NBA Trade Grades: Miami Heat get Victor Oladipo from the Rockets

NBA trade grades for the Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets are a different story. They managed to turn one of the greatest players of this generation in James Harden into the following: Dante Exum, Rodions Kurucs, Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley. Of course, they got plenty of likely late first-round picks as well, but it’s hard to see how this is anything but a loss for them.

More from NBA

• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
• Constructing the NBA’s perfect all-under-25 starting five
• Grading every NBA team’s highest draft pick in the last five years

Especially when we consider that the Rockets could have just kept Caris LeVert, probably the second-best player in the whole four-team Harden deal, instead of taking on Oladipo. It’s not savvy business from the Rockets or their first-year general manager Raphael Stone.

In this particular transaction, the Rockets save about $2.7 million this season. That may not seem like much in the NBA, but for owner Tilman Fertitta, that’s an amount that can keep the lights on for a year in a Bubba Gump’s Shrimp.

As for next season, Olynyk’s $12.2 million salary is the final year of an expiring contract and Avery Bradley has a $5.9 million player option. We shall see how the Rockets choose to proceed in the offseason with both of them.

There wasn’t much value to be gained in an Oladipo trade, but as yet another component of the Harden trade, it just shines an ever-brighter light on this ugly chapter of Rockets basketball.

Grade: C-