Houston Rockets Rumors: Two ways Ryan Anderson can get traded

It’s T-minus two days before the NBA trade deadline and the heat is turning up in the oven on Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in regard to if he should make a move to improve this team. Ryan Anderson has long drawn the ire of the team’s desire to swap him but he’s still here. With the latest report, here are the only two ways he gets traded. Take a look.

Houston Rockets fans — apparently the team is exploring the market to trade Ryan Anderson. Wait, do you hear that? My toilet just flushed amid the faux excitement I’m feeling with the latest rumor in regard to the sharp-shooting power forward. It’s cool the Houston Rockets are doing their due diligence on this venture but I honestly think they’re going to find themselves disappointed at this season’s trade deadline.

But for what it’s forth, ESPN 97.5’s Kelly Iko had the scoop on this situation yesterday:

This is certainly the script every time the team reaches the trade deadline with Anderson‘s contract. I think with the fact that he’s trying to move him, it acknowledges that he made a mistake in signing him to that much money. But at the time, the league just received a overpowering flow of cash its way and quite honestly, he had to give those money bags to somebody.

Also take a look at some additional insight from Rob and R.G. on the Houston Sports Talk pod, my favorite:

In my opinion, the luckiest beneficiary of the league’s salary cap increases has certainly been Anderson. Although he’s quite a likeable guy — he has proved that he’s a one-trick pony, offering very little outside of his three-point shooting. He still quite good at it — he’s currently shooting 37.9 percent from three but it’s a concerning regression from 40.3 percent in 2016-17.

He’s non-existent on defense, inconsistent on the boards so when one is in the expected position of being a Stretch Four, what exact value does he provide to the team outside of his best trait? That’s going to make him quite difficult to move and I DON’T see it happening by the trade deadline.

There are only TWO ways Anderson could be traded and let’s discuss them below:

1.) They’ll have to pay dearly to offer him as part of a package.

In order for a team to consider taking Anderson in the frivolous of pacts, we’ll have to provide the receiving team a tremendous return in the form of multiple draft picks, cash and definitely Clint Capela. If you put Capela in any deal involving Anderson, his plane ticket would booked faster than ink drying on the trade approval papers.

Capela is the sticking point for the Houston Rockets as they feel he provides tremendous value and depth to the roster in the system Mike D’Antoni runs. Attaching draft picks can be difficult because the earliest picks they can swap are in 2020 because of the Ted Stephien rule, which prevents clubs from swapping draft picks in consecutive years. But if the team receives draft picks in reverse order in return from a team they want to work with, that changes things in regard to that aspect.

2.) They’ll have to wait until the trade deadline during the last year of his contract in the 2019-20 season.

Clubs love expiring contracts and by then, Anderson’s deal will have matured enough for teams to

More from House of Houston

take the remaining pro-rated salary that he’d have left. He’s due $21.3 million in his final year so the amount would be close to half that teams would be responsible for covering.

But this point is predicated on the assumption that Anderson’s value still remains high enough to trade and that he remains in good health over the next two seasons. A lot can happen within that time span. This is the more-likely outcome but with Morey’s itchy trigger fingers, who’s to say he won’t be out of here before then?

As nice it would be for us to ship Anderson down the road, it’s just hard to see it happening. We can only hope that he’s working to add more dimensions to his repertoire to do more things to help this team win.

Don’t get me wrong — he deserves to be in the NBA as he is gifted at what he does — but for what he’s giving the team, he should be making half of what he’s making now. And for that, I digress. The NBA trade deadline continues to tick…

Next: The Rockets need to consider Brook Lopez if bought out

Anderson, 29, is averaging 10.2 points, 5.4 rebounds per game while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and 37.9 percent from behind-the-arc through 50 games — 49 starts — this season.

Go Houston Rockets.

Home/Houston Rockets