ESPN: Rockets talking trade-up with Kings, Raptors -- targeting Dwight or Drummond?

Sources: Rockets talking draft trades w/ Kings & Raptors. Is Drummond the target?

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/46492/rockets-set-sights-on-moving-up-in-draft

By Chad Ford and Marc Stein

For the last several years, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has been trying to package assets together to make a big deal on draft night. The 2012 draft is no different.

Sources say that Houston has discussed deals with several teams in the top 10 about moving up in the draft. And the Rockets might have found two willing partners.

Although sources stressed that no deal is imminent, Sacramento (No. 5) and Toronto (No. 8 ) have let Houston know that their top-10 selections are available. Sources say that the Rockets, in turn, have made both of their first-round picks available (No. 14 and No. 16), but the key to any trade going through could be point guard Kyle Lowry.

The Raptors have been especially fond of Lowry, who has been regarded for months as a borderline untouchable in Houston but more recently has publicly expressed his disastisfaction with Rockets coach Kevin McHale. Whether the Rockets are indeed prepared to part with Lowry, as talks with the Kings, Raptors and other teams continue, figures to be one of the bigger stories of draft week.

What’s clear from the Rockets’ end, sources say, is the player they’re fondest of in the upper reaches of the draft: UConn big man Andre Drummond. Many scouts believe Drummond has the second highest upside of any player in the draft behind consensus No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis, but the 7-foot, 279-pounder would almost certainly still be available at No. 5.

Drummond, as the second youngest player in the draft at 18, registered an impressive 7-foot-6 wingspan at the NBA Draft Combine earlier this month. Personnel experts regard him as an elite athlete and shot-blocker who moves laterally especially well. But Drummond’s inconsistent play as a freshman, combined with questions about his passion for the game, have caused his draft stock to take a slight hit in recent weeks.

The tipoff that the Kings are likely to deal the No. 5 pick between now and Thursday night, sources say, is the handful of players they’ve brought in that are expected to be drafted in the middle of the first round. Sources say two of those players in particular – North Carolina’s John Henson and St. John’s Moe Harkless – are high on the Kings’ draft board.

Henson has already worked out for the Kings and Harkless is scheduled to work out on Monday. Sacramento has also tried to get several other candidates for the middle of the first round, including UConn’s Jeremy Lamb and Washington’s Terrence Ross, into town for 11th-hour workouts.

 

[Chad Ford] Rockets in talks with Portland and Blazers for higher pick.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Sources: Rockets talking draft trades w/ Kings &amp; Raptors. Is Drummond the target? (via @<a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine">ESPNSteinLine</a> &amp; I) <a href="http://t.co/MJenCuYz" title="http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/46492/rockets-set-sights-on-moving-up-in-draft">espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/…</a> (free)</p>&mdash; Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadfordinsider/status/217086473944571906" data-datetime="2012-06-25T02:47:03+00:00">June 25, 2012</a></blockquote>
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I'm sure Morey has been in touch with every GM and their mothers about moving up, but I'd figure I shared. I'd be ecstatic if Morey pulled off Drummond. We need a guy on the roster who has star potential.

 

I'm an idiot. You can lock this.

 

Rockets looking to deal with Kings or Raps?

Sources: Rockets talking draft trades w/ Kings & Raptors. Is Drummond the target? (via @ESPNSteinLine & I) espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/…

 

Drummond? Jopatmc faints.

 

Get Andre the giant Morey!!

 

Drummond is certainly a swing for the fences type pick.

Would be tough to part with the sure thing that is Lowry, but if we can resign Dragic I'm all for rolling the dice on Drummond.

 

Well, #5 and #10 here we come!!!

Yeeeeeee-haaaawwwwwww!!!!!!:grin::grin:

 

I'd be down with swinging the fences for Drummond. Hopefully it wouldn't take Lowry and both draft picks though.

 

Portland AND Blazers?!

 

Cousins for the 16 coming true?

 

Now that our intentions have leaked you just know Portland will find a way to sweep in and steal him from us ala Brandon Roy

 

Wow!!! We want picks from the Portland Trailblazers and the Blazers Portlands???!!!!!

 

Rockets want Drummond to flip him for Dwight. Book it.

 

Wow. I meant to say Raptors and Blazers. My mind is somewhere else tonight.

 

With Drummond you get the next Dwight Howard..or the next Dalembert. Sign me up, Andre will makes the Rockets relavent agian.

 

I'd be down with that too.

 

So true.

 

We need to swing for the fences. What I wonder about is what we would have to take back from the Kings to make the salaries work. I don't suppose Chuck could get thrown in there, could he? Bad contracts are more likely.