NBA Rumors: Houston Rockets Must Not Trade Top Draft Picks in Dwight Howard Deal

The Houston Rockets are reportedly looking to move up in the 2012 NBA draft, but it might not be for a chance to secure better prospects.

According to ESPN’s Chad Ford and Marc Stein:

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One rival general manager…believes Houston's real aim is acquiring two top-10 picks this week to turn around quickly and offer both to the Orlando Magic as part of a considerable trade offer for Dwight Howard. 

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Houston currently possesses the No. 14 and No. 16 picks in the first round, but its brass has been inquiring with top-10 teams about moving up and has reportedly received positive feedback from the Toronto Raptors (No. 8) and Sacramento Kings (No. 5) about potential deals.

It’s not a surprise that Rockets GM Daryl Morey is once again on an offseason hunt that would bring a superstar to Houston. Once the lockout was lifted in 2011, he nearly hauled in Pau Gasol as part of the original Chris Paul trade, but David Stern and the league had other ideas.

However, it would just be stupid of Morey to bring in Howard, a disgruntled big man with one season left on his contract, if so much future value would be sacrificed in the process.

Ford and Stein found that it is an open secret in league circles that the Rockets are more than willing to bring in Howard without any guarantee of the first-team All-Defensive player signing an extension.

Considering that the Rockets were not a team on Howard's “wish list,” and Kyle Lowry is the only above-average player on the roster, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be competing for a championship in 2012-13. This will not give the organization much of a leg to stand on when it attempts to make a pitch to DH12 to convince him to stay next summer.

If the Rockets were able to land two top-10 draft picks, they would be better off actually using them to select players that they feel could develop into superstars.

They would be guaranteed to stick around for at least a few seasons and would likely not cause a media circus to surround the team, which is exactly what would happen should a trade for Howard go down.

While it’s certainly an intriguing deal, it should remain as nothing more than a hypothetical one unless Howard agrees to an extension or comes at a cheaper cost.