In an 11th hour trade deadline stunner, the Houston Rockets, the youngest team in the NBA, just got younger and stronger with a seismic trade that netted them promising rookie prospect Thomas Robinson.
Yahoo! Sports reported Wednesday night that the Rockets had dealt valuable starting forward Patrick Patterson, key sub Toney Douglas and Cole Aldrich to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Robinson-the fifth pick overall in the 2012 NBA Draft-Francisco Garcia and Tyler Honeycutt.
Following that, the Rockets dealt another key sub, Marcus Morris, to Phoenix, reuniting him with his brother, Markieff, in exchange for a future second-round pick.
And somehow, amid the distractions, the Rockets had one of their biggest wins of the season, rallying from a 14-point deficit behind James Harden's 46 points and Jeremy Lin's 29 points to beat the defending Western Conference Champion and NBA title favorite Oklahoma City Thunder, 122-119.
Right off the bat, the trade has several implications. First off, the Rockets are losing solid players in Patterson, who is averaging 11.6 points this season and was beginning to produce solidly, and Morris, who filled in well for Patterson at power forward when he went down with a foot injury in December, as well as a sparkplug-type player in the streaky Douglas.
However, they are getting the 6'10", 237-pound Robinson, who brings raw athleticism and untapped potential to the Rockets. It must be pointed out that Robinson hasn't lived up to his potential this season. Robinson has tallied only 4.8 points and 4.7 rebounds this season. He also hasn't gotten a lot of playing time, clocking only 15.9 minutes per game in his rookie season.
And yet, while there has been a let down in Sacramento where the young rookie is concerned, Robinson, a mere 21 years old, has great potential. Robinson was a star player in Kansas University's renowned basketball program through his college career. Last year, his final year at college, he had his finest season, averaging 17.7 points and 11.9 rebounds for the Jayhawks as he led them to the NCAA championship game.
In that season, Robinson was a 1st Team All American, ESPN's National Player of the Year and the Big 12 Player of the Year. He has shown the ability on the college level to be a presence in scoring and rebounding. But in addition, as this video link points out, Robinson likes to get his hands dirty, doing the little things, the hustle plays that nobody else seems to like doing.
And yet, here's where he can really fit into the Rockets' system-he's a very good pick-and-roll player. Or, at least, he was in college.
That comes in handy for Lin, who has a new, big and strong target to feed on pick-and-roll plays for a few easy assists whenever teams are making it hard to find Harden or Chandler Parsons is having a cold night. Plus, he's big enough at 6'10" to provide valuable rebounding help in the frontline to back up Omer Asik, who has 11.6 boards this season for third best in the NBA.
With the Rockets low on power forward options, Robinson could theoretically start for the team right away. He's young, he can score and he's got something to prove now. His inaugural team dumped him, and if that doesn't light a fire under a young player eager to prove himself, nothing will. With that motivation and a hard-running offense suited for his young legs, he could easily turn into the kind of player that he was in Kansas in 2011-12.
Look for Robinson, starting out carte blanche with Houston, to play with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. And it's that chippiness that the Rockets will need down the stretch when they're fighting for playoff contention in March and April.
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