The Houston Rockets have “serious interest” in trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Robert Covington, according to a report published Tuesday by The Ringer‘s Kevin O’Connor.
Known best for his defense, the 6-foot-7 Covington is averaging 12.5 points (45.5% shooting, 36.9% on three-pointers) and 5.3 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game this season. He’s signed through the 2021-22 season at an annual average of just over $12 million.
The Houston Rockets have serious interest in Covington, league sources say. The Rockets are in the market for wings; with James Harden having another MVP-caliber season, they’re a team that should go all in no matter who the target is. They have the ammo to do so: Despite the pile of picks it sent Oklahoma City in the Chris Paul–for–Russell Westbrook blockbuster, Houston can still dangle its first-round picks in 2020 and 2022.
This coming Sunday, Dec. 15, is unofficially known in the NBA as the start of the league’s annual trading season. That’s because it’s the date that most players who signed new contracts over the last offseason are first eligible to be dealt. In turn, that opens up many more possibilities to make the math work around the league on potential deals.
Trade season is upon us. @KevinOConnorNBA surveyed executives to find out which teams and players to watch as the rumors start to fly: https://t.co/0vrHTL58J8
— The Ringer (@ringer) December 10, 2019
Any trade for a significant salary is tricky for the Rockets, who are well above the league’s salary cap. This means they have to send out close to as much money as they take in, in order to make any trade permissible under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Unfortunately for Houston, they don’t have much in the way of “filler” salary for trades. To overcome that, the team’s hope appeared to be that an incentive-heavy contract to veteran center Nene could help bridge the financial gap. However, the NBA decided in September not to count the amount of the incentives toward Nene’s outgoing trade value, financially.
Eric Gordon cannot be traded this season due to the timing of his contract extension, and the other four significant contracts on the Rockets (James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Clint Capela, and P.J. Tucker) are unlikely to be dealt for Covington because they’re superior players. Excluding those five, every other player on the roster makes approximately $3.5 million or less.
The incentive for the rebuilding Timberwolves (10-13) to do a deal a Covington deal, as O’Connor notes, is there regardless. That would be one or both of the 2020 and 2022 first-round draft picks. But to make a deal legal under the CBA, the Rockets would have to send out close to $9 million in salary along with those picks.
Once Nene ($2.6 million) is trade eligible on Jan. 15, the Rockets could theoretically trade Nene, Ben McLemore ($2.1 million), and two or three other minimum salaries to get there. But the challenge is that Minnesota would have to open up as many as four extra roster spots after trading Covington to make such a deal legal, and that seems unlikely.
More reasonably, Rockets GM Daryl Morey would have to make it a three or even four-team deal to find enough open roster spots to make that type of structure workable. It would also require owner Tilman Fertitta greenlighting luxury tax payments, since trading four or five players for one and then filling out the depth chart with subsequent moves would push Houston well over the tax line — which they’re already close to.
In short, the stars would have to align perfectly. It’s not implausible, but for Houston to trade for a salary as large as Covington, several challenging variables would all need to line up.
At a minimum, though, it’s more evidence along the lines of Monday’s report that the Rockets (15-8) are aggressively targeting wing help on the market. By all indications, Morey won’t hesitate to give up future assets if it boosts the team’s championship odds this season.
[lawrence-related id=19471,17134]