Channeling Billy King, Daryl Morey may be about to make history
They said it was a deal so bad it'd never be topped.
Never one to believe in limits, Daryl Morey may be about to grind what is widely-regarded as the worst trade in modern NBA history to dust. The deal I am referring to, of course, is the infamous "Nets Trade" that sent the Boston Celtics' aging core to the Brooklyn Nets in 2014, who made a very good deal in a hurry to get better.
For Danny Ainge, I mean.
Current reporting suggests as many as four first round picks are in play to deal for Jimmy Butler from the Houston Rockets in their rumored latest offer to the Minnesota Timberwolves to the disgruntled star. Such a move would literally push the Stepien Rule, which prevents teams from dealing more picks than one every other year within a seven-year horizon, to its furthest limits, as Houston currently controls only its own first round picks.
Currently holding no other team's FRPs, this means all of them will be Houston's. With the Stepien rule to deal with, that means the offer would include their 2019, '21, '23 and 2025 picks, or perhaps 2-3 within that range plus pick swaps to meet the intent of the rule. https://t.co/p1Kh7FU6gv— justin quinn (@justinquinnn) October 25, 2018
We still don't know if the deal involves generating a pick or two by dealing a player into another team's space, nor if there are any other wrinkles to take into consideration (never mind whether this ends up working out, which seems very dubious), but leave it to the Rockets to throw some excitement into the NBA media sphere - lately, for equally dubious reasons.
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