rockets traded for just more than two weeks ago — is being released, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The Houston Rockets are planning to waive center Derrick Favors, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Rockets needed to make a roster cut to reach 15 guaranteed spots.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 14, 2022
Why Favors — whose salary could help with a trade later — and not Boban?
The Rockets are huge fans of Boban internally and hold him in high regard as a locker room presence, someone who’s universally loved by his teammates and one that can play in certain matchups as need be. https://t.co/DiUsZmeU6N
— Kelly Iko (@KellyIko) October 14, 2022
Favors is set to make $10.2 million this season (he still gets paid, it’s a guaranteed deal). He came to the Rockets as salary ballast in a trade that sent him, Maurice Harkless, Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, a second-round pick and cash to the Rockets for Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss and David Nwaba. Every player the Rockets acquired in that trade has now been waived, they took on some salary for a future pick.
Now Favors will be a free agent and, while his skills have declined a little in recent years, a team looking for depth up front likely will snap him up before too long.
The Rockets still need to make one more cut to get to 15, and Wilie Cauley-Stein is expected to be released soon.
