The Houston Rockets appeared to be finding joy even after James Harden left the team in January. The landing of John Wall and more pieces looked good for them but they haven’t been able to turn things around and are struggling to compete in the stacked Western Conference.
They have some interesting players that have been followed by other teams in the trade market, especially PJ Tucker, who is linked with a move away from Houston even before the season started. Well, as the days go by, we learn that a series of teams are interested in him but not everybody is willing to pay what Houston is asking for the veteran. Recently, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report revealed that one of the teams looking to add Tucker was the Miami Heat, but they stopped the talks when learned about the Rockets’ asking price.
The landscape for dealing P.J. Tucker appears much greener. The Bucks, Nets, Heat, Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers and Denver Nuggets have all expressed interest, sources said. Tucker would relish joining Philadelphia and former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, and the Sixers are one of the few contenders with real picks at their disposal.
Around the draft, Houston’s new front office could have gotten a late 2020 first-round pick for Tucker from Minnesota, league sources said. But Rockets ownership rebuffed moving Tucker at that time, sources said, as they still believed they could keep Harden and build another playoff contender around him.
The Rockets have since been categorized as inconsistent with their asking price on Tucker. There has been a long-whispered rumor of Brooklyn possibly sending Spencer Dinwiddie to Houston for Tucker, and the Rockets are even said to have posed Miami trading either Tyler Herro or Duncan Robinson for him.
Seen as one of the best and hardest-workers defenders in the league, Tucker can make a good addition to several contenders in the league but the Rockets need to find the best package for him. It’s well known that the Heat couldn’t let Tyler Herro go even if that meant they would get LeBron James, so that was a mistake for them.
The trade deadline is set to strike next March 25 and fans can’t wait to see how the Texans team will look like after one of the most entertaining deadlines in recent years.