The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) trade deadline has come and gone, and the Houston Rockets were one of the main teams making moves before the deadline on February 23 at 2 p.m. CST.
The Rockets added talented shooting guard Lou Williams from the Los Angeles Lakers for Corey Brewer and a 2017 first-round pick. Williams was named the Sixth Man of Year in 2015, when he was with the Toronto Raptors. Williams is going to mesh with this team easily due to his style of play. The Rockets have a plethora of three-point shooters with Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, Trevor Ariza and now Williams. The Rockets love to spread the floor and find the open shooter on the three-point line.
Williams spoke on how he believes he will fit with this Rockets team.
“They play a very open style, everyone eats, everyone is happy, it fits both styles,” said Williams.
In Williams’ first game with the Rockets on Thursday, Feb. 23, he had 27 points, which was the game high and connected on seven three-pointers.
“I knew he would be okay, I just didn’t know he was going to have 27,” said Rockets Coach Mike D’Antoni. “He scores very easily.” “He’ll have a lot of room to operate, that’s for sure.”
The Rockets also traded away K.J. McDaniels to the Brooklyn Nets and Tyler Ennis to the Lakers in exchange for Marcelo Heurtas, who is expected to be waived by the team. The Rockets will free up $3.5 million in cap space once they waive Heurtas.
The Cavaliers wanted to trade for Patrick Beverley, but the Rockets were not willing to give him up. The Rockets would’ve received Iman Shumpert in the trade, who practically does the same at the shooting guard position that Beverly does at the point guard position.
One of the Rockets’ rivals, the Dallas Mavericks, received Nerlens Noel from the 76ers in exchange for Justin Anderson, Andrew Bogut and a first-round pick. The 76ers are expected to waive Andrew Bogut and the Rockets could be a team he could easily join. The New Orleans Pelicans made the blockbuster trade of the year, having traded for Demarcus Cousins the night of the All-Star game.
The Western Conference just got more interesting, and the Rockets should be in the thick of things.