The Houston Rockets were eliminated in six games by the Los Angeles Lakers, and the reason that keeps hanging over their exit is simple: they did not shoot well enough from deep. Houston made 10.0 threes per game in the playoffs and shot 30.2% from three, both marks the worst among playoff teams.
That is why Duncan Robinson has come into focus as a realistic trade target. Robinson, who plays for the Detroit Pistons, averaged 12.2 points in the regular season while shooting 41.0% from three on 7.0 attempts per game, then followed that with 12.3 points in 10 postseason games and a 43.4% mark from beyond the arc on 7.6 attempts per game. He is a proven commodity, and he could upgrade Houston's bench without commanding a huge trade return.
The need is not hard to see. The Rockets are coming off a playoff loss in which their spacing never really caught up to the pace of the modern NBA, where enough three-point shooting is hard to find and even harder to keep. Houston could see some internal improvement next season with a healthy Kevin Durant and Fred VanVleet returning, but that does not erase the problem that showed up in the series against Los Angeles.
Robinson fits because he brings a skill Houston lacked when it mattered most. He is not being discussed as a franchise-changing name. He is the kind of player who can change the shape of a bench unit, stretch defenses, and do it without forcing a team to pay for star-level upside. For a Rockets team that just learned how punishing playoff shooting can be, that may be enough to make him the right kind of target.
