- Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has the details on a couple trades that went down on draft night, reporting that the Rockets bought the No. 52 overall pick from the Jazz for $1.5MM and the Trail Blazers sent the Kings $1.5MM in their deal for Gary Trent Jr.‘s draft rights (Twitter links).
- Per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey said the team wasn’t really close to making a deal to move up in last week’s NBA Draft, but that there was an opportunity to move into the No. 20 to No. 25 range.
The Rockets are still “all in” on the idea of pursuing LeBron James this summer, a person with knowledge of the situation tells Sam Amick of USA Today. Amick suggests Houston may be a long shot for James, but makes it clear that the team hasn’t given up on the idea by any means.
The Lakers and Cavaliers have increasingly been cited as the most likely landing spots for James, with at least one report suggesting that Houston might not be a great fit for LeBron from a family perspective. For his part, the four-time MVP has been mum on his decision, so it remains unclear which teams have a realistic shot to land him.
[RELATED: LeBron James Not Interested In Elaborate Recruiting Pitches]
From an on-court perspective, the Rockets make a lot of sense as a potential LeBron destination. His good friend Chris Paul is considered very likely to re-sign in Houston, and the team came within one win of knocking off the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Additionally, GM Daryl Morey is known for trying to find creative ways to acquire any star he can, as he did a year ago with CP3.
However, it wouldn’t be easy for the Rockets to land James. If LeBron exercises his player option for 2018/19, a trade to Houston is a possibility. If he turns down that option though, the Rockets won’t have the cap space to sign him outright, and landing him a sign-and-trade would only be plausible if team salary remains below the tax apron all year long, which would be extremely tricky for a club that wants to re-sign Paul and Clint Capela.
June 29 will be the next date to watch for James — that’s the deadline for him to pick up or decline his option.
The NBA draft took place last Thursday night, with free agency set to open this coming Sunday. However, a proposal put forth by the Rockets to the league’s competition committee in April suggests that the NBA should consider flipping those two big events on its offseason calendar in the future.
As Zach Lowe of ESPN.com details, the idea of having free agency open before the draft takes place – which the NFL already does – has the support of a number of executives around the NBA, including several prominent general managers. However, it had never been formally put on the table until the Rockets proposed it this spring.
“As a staff, we have been kicking this around for a couple of summers now,” said Rockets executive VP of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, who presented the idea to the league’s competition committee. “Is there a better way?”
Lowe’s piece, which is worth checking out in full, lays out a handful of reasons why it might make sense to flip the order of free agency and the draft. For one, teams could be better positioned to address positional needs in free agency and then draft the best player available.
A new-look calendar also might help stimulate trade activity during the draft — under the current system, clubs are often hesitant to complete deals in June that compromise their cap outlook prior to the start of free agency.
Additionally, under the current format, teams that miss out on top free agent targets often panic and give big contracts to lesser players in order to use their cap space. If the draft took place after free agency, teams who don’t sign their top targets could preserve cap room for potential draft-night trades.
According to Lowe, it’s not clear exactly what Houston’s proposal looks like. It may involve opening free agency in late June, with a draft around July 10 and the start of Summer League about a week after that. Lowe suggests that people around the NBA are worried about pushing events back into August, which is typically a quiet period on the league’s calendar — however, he notes that the Rockets’ proposal addresses that issue by including a two-week window in late August and early September in which no team would be allowed to complete any transactions. In other words, execs would still get a little vacation time.
While it’s unlikely that the NBA will make any significant changes to its offseason calendar anytime soon, Houston’s proposal is one worth keeping an eye on in the long term.
Rockets guard James Harden was named the league’s Most Valuable Player during the NBA’s second annual awards show.
Harden topped the Cavaliers’ LeBron James and the Pelicans’ Anthony Davis for the league’s most coveted individual award. Harden finished second in the voting last season to the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook.
Harden led the league in scoring at 30.4 PPG. He was fourth in assists (8.8) and second in 3-pointers made per game (3.7) while also finishing in the top 10 in steals (1.8). Houston’s regular-season success, with its league-best 65-17 record, played a role in Harden’s victory.
The Cavaliers needed James’ Herculean efforts just to finish fourth in the East. He averaged 27.5 PPG, 8.6 RPG and 9.1 APG while appearing in all 82 contests.
Davis led the Pelicans to the playoffs, and a first-round knockout of the Trail Blazers, despite DeMarcus Cousins‘ season-ending Achilles injury. He posted averages of 28.1 PPG, 11.1 RPG and 2.6 BPG.
