By Adam Spolane (@AdamSpolane)
I understand if you missed it, there was a lot going on. Buried in the haze that is Super Bowl Week, the NBA lost its mind its mind. Anthony Davis asked to be traded, Kristaps Porzingis was traded, and Kyrie Irving signaled he may not be long for Boston. With the Super Bowl now a long, distant, and boring memory we shift our attention to the NBA's trade deadline, which hits Thursday at 2:00 pm, and while the Rockets need to do something, their options are slim.
After making at least one deal in his first 10 seasons as Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey allowed stood pat a season ago, deciding instead to roll the dice in the buyout market. The Rockets GM has tried to remake the Rockets roster on the fly this season. Austin Rivers and Kenneth Faried are here, while Carmelo Anthony and Michael Carter-Williams are gone. Then there's Danuel House, who was here, gone, here, and now gone again. After Saturday's convincing win in Salt Lake City, the Rockets sit at 30-22, sixth place in the Western Conference, and while this season has hardly gone to plan, Morey still believes his team has an opening.
"We're chasing Golden State. So we've got to be aggressive," he said Saturday. "If there's something that could help us now we're gonna be looking at that. We won't do it frivolously, but if it's something that really improves the team we'll look at it hard"
Without question there are players out there that could help the Rockets. Problem is, the team is short on assets. The good news is that they own all of their own first round picks going forward, but they lack young, cheap players of any value, and the one player they have with a contract big enough to fetch a pricey veteran, Brandon Knight, is guaranteed $15.5 million next season. Yuck. We'll get to some realistic options in a minute, but first, let's get a little crazy.
Davis is the white whale of deadline season. He's a top five player who lifts any other team to a different level. Since his trade request was made public early last week you can bet that the other 29 teams in the league have discussed a way to get Davis or to figure out a way to latch on to a possible in order to extract an asset out of someone, and while it's unlikely for the Rockets to land Davis, it's not impossible.
On the surface, the package the Rockets could put together is pretty straightforward: Clint Capela, Eric Gordon and multiple first round picks. It's not a bad offer, but things are a little more complicated. While the Pelicans would likely be interested in Capela and the picks, Gordon is likely a non-starter. He spent five seasons in New Orleans, and they weren't exactly happy times, so the Rockets would need to get at least one other team involved. Fortunately, I think I found a couple.
In this hypothetical the Rockets would send their unprotected 2019 first round pick to New Orleans along with a protected 2021 first rounder with Sacramento kicking in a future second rounder. Gordon upgrades Toronto's backcourt, and since he's under contract next season the Raptors have a little protection in case Kawhi Leonard bolts. The Kings could use a veteran as they fight for their first playoff spot in over decade, and New Orleans saves some money, collects some picks, and gets players that are under control for awhile. I don't expect this to happen, but I'm just throwing it out there as a framework to how the Rockets could somehow pull off a Davis trade. It's not better than a Boston offer involving Jayson Tatum, but that's not on the table right now, though you can certainly argue it's better than any combination of Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Kyle Kuzma, which has reportedly been offered by the Lakers.
Now that that's out of the way, here are some names that could help the Rockets without biting into their core.
Kent Bazemore (Atlanta)
Taurean Prince (Atlanta)
Alec Burks (Cleveland)
Garrett Temple (Memphis)
Darius Miller (New Orleans)
Terrence Ross (Orlando)
Kelly Oubre (Phoenix)
These are all three and D wings, that aside from Bazemore, will be free agents this summer. Prince, Miller, and Oubre can be had without needing Knight in the deal, which is what the Rockets should look to do. A team might want an asset for the player plus an extra asset to take on the $15.5 million owed to Knight next season. I believe the Rockets are better served by waiting to move Knight when he's in the final year of his contract.
After Sunday's games there are only six teams more than five games out of a playoff spot. It is not a buyer's market. I'd still expect Daryl Morey to swing some sort of deal, but like a year his best chance to improve the Rockets will likely come once the trade deadline has past and the buyout market heats up.
