Rockets acquire Suns picks, return Nets picks to Brooklyn

I expect the East to have several teams that take tanking up a notch. Phoenix probably can't get worse (better for Rockets) than the 10th pick without trading Booker.

 

They could make the playoffs via the play-in, but I don't see them cracking the top 6 in the West. The Spurs have a tough schedule coming up and the T'Wolves are having major issues. But who in the top 6 will collapse?

The Rockets absolutely could wind up with a lottery pick from Phoenix as soon as next summer. And those additional swaps are looking even better now. The only downside is that the 2025 pick(barring a lucky ping pong ball bounce) won't be in the Top 10. There are just too many awful teams in the league that are all but guaranteed to finish with worse records than the Suns.

 

They might be able to drop to 9 (I think pistons won’t try to tank). With some lottery luck, the Rockets could end up with a pick in the 5-7 range. If that happens, then I think the Suns blow it up and could trade Booker to Houston.

 

If the Suns don't make the playoffs and we get lucky with the lottery, the Suns will beg us to trade the pick back to them.

 

What is the upside for this team?

 

The upside isn’t much. The Brooklyn pick will be better this year, but I am liking the trade more and more.

 

We must keep reminding ourselves that BKN would be mediocre and possibly 6- 8th seed if we didn't switch their picks for the PHX ones.

They had enough talent to be a bottom end playoff team. They blew it up once they knew they could get the picks back. So the PHX pick looks like being exactly where the BKN pick would otherwise have been anyway...

Plus the extras and future potential. Win!


**I'll LOL so hard if the PHX pick is in the lotto, and somehow becomes a top 4 pick. BKN basically giving us back to back top 5s

 

I understand your point of view. I still stand by the concept that they would’ve made the trade regardless. I think that it was too good to pass up.

No matter what though we just don’t really have space in our rotation for another rookie, and who really knows which one of these guys coming out will be “generational”.

I was hoping that either Phoenix or Cleveland would come out of the gate and be complete trash, forcing them to trade one of those guards before 2025 deadline. That being said, I still think there’s a decent probability that green or Whitmore end up being an All-Star shooting guard so I love where we are at.

 

Suns and Nets are currently 11th in their respective conferences.

if they drop to nine how do we get a pick from 5 to 7. It would either be top 3 or 9 or worse.

 

New-ish lottery rules allow teams to move up to 4 or 5. This has been in effect for a few years now.

 

*Top 4

 

Can they move up to 5?

 

If the pist

My mistake. I think it’s four. So they would have to be top four or nine

 

The Hawks just won the lottery and were projected to be like #12 overall.

 

With how bad the East has been the Nets would make the play in in the East if they kept Mikal Bridges with Dennis S.

The main goal of the PHX trade was to kick the can down the road as we have too many young guys on the roster right now. To get a lotto pick next year is just luck and Stone's genius converging. I remember a lot of posters here insulting Stone and talking **** about the trade at the time. As he has shown time and time again Stone is one of the best GMs in the league the people criticizing him just lack his vision and foresight.

 

Still couldn’t get to 5-7 like the guy said if they finished ninth. If Phoenix is in the lottery, I think they bite on our offer for Booker. Even a long shot at Flagg is tempting. They are so cooked with their cap situation. I don’t believe their front office. Booker to us and then they turn around and unload Durant to somebody for a pick or two. They are stuck with Beal, but that would be a ton of picks and cap room if the trade of Durant and Booker were for expirings. Phoenix is a preferred location as well. The next 2 draft classes are supposed to be special. They could probably rebuild as fast as we did.

 

When I posted I thought so, but I now realize it caps at 4.

 

Yeah, i don't understand the love for Booker on here this specific season, he is having his worst season in like 7 seasons. I also do not understand why Booker is looked at as the guy that will make us a contender in a couple of years when we try to get him, he would be 30 years old by then. He would make the team better, but I am not sure we would be an instant contender with him either.

 

Nah getting 5 low frps from Knicks isnt worth giving us a top 3 pick for the next 4 yrs.

Like sure 5 frps are an overpay for Mikal Bridges, but 5 low frps wont put them in a good situation to rebuild either. Meanwhile they are gonna get mockef by the entire league every time they give us a top 5 lotto pick? They wont do that to themselves.

 

The Pistons and Washington don't have their picks in 25. So no tanking for a higher second round pick.