(SportsRadio 610) -- Just a couple of days after trading for Trevor Ariza from Portland, the Rockets are sending him and the No. 16 overall pick to the Detroit Pistons for a future first-round pick, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The deal gives the Rockets, who Woj noted as a hard-capped team, the freedom to use their mid-level exception in free agency.
Ariza was brought in from Portland in a deal which sent Robert Covington to the Blazers for the 16th pick in Wednesday’s draft.
The Rockets up until that point did not have a draft pick because of last year’s trade from Russell Westbrook from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Covington had been traded to the Rockets last season as part of a four-team, 12-player deal that shipped Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks, which signaled Houston’s full-on dedication to playing smaller lineups.
If the Rockets had kept Ariza, 35, it would have been his third time playing for the franchise (2009-2010; 2014-2018).