SEPTEMBER 30: Both teams have announced that the trade is now official. However, the terms of the deal are slightly different than was previously reported.
Instead of Atlanta’s protected 2025 second-round pick, the Rockets will receive a 2026 second-rounder from Oklahoma City. That pick will be the second-most favorable of the Thunder’s, Mavericks’, and Sixers’ 2026 second-round picks. Houston is also receiving cash considerations in the deal.
SEPTEMBER 29, 9:15pm: The Rockets intend to waive Jerome, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Feigen adds that Favors and Maledon are considered the most likely among Houston’s new additions to claim spots on the 15-man regular season roster.
SEPTEMBER 29, 8:13pm: The Thunder have agreed to send center/power forward Derrick Favors, shooting guard Ty Jerome, forward Maurice Harkless, point guard Theo Maledon and the Hawks’ 2025 second-round draft pick (top-40 protected) to the Rockets in exchange for athletic swingman David Nwaba, wing Sterling Brown, point guard Trey Burke and power forward Marquese Chriss, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
As Wojnarowski observes, Oklahoma City will create two trade exceptions in the deal. In pure salary terms, the exchange will help the Thunder get $10MM under the league’s punitive luxury tax cap threshold. Wojnarowski notes that Favors in particular is tradable among the returning players arriving in Houston, as a solid backup big man on an expiring $10.2MM salary.
The 6’9″ Favors, 31, spent most of the last decade as a key role player with several good playoff-bound Jazz teams. Last year with the Thunder, he appeared in just 39 games, averaging 5.3 PPG on 51.6% shooting, plus 4.7 RPG, across 16.7 MPG.
Jerome and Maledon are both young players on modest contracts with remaining potential upside. Harkless, like Favors, is a veteran on an expiring deal.
On the Rockets’ side of the transaction, Houston is acquiring a future second-round draft pick in exchange for taking on some added salary, as Woj details.
According to Kelly Iko of The Athletic (via Twitter) if that Hawks 2025 second-rounder lands in the top 40 and is protected, Houston will instead receive the second-best of the Thunder’s, Mavericks’, and Sixers’ 2026 second-round picks.
Given that No. 2 draft pick Chet Holmgren has been ruled out for the year with a Lisfranc injury in his right foot, and with the best player in this new trade being sent away from the team, it appears the Thunder are once again prioritizing a year of youthful development, as they look to the 2023 draft lottery to build out their impressive young roster.
Oklahoma City added four rookies in the 2022 draft, including two additional lottery picks beyond Holmgren. The Thunder have been in full-on rebuild mode since the end of the 2019/20 season, winning a total of 46 games over the last two years.
Houston has also been in the asset-collection and draft lottery-targeting phase of its journey since 2020. The team went 37-127 from 2020-22. This year, the Rockets drafted intriguing rookie power forward Jabari Smith with the third pick out of Auburn. They also made two other selections in the first round.
It appears unlikely that every player in this deal will be with their new clubs when the regular season opens. Bobby Marks of ESPN (via Twitter) notes that both teams will still have 18 guaranteed contracts on their books following this deal. Per league rules, they’ll each need to get down to 15 players by October 17.
SGA to the Raptors
OG, Trent Jr and 5 total 1st round picks (including swaps)
Legit?
Nope
Wayyy too much
I guess some of those players are going to get bought out of waived before the season starts.
Is this a huge trade for the future?
Because of this trade, Who will win championships in 2027, Rockets or Thunder?
Not your favorite team the lakers that’s for sure
Warriors
Good deal for the Rockets. Losing Nwaba’s presence hurts a little bit but they get a 2nd, can probably flip Favors for another 2nd, and Maledon still has a bit of potential (I’m probably one of his few remaining believers). The rest are headed for cut city on both sides.
Not bad for taking on a whopping 1mil in salary.
I think it’s a good trade for both teams.
In short….a bunch of dudes that were gonna be cut, were traded for other dudes that were gonna be cut. The ones that weren’t (favors) were traded to dump salary to get under the cap and required a second round pick likely to fall in the 50s somewhere to do it.
Thunder said here’s.some junk, and we’ll take your junk in return .. DEAL !
Always thought Maledon could play PG in NBA. Wonder what happened ??
He’s okay but OKC got too many draft picks and can’t even play them all so now they’re just getting rid of guys than can probably play
Then nice pickup. I hope they give give him a real shot. But I really like TyTy a lot. I believe he’s a future starter at PG. Maledon has good size.
If this was a “youth movement for the Thunder”, why did they trade old vets for old vets? Salary dump of Favors is understandable since Rockets love to take on others washed ups and adding their inexcusable salary to the roster. They’ve done it with Wall, Schroder, Wood, and few others that are not coming to mind at the moment. The Rockets will take the salary dumps but can dump Eric Gordon to a contender who needs a 3 and D wingman. Clippers, Lakers, Heat, Nets, and Cavs come to mind that could use him from the bench or a spot start when injury(s) happen.
