Prior to the recently announced contract extensions with fourth-year players Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green, the Houston Rockets had a chance to create significant financial flexibility in the 2025 offseason.

However, to general manager Rafael Stone and head coach Ime Udoka, the value of that flexibility may have gone down when potential targets on other teams were re-signed to new deals -- and thus, removed from the theoretical pool of 2025 free agency acquisitions.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst explains:

Elsewhere in the story, Windhorst says the unique and shorter-term structure of Green's extension "led some executives and agents to believe this deal was designed to be an eventual trade piece for the Rockets."

Green wouldn't be trade eligible until the 2025 offseason, so it appears the ongoing 2024-25 regular season will provide more time for the Rockets to evaluate their options from within.

Should those options prove to be insufficient from the perspective of building a championship contending roster, bigger moves could be ahead. However, those now appear more likely to come via trade than free agency.

More: Jalen Green reacts to $106-million contract extension with Rockets