One trade every NBA team needs to make

Houston Rockets

The Rockets, by all accounts, have been a major disappointment this season. It seems so long ago that they pulled off an incredible comeback in the second round of the 2014-15 playoffs to erase a 1-3 series deficit (largely thanks to the Clippers’ collapse) and advanced to the Western Conference Finals. Of course, they can’t compete with the Spurs, Thunders and Warriors of the world, but at the very least they should be a top five or six playoff team.

That clearly isn’t the case. Thankfully for the Rockets, they have a fair amount of talent and trade assets to tweak their roster. This won’t turn around their lackluster efforts on defense or improve their 26th spot in defensive efficiency, but it can help.

Whether they make any trades (and how many) is yet to be seen, so here’s one suggestion that could at least improve their point guard problem since adding Ty Lawson.

To bring Jeff Teague over from Atlanta, the Rockets can offer the Hawks a possible package of Patrick Beverley and Donatas Motiejunas.

It’s hard to see Motiejunas having a great difference in Houston going forward due to his injury problems and the host of frontcourt depth in place. With players like Clint Capela, Terrence Jones, promising rookie Montrezl Harrell and the recently returned Josh Smith, the Rockets can afford to part with Motiejunas in order to bring in a point guard as talented as Teague.

For the Hawks, they can still move Dennis Schroder to the starting spot and get a tough defender and 42 percent three-point shooter in Beverley to add to their rotation. With Motiejunas, they get a new post scorer to add off the bench.

This allows the Rockets to make a notable upgrade at point and the Hawks get a valuable return for Teague, who they seem ready to move on from. This potential deal works well for both teams.

Next: Dallas Mavericks