With the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline under two weeks away, the Houston Rockets are continuing their search for a wing player, according to a Friday report by The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.

In his latest “Inside Pass” column, Charania writes:

[Daryl] Morey and his front office will continue to scour the league for potential upgrades. The Rockets have prioritized a potential wing player acquisition before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, and are continuing to make future draft picks available for an upgrade, sources say.

Charania did not identify any specific player targets in Friday’s report, though he had previously listed Houston as an interested suitor for Minnesota forward Robert Covington.

NEW Inside Pass from NBA Insider @ShamsCharania: Russell Westbrook increasing leadership role for Rockets, recently delivering a message to his teammates: We need to commit to win, play with no agendas. More on the 🚀s + trade talk from around NBA👇https://t.co/weeTWTpWlM — The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) January 24, 2020

Houston recently benched former starter Danuel House Jr. at small forward, and they’re currently starting undersized Ben McLemore (6-foot-3) there ⁠— which makes that one obvious spot to seek an upgrade.

That could especially be the case now, since the Rockets (27-16) entered Friday having lost five of their last seven games, and perhaps in need of a spark to help regain their expected status as a 2020 title contender.

As for potential trade assets, the Rockets have their 2020 and 2022 first-round draft picks available, as well as second-round picks in 2021 and 2023. They also have several small trade exceptions at their disposal, along with most of their cash allotment to help incentivize other teams.

This is a breakdown of Houston’s tradable picks moving forward:

2020 – AVAILABLE*

2021 – AVAILABLE (worst of OKC/MIA/HOU)*

2022 – AVAILABLE*

2023 – Can't be traded (Stepien Rule)

2024 – Traded to OKC (top-4 protected)

2025 – Worse of OKC/HOU; can't be traded (Stepien Rule)

2026 – Traded to OKC (top-4 protected) *Subject to Stepien Rule https://t.co/FYoUg1j7fs — David Weiner (@BimaThug) January 22, 2020

2020 – traded to SAC (Knight/Shump)

2021 – AVAILABLE (better of PHI or HOU)

2022 – traded to CLE (Knight/Shump)

2023 – AVAILABLE

2024 – conditionally traded to OKC (CP3/Russ)

2025 – conditionally traded to OKC (CP3/Russ)

2026 – conditionally traded to OKC (CP3/Russ) https://t.co/ECwm7AnDSS — David Weiner (@BimaThug) January 22, 2020

The lost draft picks and swaps in the 2023-26 range are from Houston’s offseason trade of Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook.

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But even after that trade, it’s not as if Houston is devoid of assets. The larger problem is that they don’t have much “filler” salary for deals.

Any trade for a significant salary such as Covington is tricky for the Rockets, who are well above the league’s salary cap. This means they have to send out close to as much money as they take in to make a trade permissible under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Eric Gordon cannot be traded this season due to the timing of his contract extension, and the other four significant contracts on the Rockets (Westbrook, James Harden, Clint Capela, and P.J. Tucker) would seem unlikely to be dealt because of how essential they appear to be to Houston’s championship chances. Excluding those five, every other player on the roster makes approximately $3.5 million or less.

Thus, potential acquisitions may need to be at a lower price point (in terms of salary) to make a trade workable. They might can trade for players making $10 million or slightly more by combining several smaller salaries, but that would likely require a third- or even fourth-team partner for there to be enough open roster spots to send out so many players.

As of Friday, Morey has 13 days left to try and work his magic. If the Rockets are unable to strike a deal, they also have an open roster spot of their own at the moment, which could potentially be used to sign a veteran player who is bought out after the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

But for now, it seems trades are clearly the top priority.