The Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen has his finger on the pulse of the Rockets, and though you can bet on Daryl Morey getting value in the draft no matter what happens, it appears that Houston wants to acquire a signature player on draft day. They may finally have the pieces to do so, says Feigen:
Morey has made his usual calls to move up from the 14th pick in Thursday's draft and has been open about that being his preference since before the lottery. He can sweeten that sort of deal by including the 23rd pick of the first round, a Magic pick acquired from the Suns in the Aaron Brooks trade.
Morey, however, is chasing other moves, even offering four first-round picks over the next two seasons. He already has traded the Rockets' first-round pick next year to the Nets in the deal to acquire Terrence Williams. But in the search for a foundation player, Morey has offered a combination of picks that could include this season's pick, next season's pick acquired from the Knicks in the Tracy McGrady trade and even the portion of the Rockets' pick next year that is not protected and that they would not be compelled to send to the Nets.
"We have a lot of options on the table," Morey said. "We have four No. 1s we could trade over the next two years. That's our goal, to see if we could pull off something like that."
Hard to say who the exact target would be. Given Morey's persistence with Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh over the last year or so, you can bet it starts at the top with names like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. In the draft itself, I'd put my money on Enes Kanter being Morey's target.
It should be a fascinating and exciting few days for Rockets fans as they see Morey's manipulations finally start to unfold. Check back frequently for more updates.