Houston Rockets rumors: Ersan Ilyasova trade unlikely

The Houston Rockets had grand intentions during the offseason, though their dreams of signing Carmelo Anthony and/or Chris Bosh weren’t fulfilled.

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If that wasn’t bad enough, the team needed to clear salary just to make those potential moves and in turn ended up losing both Jeremy Lin (trade) and Chandler Parsons (free agency). Now void of depth, there have been rumors suggesting the Houston Rockets could be looking to bolster their roster and Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova has routinely been rumored as a target.

Ilyasova looked to be on his way to stardom with the Bucks, but the veteran’s game stalled and there was talk suggesting the Bucks were interested in moving him.

It’s not known if that sentiment still rings true, though the Houston Rockets aren’t likely to be a team involved in trade talks should Ilyasova be placed on the block.

While nabbing Ilyasova for nothing more than a trade exception would be nice, the Houston Rockets likely don’t want to eat up their salary cap space with a forward who hasn’t fulfilled his promise.

Add in that Ilyasova is signed through the 2015-16 season and has a buyout option for the 2016-17 season, trading for the forward would be a commitment and it’s understandable the Houston Rockets don’t want to be on the hook for such.

Granted, they’d probably be more interested if the Milwaukee Bucks were willing to take back some of Houston’s poor contracts but there’s no reason for Milwaukee to do so.