Houston Rockets: Three front court players to target before trade deadline
Player #1: Willy Hernangomez
Since the experiment didn’t quite work as expected in the earlier part of his career with the New York Knicks, Willy Hernangomez, a former 2016 second-rounder and All-Rookie first-team member has carved himself a nice niche for himself with the Charlotte Hornets.
Hernangomez was traded just before the deadline last season from the Knicks and has since been a solid contributor off the bench, being able to elevate his game to levels that has pleased not only him but the Hornets as well.
He has said publicly that he wants to make strides to improve his defensive efforts and he not only had a defensive rating of 104 for 2017-18 but he’s still treading water just fine for this season at 109.
The 6-foot-11 center is no stranger to the defensive pick-and-roll and he can actually run it quite well in first-year head coach James Borrego’s system, making him a a good fit for the Rockets.
He’s not a volume three-point shooter — he averages less than 0.7 attempts per game — but when he’s taken them, there’s a good chance that he’ll nail them. But the Rockets don’t necessarily need him for that anyway.
Hernangomez has averaged 7.7 points and 5.8 rebounds with a shooting line of .521/.464/.684 through 39 games — two starts — this season. He’s been averaging 14.2 minutes per game so it’s definitely fair to say that he’s been productive.
He’s only 24-years-old, which will certainly mean the Rockets will have to cough up something of notable valuable to land him but I think among the grand scheme of things, it’d be worth it.
But this proposal is contingent on how content the Hornets are with Hernangomez, which is unclear to me at this moment. He has also expressed his desire to stay in Charlotte; but, as we know, players don’t always get exactly what they want.
This would be a nice, sneaky, helpful deal the Rockets could make.