Marc Stein On Thomas... Asked recently if any team in the league was close to making a trade, with barely a quarter of the season gone, one prominent general manager took pause to mentally survey the landscape. "Well," the GM said, "Kenny Thomas is out there for the taking." Amazingly that was enough. Even the Houston Rockets would have to admit some surprise that Thomas could be a catalyst for the first in-season trade of 2002-03. Thomas makes just $1.6 million in the final year of his contract, meaning that he wasn't likely to fetch a big name in return in the matching-salaries game. It usually takes bigger numbers than that to ignite things. Of greater concern, power forward has been Houston's problem position this season, and Thomas -- recovering from a broken thumb and some ankle trouble -- was part of that struggling three-man rotation. The statistical drop from last season (14.1 points to 9.9, and 7.2 rebounds to 6.8) is somewhat expected with Yao Ming's emergence, but Thomas had been missing open shots. Coach Rudy Tomjanovich shook up the lineup repeatedly trying to jump-start at least one of his three four-men, which seemingly couldn't have done much for Thomas' trade value. Here's what he had to say about the Rockets' part of the deal- The Rockets, as part of Wednesday's three-team deal, claim James Posey -- who was nearly traded by the Nuggets to the Wizards around the draft. Posey offers athleticism and defense at small forward and gets the nod here as a better bargain than Thomas at basically the same price. Posey, earning $1.7 million this season, is also a free agent-to-be. The onus now falls on Eddie Griffin and/or Maurice Taylor to start playing better. Denver is doing as close to a tank job as possible. This can't even be considered a move to help their salary cap-Posey could've been let go anyway. They basically traded Posey for a 1st rounder from Philly they can't have until 2005 (according to reports), and a 2nd rounder from us.