Houston Rockets got active on the trade market on Monday, but their dealing surprisingly didn’t include All-Stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook. Instead, Rockets parted ways with Robert Covington while bringing back a familiar face.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Houston traded Covington to Portland Trail Blazers while receiving veteran forward Trevor Ariza and a couple of draft picks in return. Ariza had two stints with the franchise before, suiting up for Rockets between 2009 and 2010 and between 2014 and 2018.
According to Wojnarowski, the Rockets will get Trail Blazers’ No. 16 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and a protected first-rounder in 2021.
Covington was part of a massive trade that saw Rockets dealing Clint Capela to Atlanta Hawks in February and going all-in with their small-ball experiment. While Houston failed to get a memorable playoff run out of it, the 29-year-old player was a solid producer for the team while being a nightmare for opponents on the defensive end.
In 22 regular-season games for Rockets in 2019/20, Covington averaged 11.6 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 31.5 percent from three-point range.
Ariza, on the other hand, shot 40.0 percent from beyond the arc and averaged 11.0 points per game for Trail Blazers last season. He landed in Portland in January from Washington Wizards.
It made sense for Portland to make this trade as the organization is committed to exploiting superstar Damien Lillard’s prime. Covington addresses several needs for the team, and while he might not be the player who will put them over the top, he surely gets them closer.
The move has different implications for Rockets, as the organization finds itself at the crossroads. Both Harden and Westbrook signaled that they want out and this may be just the beginning of Houston’s dealings in the offseason.
