Rockets acquire Suns picks, return Nets picks to Brooklyn

Just to be clear, I'm not a fan of this trade. Stone has made mistakes, but for an in versus out analysis (i.e., objective), he's brought in a ton more value in trades than has went out.

 

So important:

"In last month’s version 1.0 of our draft notebook, The Athletic reported the Rockets maintained a strong interest in the Suns’ picks and planned to revisit discussions with the Nets before the draft. Before last season’s trade deadline, the Rockets expressed a desire to add Bridges but not at the price the Nets were asking, team sources said. Houston’s brass trusted two things would happen: a) the Nets would find it difficult to attract a second star, and b) they would realize owning their first-round picks with a murky future would be important.

Per team sources, the Rockets had no prior intel if Bridges forced the Nets’ hand and requested to be sent to the Knicks or not but had always left the door open for renegotiations. Brooklyn couldn’t trade away its franchise centerpiece without having control of its own assets moving forward, which naturally brought Houston back to the table on Tuesday evening."

 

Not sure how that makes sense. Sengun is much younger and neither play defense well.

If you look at ts%, Sengun was 58.5% to Booker's 61.1%. Booker didn't have a ts% Sengun just had at 21 until he resched 23.

Sengun was higher last year in vorp and bpm. Win shares were slightly higher for booker.

I just don't see enough difference in talent to justify anything more than straight up.

Even so, Sengun is 6 years younger and you have to add salary filler to do it that could be used on another player.

Doesn't make sense to me... for picks and lesser young players like Eason or Whitmore maybe.

 

Trade Green, Sengun, 3rd pick for Booker, Sarr, Tre Young.

Young
Booker Cam
Amen
Jabari Eason
Adams Sarr Jock

 

NETS HANDLING OF ASSETS
The Nets wanted a star to put next to Bridges.

Their GM has admitted there wasn't one out there and there wasn't a viable way to improve.

So, the Nets were not guaranteed a top 5 pick next year, but they were not going to be any better than this season.

The 2025 draft is considered very strong and deep at the very top. So a likely top 5 pick in the 2025 draft is very valuable.

As for the NETS, ownership was not likely to let them bottom out in 2025 without their lottery pick.

What the NETS did is pretty amazing, they not only got control of their 2025 and 2026 draft picks back from Houston.

They then turned around and traded a 28 year old elite role player for 4 more unprotected first rounders, a protected first rounder and they will likely trade Bojan Bogdanovich for at least another first rounders.

So now - the Nets can suck and benefit from it, they have an absolute hoard of 1st rounders that are unprotected, they have veterans like Cam Johnson, Bojan Bogdanovich and Nik Claxton to trade.

This is an amazing trade for the Nets.

They ended up trading a 35 year old Kevin Durant for....... 2023 Suns pick, 2025, 2027,2029,2031 unprotected picks from Knicks, 2025 Nets pick, 2025 protected Bucks pick, 2026 knicks pick swap... 2028 pick swap with Suns... 2025 Rockets pick....... Bojan Bogdanovich, which will net them at least another first rounder... and Cam Johnson who should get them at least a #1.

So they ended up getting 7 unprotected first rounders ........ likely three more first rounders with some degree of protection.... 2 pick swaps

That is 10 first rounders and two pick swaps for a 35-year-old Kevin Durant..... and THAT is why having a general manager that is great at asset protection and trades is so important.

Marks went for building a big 3 and Kyrie and Harden and Durant were not able to work........ and look at how amazingly well the Nets have rebounded.

ROCKETS HANDLING OF ASSETS

So the Rockets traded Harden to the Nets, with the hope that the Nets would implode - and that is largely what happened. All three big stars in NJ were traded, and Bridges kept them fairly competitive. The Rockets were able to get three unprotected first rounders from the Nets and 4 pick swaps.

The Rockets used the 2022 pick from the Nets (#17) to get Tari Eason. The Rockets did not use the 2023 pick swap and the 2024 pick from the Nets turned into the #3 pick in the 2024 draft.

The Rockets still had control of the Nets future drafts by having a 2025 pick swap, controlling the 2026 Nets first rounder and a 2027 pick swap.

The Rockets have traded back the Nets control of their draft now.

In exchange the Rockets get the Suns 2025 first rounder, the Suns 2029 first rounder and the right to swap picks for 2027 and 2029.