Different note: Cavs could use a few extra guards to play along side those young big guys. I think occasionally Gordon with Mobley and Gerret Allen would be exciting to watch. I get they have Rubio, Mitchell, LeVart with Garland in the mix, but a Gordon in replace of Garland, would send Cavs top 2 in the East. Rubio, LeVart, Mitchell, and Gordon at the guard positions with Mobley, Allen, Lopez, and others adding to the defensive and offensive scheme, looks dangerously good!
Wood? Was not a salary dump or an old vet….
Wow maybe you should watch a basketball game or two. Schroder was traded for Daniel Theis who was on a 3 year deal while Schroder was on an expiring contract. Sorry your teams are complete trash you have to try ripping other teams. When’s the last time the bucs were relevant?? Barry bonds rookie season??
@Pirates
I vomited in my mouth when you suggested the Cavs would be better with Gordon at the point rather than Garland.
Does he even play the Point. Garland is for real lol. I really want to see how he and DM mix.
C’s should try and get Favors to cover for the lose of R. Williams
Loss
Favors is an ideal mentor for the Rockets. Former high lottery pick, has experience playing out of position, has been everything from a benchwarmer to an everyday player, good defender, has flexibly adapted his game several times… he fills just about every need for a leader on this young, rebuilding squad. Savvy move by the Rockets GM.
Favors could help a lot of teams as a backup. Still has some legs
Nets, Celtics, Lakers, Blazers, Kings could use him
Kings have Sabonis, Holmes, Len and Queta. Plenty of centers
We need more help than Favors
Sabonis is a PF
I’m going to disagree with all you guys and say that Favors is NOT a good backup big man. He’s a good citizen and probably a good Mentor but on the floor he gives you nothing.
He might set a good screen but that’s about it. He doesn’t rebound and he doesn’t block shots.., he’s just huge at this point. These things you all are saying probably were true 6 years ago. Today he’s just a big load who’s probably a pretty good influence in the locker room. On the floor.., nothing.
Bulls could use Favors to backup Williams at PF.
Celtics have traded with Houston Favors would surely help them. We shall see!! Don’t sleep on Chriss either.
I would ask you, help them with what? Being a big man on the roster and on paper with a “C” next to his name? Having a guy on the roster and on paper who’s 6-11? Seriously what would he help with?
Trey burke is still in the NBA? I thought he was to good for the NBA. Lol
I think the Houston Rockets will try to trade Derrick Favors at the trade deadline. I see them keeping Theo Maledon.
I think the Oklahoma City Thunder will keep David Nwaba this year. I see them waiving the other three guys.
I liked Nwaba in Houston but he just got lost in the shuffle. If Favors comes in and wants to be a mentor/quality backup PF then great. If not, he’ll net another second.
Too many draft picks lead to roster crunches.
This happened to the Celtics a few years back when they kept all those picks and ended up cutting guys they just drafted.
Um they take back like an extra $7MM in salary…
Indeed. But there are cash considerations to compensate for that I understood.
Yeah, that $1MM figure is in the ESPN story — not sure where it’s coming from. Thought maybe they were factoring in Nwaba’s 2023/24 salary, but it’s a team option and it still doesn’t quite make the math work to get to $1MM.
Edit: As Wannes mentioned, ESPN must have been factoring in the cash OKC sent, despite not mentioning it.
Why do they already officially complete the deal? It’s not like it is really needed to have those players in training camp asap for tanking teams.
Because if they had waited 5 more days they could have maybe added a third team to the mix to improve value. Now they cannot aggregate those traded salaries anymore in a trade for two months and will probably lose money on waiving these salaries.
Aggregation trade (e.g. dump of Westbrook) can now only be completed on 1st of December. That is still before the 6th of December, the day you have to be traded to be traded again in an aggregation trade on trade deadline.
Will they have to waive 3/4 acquired players? Or are there some players that could be traded away by adding a highly protected 2nd and/or some cash?
If OKC keeps Nwaba (highest contract so most trade value?) I assume they could still get find a taker for Marquese Chriss (lowest contract but fits best on roster)? Or should they keep Chriss and waive/trade Wiggins and/or Bazley (can even be aggregated). I dont see potential takers for Brown and Sterling if not aggregated together) and dont think they should stay on the OKC roster.
As for Houston, it’s clear they should keep Favors to aggregate with Gordon at a later stage. They will get maximum value then I think.
It has been announced multiple times that Ty Jerome will be waved. There was probably no market for Maurice Harkless seen he got traded with assets to OKC. And according to Fansided Harkless is already waived by Houston.
Big remaining question seems Theo Maledon? Would Houston take a flier on him and waive Marjanovic now that they have Favors (for a while). He could also be a nice fit with the Charlotte Hornets while Ball is injured?