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Well, everyone had a feeling this one was coming, and now we know, thanks to a #WojBomb:
Minnesota has agreed to trade Corey Brewer to Houston, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) December 19, 2014
Brewer (who B-Ref says is nicknamed the Drunken Dribbler - okay sure) loves to run and get to the hoop. He's light on defense and shooting, but as an offensive spark off the bench, he should do just fine. He's 28, with a year left on his deal after this one, with a light cap hit. On his own, he shouldn't hurt the Rockets' flexibility for signing free agents.
The Houston Chronicle reports that in addition to using Jeremy Lin's traded player exception, the Rockets are sending Troy Daniels to Minnesota. Here's how that works:
Those asking how Daniels could be "combined" with TPE in Brewer deal: Troy makes minimum. Was traded "separately" via Min Player Exception.
— David Weiner (@BimaThug) December 19, 2014
That's a bit of a surprise, but our own Patrick Harrel called it after last night's game - he got a few minutes as a showcase, and now the Rockets have a bigger wing instead of a small guard who can't crack the rotation.
Corey Brewer's size is where his value lies for the Rockets. As we noted, McHale is killing Trevor Ariza with all these minutes, especially with Papanikolaou down. His biggest issue is that he can't shoot from range at all - he's at 19% (yeesh) for the year, and he hasn't even shot above 30% in six years. His percentage will regress a bit to the mean, I'm sure - especially if he can get kickouts from Harden.
The Rockets also got Ronny Turiaf in the deal, who's out for the year with a hip injury. His involvement plus the timing of the deal - 60 days on the dot before the Feb. 19 trade deadline - means that Daryl Morey's probably not done making moves. Corey Brewer has to be on the Rockets for those 60 days, but if the Rockets want to move him on deadline day, they can.
Woj reported a few days ago how Morey was aggressively pursuing a deal involving that traded player exception by today for that very purpose, and lo, it has come to pass. He also reported that the Rockets are sending a second-round pick (originally owned by the Kings) in this year's draft and a future one as part of the deal.
This is still a fluid situation, as the Rockets could turn around and flip Ronny Turiaf, cut him, or cut another player. They do need to do one of those things to make their roster fit, so we'll have to stay tuned for that.
As it stands now, the Rockets got a hell of a deal, getting a rotation piece without giving up one. The TPE was never going to bring a star in, and the Rockets didn't have to trade any first-round picks either. What do you think?