Here are the other awards announced on Monday night:
- Rookie of the Year: Ben Simmons, Sixers
- Coach of the Year: Dwane Casey, Raptors
- Sixth Man of the Year: Lou Williams, Clippers
- Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert, Jazz
- Most Improved Player: Victor Oladipo, Pacers
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Lou Williams career year earned him the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award, it was announced at the NBA’s annual awards show. The 31-year-old Clippers guard easily beat out the other finalists, the Rockets’ Eric Gordon and the Raptors’ Fred VanVleet.
Williams had always provided instant offense off the bench during his career but he turned it a couple of notches this past season. He easily surpassed his previous scoring standards by averaging 22.6 PPG while dishing out 5.3 APG, another career best. Williams shot 43.5% from the field and 35.9% on 3-point attempts in 79 games in 19 career starts.
Williams scored 30 or more points in 17 games and blew up for a career-best 50 points against the Warriors on January 10th. Gordon won the award in 2017 while Williams was one of the finalists.
Pacers guard Victor Oladipo was named the league’s Most Improved Player award, it was announced during the NBA’s annual awards broadcast.
He beat out Rockets center Clint Capela and Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, as expected. Oladipo blossomed into a star after getting dealt by the Thunder in the Paul George blockbuster.
Oladipo averaged 23.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG and 5.2 APG while leading the Pacers to the playoffs, where they pushed the Cavaliers to the brink before succumbing in seven games. He also shot a career-best 47.7% from the field and 37.1% from 3-point range.
Oladipo had never averaged more than 17.9 PPG in his previous four seasons.
There’s a “strong sense in Rockets circles” that Chris Paul isn’t go anywhere this offseason as a free agent, writes Sam Amick of USA Today. While a recent report from Chris Broussard of Fox Sports hinted at possible tension between Paul and the Rockets, Amick spoke to two sources with knowledge of the situation who disputed the idea that there’s any friction there.
Broussard’s report suggested that there might be a disparity between what sort of free agent contract Paul expected when he accommodated a trade to Houston last summer and what the Rockets are willing to offer now. According to Amick, there was indeed a “mutual understanding” in 2017 of what Paul’s next contract would look like, and it’s not clear if a five-year, maximum-salary agreement will be on the table. However, it seems likely that the two sides will reach an agreement, per Amick.
University of Houston guard Rob Gray will play for the Rockets’ summer league team and apparently has a training-camp invite, according to Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle.
Gray revealed the agreement in a text to Duarte.
“I will be playing summer league/training camp with them trying to earn a roster spot for the upcoming season,” Gray said.
Gray did not get drafted despite being a prolific scorer the past two seasons. He averaged 19.3 PPG, 4.4 APG and 3.7 RPG in his senior year while leading Houston to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where it lost on a buzzer-beater to eventually national championship runner-up Michigan. Gray averaged 31.0 PPG and 9.0 RPG in those tournament games.
The 6’1” Gray shot 35.9% from long range last season after making 38.2% of his 3-point attempts as a junior, when he averaged 20.3 PPG.
Chris Paul is considered unlikely to leave the Rockets in free agency this summer, but an agreement between the two sides may not be a done deal quite yet. According to Chris Broussard of Fox Sports (video link), there might be a little “tension” between Paul and the Rockets.
As Broussard explains, it’s widely believed that there was a mutual understanding between Paul and the Rockets last summer that the team would give him a long-term, maximum-salary contract in 2018 after he passed up on free agency in 2017 to accommodate a trade to Houston. Now, it’s not clear if the Rockets will be willing to invest on a four- or five-year max deal for CP3.
The Rockets’ new ownership could play a role in the situation too, according to Broussard, who notes that Tilman Fertitta bought the franchise from Leslie Alexander after the team acquired Paul last summer. If Houston doesn’t put a long-term max offer on the table for Paul, the club could point to that ownership change as one reason why, Broussard suggests.
While it’s possible that the Rockets and Paul may not be on entirely the same page when it comes to his next contract, I’d be surprised if the two sides don’t get there within the next week or two. After all, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported just a few days ago that Paul was expected to return to Houston and was focusing more on LeBron James‘ free agency than his own.
The situation is somewhat reminiscent of Jrue Holiday‘s and Kyle Lowry‘s free agencies last year. In those cases, neither star point guard got a true maximum-salary contract, but they both got massive near-max deals from their previous teams, who had the ability to offer them more years and higher raises than any rival suitor. I’d anticipate a similar arrangement for Paul and the Rockets.