With hindsight, the 2024 Rockets-Nets draft deal is aging well for Houston
Factoring in the 2025 and 2026 NBA draft lottery results, it seems Houston did quite well in its June 2024 trade with Brooklyn involving future picks.
It was a hot topic of debate at the time, but the complex June 2024 transaction between the Rockets and Nets appears to be aging well for Houston. In a layered deal involving future first-round NBA draft selections, the Rockets sent two NBA picks (2025, 2026) back to Brooklyn in exchange for four (2025, 2027, and two in 2029). All were unprotected.
Three of Houston’s incoming assets were originally from Phoenix, which had sent them to Brooklyn in the February 2023 Kevin Durant trade. The fourth is a 2029 selection from Dallas. The incoming assets for Brooklyn were ones that Houston had acquired in the January 2021 James Harden trade.
With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that Brooklyn’s 2025 and 2026 choices ended up at No. 8 (Nets) and No. 10 (Suns) in the respective first-round order .
That difference was almost negligible, and Houston appeared determined to use either pick in its own Durant trade , no matter what. From a Houston perspective, that effectively made it a three-for-one transaction: The Nets’ pick in 2026 for two first-round assets from the Suns (2027 and 2029) and one from the Mavericks (2029). With Sunday’s 2026 draft lottery results in the books , that second Brooklyn selection is now set at No.
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