Southwest Notes: Rockets Sale, Grizzlies, Smith Jr.

The sale of the Rockets to a Texas billionaire will impact the entire NBA landscape, Kevin Pelton of ESPN (Insider) writes. The $2.2B price point, $550MM more than Forbes’ 2017 projection, may encourage other team owners to start exploring the idea of cashing out.

Until outgoing Rockets owner Les Alexander announced he’d be selling, team owners had, for the most part, been standing pat on their investments, letting their franchises slowly appreciate over time. When the Clippers sold under duress for a record-breaking $2B, the public got its first glimpse of just how valuable the teams have begun.

As Pelton writes, the fact that the Rockets, a team projected to be the eighth most valuable in the league, sold for over $2B could mean that the average price of an NBA franchise is now close to $1.5B.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

• Ownership of the Rockets will be transferred to Tilman Fertitta but what does that entail? Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle broke down the next steps in the process, including the $1MM application fee Fertitta will have to pay to cover all the administrative costs associated with the sale of an NBA franchise.
• The Grizzlies will be a team in transition, Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes. With Zach Randolph and Vince Carter now members of the Kings, the Grind House era could be coming to a close. Powell wonders if Memphis would look to shop Marc Gasol at the deadline if the team gets off to a rough start.
• Fear not, world, Tilman Fertitta has said that he’d be happy to have Beyoncé join his team in Houston, Alysha Tsuji of USA Today writes. The singer had previously been said to have had an interest in purchasing the Rockets.
• Just how well Dennis Smith Jr., widely regarded as a darkhorse candidate to win the Rookie of the Year award, fares in his first NBA season could determine how the Mavs transition into the post- Dirk Nowtizki era, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes.