The Rockets‘ multi-team sign-and-trade deal for Dillon Brooks will expand further to include the trade agreement between Houston and the Clippers involving Kenyon Martin Jr., according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required).
Houston’s deal that sends TyTy Washington and Usman Garuba to the Hawks will also be part of the Brooks sign-and-trade with the Grizzlies. With the Clippers involved and the Thunder set to take on Patty Mills in the complex transaction, it will be at least a five-team trade.
The Rockets, who acquired a second-round pick from Brooklyn for Mills and are getting two more from the Clippers for Martin, will send out five second-rounders in the deal — two to Atlanta and three to Oklahoma City. Those three picks going to the Thunder haven’t been reported yet, so it’s possible they’ll just be the three selections that Houston is receiving from the Nets and Clippers.
As we wait for the Rockets to complete their offseason moves, here are a few more notes out of Houston:
- Jeff Green‘s contract with the Rockets, originally reported to be worth $6MM for one year, will actually be for $16MM over two, with a non-guaranteed second year, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. Marks adds that Green’s first-year cap hit will be $8MM. If that figure is precise, rather than rounded, it means the forward will have to be signed using cap room rather than the room exception, which maxes out at $7.7MM.
- The hiring of Ime Udoka as head coach was a major factor in the Rockets’ decision to pivot away from James Harden and toward Fred VanVleet in free agency, a league source tells Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. “From everything we’ve gotten out of there, it was a matter that Ime didn’t want him,” the source said. “At the beginning, were they thinking about Harden? Yeah. But then they hired Ime, and Ime said, ‘It’s not going to work here.'”
- Appearing on The IkoSystem podcast, Kenyon Martin Jr. spoke to Kelly Iko of The Athletic about the trade that will send him from the Rockets to the Clippers. Martin said that he appreciates the opportunity the Rockets gave him and added that Houston “will always have a place in my heart,” but admitted he’s looking forward to returning home to Los Angeles, where he was born and raised (Twitter audio clip).
pitiful Harden
From everything we’ve gotten out of there, it was a matter that Ime didn’t want him
Yes, we read the article. Thanks for the cliffnotes.
Don’t be surprised when Harden winds up in Miami.
That would be a weirdly good fit on offense. As long as Coach Spo gets him to cut out the random flailing on drives, he can still be a productive PG in Miami’s slow-paced offense. A strong 3pt shooter also. Defensively it’d be weird though.
Coach Spi says no; troublemakers got to go.
I guess when a source is completely wrong the media can invent another story to shift the blame?
And there’s Udoka fresh off a scandal ripe to spotlight, and shift blame toward? Convenient.
I think there’s a big difference between doesn’t like the guy and doesn’t want to go backwards in their identity. They got lucky with this coach being available and while he’s there his vision is to move forward and continue to build a better team overall. Nothing wrong with that.
No the coach got lucky, unfortunately for him it was with the bosses wife. That’s why he’s available.
Why are the rockets getting a pick to take Patty and then sending 3 out to get rid of him? Are they just willingly losing 2 picks?
I think we need the full details on the next deal(s) before passing judgment, but for now it seems the motivation for acquiring Mills is that he’ll help bridges the gap to Brooks’ first-year salary, allowing the Rockets to generate some extra cap room and then acquire Brooks using salary-matching (including Mills’ outgoing salary) once they’ve used up all that cap room.
I question whether that’s worth the price they seem to be paying, since there have been no reports yet on what they actually plan to DO with that extra cap room, but again, there are still some details missing here, so we’ll wait to see what it all ends up looking like.
The Rockets are going to be such a mess this year…