Plenty of teams have bad contracts they want to get out of. At worst KPJ is an expiring, at best the NBA concludes their investigation and voids his contract this season (from what I have read). If the Rockets also attach draft capital this is a great asset for some teams. KPJ gets waived either way so it doesn't really matter. Rockets have no obligation to immediately cut him for the sake of moral points. EDIT: I did read someone in another thread comparing it to Josh Primo and him getting immediately cut. Yeah, I'm inclined to agree its not the best look for the Rockets, but at the same time trading him guarantees he's off our books now versus however long the NBA takes to void his contract (not guaranteed -- NBA has a horrible track record for punishing domestic violence) and we get a rotation player with a worst contract out of it if someone bites. In any scenario he likely never plays in the NBA again.
Yeah that's the thing. If it's not a longer contract then they're not doing it unless you're throwing in substantial firsts. Anyone who thinks we can get a good player on an expiring contract for trash picks is out of their minds.
Its one year at 16 mil of dead money, that doesn’t require multiple firsts. If okc offered bertans for kpj, that would be ludicrous. Kpj’s contract is much better.
If all you're giving up is an expiring and a crappy pick, there's no way you're getting a good player on a good contract back. Protected or late picks just aren't worth that much anymore. You have to be realistic with the return. Every team knows that KPJ is just trash we're trying to dump, they're not gonna negotiate in good faith. I swear some of you act like all the other teams are just dying to make stupid trades to help the Rockets out.
There’s no need to trade him. He was a crappy player who was worth nothing in a trade before this happened. His value is unchanged. It’s a one year 16 mil contract, nothing more nothing less, same as it was a month ago. Nobody was gonna give up anything for him at any point, unless it was a longer contract a team wanted to dump. Literally nothing changed
There should be a good trade available in the Penal League. Too bad Ted Kaczynski died as he'd be able to bomb from long distance.
This is it. Three way deal, we add two firsts to Atl’s bid for Siakim, whatever their package is, and get Bogdanovic for Houston.
I will give you all the dollars if KPJ is traded to another team. You've got to be ****ing kidding me, right?
You can give me all the dollars if you want but I never said I expect him to be traded, I just don't think it's a 0% chance and don't think Shams reports something that has a 0% chance of happening. If a team (including the rockets) think they can get something out of all this, they will. They won't care about the PR. Silver will care more about the optics of it then the teams will. Sports teams have proven time and time again that they put winning and/or money over all things and usually winning goes hand in hand with profit any way because look who usually owns these teams. Cold hearted businessmen. There is more of a chance that Silver disqualifies KPJ from the league before the Rockets can do anything about this but one thing I think people are missing in all of this is that I doubt the Rockets will do anything without the leagues consent. The statements from both the league and the Rockets make that clear. Rockets might be hoping Silver voids the contract or something, who knows, or its like what some are saying they aren't allowed to waive him while the NBA investigates. I will say, this situation happened before, in 2017, and the Pistons actually DID trade a player under investigation for domestic abuse. He only did get a 6 day suspension, but the Pistons traded him and 2nd round picks for Jameer Nelson and the Bulls immediately waived him. You had other players too like Collison and Artest (who spent jail time for domestic violence while in the NBA) who just returned to the NBA after their suspensions. Then of course Miles Bridges 30 day suspension so far is the longest one for domestic violence in the NBA and he's scheduled to return to the Hornets... So a team actually has done this exact scenario of using a player's contract for a bigger trade and then just waived the player after. I know people won't want to hear this, but for me, it's at least a good sign that the Rockets are trying to trade him. It means no matter what Silver does they are done with him and moving on. At least I hope that's what it means. I do think (and hope) Silver just bans him from the league but I feel with each passing day that they don't bring down the hammer they'll just give him a longer suspension than Bridges and call it a day. It's actually troubling how many athletes get slaps on the wrist for this. If the NBA does do that at least it looks like the Rockets are moving on from him.
Much like Trevor Bauer (and now Julio Urias) in MLB...KPJ will never play in the NBA again. If he ever does...the NBA has serious issues and it will be destroyed publicly for it. eta: I don't understand this "trade" stuff...the guy is radioactively toxic, "trade him" for what? To who? For why? And when?
I don't believe there would be a PR hit for a team cleaning up their cap or getting an asset for a player not in their plans and immediately waiving the incoming player. We're talking about a potential contract just shy of $20m ($19,925,000). That could be critical for a teams future success. Who cares which franchise waives the clown.
