Rockets Are Ready To Launch

The Houston Rockets made a big splash at the NBA trade deadline and while most betting tips probably won’t predict that they have become Championship contenders this year because of it, the reality is that they could be within a very short time.

On Thursday, the Rockets unloaded the expiring contract of Tracy McGrady along with forwards Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey as part of a three-team trade. When you boil it down, Dorsey wasn’t much of a factor, Landry was a spot contributor and McGrady wasn’t even a part of the team anymore. So essentially, the Rockets gave up nothing that they will miss.

At the same time, they received quite a bit they will enjoy in return.

The Rockets picked up guard Kevin Martin, who is a former All-Star. The Rockets have sorely lacked some scoring at the shooting guard position and he can definitely provide that. They will receive an immediate boost from him. At the same time, they also picked up the New York Knicks first-round pick from this year, Jordan Hill, Jared Jeffries and an opportunity to swap picks with the Knicks in 2011 and the Knicks 2012 first-round pick.

When NBA betting fans do the math, that could turn out to be quite a bit. Jeffries may have been dead weight to the Knicks but he is still a serviceable body that the Rockets will be happy to have. On top of that, they’ll hope to groom Hill into a stud. On top of that, they pick up Martin, who will gives the team an above average shooting guard immediately and on top of that, the Rockets could get two more top 10 picks.

The Knicks are currently projected to have literally no money on their books for 2011 and while we all know that it won’t eventually be that way, the fact that they plan to do most of their spending this offseason probably indicates that they won’t finish with a very good record at the end of next year. Even if they sign two players like Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, they won’t have any team around them so they can’t be expecting to finish with a solid record.

And if they can’t land two max players this year, then they have essentially broken down their roster to nothing completely and will once again be bad in 2012.

So the Rockets are left with a team that includes Yao Ming (next year), Shane Battier, Martin, Brooks, Lowry, Jeffries, Hill and a few high first round picks. Sure, they take on some salary but the NBA odds that the Knicks are good in two or three years is very minimal, which means the Rockets, at the very least, just picked up some top 10 picks.

Kudos to them as they made some really smart decisions about their future at the 2010 NBA trade deadline.