NBA Rumors: Houston Rockets tried to trade for Ryan Anderson
By Bryan Rose
The Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans agreed on a rather simple yet complex trade to send Omer Asik to the Big Easy on Wednesday night, a deal which returned a future draft pick and $1.5 million dollars to Space City.
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However, the deal could have been much larger in nature, this according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle who states the Rockets attempted to trade for power forward Ryan Anderson.
Anderson, as you’ll likely recall, suffered a rather odd yet debilitating neck injury which derailed his season but the hope is that he’ll be completely healthy this year. Why exactly the Rockets were interested in Anderson is a bit of a mystery though as he is due nearly $8.5 million dollars in each of the next two seasons and Houston is said to be in cap clearing mode in effort to sign LeBron James and/or Carmelo Anthony.
The most likely scenario was that the Houston Rockets were potentially looking to flip Anderson, though given his health concerns you have to wonder how many teams would have actually be interested in acquiring the sharp shooting forward.
Of course, Ryan Anderson would fit well within the Houston Rockets system thanks to his ability to hit the perimeter shot. However, there’s no way the Houston Rockets could have signed any marquee free agents with his salary on the roster.
Regardless, the Pelicans didn’t appear intrigued with such a move, settling on acquiring Asik for a protected future round pick and money. One has to think the Pelicans will look to move Anderson regardless given their frontcourt log jam.