This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
The Rockets ignored so many red flags. Now, the Kevin Porter Jr. situation has reached a breaking point.
Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested earlier this week after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, former WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick.
Both the franchise and the NBA say that they are in the process of gathering more information about the alleged violent incident. So what exactly comes next for the parties involved?
According to ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski, his future in Houston and in the league is “very much in peril” following what NBA commissioner Adam Silver called “horrific” allegations.
Mirah Curzer, an assistant Manhattan district attorney, said “Porter has a history of abusing Gondrezick,” which included the guard allegedly ramming his car into hers. Porter pleaded not guilty to felony domestic violence charges, was released on cash bail, and is due back in court next month.
Porter is entitled to due process and a thorough investigation before his punishment is eventually determined. Per league rules, in fact, the Rockets aren’t allowed to discipline Porter until the league is able to conclude its investigation.
Shams Charania, meanwhile, reported for The Athletic that Porter is not expected to attend training camp with the Rockets in October.
Charania did, however, add that the front office is “working to trade” the 23-year-old guard. But fans have to wonder why, once allowed, the team doesn’t just waive him altogether.
The reason — as you might guess — could come back to money, a choice that is deeply unsettling (via The Athletic): The Rockets could use the salary they would get back in a trade to then help get another player to help the roster now.
Perhaps the organization believed in his rehabilitation, but it was a curious decision to have Porter on the roster in any capacity heading into this upcoming season.
Even before his latest arrest, multiple former players from the Rockets expressed concerns about the direction of the franchise — specifically mentioning Porter.
Austin Rivers said that someone needed to teach Porter and Jalen Green how to play the right way. John Wall added that these players would be out of the league if they played this way for a different team.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported that it was “a circus” in the Rockets locker room while his colleague, Brian Windhorst, added that “pretty much everything the Rockets do is a mess” as well.
The plan was always for this team to have a massive overhaul for the upcoming season. But after moving on from head coach Stephen Silas, the Rockets hired Ime Udoka (who came with his own controversies after his season-long suspension by the Celtics, but that’s a different conversation).
RELATED: 3 questions for the Rockets after introducing Ime Udoka as head coach
According to a recent report from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, one of the goals for Udoka was to “set a new culture” in Houston. It was clear that this franchise hit the reset button and their roster moves reflected as much.
They specifically signed veteran guard Fred VanVleet to “start changing their culture as a leader and example-setter” in the locker room, per Marc Stein. Beyond Dillon Brooks, they also added veterans like Jeff Green and Aaron Holiday.
Houston, meanwhile, moved on from young talents like TyTy Washington, Usman Garuba, Josh Christopher and Kenyon Martin Jr. this past offseason.
Yet for some reason, despite off-court issues, Porter remained rostered.
Recall that this week was not the first troubling controversy involving Porter, who left the Toyota Center during a game after a heated argument with Rockets assistant coach John Lucas in January 2022. Gondrezick, who is the alleged victim of this alleged attack, is also Lucas’s goddaughter.
Porter was also fined $50,000 for violating the league’s health and safety protocols after visiting a strip club in April 2021. Before his time with the Rockets, in January 2021, the guard had an outburst in the Cavaliers locker room that resulted in him yelling and throwing food. The altercation led to a confrontation with Cleveland exec Koby Altman.
He was arrested in November 2020 for improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle along with failure to control and misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Earlier that year, Porter was accused of punching a woman in downtown Cleveland, though he wasn’t charged.
Additionally, during his time in college, Porter was suspended indefinitely for an “unspecified conduct issue” while at USC.
They had red flag after red flag. Although it is perhaps the most troubling, the latest alleged incident simply does not represent the second or third chance for Porter. So again we must ask, if the Rockets wanted to reset their culture this summer, why was he retained at all this offseason?
Again, it’s money. More likely than not, the Rockets structured his contract with non-guaranteed money so that he could eventually become an ideal trade piece.
Based on his deal, if Houston attached draft capital, they can return nearly $21 million in contracts that they can use as win-now help or salary-cap filler in future trades. The other team would receive picks and then cut Porter without having to pay much of his remaining money.
Doesn’t that feel wrong? Now that matters have reached their worst moment yet, they want to ship him off and get something back in return. That is not how this should work.
Once the investigation is over and if the evidence is conclusive, the Rockets need to cut Porter and make it clear that there is no room for this type of behavior in this league or in our society.
Dangling his name in trade rumors and trying to make a transaction here to return value is so, so gross and sends the wrong message. They had so many chances to move on from Porter before this got as ugly as it did and now that it has reached its apex, they don’t deserve to receive any assets in return.
They ignored all of the signs that trouble was looming with Porter and now they have to reap what they have sown by moving on empty-handed if he is indeed guilty.
The Aces are Acein’ again
The Las Vegas Aces finally look like themselves again right in time for the playoffs, Mike Sykes writes.
For the majority of the season, the Aces have looked absolutely unstoppable. Vegas started the season 19-2 heading into the league’s All-Star break in July, which is absolutely unheard of. The Aces finished the season at 34-6, which means the team went 15-4 the rest of the way.
That’s still really good, but it just wasn’t the same team we knew. Part of that was losing Candace Parker. Another part was running into the Liberty over and over again. Regardless, Vegas wasn’t the same.
But the Aces sure did look good in their 87-59 win in Game 1 against Chicago.
Vegas became the only team in WNBA history to finish with eight or fewer turnovers and fouls in a playoff game, per Across the Timeline. That attention to detail there is what a champion looks like.
It’s good to see the Aces have that vibe back — at least, for now.
Can Jalen Hurts bounce back?
As an Eagles fan, I am not yet worried about Jalen Hurts, Mike Sykes writes.
The Birds’ 25-20 win against the Patriots on Sunday was a weird one mostly because he looked off. The deep ball just wasn’t there.
CBS Sports‘ Jared Dubin details that here.
“Hurts went 0-fer on those same throws against New England, failing to complete any of his six such pass attempts. One of those plays could have been a long completion to A.J. Brown had the receiver not momentarily bobbled the ball near the sideline, but that was a second-reaction play that saw Hurts first pass up the opportunity to take a one-on-one shot to DeVonta Smith on the opposite side; and Hurts otherwise went 0-for-5 on deep passes.”
I don’t think there’s a need for panic yet. The circumstances were ripe for this to happen. It was only one week on the road in a rainy game against the best coach in NFL history. Remember, Hurts also hadn’t played in the preseason. There were bound to be mistakes as there were with many quarterbacks in Week 1.
RELATED: Don’t panic about Daniel Jones and the other expensive QBs just yet.
If Hurts can’t get things right against Minnesota on Thursday night, though, we might be talking about the start of a trend here. And that’s when things might start to get concerning.
We’ll see how this shakes out.
Quick hits: Aaron Rodgers isn’t done … Your weekly NFL survivor pool picks … and more
— Aaron Rodgers says he’s heartbroken, but this doesn’t sound like a man who is walking away from football. Andrew Joseph has more.
— Prince Grimes has you covered with his five best survivor pool picks for Week 2. This dude is on fire. Go get you some cash.
— Charles Curtis has the most watchable games of Week 2 in the NFL ranked here.
— Well, this is embarrassing. A Bills reporter got caught on a hot mic ripping Stefon Diggs.
That’s all, folks. Happy Thursday! Have a fantastic day.