Rockets' GM explains standing pat with Dwight Howard

The trade deadline came and went with Dwight Howard remaining in Houston, but it wasn't through a lack of effort on the part of Rockets general manager Daryl Morey.

Reports suggest Morey explored deals to send Howard to no less than six teams in the league, but he found no takers for his franchise center, owing mostly to Howard's option to opt out of his contract this summer.

Despite being unable to move Howard, Morey remains confident in his core.

"James (Harden) and Dwight together have made the Western Conference finals, have won more than two-thirds of their games," Morey said on The Vertical's trade deadline show.

"This is a group that we would be very reluctant to split up. Obviously there was a lot of interest in (Howard) ... but that was something we were going to be very reluctant to break up. As part of my job, I do have to listen to everything, but nothing got close and we weren't going to split that up unless it was something significant."

That "something significant" was reportedly a first-round pick and a frontcourt player in return, but there were no takers for Howard's services. Instead, Morey pivoted away from moving his franchise center in favor of swapping out Donatas Motiejunas and moving along Joel Anthony's contract.

For now, Howard remains on a roster that owns a paltry 27-28 record coming out of the All-Star break. With the Rockets having retained most of their players that were mentioned in trade talks (Trevor Ariza, Ty Lawson, Terrence Jones, Corey Brewer, Patrick Beverley), it certainly makes for an awkward locker room.

But as Morey mentions, the Rockets were tremendously successful last season, and with the same core in place, there's no reason why they couldn't rediscover the form they found last season.

What happens with Howard and the Rockets after that is anyone's guess.