Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report hears from league sources who say the Rockets have momentum on a possible deal for free agent forward Kyle Kuzma, who declined his $13MM player option last week to hit the open market.
Sacramento radio host Carmichael Dave was first to report the Rockets were the frontrunner to land Kuzma (Twitter link).
The veteran forward has also been linked to the Pacers and Kings, two other teams with cap room. It seems like those teams are pursuing other targets instead (Max Strus for Indiana and re-signing or extending Harrison Barnes for Sacramento).
Kuzma was first linked to the Rockets by Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports earlier this month. Houston has the most cap room in the league (around $60MM) and intends to be aggressive in free agency in an effort to start winning games.
However, Marc Stein recently reported that the Rockets were expected to use nearly all of their cap room to sign free agents Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks. It’s unclear if that means Kuzma is a fallback option or if they plan to pursue all three players. Landing all three would almost certainly require a sign-and-trade for one of them unless someone is taking a below-market deal.
Kuzma, who turns 28 next month, averaged a career-best 21.2 points per game in 64 contests (35.0 MPG) this past season, posting a shooting line of .448/.333/.730 and contributing 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per night.
He would be a curious fit with the Rockets, who already have Jabari Smith, Tari Eason, Kenyon Martin Jr. and Jae’Sean Tate at the two forward spots and drafted Cam Whitmore in the first round last week. That list doesn’t include Brooks either, another player who primarily plays forward.
Kyle Kuzma already got the championship so he chasing the bag!!! He’ll be 28 years next month and sacrificed a lot of money when he resigned with the Los Angeles Lakers. So you can’t blame him. I would actually prefer to see him on the Sacramento Kings or the Indiana Pacers. I think on the Houston Rockets he can stunt some of the young guys growth. I don’t think Dillon Brooks will because he will only get a 1 or 2 year deal. So when they ready to ball he will be off the books.
Nba Free Agency=Time for dumb NBA GMs to make terrible moves.
Luckily you’re not a GM :D
YAWN, another one
There almost has to be a violation of the negotiating period here w/ Kuzma and HOU…
I’m actually not feeling that Houston Rockets roster. I love Amen Thompson and I love Kenyon Martin Jr. Then I really like Tari Eason. Then Cam Whitmore another guy I like. Other than that I’ll be looking to get rid of all those young guys. Either I don’t like their games or attitudes or both. I’ll keep the four above I mentioned and then blow it up to the studs then I’ll have about $90 million in money to throw around. A bunch of draft picks. Then I would spend that money up on giving good sound veterans 1 year deal. Ime Udoka need a better group of guys to coach. Jalen Green Kevin Porter Jr. Jabari Smith Jr. & Alperen Sengun will all be off my roster.
Selling a little early on jalen green and Jabari smith. Smith looked bad 3/4 of the season but okay most rookies do. He looked a lot better at the end. Jalen had shown he can become one of the leagues top scorers, it will help a lot when he plays next to a real point guard, not Kevin porter pretending to be one. Udoka will shape this roster into something special. Probably make the play-in next year
Kuzma would be a bad signing for the Rockets. He would take playing time away Eason, Whitmore & Martin. I like Porter but not on a Young team like the Rockets. He can distribute & with a decent point guard he would shoot lights out. Smith & Sengun are too young to really judge. They need Van Vleet & can’t afford both him & Kuzma. Eason is a potential Defensive Player of the Year who has offensive upside too. Harden is too old for a team this young. A front line of Sengun, Eason & whitmore with Van Vleet & Green could compete in 2 to 3 years. Smith, Martin & Porter wou;d be excellent off the bench. An experienced pointguard & time to grow these kids could work wonders. Of course in time Thompson would push Green or Van Vleet to the bench. That said he will need an experienced hand like Van Vleet to show him the ropes.
Sengun while talented should be a PF he’s too small to play center
Can he shoot and defend enough to be a legitimate PF? He hasn’t shown any ability at contesting 3s, or shooting them. And I don’t know that his lateral agility is high enough to play the 4 on a consistent basis.
I personally love that he’s so willing and capable as a playmaker and he’s a good rebounder who can score in the post. But his bag isn’t super deep either.
