With Kyrie Irving bypassing free agency and opting into the final year of his existing contract with the Nets, the Rockets probably won’t get the best-case scenario of Brooklyn blowing up its veteran roster in the 2022 offseason. But Houston appears to have gotten the next-best thing.
While Houston owns either first-round draft picks or pick-swap rights from the Nets for the next five years (as a result of the blockbuster James Harden trade from January 2021), 2023 is a “swap” year in which they can only own either their own pick or one from Brooklyn, not both.
With the Rockets coming off a season with the NBA’s worst record, having no salary cap room this offseason, and featuring an even younger team in 2022-23 after trading Christian Wood, it was and is hard to envision Houston making a significant climb in the standings next season. Thus, even if the Nets did lose Irving and perhaps even Kevin Durant, it always seemed highly likely that the Rockets wouldn’t get Brooklyn’s 2023 pick, anyway, since their own would probably be higher in the order.
My hope: Things with Kyrie go "smoothly enough" next season. Then, at 5pm EST on June 30, 2023, Shams breaks the news that Kyrie signed outright elsewhere, leaving the Nets with no way to adequately replace him. https://t.co/67wDzh8gzZ
— David Weiner (@BimaThug) June 27, 2022
From a Houston perspective, the years of significance are 2024 through 2027. In two of those years, the Rockets will directly receive a first-round pick from the Nets (2024, 2026) without involving a swap. Moreover, in the potential swap years of 2025 and 2027, the Rockets will likely be at a point in their rebuild to where those swaps could have value.
If Irving had signed a long-term contract this offseason, that could have signaled a period of relative stability with the Nets, which would have potentially worsened the outlook for those draft assets. As it is, opting in simply delays the pivotal decisions until 2023, and Houston wasn’t likely to be in position to benefit from a Nets rebuild until 2024, anyway.
Stay tuned.
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Kyrie Irving: “Normal people keep the world going, but those who dare to be different lead us into tomorrow. I’ve made my decision to opt in. See you in the fall. A11even.” https://t.co/rpiS8YkSZI
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 27, 2022
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