4 Under the free agency radar targets for the Houston Rockets

It didn’t take a basketball genius to identify the holes in the Houston Rockets’ armor in 2023-24.

The team lacked rim protection and shooting, and everyone knew it. This summer, they will likely try to fill those holes. To some extent, they already have rim protection covered after adding Steven Adams to the roster.

How will they look to improve the roster? Well, any team has several ways to add talent. The Rockets have the third pick in the 2024 NBA draft, and they have the assets to make a trade. They could, however, look to free agency to make improvements at the margins.

In this room, we’ll avoid the usual suspects. Everyone links the Rockets to Malik Beasley. There have been rumors regarding the addition of Gordon Hayward.

Here we look at free agents we don’t talk about as frequently.

Everyone loves reunions.

Plus, everyone loves a scrappy, hard-working player who can space the floor – provided they play for your team, of course. If you’ve never supported Pat Beverley, you probably hate him. If he was part of your team, you probably love him.

The Rockets should love to bring him back. Beverley is a steady shooter, but he’s made 36.1 percent of his triples in 26 games with the Milwaukee Bucks this year. Otherwise, his defensive intensity remains as important as ever.

The Rockets could plug him into Aaron Holiday’s role. They would lose some floor spacing and ball handling, but it would provide additional defensive value. If they draft a shooting specialist in tandem with Beverley, that could be a tradeoff worth considering.