He was the mvp of the Turkish league when he was 18. I just think he’s undersized, I really wish they could get Brook Lopez but I think he’ll stay with the bucks. 2nd choice would be bring back Capella
He’s talented, of course. I wouldn’t ever question that; I think he’s a great young player. But he just seems kind of stationary on defense. He resorts to drop coverage a lot and seems lost with how to navigate screens. He’s fine in the paint, but outside of there he seems kind of lost. I don’t think he can be a PF with those kind of defensive instincts.
On the other hand, he can rotate to contest in the paint and does a good job guarding the rim and grabbing boards, so I think he’s fine as a Center as long as you pair him with a great team defense, or at least a great PF defender a la Mobley or Davis. I feel like his shortcomings are kind of magnified because the team as a whole is kind of a wreck on defense, but he’s also just not agile.
Sengun is still growing. He recently has grown an inch and is now 6’10” or 6’11”
Sengun is the same height as Bam Adebayo. He is not quite as beefy as Adebayo but equal in height.
I just looked it up on google. Alpy is 6’11” and 243 lbs and Bam is 6’9” and 255 lbs. Its a very easy google search that will give you some knowledge about something that you didn’t know about the 2.
Funny I have Sengun at 6’9″ 235 according to basketball reference.
KJ is likely to be part of a sign and trade for Kuzma.
Tari can’t shoot that well. Smith will shoot better and get a lot more opportunities with Amen at the point. KPJ was just not a good point for Smith.
Eason shot far better than Smith last year. That said you are correct that Porter is not ideal at the point. He is a 2 guard with above average passing skills. Even he will shoot better with a better point guard. That said Thompson will not be LaMelo Ball right away. He will need a veteran pointguard to show him the ropes or he will just be another Porter. Van Vleet could really help Thompson out. He could help them all out.
This is just so weird. I get that the Rockets have to burn cap, but they’re targeting players who block some of their best young guys. You’d think trading for large expiring deals or facilitating trades between other teams would be more favorable.
Weird, or on-brand? They let a roster full of young players languish under a head coach who, clearly, was ill-equipped for the job. They failed to bring in a true playermaker to help make life easier for the kids and that, combined with a poor offensive scheme, lead to a complete mess. They didn’t bring in enough veteran talent to manage the trying times and help build character, resulting in inconsistent effort levels and malaise.
As far as tanking goes, this is exactly the kind of tank job I think is destined to end short of expectations. Those first few years of development are still critical to one’s development, and the Rockets have essentially punted them by simply throwing the players on the court and saying “Have at it”.
Admittedly I’m probably biased here, but I think my Spurs followed a better approach. First, you have the young players learning under a legendary head coach and, more broadly, within an environment conducive to development. Next, you had solid vets who helped make sure that the players didn’t give up or lose focus despite the mounting losses. Finally, although the Spurs did make liberal use of injury-related DNPs, they did compete on a nightly basis; they were just too terrible or too short-handed to win games. Of course, things look a lot rosier with the draft luck, but I think my point still stands.
Maybe these are just rumors and things will get rectified for the Rockets in short order; I’ve certainly been wrong before. But I’ve just gotten a bad vibe from this front office for some time now. Either way, this offseason is going to be quite telling as to the future direction of the franchise.
The new coach plus an experienced pointguard should turn the Rockets around in a year or 2. The Spurs and Rockets should be an amazing rivalry for years to come. Tall ball against positionless basketball could be defined by both.
In theory, yes. I absolutely don’t expect them to be a bad team by any means. They will be a lot better. And I do hope they reach their ceiling as, indeed, it would be a great rivalry to watch develop.
It’s more that it’s a surprise in terms of roster building. The Rockets have done a decent job of making sure their young prospects can play, but this seems like the utter opposite? Guys like FVV, Kuzma, Brooks, Lopez, they’re still productive regulars. They will block out the young guys on any team with sense, and they have Udoka, so they have that (on the court).
I know Udoka wants to win now. That said none of these guys make sense except Van Vleet. Kuzma & Brooks block guys like Eason. Lopez only makes sense for a club that is already a winner & needs a push to win it all. That said you can’t entrust the point to Porter & Thompson right now. Porter is a 2 guard who can pass. He needs a pointguard to improve his own shooting. Van Vleet makes sense but the others would be mistakes..
