Houston Rockets Trade Rumors: Team Interested In Kosta Koufos

The Houston Rockets are just a little over two weeks past the red-letter date of Dec. 15.

The Houston Rockets are just a little over two weeks past the red-letter date of Dec. 15.

What is that date you may ask?

The date that NBA teams are able to start making trades between one another.

As we know, for the most part, nothing interesting usually happens until right at the trade deadline.

What’s the deadline for this season?

Thank you for asking!

For the 2016-17 season, the NBA trade deadline will be Thursday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. CST.

That’s a lot of time between now/then and I’m sure there will be some happenings going on.

Now keep in mind that it may be slightly muted this season because of the ridiculous amount of movement that occurred in free agency this past summer.

This was because of the NBA’s unwavering popularity and their escalating salary cap.

A lot of players signed long-term deals making them harder to move but there are some how are still on palatable contracts that were signed before the league received their huge windfall of cash.

There is even one player that’s connected with the Houston Rockets.

Who am I talking about?

I’m talking about Kosta Koufos.

According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Rockets are interested in the big man’s services:

Koufos will be a tremendous add to a Rockets roster that is in dire need of an inside presence while Clint Capela is out tending to his injury.

His contract is also quite friendly, having signed his four-year, $32.9 million deal before the rise of the NBA salary cap.

Similar to what I talked about with Rudy Gay‘s contract yesterday, Koufos too is on the back-end of a expiring contract.

The veteran big man is currently on the 2nd to last leg of his contract, earning on average of $8 million per season through 2017-18.

After then, he has a $8.73 million player option that I’d imagine he’d opt of because the salary cap will likely be just slightly south of $100 million by then.

I’d offer Corey Brewer ($7.6M) and our 2017 first-rounder to get this deal done.

We’ve got a smorgasbord of talent on our roster so I don’t think we’d have our first-rounder this year anyway.

Who knows?

We’ll worry about that later — Daryl Morey may make a draft-day trade to get this team back in the conversation!

Because of the aforementioned, I’d part with that draft pick in a heartbeat.

But would teams bite on Brewer?

Similar to how I feel, I’d have to say that it’d be a major sticking point if they’re not going to offer more in return.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe mentioned that packaging Brewer in a deal is certainly a traction point in getting something done.

He also added this as to why:

But the advantage would be that Brewer could improve with a change of scenery and more playing time.

I’d certainly sell that as a point, especially that he’s a high-energy guy that has stayed relatively healthy throughout his tenure with the Rockets.

But who knows?

Next: THREE Options To Fill Clint Capela's Void

It remains to be seen if they’ll bite on Brewer or they’ll try to force to Rockets into somebody we’d won’t be as eager to give up (i.e. Trevor Ariza).

But any way, Koufos’ role would be similar to Capela’s — not asked to do too much offensively but be a rim-protector.

His defense his highly-underrated, he’s a solid rebounder and he’s the type of player that the Rockets should seize in the pinch that they currently have.

But it’s time to play the waiting game to see how this plays out…

Koufos, 27, is averaging 5.9 points, 5.8 rebounds while shooting 57.4 percent from the field and 44 percent from the charity stripe through 32 games (28 starts) this season.

Go Rockets.