No one thought the deal was dead, but it did not seem imminent, either. There seemed to be no reason to stay at the Golden Nugget, so Rockets general manager Daryl Morey and executive vice president Rafael Stone decided to grab an Uber and head to the Rockets' summer league game in Las Vegas.

In the course of that 20-minute ride — with Morey and Stone on their phones and the Uber driver, air pods in place, blissfully oblivious that an NBA-shaking trade to send Russell Westbrook to the Rockets was coming together in his back seat — the deal moved from dormant to done.

As the car pulled up to Thomas & Mack Arena, roughly two minutes after Morey and Thunder general manager Sam Presti had reached their agreement to send Chris Paul and draft picks to Oklahoma City, Morey made one more decision.

He changed the destination of his ride to return to the Golden Nugget to make the calls now necessary, his team dramatically different than when he headed out to catch a game against the Utah Jazz.

With Thomas & Mack in the rearview mirror, there was still work to be done. But the six days in which the trade for Westbrook went from an idea to "all but impossible" and then suddenly to a reality were complete.

For Morey, the path to landing Westbrook began at a late-night dinner at Catch at the Aria in Las Vegas on July 5. The news broke that Kawhi Leonard had chosen to play for the Clippers and the Thunder were sending Paul George to Los Angeles for a haul of first-round picks and a pair of starters.

As that night moved to early morning, Morey sent text messages to team owner Tilman Fertitta and Patrick Fertitta with the news, suggesting the possibility that the Thunder could be ready for an overhaul.

Morey followed up the next morning with additional texts and began a discussion on Slack with Stone, assistant general manager Monte McNair, executive vice president Eli Witus, director of player personnel Jimmy Paulis and personnel scouts B.J. Johnson and Chuck Hayes. Morey called coach Mike D'Antoni to discuss his thoughts, covering much more than the possibilities of trading for the face of the Thunder franchise.

Soon, Morey heard from Rockets guard James Harden, who already had chatted with Westbrook.

The Slack thread went on through much of the morning before a meeting with CEO Tad Brown, Patrick Fertitta and the basketball staff was called for a Golden Nugget conference room — an old-school Vegas venue equipped with a throwback-style bar — that would become home for much of the next five days.

"At points when it wasn't going so well, we were wanting to do shots from the bar," Morey said. "The discussion at that point among the basketball staff was, 'Hey, we need to check in and see if this changes the direction.' I guess there was a thought they might trade other guys like Russell. You never know. At this point, it was pretty unknown."

That afternoon, Morey called Presti, speaking only in general terms. He did not make an offer. He did not specify interest in Westbrook.

"Most deals happen when you're trying to find out what the other side is trying to do," Morey said. "Got a sense of what they were trying to do. It seemed there could be a fit."

By the next day and through the rest of the week, Morey said he and Presti "spoke a lot."

Talks grew more specific, some involving rights to international prospects, other players and draft picks different from those who eventually sealed the deal. But by that Monday (July 8), Morey was trying to find a partner for a three-team trade.

He also reached out to Paul to let him know that talks were ongoing in which he could be traded, following up in the subsequent days with Paul's agent as things heated up and again when Morey began to believe there would not be a deal.

By that Tuesday, Morey had come to think, as he had through the first week of free agency, that next season's Rockets would be largely unchanged from last season's Rockets.

"It didn't seem that there would be a fit for both parties," Morey said. "I told them (Tilman and Patrick Fertitta) quite a bit that it wasn't going to happen because that's what I believed. I didn't think the pieces lined up. That's why a three-team deal made sense. And I thought other teams would be more involved than we were; teams that had more fits."

(Morey would not specify other teams involved in trade talks he pursued or other discussions beyond with the Thunder on the deal that was completed. He was in talks throughout that week with the Grizzlies about a deal for Andre Iguodala, according to two individuals with knowledge of the Rockets' thinking, but Morey would not confirm any other trade talks.)

By Wednesday, however, it had become clear Presti wanted a two-team deal and would need draft picks to make it happen. Talks shifted to the protections on the picks and when they would come to Oklahoma City. The Thunder will get the Rockets' first-round picks in 2024 and 2026 unless they fall in the top four picks, the range in which Morey believed franchise players are most likely to be found. Those picks would be converted to second-round picks if they fall in that protected range.

Oklahoma City's right to swap draft positions in 2021 would be extinguished if the Rockets' pick falls in the top four picks. The right to swap picks in 2025 would be extinguished if the Rockets' pick falls in the top 10.

By not having picks or swaps roll over into future firsts if not conveyed, they can still trade first-round picks. NBA teams are not permitted to owe first-round picks in consecutive seasons.

"The big thing for us was making sure our remaining firsts were still very tradable because we're trying to go all-in," Morey said. "We're not going to give them away. But if there was a deal that we thought could really help the team, we wanted to make sure we still had two firsts.

"The biggest thing was to make sure they're not rolling forward so you can trade specific years still. And we wanted to make sure we never gave up a very high pick. We wanted to make sure that we were never giving up a pick that had a really high probability of being a great pick in the future. They wanted later-out picks, which was fine."

All of that took a great deal of negotiating, but Morey grew pessimistic.

"I thought it was off," he said. "Then, there were last-minute concessions on both sides. There was a back-and-forth at the end."

After the agreement was done, Morey pursued ways to expand the deal, involving other teams. (He would not discuss subsequent talks.) Nothing came close to a deal.

Throughout the process, with all those meetings in that funky conference room, Morey and Harden talked about the idea and the possibility of it coming together.

"James and I talk a lot," Morey said. "We talked more.

"He should be calling every day. We're all in the same canoe rowing toward the same trophy. He is, I would say, the appropriate level of involved."

While Morey met with his team and star player, Westbrook and his agent, Thad Foucher, collaborated with Presti.

"The good thing is where he wanted to be," Foucher said. "Everybody is happy."

Through it all, D'Antoni spoke often to his players, including those not directly involved. But when the deal was complete, Morey had another call to make. He had to call Paul.

"I hated that call," Morey said. "I'm sure he hated it more. He's been such a great player for us. We were moments away from winning a title with him."

Instead, Morey and Presti collaborated on their second blockbuster together, reuniting Westbrook and Harden nearly seven years after the trade that sent Harden to Houston.

"At one point, James asked me, 'Why is it taking so long?'" Morey said. "I told him, 'Dude, your trade took me five months.'"

This time, it came together in six days, dozens of meetings and phone calls and one unusually productive Uber ride.