I agree with you. I didn’t say that I wanted Kuzma. I was responding to someone that said we don’t have enough cap space to sign all 3 players and said that Kuzma would stunt the growth of KJ.
Yes, I know. That’s why I said in a later comment that I responding to someone that said Kuzma would stunt KJ’s growth. So I made the comment if the Rockets were to go in that direction they would probably include KJ in a sign in trade so that Kuzma wouldn’t stunt KJ’s growth. It also wouldn’t cost anything in our cap space. I think if we have any cap space left after signing VanVleet we should try to sign some more help that won’t cause any distractions if they came off the bench.
Whether that team reaches it’s ceiling long term is dependent on 2 players growth.Thompson & Eason. If Thompson can handle the point he could be Wembanyama’s equal. I still think his floor would be becoming an Alex English like scorer who can pass well. Eason does it all on defense and has the tools to break out on offense. That said they still have gobs of extra 1st round picks to use.
The Spurs rebuild, just like the last one, is facilitated by lucking into the number one pick
Is it luck? They benched David Robinson and just happened to get Tim Duncan for it now they just happen to get the number 1 pick. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it was rigged for them
Much like the Cav’s winning the LeBron James lottery.
I thought Robinson was injured
Umm the spurs constantly sat rookies for rest. They were one of the most blatant tank jobs, they even sat guys for rest against the rockets to make sure they’d lose. The rockets didn’t rest guys. The spurs also refused to cut a sexual predator until the news finally broke nationally, allowing him to repeatedly harass females working for the spurs. Keldon Johnson was a head case and because of how often the spurs rested young players, they have no continuity. The only thing the spurs did right was lucking out and getting Wemby. Your analysis of the rockets rebuild is hilariously inaccurate and if you don’t know anything about them or basketball for that matter, maybe just don’t comment…
Spell check did that. I guess it has never seen the word Kuzma and didn’t know what I was trying to say.
Just what the Rockets need /s.
I hope the front office (and new coach) get its act together, but I’m still of the camp that they’re going to screw up this rebuild despite the talent onboard (which I think is a little overrated to begin with, at least at this point)
I would think the Kings should be the frontrunner. They opened up cap space on during the draft. For their fans sake I hope they didn’t do it just to extend Barnes and Sabonis. They can and should do both but they can do so after adding Kuzma as I don’t think Green is a realistic option.
They can stretch Porter Jr and open up an extra $14MM space
Porter is one of the best catch and shoot 3pt shooters in the league. He would be perfect in a 6th man role
With a better Point guard Porter could be a better 2 guard than Green.
Nothing to be curious about, he doesn’t fit. But he is one of the high profile FAs who will hit the market, and signing him will increase the overall talent level on the roster. HOU has cap space and is looking to use it in a credibile signing.
Get used to it, at least for the next month. The dearth of quality FAs that’s defined the FA market for some years now is, this year, about to be matched by a dearth of money. The few cap space teams out there are not typical pursuers of FAs, or anything else that might win games, but this year they may be the only game in town.
The rockets are just a mess with no direction.
That’s what happens when you bend over backwards for a superstar who makes you make a terrible trade (cp3 and picks for Westbrook) then a year later decides to bolt. The rockets have a nice thing going hopefully fertilla doesn’t get in the way
They were under Moray who destroyed our future but luckily Stone has shortened the length of the future less Rockets by at least 2 years. We have a new staff now that you haven’t even given them 2 months to see how they will do.
He’s good for Rockets. Specially at market value. I’d sign him. Eason can learn behind him. So can Cam. Rockets getting deeper. A center and a real PG would be nice.
What will Eason learn from Kuzma? He is already better on defense & at shooting 3’s. Give him a decent point guard & He will out score Kuzma on fewer shots. Use the money to bring in a point guard & a center.
If you’ll like read the rest of my comments I clearly said that I don’t want Kuzma??? I was responding to someone who commented that Kuzma would take up KJ’s playing time so I made the comment if the Rockets were to do something like that they would do a sign and trade so that Kuzma wouldn’t be taking up KJ’s playing time. No where in my comment do I say that I want Kuzma???