Houston Rockets Rumors: Alec Burks would be a solid addition via trade

The Houston Rockets were reportedly in talks to trade involving Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss to acquire Alec Burks. What else? Take a look.

Houston Rockets fans — can you believe it?  We’re just three days away from the NBA trade deadline and our franchise has been in the midst of a plethora of talks, which is good for us to know that Daryl Morey is working day and night to try to move mountains for the betterment of the team.

I honestly think that a deal will get done before Thursday but it remains to be seen the magnitude of what a said pact will look like after the dust settles.  All I know is that a deal will be brokered that we’ll least expect and many of us will be thankful for it.

So what’s the latest?

ESPN’s Zach Lowe says that the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers were in talks in a trade that would send Brandon Knight, Marquese Chriss and a future first-round pick to the The Land in exchange for guard Alec Burks.  He has added that the talks have ceased for now but who knows if they could be re-ignited as things get closer to the deadline?

On paper, that would seem to be a beneficial deal for both parties.  The Houston Rockets will be able to unload two unwanted contracts and they’ll be able to pick up a reliable guard in Burks that has an expiring contact at the end of season.

Burks is on the back-end of a four-year, $42 million deal that he signed with the Utah Jazz back in 2015 and will make $11.3 million this season.  The pro-rated portion of his remaining salary for this season should be around $5.65 million.

The Houston Rockets would be able to jettison $8.9 million in pro-rated salary coupled with the first-round pick and could potentially take on Burks’ $5.65 million for 2018-19 for a savings of $3.25 million.

With the team being about $8 million over the $123 million luxury tax line ($131 million) it will offer them some slight savings but they’re still traversing the line with about $127.5 million committed to salaries with adjustments if a potential deal were made.

The first-round pick was meant as a tool for the Rockets to make the proposal more appealing as Knight still has $15.6 million guaranteed for the 2019-20 season.  With the Cavs not going to be able to be free-and-clear of heavily-loaded contacts until the 2020-21 season, this is likely the reason why they’re leery to do it.

The Cavs have $121.3 million committed for 2018-19 and $118.5 million for 2019-20 so they’re expected to be over the $101.9M cap but just slightly below the luxury tax line.  The cap is expected to increase but likely modestly so I’d see that the Cavs’ spending will be mostly flat as they wait for the contacts of Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith to wean off before they start to aggressively rebuild their team and embark on a new era without LeBron James.

Smith’s $15.6 million salary for 2019-20 is only fully guaranteed if they keep him on the roster after July 1 and that will likely not happen so they’ll owe him a modest $3.87 million for next season in the worst-case scenario.

In a nutshell of all of the contract blabber that I just insinuated is that the Cavs may still do this deal because it’s centered around that first-round pick and Knight’s contract could be bought out, especially since Smith is likely to be a goner.

In terms of what Burks can do to help this team, he’s got master status of executing the pick-and-

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roll.  As you know, that’s a big part of what the Utah Jazz do and during those days he was there, he made it work to his advantage.

Burks needs just a minute amount of space to do his dirty work and he has the ability to get the points that are needed.  I think he’d could be at his best once again if he were to join the Houston Rockets.

Plus, Burks is damn good with the corner three because with it being the three-point shot closest to the basket at 22 feet, this guy can eat profusely if one sets of plays putting him in the corner.

The corner three comprises of just 11.5 percent of his total three-point attempts but he’s nailing them at a whopping 46.2 percent clip for this season!  Wow!  He has historically shot a bit better in the left corner, typically being in the high 30s in terms of percentage but the potential exists for him to be efficient on both ends and could be a valuable weapon come playoff time.

Burks doesn’t bring that much by way of defense — his defensive rating is currently at 114.6 — but can certainly lock things down at moments for this team.  Outside of James Harden and P.J. Tucker, who has been consistent lock-down defenders for this season anyway?

If the Rockets can somehow land Burks in this potential deal, it will provide a nice shot in the arm for the offense and with Eric Gordon‘s struggles to stay healthy, Burks will be there to provide a sense of continuity and could spot-start if needed.

We’ll have to see!

Burks, 27, is averaging 10.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists with a shooting line of .396/.381/.804 through 33 games — 23 starts — in 2018-19.