The Rockets have finalized a pair of deals they agreed upon Wednesday night, sending Marcus Morris to the Suns for a second-round pick and trading Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich, Toney Douglas and $1MM to the Kings for Thomas Robinson, Francisco Garcia and Tyler Honeycutt. The second-rounder heading to Houston is Phoenix's own 2013 selection. The Suns, who were at the roster limit of 15 players going into the trade, waived Luke Zeller to make room for Morris.
Houston was reportedly deciding between a pair of deals for Morris, whom the Rockets held out of their win against Oklahoma City on Wednesday. With Houston's top two power forwards gone, it looks like a pair of rookies, in Robinson and Terrence Jones, will man the position as the team fights to hold on to the final playoff spot in the West. One of the motivations to trade Morris was to free up time for Jones, according to HoopsWorld's Steve Kyler.
As Grantland's Zach Lowe points out via Twitter, the pair of moves will save Houston approximately $1.6MM for next season if they decline their option on Garcia. Lowe surmised earlier that Houston would look to cut between $1.5MM and $2MM to clear room for a max deal to land Dwight Howard, who'll be a free agent this summer. The Rockets also get the No. 5 overall pick from this past June's draft in Robinson, who's seen just 15.9 minutes per game as a reserve for the Kings this year. Nonetheless, Robinson is grabbing 4.7 rebounds in his limited action, which would extrapolate to 10.6 rebounds per 36 minutes.
Sacramento had appeared unlikely to make a deal as their ownership situation remains in limbo, but they flipped Robinson for two expiring deals and Patterson, who will enter the final season of his rookie contract next year. The move was all about cost-cutting and not something the Kings current management wished to do, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The Chris Hansen/Howard Ballmer group from Seattle that has a deal in place to buy the Kings was briefed on the trade before it went down, according to fellow Yahoo! Sports scribe Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). It's unclear exactly where the directive to make the trade came from, though SB Nation's Tom Ziller indicated Wednesday night that co-owner Gavin Maloof and Geoff Petrie are the driving forces in the Kings front office at the moment.
The Suns considered trading a first-round pick for Morris when the Rockets drafted him 14th overall in 2011, but wound up nabbing him for a second-rounder, currently projected to be the 35th overall selection. Now the power forward will reunite with his twin brother, Markieff Morris, whom the Suns took 13th overall in 2011. With the next pick that year, the Rockets drafted Marcus.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (All Twitter links) initially broke the news of both trades. Sam Amick of USA Today (All Twitter links) and TNT's David Aldridge (Twitter link) contributed additional details.
i like this from the suns perspective. i think the kings got hosed
mean the rockets?
rockets good or bad?
I love the idea of thomas robinson in houston. Thats the one gaping hole on the roster PF
Rockets cashed in Patterson and Morris really well here they got a top 5 talent from the 2012 draft and some solid bench pieces in Garcia and Honeycutt good move on there end of the deal.
No, as usual, King’s fans get hosed. Patterson will probably get turned around for 20 bucks and a set of cruise tickets for the Maloofs.
Is Robinson just not translating in the NBA or has he been injured? Or is he just a rookie trying to find his way? Most guys with his talent and skill set don’t put up numbers as ugly as his through the first half of his rookie season.
He was playing behind Jason Thompson is equally a good player himself hence why they probably figured it’d be best to trade him. Honestly it kinda makes you wonder why did they even bother drafting him in the first place….
Thanks. I don’t follow most NBA teams, just the Celtics and whatever EPSN highlights and unforuntately more times than not the Kings don’t get much recognition. I agree though, strange to draft him if they had depth. Maybe they thought he would come in and blow everyone away?
It really wasn’t a deep draft. Had to pick the best talent available. In their eyes it was Robinson. I think they would of rather picked Lillard looking back but so would just about every team drafting ahead of them not named the Hornets.
i like it. kings got some cap space and cash. always good to have cap space when relocating. i think the kings will do atleast a couple small deals before the deadline
Markieff plays in Phoenix. .. NOT Sacramento
One last fu to seattle
can you read? seattle wanted this.
That was posted afterwards pecker
That was posted afterwards
news that seattle was involved didnt come out for over an hr after the trade went down. Did u think this couldve been posted before that? Can u follow time stamps and do simple math?
I don’t get what the Kings are trying to do here. They traded out the player with the highest upside and acquired Patterson (who is Robinsons floor really). Just really confused.