FEBRUARY 23, 3:40pm: The Lakers and Rockets have formally announced the Williams deal – as reported below – in a pair of press releases, making it official.
FEBRUARY 21, 7:03pm: According to David Aldridge of TNT, the first-round pick heading to the Lakers will not be protected. Per Bobby Marks of The Vertical, the pick involved is projected to be 27th overall and worth a cap hit of $1.4MM in 2017/18.
6:41pm: The Rockets are finalizing a trade with the Lakers for guard Lou Williams, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. In exchange, Houston will send Corey Brewer and a first-round pick to Los Angeles. At this time, details about the first-round pick heading to the Lakers have not been made available (although 7:03 update from Marks suggests that it’s Houston’s 2017 first-round pick).
In 58 games for Los Angeles this season, Williams has averaged 18.6 points per game. He’ll join an already potent Houston offense that had been reported to be looking to fortify its bench. The 30-year-old guard is signed through the 2017/18 campaign at $7MM per season.
Brewer, a 30-year-old forward with a similar contract to Williams (he’s owed $15.2MM over two years), averaged 4.2 points per game with Houston but has carved out a role for himself as a savvy, defensive-minded veteran.
According to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, James Harden had specifically wanted the Rockets to bring aboard the veteran and he’ll pair with prolific reserve Eric Gordon. According to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, Williams and Gordon are the NBA’s top two scorers off the bench and both frontrunners to win this year’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
Should the first-round pick heading to Los Angeles be Houston’s first-round pick in 2017, it could slot in in the late 20s. Per our reverse standings, the Rockets are currently in line to draft 27th.
The move marks Magic Johnson‘s first transaction since taking on the role of President of Basketball Operations for the Lakers.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wow depending on what they give up , adding another 3 pt shooter to the team and he can score off the bench , this will be a solid move for the rockets , let’s see what they are giving up.
Corey Brewer and a first rounder
Did Magic do this? I’m wondering because Jim and Mitch were fired today
Corey brewer and a 1st. not a bad return for Lou Will
If brewer is a free agent at end of year or they release him it’s a decent move. And a rockets first rounder isn’t that big a deal if rockets have good season records . But the lakers need to start somewhere , rockets are more deadly with this deal
The Lakers could turn around and Trade him. Deng to Celtics but doesn’t make Celtics better just Lakers better.
Donut
That damn Daryl Morey strikes again. #REDNATION
That could be a borderline steal for Lou. Nice deal Rockets!
That’s not a steal!!! It’s a win win.. a 1st round pick in this draft with the new CBA is gold.(even at the end of the draft) not to mention brewer could maybe even get the lakers a 2nd round pick.
It’s a complete steal by the Rockets. Accept it.
How is a first round pick in this draft any more valuable than previous drafts? I mean I can see if the argument is for the Designated Player Extension, but any drafted player can technically qualify for that. Rookie salaries scale with the cap, so it’s not like they’re going to be that cheap.
All draft picks are more valuable now because of designated player extension. If you get a star the chances of hanging on to the star is a lot greater. This is a loaded draft. By getting rid of Lou the Lakers give themselves a better chance of keeping this years 1st and 2019’s 1st. Even if they were getting nothing back it is a win if they keep both those picks.
Its a win-win..
Lou is good, Lakers suck.. Good for Lakers for landing a 1st rnd pick for a player they had no leverage in dealing.
Remember Lakers landed Larry Nance around pick 27 in a prior draft. Scouting department has been on point for the purp n gold.
Not good for sixers. Lakers deeper into the tank. Maybe magic will forget the prize and upgrade
give that pick to Dallas to take moz and/or Deng terrible contracts.
Not saying it’s a bad deal but there were 5-6 teams interested in Lou Williams and he’s under contract for only seven million next year. I would have held out until closer to the deadline and try to get a higher pick from another team
Closer to the deadline…. it’s only two days away
They could used that pick and nick young to move up in the draft.
Houston is terrible defensively
Since when did a D’Antoni coached team play defense? lol
The same time they won championsh….oh that’s right…
They are average defensively what are you talking about?
They obviously had Beverly, Ariza, Capela, Harrell, Brewer, and McDaniels, but adding Lou Williams to James Harden, Eric Gordon, and Ryan Anderson, as well as Nene seems scary defensively, and you got rid of a good defender in Brewer. Not saying its a bad trade. Lou Williams is a good get at that price, but I dont see the reason for it. Why not go after someone like PJ Tucker and/or Taj Gibson? Those guys make more sense to me than Lou Williams on this team
D’Antoni hates defense. Its been established. His motto is score 200 points and pray they score less. Look at who he picked. Eric Gordon. Scorer. Not a great defender. Ryan Anderson. Hasn’t played defense since he was in Orlando. James harden. A freak on the offensive end but Litterally has never played defence ever. In his life. Pj Tucker is a defensive guy who can’t score as well as Lou will. Taj is a solid defender but limited on the other end. They don’t care if they give up 150 points a game as long as they score 151
Which is why their offense is able to outscore opponents.
