Rockets acquire KJ McDaniels for Isaiah Canaan, second round pick

Not that hard on a team as ****ty as the Sixers. Hell, even AB was a 20/5 player on the Rockets.

 

Bill Simmons and Tom Haberstroh on Philly trading KJMcD:

BS: I didn't understand the KJ McDaniels trade. They kinda gave him away. He has a chance to be something. Seems they're rolling over future assets for even further future assets.

BS: Why would Philly give him up?

TH: That was a big surprise. If anyone watched him this season, he's a revelation. He's an elite shot-blocker at the 2 guard. What I'm hearing is they had no intention of matching his salary this summer. They felt we need to get something back but then again, I would expect a larger haul. Look at what he'll do in Houston, uptempo offense, shot blocking with Smith and Howard. It will be a terror to go against them.

BS: First of all, why the **** would they not want to pay McDaniels? What the **** is going on here? They're not gonna be good for 5 years anyways. We'll be watching the playoffs and he's gonna have an awesome game on TNT. He'll come out and block 3 shots, get 10 rebounds in 15 minutes and dunk on someone and Barkley and Kenny and those guys will be saying OMG KJ McDaniels, I can't believe what I just saw! That's gonna happen and people will ask how did they get him and they won't understand how they got him for what they gave up.

TH: I can see that happening. It's weird because him and Daryl are boys. If anyone who understands McDaniels, it's Hinkie. I do think the contract, I'm guessing his agent told Hinkie we're out, we're done. I don't care what happens. We'll make a stink and you can match but we'll make a stink and I'll hurt you with my other clients if you do that. This might have been a point where Hinkie said, I'll rid myself of this headache later. It's gotten past the point of return. They gave him to a title contender and totally see what you're saying. He'll be owning the NBA news cycle for at least 24 hours.

BS: He'll have one twitter night. My Grantland staff makes fun of me for how much I love McDaniels. I threw the Scottie Pippen name out and thought it was funny. He's in the general universe of Pippen. Slight DNA pieces I see.

TH: Not to throw cold water on your fantasy but he has a 10 PER. He's not that skilled, just a freak athlete. Career standpoint, he may be closer to Scottie Brooks than Scottie Pippen. Excitement standpoint, closer to Pippen. It's a weird move to do now.

BS: Especially when you're a crappy team. I know a few Sixers fans who have had it with Hinkie. When you operate this way, you get to keep your job for as long as possible. You can't get fired when you're rolling over assets if you don't know if they're good or not.

TH: When you hear other GMs mock Hinkie, a lot of it is jealousy. Think of the job security that you have to have to do what Hinkie is doing. You need full buy in from ownership for at least 5 years. Only a handful of GMs who have the job security of Hinkie. I agree, he's alienated some Philly fans but if Embiid is amazing, we'll all forget about this and they go into building mode instead of asset collecting mode. Multiple ways you can go about it. You can go Atlanta or Houston way and tread water for a few years and then suddenly be title contenders or go the Pelicans route(Anthony Davis). Hinkie is hoping Embiid or Okafor, by the way they get the Lakers pick, so they have a good shot getting a franchise cornerstone and we might be laughing at this conversation we're having now.

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Bill Simmons and Haralabos Voulgaris


BS: I hated the KJ McDaniels trade. I think he has a lot of potential. I didn't understand why they did that.

HV: I didn't like that one either. I think the deal is he is a RFA. I feel like they felt like they wouldn't match what a team would offer. There is a little collusiveness to that trade where it was a trade between Houston and Philadelphia, because of that, that was part of the reason. The PG they picked up can play.

BS: I like him too but I love KJ McDaniels. And it's hard for me to believe they'd have an issue paying him.

HV: What do you think he'll get on the open market?

BS: Isn't he better rolling it over and being unrestricted in 2016?

HV: That's true. I don't know the real motivation behind that trade. Good pickup for Houston. Not a real fan of the Pablo pickup. 37-year old PG, he seems smart but doesn't have it. He passes up open shots like it's his job.

BS: Certain guys are better with better teammates. It's a point people don't consider sometimes. This is why I like the Dragic trade for Miami. He's good on that team with those teammates and that coach. ... Certain trades, like Kanter, I see the fit in OKC. Do I trust Brooks and that offense to use him correctly? We forget the right coach or right teammates, it really does matter.

