Report: Rockets Will Go After Rondo & Love

The Houston Rockets whiffed on Chris Bosh after he decided to go back to Miami for a longer max deal with larger yearly raises; they chose not to match Dallas’ sweetheart offer for Chandler Parsons, instead signing Trevor Ariza. Now comes word they’re still looking to make a splash by acquiring either Rajon Rondo or Kevin Love this summer.

By way of Marc Stein at ESPN comes the news the Rox are looking for more, and that’s the reason they didn’t match for Parsons:

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We also found out the Rockets told Chris Bosh they’d match for Parsons if he signed, but ended up taking a pass and signing the cheaper Ariza specifically to go after “starry” names in free agency:

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The Celtics have an abundance of room to take on contracts, a ton of picks — potentially up to 10 first rounders over the next four years, a superstar, Rondo, who plays the same position as their first-round pick this season, Marcus Smart. Basically, Daryl Morey isn’t stupid and knows Rondo is tentatively available, even if it looks like Morey botched keeping Parsons for an extra year on a sub-million dollar contract.

The ‘Wolves have had on-and-off conversations with the Cavs about Kevin Love after the LeBron James announcement, but appear unlikely to deal Andrew Wiggins as part of the deal, effectively ending that possibility.

After missing on Bosh, if the Rockets somehow managed to trade for Love without giving up James Harden or Dwight Howard, they’ll get even stronger on the offensive end of the ball; unfortunately, if Patrick Beverley is involved in the swap, they’ll get worse on the defensive end. Love is part of the reason why the stretch four has become as hot a commodity on the free agency market as the 3&D wing, so the Rockets would hit a bonanza if they had anything to really deal for him.

We’re just spitballin’ here, but the C’s, ‘Wolves and Rockets might include free agent Evan Turner in a three-team deal (we’ll let Trade Machine aficionados work out the particular players who could make it work — we don’t have the time) that sends Love to Houston, but we doubt there’s anything that would convince Minney — barring a Turner/Rondo package deal, and we doubt Danny Ainge would pull the trigger even if he owes Kevin McHale for the KG swindle in 2007.

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Most of the big names are signed, but there are a lot of players up for grabs as the dominoes continue to fall since LeBron’s — lower-case– decision 2.0. NBA free agency is close to replacing the actual games for some fans, but we’re already nostalgic for San Antonio’s blistering offense, and we’re a tad tired of refreshing Twitter instead of watching games. Thank goodness for summer league.

Any way the Rox get either Love or Rondo?

Follow Spencer on Twitter at @SpencerTyrel.

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