Rockets reportedly want to trade 2024 lottery pick for future assets

The Houston Rockets have made nine first-round picks in the previous three NBA drafts, but they consider the rebuild to have reached the next phase. That’s why Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks were signed as free agents and Ime Udoka was named coach – Houston wanted to start winning.

That’s why they’re looking to trade the 2024 draft pick they control – the one they got from Brooklyn in the Harden trade and which is currently ninth, en route to Sunday’s NBA Draft Lottery – reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. (Houston’s No. 12 pick belongs to Oklahoma City.)

What the Rockets hope to do is trade their 2024 lottery pick to a team that wants more picks now and is willing to give up picks in 2025 and beyond, Feigen reports. He adds that this is an ongoing process, something that was discussed with Brooklyn around the NBA trade deadline in February – Houston general manager Rafael Stone reportedly wanted to give Brooklyn a some or all of the Nets’ picks that the Rockets control in exchange for all or part of the Nets-controlled Phoenix Suns draft assets. Brooklyn had no interest.

Moving this year’s pick will be easier said than done. The 2024 draft is considered relatively weak – All-Stars will come out of it, and there are solid rotation players in the lottery, but there is no Victor Wembanyama or Anthony Edwards at the top and a lot of questions in below – while 2025 and 2026 look much stronger. Getting a team to abandon their choices in these and other future projects to move forward in this one is a tough sell.

If the Rockets luck out in Sunday’s draft and end up in the top four, the selling job gets a little easier. Whether that happens or not, expect plenty of trade rumors about the Rockets heading into June’s NBA Draft, as the team attempts to take a step forward from its 41-41, 11th-place finish in a deep West (it will be even harder next season).