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BS: You look at someone like James Harden, who 20 years ago, would have had this whole career where he didn't try on defense and wasn't in great shape and he took so much **** last season...

HV: Rightfully so.

BS: Rightfully so but now you watch him, he's in shape and plays defense and is one of the best players in the league. He's probably gonna win the MVP the way we're going. I think a lot of that happened because of the criticism last year. Now days, you can see the criticism. You can avoid the paper, none of them avoid their twitter feeds.

HV: You can't escape a bad performance now days. Everything is record, every game is televised and scrutiny level is high. ... ...

 

Wow. Wow!

I still can't believe the Suns traded the Lakers pick. Good lord, that was stupid.

 

Can someone explain to me why the FO gave up the nuggets pick 38th overall for a rental in Pablo?

 

hankie got morey for 2 seconds & cannan for SHEVD & KJ "expiring"

KJ ceiling is shumpert next 2 yrs, and shumpert has been on the block since last yr, a few seconds would've got him here easily. on cavs now

houston in - SHEVD + KJ
76ers in - cannan + 2nd + 2nd

 

IDK we gave up a 2nd to get SHEVD if you wanna look at it we basically gave up like 4 seconds for PABLO

 

We got an old PG who can potentially help the team this year and a super athletic kid that plays great defense who has a high upside for a D league quality PG and 2 second round picks....that's pretty awesome.

 

Not enough is being made of how McDaniels is a gym rat. Lots of guys have good work ethics but to have a good work ethic AND to be an elite athlete AND being a long defender I think makes his ceiling much higher. If McDaniels doesn't turn into at least a valuable role player then I think that's on the Rockets staff for failing at player development. There is no reason this kid can't become an Ariza/Brewer type at worst or a Paul George/Jimmy Butler type at best.

 

That Nuggets pick went to Philly in the McDaniels trade.

The Rockets sent their own second rounders in 2017 and 2019 to New York for Prigioni (and the ability to dump Shved's no-longer-necessary larger salary).

 

Didn't the Rockets use a 2nd rounder to obtain Shved? I know the idea was at the time to use his salary combined with another player to match for trades, but now the Rockets ended up using 3 2nd round picks on Prigs. Pricey!

Glad the Rockets were able to keep the NYK 2nd rounder. That pick, plus the NOP pick could yield some nice results.

 

Ah ok this makes more sense. FO must really like KJ's Potential then. Essentially they gave up two high second round picks (nugget's pick/canaan) for him. Thanks Bima

Btw I can't wait to watch Canann play for the 6ers now that he is their starting PG according to Hinkie.

 

You shouldn't look at it as trading 3 second rounders for Prigioni. They really were two completely separate deals.

The Rockets traded their own 2015 second rounder for Shved's contract in order to facilitate a significant deadline deal. Sadly, that didn't work out, so the Rockets had to move on. They had little/no interest in keeping/playing Shved beyond last week.

So, they found a player who (a) was more useful to the team this and maybe next year (more of a true PG, good 3-pt shooter, etc.); (b) had a largely non-guaranteed contract for next season (which could potentially facilitate offseason trades); and (c) made less than Shved and could give the Rockets some breathing room under the luxury tax. In order to get this player/cut this salary, they gave up their own second rounders in 2017 and 2019.

Completely separate moves. Looking at it otherwise is both inaccurate and unhealthy.

I look at the McDaniels trade in much the same way I viewed Morey's trade for Terrence Williams several years ago. Both moves involved meaningful draft assets being moved for a young player oozing with potential but whose team (for whatever reasons) did not view that player as part of its future. The biggest difference here is that the Rockets didn't have to give up a future first rounder for McDaniels (driven both by perceived talent level and contract status).

 

What is McDaniels' full name? Does "K.J." stand for something or is his full name just "K.J."?

I searched for it via Google and found nothing. Is "K.J. McDaniels" even his real name? This is getting mysterious.

 

KJ stands for Kris Jenner..

Kris Jenner McDaniels

 

Kevin McDaniels, Jr.

 

he was a good scorer

 

Do we have KJ's bird rights?

 

McHale strike again. He loves his fellow Kevins, except for Martin.