NBA Trade Grades: Suns and Rockets swap youngsters, bad contracts

Houston Rockets

A curious summer for the Houston Rockets just got even more spellbinding. After losing two of their best wing defenders in Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute in free agency, general manager Daryl Morey had added a below-average defender in Michael Carter-Williams, a poor defender in Carmelo Anthony…and now two atrocious defenders in Knight and Chriss.

On the bright side, the Rockets rid themselves of the remaining two years and $41.7 million on Anderson’s contract. He was replaced by P.J. Tucker in the starting lineup late in the season for defensive purposes, and only played 8.6 minutes per game in the playoffs because his defense made him a liability. Perhaps Chriss can be better on that front.

However, Anderson was also a boon to the Rockets’ 3-point heavy offense, and even as his scoring dipped to 9.3 points per game, he was still drilling 38.6 percent of his 5.1 3s per game. Shedding this contract away also costs Houston rookie De’Anthony Melton, who is brimming with two-way potential and fell further in the draft than many expected.

So what are the Rockets getting, aside from a roughly $2.6 million in extra cap space this year? Knight is not a promising start, since he’s not a legitimate point guard. His entire Phoenix tenure was also marred by injury and underperformance.

Knight missed 156 of a possible 273 games with the Suns due to injury, is coming off an ACL tear that robbed him of his entire 2017-18 season, and was largely disappointing when he actually was on the floor. With Phoenix, Knight’s numbers fell to 15.0 points and 3.8 assists per game on underwhelming shooting splits of .404/.334/.852.

His mentality had been better in recent months after having to step away from the game, but it’s hard to see where he helps Houston unless he returns to Milwaukee Brandon Knight. His career 35.7 percent shooting from downtown is a positive sign, but he hasn’t been that effective from long range in quite some time. He’s not a facilitator, he’s an awful defender and he’s turnover-prone, with very questionable shot selection.

As for Chriss, though he’s largely underwhelmed since the Suns traded up to snag him at No. 8 in the 2016 NBA Draft, he’s still only 21 years old. Perhaps on a better team with a winning culture, he’ll be able to turn things around and contribute off the bench.

Still, his defense has been cartoon-esque at times, his offseason work ethic has been questioned and he doesn’t have a defining NBA skill other than athleticism yet. Getting Anderson off the books makes sense, but doing so at the cost of Melton, and with two decisively below-average players coming back in return, feels like a mistake if the goal is to contend.

No one should give up on Chriss just yet, but the early signs are overwhelmingly negative. The Rockets got younger, but they certainly didn’t get better with the goal of immediate title contention in mind. More moves need to be coming.

Grade: C