When news came down this afternoon of an impending four-way trade between the Rockets, Nets, Hornets, and Pacers, the news outlets were quick to praise the Hornets for keeping their superstar happy and quick to criticize the Rockets for giving up so soon on a marquee free agent signing from just this past offseason.
However, those who criticized the Rockets were in the wrong.
To an outside observer, the trade makes little sense. Why spend big money on resigning the team's core and finding a solid backup at center only to shed big money in an attempt to lower the luxury tax payments?
Upon further review, this trade makes sense on both a basketball and a monetary level, as the Rockets seemingly improved in each category.
Monetary Impact
During Daryl Morey's tenure, he has always stressed the importance of cap flexibility, the best of example of this being when he amassed many large expiring contracts last season, which he eventually parlayed into Kevin Martin, the shooting guard of the future in Houston, among other assets.
In this deal, he rid the Rockets of nearly $25 million ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Patrick Harrel
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