Tag: NBA Trade Deadline

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 ⁠— 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 league’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 NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Eric Gordon cannot be traded this season due to the 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: Lakers are willing to listen to Kyle Kuzma trade offers

Kyle Kuzma’s talent as a scorer gives him trade value as the trade deadline approaches.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma has had an up and down season, but as a skilled scorer, he remains a valuable trade option for the Lakers.

According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, the Lakers “have shown a recent willingness to listen to pitches for Kuzma,” a change in the previous reporting on how the Lakers view Kuzma. On Friday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the Lakers see Kuzma “as a core part of the future.”

Last season Kuzma, 24, emerged as one of the best young players in the NBA. He averaged a career-high 18.7 points per game and shot a career-high 45.6% from the field. As a second-year player last season, Kuzma ranked fourth among sophomores in points per game.

This season has been different, though. Kuzma has dealt with an ankle injury, and he missed the first four games of the season because of a stress reaction he suffered in his left foot before the season.

Kuzma is scoring 12.1 points per game, but he’s not playing as much compared to last season. This season he’s playing 23.6 minutes a game, whereas last season he played 33.1 minutes, due in large part to the fact Anthony Davis prefers to play Kuzma’s natural power forward spot.

For the Lakers, keeping Kuzma on and seeing if he plays better could prove to be beneficial. Despite a slow start this season, Kuzma is still talented. His ability to score in multiple ways is his best attribute. The Lakers need more bench scoring, too, as they rank 16th in the category (35.7), according to NBA.com. 

Also, Kuzma’s low salary as he remains on a rookie contract may make it more difficult for the Lakers to find a suitable trade partner that improves their team with more proven veteran talent. Kuzma has also tried to make it clear that the comments by his trainer about LeBron James following the Christmas Day loss were something out of his control.

The Lakers will look to extend their win streak to five games against the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.

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LeBron James jokes Lakers gave up ‘too much’ for Anthony Davis after win over Pelicans

LeBron James didn’t have any problem calling out critics of the Los Angeles Lakers trade fro Anthony Davis after beating his former team.

LeBron James was in a mood to be petty after another monstrous performance from Anthony Davis over Davis’ former squad, the New Orleans Pelicans. While it seems almost silly now that the Los Angeles Lakers are a Western Conference-leading 28-7, it wasn’t an uncommon assessment that the Lakers gave up far too much for Anthony Davis. James took aim at those who suggested as such on the night that the Lakers played the players they gave up in the trade for Davis in Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart.

While the former in Ingram and Ball had solid performances, it didn’t matter as the Lakers were head and shoulders above the Pelicans in large part because of Davis’ 46 points. After the game, LeBron made sure to point out how different Davis is and the price of the three players, as well as the future draft picks and pick swaps, was more than worth bringing in an MVP-level player in Davis.

The Lakers have looked excellent over the last few games and have driven up high leads over their last two games but have also let their opponents back in it as their bench has been unable to sustain the leads often created by James and Davis.

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Report: Lakers focused on making moves around the edges, not major moves

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that teams are making calls about Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma.

Although the Los Angeles Lakers have the best record in the Western Conference, like everyone else in the NBA, they will be on the lookout for ways to improve their team between now and the Feb. 6 trade deadline. One of the ways many believe the Lakers can improve their team is by trading Kyle Kuzma, who is easily the most attractive trade asset the Lakers have on their roster outside of the star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

And several teams in the NBA are trying that logic, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. However, the Lakers aren’t interested in making any big moves.

Several teams are doing their due diligence on forward Kyle Kuzma and viewing whether they can pluck the talented 24-year-old as part of their future from the championship-contending Lakers, but the Lakers value Kuzma as a core part of the future and are focused on making moves around the edges and not a major one, league sources say.

Although Kuzma found himself in some headlines thanks to his trainer Clint Parks making comments about LeBron James, the Lakers still believe in Kuzma’s ability to play next to James and Anthony Davis. Kuzma played well after the comments and also made sure to make amends with LeBron and the family. Another more practical reason that makes Kuzma difficult to trade for the Lakers is his relatively low salary, making it harder to bring a veteran, impact player back who is on a bigger salary.

Teams are smartly seeing if they can get Kuzma since he appears to be redundant at power forward on a team with LeBron and Davis. But the Lakers aren’t ready to play that card yet. With a 27-7 record, it’s hard to blame them for avoiding a major change at this point in the season.

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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:

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.

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.

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