The Houston Rockets were among three teams to not make a trade ahead of Thursday’s deadline, joining the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs.

While the Rockets are 31-18 and were hard-capped at the first apron, offering them very little flexibility to make a trade, general manager Rafael Stone also noted that the team has simply been unlucky with injuries this year, wondering, “Is this just not our year?”

“The process was really sticking with the guys we have,” Stone noted. “Obviously we talked to every team, we had discussions, but this year in particular with the way the cap works, we’re hard-capped to the first apron. Constructing trades in the first place is hard, so that created one limitation. And then just generally, I think the team’s been very good the first half of the season. So we weren’t looking to make change for change’s sake at all. Given the number of injuries we’ve taken, one thing we did look at was (laughing), ‘Was this just not our year?’ Because we do kinda feel, leading into today, we’ve had some of the worst injury luck in the NBA. But credit to Ime and the guys in there, our record doesn’t really reflect that.”

One interpretation of that quote is that the Rockets decided to not make a splash now that would have hurt their flexibility in the future, given some of the poor luck they’ve already encountered this year. The team may have felt that this wasn’t the right moment to strike.

And the Rockets didn’t do something that a lot of other teams did ahead of Thursday’s deadline—trading away a contributing player simply to duck the tax. The Rockets may not have gotten better on Thursday, but they also didn’t get worse.

You could have perhaps forgiven them had they trimmed some salary, given the poor injury luck they’ve had this year. Key contributors like Fred VanVleet, Steven Adams, Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith have all dealt with major injuries, among others, though the Rockets have weathered those storms and remained a legitimate contender in the loaded Western Conference.

But there’s also a dwindling window for the 37-year-old Durant. Weakening the roster now risked wasting a year of Durant.

So often, standing pat is viewed negatively for a contender. Given the context surrounding this Rockets team, however, it made a lot of sense.