Waiver World Peace now
I like the deal for both teams. The Lakers get a first round pick (even though it’s going to be a low one) and the Rockets get another good basketball player to help them make a run at a championship.
Someone mentioned something earlier that seemed pretty interesting involving Lou and Deng for Rose. I expanded it a little bit. It’s a moot point now, but I wonder if it would have been better for the Lakers if they were able to pull it off, over getting the pick at the end of the 1st round…I think it’s an interesting discussion at least. I copy/pasted my response to that person here. Wondering if anyone could have seen something like that happening/if it seems likethe kind of move we might see moving forward in the new CBA. Contract for contract type of moves…
“Interestingly theoretically decent, but super unlikely. Something like Deng, Mozgov, Lou Williams and Nick Young for Rose, Noah, O’Quinn, and Vujacic?
Opens up cap space for the Lakers, allows Noah to come off the bench for Zubac, and fills needs for the knicks, although they obviously lose that cap space they were hoping for. It’s not like the knicks can really make trades or add free agents with that anyway. This gets them out of Noah, and allows Porzingis to play the 5, with Mozgov coming off the bench. They may have a shot at making a push,and if not, they still have their pick. Obviously they’d have a lot of money tied up, but they’d have a better roster.”
No…
Rose and Noah both suck.. Lets stick with the smart moves and not take on Phils dumb ones.
Rose is a free agent. That’s the cap space I was referring to. And being bad was also part of the incentive, as the lakers are trying to keep their pick.
If this comes though, Morey just fleeced the Lakers. Not only getting rid of Brewer, who’s a bad shooter but to get Lou Williams as well? Nice!
With out of a doubt the Hoston rockets has the best bench in the NBA.
And worst big men.
Why is this a great deal for the Rockets? They get much better right now. They save $2m against cap next year and Williams can net a pick without having to take back salary in the off-season, if they want. A wing with D along with a shot might have been better right now, but this is an absolute steal by Morey.
“James Harden had specifically wanted the Rockets to bring anoard the veteran.” This comment section would look a whole lot different if Lou Williams went to the Cavs and LeBron did the same thing.
True but Harden hasn’t spoken against the team to the media, if anything praises Morey to them, and probably made the suggestion behind the scenes. While Lebron bashes the front office constantly and asks for things like it’s easy. Harden went across this the right way. While I agree Lebron is over criticized, there’s a reason why no one is going against Harden in this comment section.
You need to revisit lebron’s comment on the cavs FO. He didn’t criticize the ownership or FO. That’s something the media concluded and repeated over and over bc it made sense in their minds. James said the team needed a PG.
Much appreciated Magic.
Let me start this with I’m not a maker or a rockers fan.
The Lakers just pulled the vladi. We had different offers but chose this one. I understand this draft class is a good one. But it’s loaded with PGs. From what I’ve heard and seen and,read they are set in Russel and have a lot of faith in him but you get an old Corry brewer and a late 1st for arguably your best player (personal opinion). They could have sent him to Boston for the griz pick and a young guy. The rockets made out like a thief in the night on this deal. D’Antioni hates defense and Lou fits the bill as a volume scorer off the bench to pair with Beverly and have a great offset. I’m not saying this was as bad as the boogie deal but I feel like the Cali teams might be burning a bit too much this deadline.
When have you ever seen the Celtics lose in a trade?? And when have they come off picks? It’s not a bad deal at all. It looks like the lakers were making noise in the media to raise Lou’s value. Even if they got nothing back they win big if they keep their pick this year. Not having Lou on the team strengthens our chances of keeping that pick.
Lakers get worse in the short term a good thing to keep their picks, but better long term as an extra pick is great for a rebuilding team Lou won a lot of games for them this season and this deal improves Nick Youngs value if they were to move him, his play this year is markedly better than under BScott. On both ends good three point shooter had been solid in the locker room even if they keep him it’s a good deal maybe a sweetener with Deng/Moz? 24 games left will Sac or NO make the eighth seed this year?
I really don’t see anyone taking on deng or moz horrible contracts. I’ve been a deng can see he,was leading the league in minutes on the bulls but time has caught up to and it caught up hard. And mozgof? He is the new asik. Crap big with a crap contract.
They could have gotten a better deal. Hands down. A 1st rounder from the number 3 team in the west is not worth that player. Magic said it himself they had better offers. But they didn’t pull the trigger. The Lakers lost in this deal. Just accept it.