Rockets would be wise to trade 2024 NBA Draft picks for 2025 playoffs amid rumors

The Houston Rockets finished the 2023-24 season at 41-41 and, despite the .500 record, showed flashes of a young team with the potential to make a legitimate playoff push in the years to come.

They also own the ninth overall pick in this year’s draft.

While this is generally an exciting development for a team seemingly on the verge, just a piece or two away from being a playoff contender, the organization isn’t feeling it.

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reported that the Rockets are not eager to add another prospect in 2024-25 (h/t HoopsRumors). The team would rather abandon this year’s picks and build more stock for 2025 and beyond, and that’s understandable.

The upcoming draft class is remarkably unremarkable at the top. What would typically be a coveted pick doesn’t have the same value as the ninth overall pick.

B/R’s Jonathan Wasserman has compiled the 2024 NBA Draft Big Board, headlined by Ron Holland, Reed Sheppard and Nikola Topić. While all have the intangibles to be key contributors, none of the three are obvious game-changers like Victor Wembanyama was when the San Antonio Spurs had the No. 1 overall pick a year ago.

With no clear, uncontested pick in place and a team still looking to the future to make a run, it makes perfect sense that the Rockets would want to find a suitor for the pick, in hopes to compile others and make a race against a more coveted player in a year.

Earlier this season, Feigen said the team was interested in acquiring Mykal Bridges from Brooklyn in exchange for Jalen Green and the Nets’ first-round picks currently controlled by the Rockets. Instead, the Nets opted to continue the playoffs instead of proceeding with a restart.

The same report suggested the Rockets were seeking picks from the Suns, controlled by Brooklyn, in exchange for picks from the Nets, controlled by Houston.

If that sounds confusing, it probably is, but either way, the intention was to work their way through gathering the best and most valuable picks so they could acquire the players who will make the push playoffs in 2025 a reality.

There is already a young core of players that Rockets fans are excited about.

Center Alperen Sengun led the team in scoring (21.1) and rebounds (9.3) this season. Jabari Smith Jr. played 31.9 minutes per game, scored 13.7 points and grabbed 6.3 defensive rebounds. The aforementioned Green scored 19.6 in 31.7 minutes, grabbed 5.2 rebounds and played in 82 games for the team this year.

Add to that trio the veteran presence of former Toronto Raptor Fred VanVleet and his team-leading 8.1 assists and 1.4 steals, and you get a roster that’s a piece or two away from potentially making a run in a Western Conference that seems more open than in recent years.

If the front office can work out a deal to trade the ninth pick and put together more for a potential game-changer in 2025, there’s no reason to believe the Houston Rockets won’t return to prominence.