Houston Rockets: Team should target Arron Afflalo

We only have a few days before the Houston Rockets will be riding the wave of free agency which is set to start July 1.

The crop in this year’s free agency class for the Houston Rockets is considerably talented peppered with a lot of solid vets that can make an impact on anybody’s team. But is it as defined as past off seasons? That particular topic remains up for debate but there are some nice pieces out there at this time. We thought that the team was going to be quite active on draft night, making some deals but things mostly routine over at 1510 Polk.

Paul George, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have all made themselves available for a deal and there will be many franchises that will be pining for their services. The Houston Rockets have already confirmed that they will be within the fray to try to pry these guys away from their respective teams. George is the only certainty to leave his respective team as he has already expressed his desire not to return back to the Indiana Pacers.

Do the Rockets have the goods to get the aforementioned guys? Not outright as they don’t have the cap space — even with the modest increase — from $94.1 to $99 million so a trade would have to be facilitated. The team has made it clearly known that mostly everybody under contract — with the exception of James Harden — is up on the block. This is the reality of being a Houston Rocket so the players should take this news with a grain of salt as the team is just handling business.

We’ll see how things pan out within the next week but things are going to get fast and furious as the rumors start to heat up. But after the free agency dust settles for the top-tier guys, whether we get them or not, they need to consider a guy that’s now available that way pay tremendous dividends not only for his tangibles but for the veteran leadership he provides.

Who am I talking about?

I’m talking about long-time guard Arron Afflalo.

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Afflalo was released by the Sacramento Kings late last week as he was on a two-year, $25 million deal with the second-year not fully-guaranteed. The Kings decided to cut him to save cap space making him available on the market.

Afflalo is still an offensive juggernaut but his defense is less than desired. However, with the amount of points he can help put up for the team, I think he would be a valuable addition to the team. This is his strongest attribute. Depending on what each team’s cap situation is and where he wants to go, I think the Rockets can get him for much less than what he was making with the Kings.

With the latest projections, the Rockets will likely have about $8.7 million in cap space to work with without making any deals so they possibly can squeeze him in. But I doubt he’d be worth it as he’d be a good add after all other options to improve this team are exhausted. The team still has their $8.41 million mid-level exception available but it’s likely they won’t have to use it either as they’re working at the cap line, not the luxury tax line during the years Dwight Howard was here.

Next: These trade rumors can cause long-term damage to the team

But who knows if they were to bring in a George, Paul or a Griffin? Their hand may be forced to spend to fill out the rest of this roster and satisfy the requests made by possible free agents. We’ll have to see how this pans out.

Afflalo, 31, averaged 8.4 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists off 44 percent shooting from the field, 41.1 percent from three and 89.2 percent from the charity stripe through 61 games in 2016-17.

Go Rockets.

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