The Houston Rockets have searched for a consistent backup center behind Alperen Sengun for much of the 2023-24 NBA season.
The good news is that as of February 2024, they found one by trading with Memphis for veteran center Steven Adams. The bad news is Adams will not play until the 2024-25 season due to injury.
Nonetheless, based on his track record, Memphis had enough leverage to extract three second-round draft picks from Rockets general manager Rafael Stone in the deal. In previous months, Houston also lost several second-round picks in deals to offload negatively valued contracts, such as the July 2023 trade sending TyTy Washington Jr. and Usman Garuba to Atlanta and the October 2023 deal sending Kevin Porter Jr. to Oklahoma City.
As a pivotal 2024 offseason approaches, it’s a good time to take stock of where the Rockets are with regards to their future draft assets. This includes a handful from Brooklyn as part of the blockbuster James Harden deal in January 2021, and the value of those appears to be improving as the Nets (21-33) meander through what appears to be an increasingly lost season.
Those types of draft assets could help the Rockets fill rotation spots internally with inexpensive young talent, or they could be used as trade assets to acquire veteran upgrades from other teams.
Through 2031, here’s an updated year-by-year list of the Rockets’ draft assets, as of February 2024. Scroll on for further details.