Kevin Porter Jr. arrested on assault charges

Some bad news for the Houston Rockets less than a month away from training camp, as guard Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested today on assault charges in New York City after an altercation with his girlfriend at a hotel.

Porter’s girlfriend reportedly sustained injuries and was sent to the hospital, with ESPN reporting that:

“Upon arrival officers were informed that a 26-year-old female sustained a laceration to the right side of her face and was complaining about pain to her neck. A preliminary investigation on scene determined that a known individual struck her multiple times upon her body and placed his hands around the neck.”

The Rockets also released a statement saying:

“We are in the process of gathering information surrounding the matter involving Kevin Porter Jr. We have no further comment at this time.”

Porter has had some issues in the past but had reportedly turned over a new leaf after time spent with Rockets player development coach John Lucas. As a result, the Rockets offered him a four-year, $82.5 million extension, but the only guaranteed money is $18.5 million for this season, so the Rockets can cut him without any future dead money.

With the arrival of Fred VanVleet to H-town, Porter, who was arguably Houston’s best player last season, was expected to move to the bench in a sixth man role, where many expected him to thrive, but who knows what happens now with this latest turn of events.

Thankfully, with VanVleet aboard and the team drafting Amen Thompson, the Rockets do have some guard depth, so we might end up seeing a little more of Amen than originally anticipated if this ends up blowing up Porter’s season.

Still, not a good way to lead into the basketball year for the Rockets and not a good look for Porter after slowly starting to rehab his image. We’ll have updates on this story as we get them.

UPDATE:

Porter’s girlfriend reportedly has at least one broken bone.