My Dream Houston Rockets Deadline Moves

The Houston Rockets head into the All-Star break at 36-17 and tied for 4^th place in the West.  The Rockets have survived Terrence Jones missing 43 games and Dwight Howard missing 21 games and counting.  Primarily due to James Harden’s MVP leading candidate type season with additional help from the improved bench after the Corey Brewer and Josh Smith trades, the Rockets are hanging in with the best teams in the West in the standings.

However, the Rockets are struggling somewhat to beat the best teams in the West head up, going 0-4 against the Warriors, 0-2 against the Clippers and 1-1 against the Blazers and Spurs.   Their lack of a second player that can create for others as well as himself, beyond Harden, has been noted and mentioned in several articles previously here at House of Houston as well as concerns with Howard’s knee and Patrick Beverley’s recent slump.

So with the trade deadline looming on Feb. 19, here are my dream Rockets deadline moves.

Trade – Houston Rockets send 2015 1^st (acquired from Pelicans), Clint Capela & Jason Terry to Phoenix Suns for Goran Dragic

Feb 6, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Phoenix Suns guard

(1) goes up for a layup against the Utah Jazz during the first half at US Airways Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

A few days ago, even a few months ago, this would have sounded like too little to pry Goran Dragic away from the Suns.  But recent reports have the Suns looking for a 1^st round pick for Dragic as he has made his intentions clear to test the market as well as comments of being dissatisfied with the Suns small-ball style.  The Rockets have one of the best draft picks available given that typically most teams in the lottery are normally looking much farther to the future.

Including Clint Capela, sweetens the deal to trump likely any other offer of a team’s early 2015 picks as it is essentially 2 first round picks.

While I must admit Jason Terry has provided more to this team than I imagined he would, the simple fact is he must be included in this team to make it happen financially.  His role on this team, other than his veteran presence in the locker room and on the bench becomes completely expendable with the addition of Dragic.

Alexey Shved is the other contract of reasonable size that could be used for salary matching purposes, his contract alone is not enough and would require the Rockets to dig deeper into the roster and at some point it becomes a number of bodies issue trying to do a 4-for-1 deal at this time of year.

For the Rockets, it’s huge to obtain Dragic now versus waiting for the off season.  It solves the Rockets biggest issue on offense in terms of play-making and it puts Dragic back at the correct position.

Although Dragic is a free agent at year’s end it may seem to some too much to give for a “rental,” doing this now gives the Rockets the inside track on re-signing him as they would obtain his Bird rights which would allow them to go as high or higher than any other team to re-sign him without the need to get under the salary cap to do so.

From the Rockets standpoint, it’s a no-brainer.

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Second move….

Trade – Houston Rockets send Kostas Papanikolaou and 2015 2^nd round pick (belonging to Denver, acquired from Portland) to Utah Jazz for Enes Kanter

Jan 2, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz center

(0) shoots a jump shot against the Atlanta Hawks during the first quarter at EnergySolutions Arena. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports

Kostas Papanikolaou has played well in spots this season has some shown some promise of potentially being a rotational player off the bench.  However, for the Rockets Papa’s role has declined tremendously with the additions of Brewer and Smith.

There is plenty of reason to believe that Brewer and Smith will be back with the Rockets next year as well, with Brewer having one more year on his contract and Smith recently having expressed great comfort with this team and this organization and an interest in resigning.  With the money Detroit is still paying Smith, his next contract is likely be a much more reasonable match to his ability.

But for a young team like the Jazz, Papanikolaou could have a role in the future and draft picks are always welcome for a team that is still building for a player, like Kanter, they are slated to lose at year end anyway.

Once again, at one time Enes Kanter would have been difficult to get the the Utah Jazz to trade.  Kanter was seen as a young future starting quality center has fallen out of favor in Utah, replaced by Rudy Gobert.

Things have soured to the point he recently left the team and expressed his desire to be traded.  Kanter is also a restricted free agent at the end of the year but he is not without ability.

Kanter is a 6’11” 245-pound center and has started to step out to the 3-point line this season with his shot, shooting a respectable 31 percent from behind-the-arc for a man his size.

With Howard’s injury, Kanter would be a solid fit to add some size to the front line and a guy that can play the way the Rockets want, stepping out to the perimeter.

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