Rockets cut Moe Harkless, Theo Maledon, sign Darius Days

According to Sham Charania and Kelly Iko of the Athletic, the Houston Rockets made a couple of moves today to trim down their 20-man roster.

The release of Moe Harkless and Theo Maledon is hardly a surprise considering neither was in the Rockets’ immediate future and with the rotations set for the most part. Harkless (29) may find a home with a contending team who is looking for depth on the wing.

The Rockets have to get their roster down to 15 players (with 2 two-way contracts that don’t count toward the 15-player limit) before the season starts. They recently released Ty Jerome, another player that was part of the eight-man trade with the Thunder, and have a little over a week to trim the roster even more as they are currently at 17 players under standard contract and one (Trevor Hudgins) who is on a two-way contract.

At this point, it is hard to speculate who the other two players might be cut, as the Rockets still have one more preseason game on the schedule. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle did report today the Rockets plan on waiving Willy Cauley Stein early as Wednesday even though they did sign him recently, so they would have his player rights and can add him to the Vipers. The Rockets also added Darius Days to the roster on an Exhibit 10 deal and could possibly convert it to their open two-way contract slot.

One thing is for sure the Rockets currently have five centers, and it is almost certain that they will not carry that many into the regular season.