The Houston Rockets have declined their fourth-year option on the contract of Marquese Chriss.

Chriss was acquired by the Rockets in a trade with the Phoenix Suns.

Chriss was the eighth overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Suns. The Suns have also declined the 19-20 option on Dragan Bender.

Tom Thibodeau is not believed to be ready yet to seriously negotiate a trade of Jimmy Butler.

The Houston Rockets, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers have interest in Butler.

Butler will miss Wednesday's game, but he has told associates that he plans to play against the Warriors on Friday night.

Butler and his agent are frustrated by the Wolves slowly moving to honor his trade request.

James Harden will likely miss at least the next two games with a grade 1-plus strain of his left hamstring.

Harden did not practice Thursday and underwent an MRI to determine the severity of the injury.

"It's nothing serious, nothing serious," said Harden, who walked out of the Toyota Center without a noticeable limp. "It's nothing close to last year. Just being cautious." 


The Houston Rockets have offered four first round picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Jimmy Butler.

The Wolves have continued to solicit offers for Butler since the start of the regular season.

The Rockets' offer constitutes the maximum number of first-round picks allowable in a deal, factoring in league rules that necessitate no first-rounders can be conveyed in successive years. The deal would have limited lottery protections.

The Rockets would have a strong desire to re-sign Butler in the offseason.

Rajon Rondo again denied that he intentionally spit at Chris Paul during Saturday's altercation.

Rondo again pointed to the fact that he was wearing a mouthguard, which would impact his ability to intentionally spit on someone.

"This is the only time I'm going to address this," Rondo told ESPN on Tuesday. "I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I [was] exasperated because I was about to tell him to 'get the [expletive] out of here.'

"Look at my body language [in the video]. My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look at Eric [Gordon] and Melo [Carmelo Anthony] in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction."

Paul said he took pride in "staying as poised as possible" during the incident.

"Y'all are playing me with these tricks or these mind games, tampering with the evidence," Rondo told ESPN on Tuesday. "Ain't no way that I intentionally spit on you with my body language the way it was.

"One, if I spit on you, bottom line, there is not going to be no finger-pointing. If you felt that I just spit on you, then all bets are off. Two, look at my body language. If I spit on you on purpose, I'm going to be ready for a man to swing on me. You ain't going to have my hands on my hip and my head look away at someone if I spit on them. After the [expletive] goes down, within 30 seconds, you run and tell the sideline reporters that I spit on you? If I spit on you, you are trying to get to me. You not trying to make up a story so you can look like a good guy. It makes no sense to me.

"I was going to let it rest. I wasn't going to say much. But now I have kids and I teach my kids to speak up for themselves and don't let the world tell their story."

Rondo questioned Paul's image created by the NBA.

"Of course, the NBA went with his side because I got three games and he got two," Rondo told ESPN. "Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don't know he's a horrible teammate. They don't know how he treats people. Look at what he did last year when he was in L.A.; trying to get to the Clippers' locker room. They don't want to believe he's capable of taunting and igniting an incident.

" ... He comes out and says I spit and the media sides with that."

The NBA has suspended Brandon Ingram for four games for his part in Saturday's altercation between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets.

Rajon Rondo received a two-game suspension while Chris Paul will be suspended for two games.

The following was released by the NBA:

Ingram has been suspended for aggressively returning to and escalating the altercation and throwing a punch in the direction of Paul, confronting a game official in a hostile manner, and instigating the overall incident by shoving Rockets guard James Harden.  Rondo has been suspended for instigating a physical altercation with, and spitting and throwing multiple punches at, Paul.  Paul has been suspended for poking at and making contact with the face of Rondo, and throwing multiple punches at him.  

Paul will begin serving his suspension tonight when the Rockets face the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center. Ingram and Rondo will begin serving their suspensions on Mon., Oct 22, when the Lakers host the San Antonio Spurs.  

Jeff Bzdelik somewhat surprisingly announced his retirement from coaching shortly before the start of training camp. Bzdelik was credited with turning around the defense of the Houston Rockets.

Mike D'Antoni was asked about Bzdelik's departure.

"No, Jeff is unbelievable," said D'Antoni. "Great guy. He enjoyed it. We’d talked about it before, and I’d seen even during the year where he’d say, ‘Oh man, I don’t know how much more I can do this.’ So you could kind of see the signs, but it came as a shock. I thought the summer would recharge him, and get him going, and maybe he thought the same thing and it just didn’t do it. I don’t think there’s any mystery."

D'Antoni was asked whether Bzdelik's history with Carmelo Anthony in Denver played a part.

"No. No. I’m almost 100 percent sure that’s not right. I’ve talked to him, and we even talked about it during the summer. I mean he likes ‘Melo. He’s like me. You’re fine. It’ll be good, it’d be interesting, it’d be fun. And he and ‘Melo had made up a couple years ago. They were fine, so no."

Carmelo Anthony acknowledged coming off the bench for the first time in his career will be a significant transition for him.

"It's challenging mentally more so than anything, having to prepare for the game differently," Anthony said. "Other than that, it's a challenge all the way around. It's just a matter of how I'm going to react to that challenge and accepting that challenge, which I am, which I will do.

"For me, at this point, it's more about what I have to do for the sake of the team, instead of trying to just go out there and do whatever or trying to have a specific role. Every night will be different; but for the most part, it is a challenge, but it's something that I'll get used to quick."

Anthony informed the Rockets that he was open to whatever role the coaching staff determined was best before he signed with the team.

The Houston Rockets will convert the contracts of Gary Clark and Vince Edwards to two-way deals.

Clark went undrafted out of Cincinnati.

Edwards was a second round pick in 2018 out of Purdue.

The Philadelphia 76ers pursued Daryl Morey as a potential replacement for Bryan Colangelo as general manager.

According to a source close to the process, discussions between Morey and the 76ers were "pretty far down the road" before he decided to remain with the Houston Rockets.

Morey has been general manager of the Rockets since 2007.

The 76ers eventually hired Elton Brand as general manager.