Tag: Houston Rockets Trades

Report: Despite future obligations, Rockets would still trade 2020 pick

According to the Houston Chronicle, Rockets GM Daryl Morey won’t hesitate to trade his team’s 2020 first-round pick for the right player.

Though his stockpile of future draft picks is less than usual, it doesn’t appear that Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey will let that change his aggressiveness heading toward next Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

In last offseason’s trade for Russell Westbrook, the Rockets lost two first-round draft selections in 2024 and 2026. Houston can still trade first-round picks before then, as long as they are not in consecutive years, but many around the league had wondered if a lack of pick assets in the long-term could make Morey more stingy in the interim.

According to the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen, that does not seem to be the case. Citing a source, Feigen writes of the team’s strategy:

Their scarcity of future first-round picks will not be a factor in determining whether to deal the 2020 pick they still hold. …

Given the draft obligations owed to the Thunder to land Westbrook, an argument could be made in favor of caution with the pick they still hold. That does increase the value of the pick to the Rockets… but that is balanced by a sense of win-now urgency.

From 2015 onward, Houston has not kept any of its own first-round draft picks. Typically, Morey has moved them before each draft in trades for more immediate help around franchise star James Harden as they pursue an NBA championship. The last time the Rockets kept their own pick was in 2014, when they drafted current starting center Clint Capela.

Per Feigen, the Rockets’ priority in any trade this year is a player “likely to get playing time,” rather than any specific position. Though The Athletic reported last week that Houston was targeting a wing player, Feigen says the Rockets are also open to frontcourt acquisitions.

To that point, on the day of Gary Clark’s release in early January, Feigen reports that the Rockets “were optimistic about completing a deal for a range-shooting power forward that in their system would have been viewed as a potential floor spacing center.”

That deal did not transpire, and Clark’s roster spot remains open.

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The trade deadline arrives at 2 p.m. Central on Thursday, Feb. 6. With Morey having made a deadline deal in nearly all of his seasons in Houston since the late 2000s, the safe bet is on yet another one in 2019-20.

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Report: Rockets prioritizing trade for wing player by deadline

The Rockets reportedly hope to trade for wing player by the NBA’s Feb. 6 deadline. One big question is if they have enough tradable salary.

With the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline under two weeks away, the Houston Rockets are continuing their search for a wing player, according to a Friday report by The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.

In his latest “Inside Pass” column, Charania writes:

[Daryl] Morey and his front office will continue to scour the league for potential upgrades. The Rockets have prioritized a potential wing player acquisition before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, and are continuing to make future draft picks available for an upgrade, sources say.

Charania did not identify any specific player targets in Friday’s report, though he had previously listed Houston as an interested suitor for Minnesota forward Robert Covington.

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Houston recently benched former starter Danuel House Jr. at small forward, and they’re currently starting undersized Ben McLemore (6-foot-3) there ā ā€” which makes it an obvious spot to seek an upgrade.

That’s especially the case since the Rockets (27-16) entered Friday having lost five of their last seven games, and perhaps in need of a spark to help regain their self-proclaimed status as a 2020 title contender.

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As for potential trade assets, the Rockets have their 2020 and 2022 first-round draft picks available, as well as second-round picks in 2021 and 2023. They also have several small trade exceptions at their disposal, as well as most of their cash allotment to help incentivize other teams.

This is a breakdown of Houston’s tradable picks moving forward:

The lost draft picks and swaps in the 2023-26 range are from Houston’s offseason trade of Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook.

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But even after that trade, it’s not as if Houston is devoid of assets. The larger problem is that they don’t have much “filler” salary for deals.

Any trade for a significant salary such as Covington is tricky for the Rockets, who are well above the leagueā€™s salary cap. This means they have to send out close to as much money as they take in to make a trade permissible under the NBAā€™s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Eric Gordon cannot be traded this season due to theĀ timing of his contract extension, and the other four significant contracts on the Rockets (Westbrook, James Harden, Clint Capela, and P.J. Tucker) are unlikely to be dealt because of how essential they are to Houston’s championship chances. Excluding those five, every other player on the current roster makes approximately $3.5 million or less.

Thus, potential Houston acquisitions may need to be at a lower price point (in terms of salary) to make a trade workable. They might be able to trade for players making $10 million or more by combining several smaller salaries, but that would likely require a third- or even fourth-team partner for there to be enough open roster spots to send out so many players.

As of Friday, Morey has 13 days left to work his magic. If the Rockets are unable to strike a deal, they also have an open roster spot of their own at the moment, which could be used on a veteran player who is bought out after the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

But for now, it seems trades are clearly the top priority.

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Report: Rockets very interested in Minnesota’s Robert Covington

Despite Houston’s rumored interest, it’s challenging to put together a workable Robert Covington trade between the Rockets and Timberwolves.

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.

O’Connor writes:

TheĀ Houston RocketsĀ have serious interest in Covington, league sources say. The Rockets are in the market for wings; with James Harden having another MVP-caliber season, theyā€™re a team thatĀ shouldĀ 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 Paulā€“forā€“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.

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 NeneĀ could help bridge the financial gap. However, the NBAĀ decided in SeptemberĀ not to count the amount of the incentives toward Neneā€™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 threeĀ 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 ā€” 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 giveĀ up future assets if it boosts the team’s championship odds this season.

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