After their unacceptable 1st round loss to the Utah Jazz in the 2007 NBA Playoffs the Houston Rockets cleared house and brought in a new GM in Daryl Morey and head coach in Rick Adelman. Earlier this week the Rockets pulled off a "blockbuster" trade with the forever foolish Kevin McHale and the Minnesota Timberkittens, but it doesn't look like they're done dealing. The Rockets are trying to make a move to obtain a pick in the 18-20 range in this year's draft. From Jonathan Feigen for the Houston Chronicle:
With that in mind, Morey has several deals in the works in which he could move up if the right players those the Rockets want more than a team dealing -- slip at least to the second half of the first round of the draft on Thursday.
"If you get to 18 to 20, there's usually some sliders," Morey said. "Danny Granger, Gerald Green, Jameer Nelson in recent years. Guys who should have gone high and slipped farther than they should have in many
"So at 18 to 20, there's more value there because you're potentially going to pick up a top 10 level talent. At 26, generally those guys who slide are cleaned up by the early 20s. And by 26, there's more normalcy, and you're in a different tier.
"We have some opportunities to move up. We've done our draft work. We're very prepared for this draft. I've spent a lot of time on (scenarios to) trade up, trade down, trade in (to the second round). A lot of different discussions have filled several days. Often, they'll happen on that night because your guy is there, or their guy is gone."
The 18th pick in this year's draft of course belongs to the Golden State Warriors, while the 19th is owned by the LA Lakers and the 20th by the Miami Heat. Because of all the hype and hoopla surrounding this year's draft class these late round draft picks are much more valuable than they usually are. Moving the pick might net some immediate on court help. However, aside from the untouchables Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming I'm not so sure what players on the Rockets would really make a difference for the Warriors.
Aside from TMac and Yao are there any players you'd want from the Rockets for the #18 pick?
99% of rumors never happen, but 99% of them are fun to talk about!