Rockets acquire Suns picks, return Nets picks to Brooklyn

They are in the EAST. 0.500 gets them in the playoffs.

 

For James Harden (and i think Eric Gordon) they have acquired.

Tari Eason
Cam Whitmore
3rd pick in draft (hopefully Sheppard)
2027 Nets pick swap
2 future unprotected picks
2 future unprotected pick swaps

*this trade also gives them more flexibility into the future when all of the guys they choose to keep are in their primes.

**they could also trade most of it tomorrow (which would piss me off)

 

First :




A few minutes later :

 

This news just took all of the air out of tomorrows draft.

 

“
Also, just to reiterate, this is NOT about Kevin Durant or making any other veteran star trade this offseason.

It's basically about future optionality. Ideally, the current young core works out, and this deal leads to cheap role players in the contending window.

If it doesn't, the greater VOLUME of FRP assets in years that are further out will probably have you better positioned on the superstar trade market in a year or two.

In short, if you are all in on the current young core and guys like Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green, today was a good day. They are absolutely going to give those guys a chance to take the next step and lead this franchise into a contention window. That is the hope.
“

https://x.com/bendubose/status/1805806928041246795?s=46

 

The Suns will never be as bad as Brooklyn as long as they have Booker, a top 10ish player in the league. They can trade the other guys for, at very least, roleplayers to surround Booker with. Again, you need to have knowledge of owners and front offices, and this is not an organization that will rebuild unless they have no choice.

 

How is any of that a backtrack? None of those tweets contradict or backtrack on the Rockets being intrigued with Durant or wanting to trade for him, he’s simply not available right now for Stone to make that mistake

 

They almost made the play-in this year, despite being a basketcase.
Their owner has deep pockets and they have a lot of future picks (way more now!). They could have marginally improved the next few years and made small strides forward. Probably 45ish wins in the East for the next few years.

They gave us 4 picks/swaps to get 2 picks/swaps back. Good for us, good for them. It now gives them the option of tanking and aiming for a high draft pick in 2025. There was absolutely no guarantee that they would be in the lottery if they were trying to win.

 

But wasn't a similar thing said about the Nets picks when it first went down? Cause Harden was going to a team with Durant and Irving and whilst there was some scepticism around whether that Big 3 would work, I think Phoenix's current Big 3 is worse and will make for pretty good picks by 2027, 2029

 

All I know is they better not try and trade the #3 pick along with the Suns picks back to them for Durant. That would be some major stupid BS.

 

Great trade

Load up on future assets to trade for a potential disgruntled star

Be secure with the players now and hope for a superstar in house.

I'm specifically looking at Morant or Edwards. Long shots but you never know these days which stars demand a trade. Maybe even Giannis

 

Talk about bass ackwards!!

 

It also did for us what our pick swap has just done with the Nets.

Allowed us to tank
Enter Jalen Green
Jabari Smith
Amen Thompson

We don't get those guys without trading Harden.

But I bet the Nets don't feel like they traded those guys to us - they didn't!
(flip that around when considering the trade we just made with the Nets - if they tank, whomever they get we didn't give to them)

 

As intrigued as the Rockets have been about Durant, they're determined to use the Suns picks to be aggressive on deals elsewhere now, sources tell ESPN.

They can like Durant, but like you said, they won't get him this season, and from the sounds of it, they're looking for help now so will look elsewhere. It seems like someone called Woj up after the first tweet and told him to modify things a bit. lol. The tweets were literally 4 minutes apart.

 

2027: Pray for Wembanyama



Oscar Wembanyama

 

This is a much safer bet than the Harden trade. No one could foresee the Nets losing their entire Big 3 of Durant, Harden, and Irving within a couple years or Irving's refusal to get the jab leading to the #17 pick and Tari Eason or Harden forcing his way to Philly in exchange for a broken down Ben Simmons.

With the Suns on the other hand, there's no way this current roster will be intact by 2026-27. Like I said before, there's no guarantee they'll be a bad team that year. But Durant will be gone, Beal will be 33 and broken down even worse than he is now, and even Booker will be 30 heading into that season. I'll roll the dice on their picks in 2027 and 2029.

 

none of that is a backtrack

 

And we can get Yao's kid tomorrow.

 

Dude, shut up. You know your sorry ass'll be here posting draft picks faster than Gollum can call them out at the podium!