If the Houston Rockets do not make a big push into the playoffs this season they are going to be positioned well to do so in the future.
Throughout the off-season there wasn't a team busier than the Houston Rockets. General Manager Daryl Morey had the team make a plethora of moves. With the exception of picking up Jeremy Lin and James Harden they were all more or less chess moves looking towards a bigger move.
The team has yet to make the big move, but with its recent trade it certainly took a big step in the right direction.
Pending league approval the Rockets will be sending Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich and Toney Douglas to the Sacramento Kings and Marcus Morris to the Phoenix Suns. In return they got Thomas Robinson, Francisco Garcia and Tyler Honeycutt from the Kings. The Suns sent a second round pick for Morris.
For Houston it is a win-win proposition. None of the players traded were major contributors to the team. Patterson was the most valuable with 11.6 points a game, good enough for fourth best on the team. He had yet to develop into the player the team had hoped he would become when he was taken with the 14th pick of the 2010 draft.
In Thomas Robinson they get the No. 5 pick from the 2012 draft. The former Kansas stand-out had been picked by many to go as high as No. 2 in the draft. However, since coming to the NBA he has not lived up to expectations. So far he has averaged less than five points and rebounds a game, but has only averaged 16 minutes a game.
“I’m going into a good situation for me,” Robinson said. “I’m happy to have another opportunity and an opportunity to play every day. I’m going to bust my butt to get on the court. I’m going to a contending team is a great challenge and opportunity for me.”
The Kings are hardly a conducive environment for fostering young talent these days. For the last couple seasons the team has been surrounded by rumors and threats of being sold and moving. Earlier this season the current owners, the Maloofs, did finally sell the franchise to a group that is expected to move the franchise to Seattle.
The sale is still pending approval of the NBA Board of Governors.
Houston, on the other hand, appears to be a good fit. The Rockets are in need of a low post scoring threat, something that Robinson could very well become again (like he was in college), and so far appear to be a playoff-bound team as well.
Should Robinson not pan out his cap hit is manageable going into next year. With the other moves and assuming the team does not pick up any options they will have more than $20 million in cap space going into free agency in the off-season.
Rumor has it that Dwight Howard guy is not happy in Los Angeles…
All the moves went down shortly before the Rockets were scheduled to play the Oklahoma City Thunder leaving the team short-handed in a very tough game.
"A lot of distractions before the game," said James Harden. "I just rallied the guys together and told them to focus in on every play. It was going to be a tough game for us, but we had to really focus in on the small, detailed things. The guys did a phenomenal job."
Harden scored a career high 46 and Jeremy Lin chipped in 29 to help the Rockets overcome a 14-point deficit to beat the Thunder 122-119.
With games like that maybe the team should trade players away before tip-off more often!
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