Houston Rockets
7/18 Matched offer tendered to Kyle Lowry
7/20 Signed Brad Miller
7/28 Traded David Andersen and cash to Toronto for a 2015 protected second-round pick
8/12 In a four-team trade, New Jersey traded Courtney Lee to Houston for Troy Murphy from Indiana, who acquired Darren Collison and James Posey from New Orleans, who acquired Trevor Ariza from Houston
In the four-team swaperoo, the Rockets have essentially dumped one good youngster with offensive issues in Trevor Ariza for another in Courtney Lee. The only real differences are position and contract. Ariza is still only 25 but just couldn’t score at all, despite ample opportunity to do so in Houston. Lee also had his own scoring issues (though not as bad as Ariza) but both players are way too young to assume that their offensive games won’t develop. It seems, though, that this trade was more about dumping Ariza (who has a long term deal) than acquiring Lee. Indeed, the Rockets already have a long-term two guard solution with Kevin Martin and, at best, Lee will be a nice role player/third guard. At small forward, the Rockets were not loaded (Shane Battier and Jared Jeffries are in the last years of their respective contracts and Chase Budinger looked pretty good but is not a 35-40 mpg player yet). Even if the deal was more about buyer’s remorse with Ariza, getting cap room and a decent young player is a worthwhile decision for Houston.
Indiana Pacers
8/12 In a four-team trade, New Jersey traded Courtney Lee to Houston for Troy Murphy from Indiana, who acquired Darren Collison and James Posey from New Orleans, who acquired Trevor Ariza from Houston
For the Pacers, they are starting over, again, at the point. Collison had a very nice first season in the NBA and the Pacers had struggled filling the point guard. At his current level of play, Collison is better than any of the Pacers’ other options. He will also be a nice fit for Jim O’Brien’s three-happy offense. The offense was terrible at the point where they were terrible from distance. Here’s a quick breakdown of the point shooting from three:
Earl Watson: 53-184, .288%
A.J. Price: 60-174, .345%
T.J. Ford: 8-50, .160%