When you consider that the Nets CLAIM they would not do the Knicks deal without the Rockets deal - Stone simply did not get enough back. He spends all his time trying to create leverage with these stupid smoke screens - and in this case he actually had leverage and did not exploit it like he should have. He should have gotten back some of the draft capital from the Knicks deal.

Instead we have Woj saying the Rockets want a nearing 40 year old KD, and we have Windhorst saying the Rockets are looking to trade Sengun and take Clingan in the draft.

 

I would understand booker for green and the #3 NOT SENGUN FOR DURANT. That would be highway robbery.

 

Im so glad youre not our GM

 

You spent a lot of words saying everything we know. Yes, the Nets put themselves in a good position. But you gave absolutely no reason for why the Rockets aren’t, also, in a great position. They are. They have a core group of six premium prospects, the #3 pick tonight, AND a ton of ammo going forward through 2029. Any one with any sense would laud the Rockets’ turnaround. Those that won’t — like you — are usually predisposed to dislike any more this front office makes. I also have no interest in discussing the ramifications of potential trades discussed by talking heads.

 

He gone

 

Theres no telling how long the Rockets had this nonsense planned out. They may have possibly screwed themselves with all of these bottom of the barrel workouts.

 

This.

The reality is that Stone had a lot of leverage, and he could have gotten back more than he did.

This is part of a pattern with the current front office.

At this point, I just kind of sigh and then accept it. Is it crippling bad? No, it isn't but it isn't what I would call a good return either.

 

I’ve seen cligan being compared to Roy Hibert. That’s a hell no from me on drafting him

 

Stone probably should have but then again, these talks have been going on since Jan as Feigen reported. Ideally how many more picks would you have liked back from the knicks haul? Reportedly the Nets wanted at least 6 FRPs for Bridges

The Suns players; don't think it will happen. All the ARZ beat writers have shut that down

 

You are assuming a few things.

First, the 2025 draft isn't just Cooper Flagg. There is a real chance he doesn't even go first in 2025. There are a number of good prospects at the top of the draft.

Second, you are assuming that the Nets would not have made the Bridges deal without the Rockets deal. I don't believe that at all, Marks knows that the Nets picks were already sunk cost. The Nets were not turning away what will likely end up being 6 first rounders for Bridges. We don't even know if Bridges wanted to stay in NJ.

So, the high likelihood is that the Nets were going to be terrible regardless and they would have been in the top half of the lottery. Beyond that, it's hard to say.

What Stone did is keep the Rockets assets liquidity high so they can try to wait for a star to become available and be in a position to pounce in trade.

The problem I have with the deal is that Stone really should have gotten more.

 

I thought the Rockets were done tanking?

 

WTF??!!!!! I was just kidding!! Look at this crazy sh**!!!

 

I get the sense there is strong underlying strategy and personnel evaluation with this front office (maybe that's all Witus) but execution is consistently weak. Same thing that happened with the Brook Lopez debacle last summer. Can't help but feel Stone gets on these phone calls and gets big boyed by more serious and experienced lead decisionmakers and negotiators.

We spent years setting ourselves up perfectly to have the most leverage in a trade negotiation I can remember since the Kawhi/PG Clippers-OKC trade... and then Stone made a nice, fair deal with the Nets.

It shouldn't have been a nice, fair deal, it should have been a ruthless ransom extraction, because of the structural leverage we had created. We should have ransacked the Nets.

Nobody can't tell me Stone couldn't have agreed this deal, then held it up at the last minute and said "my owner won't let me do it unless I get the 2031 NYK or the best of the 28 PHX/NYK swaps". It's exactly what Ainge did in the original KG-Nets trade.

Is re-trading a deal nice? No. Is it in good faith? No. Were BKN and NYK going to call it off at that point? Hell no. Does Stone have the chutzpah to have done it? I highly highly doubt it. He's not a killer.

 

I for one do not understand this at all. Did we not understand all the implications of this three-way trade? If we are interested in KD, why not just make an offer to the Suns with the Nets picks we possess? We are banking that the Suns picks will be better and they likely will not be.

I am not a Stone basher and I’m certainly not a professional GM, but this seems to be a classic case of overthinking. How are we better off with the Suns picks instead of the Brooklyn picks we traded back to the Nets? Someone explain it to me like I’m a five year-old.

 

Why would the Suns view getting their own picks back more valuable than the rebuilding Nets draft picks?

 

God no. I want nothing to do with Booker or Trae Young. A team with those 2 has a ceiling of like the 4th seed and 1st round exit every year. And that would be the ceiling.