After the Rockets were not able to pull in their coveted big man at the NBA Draft on Thursday, the wheels in Daryl Morey's head are spinning like mad trying to get this team a player in the middle that can make a difference. That player may end up being... Andris Biedrins?
Latest NBA scuttlebutt has the Rockets possibly sending center/forward tweener Jordan Hill and um, effort/desire tweener Hasheem Thabeet to Golden State for Biedrins.
In seven seasons with the Warriors, Biedrins has averaged 7.7 points, 8 rebounds, and just over a block per game while playing in around 24 minutes per contest. He's very obviously not "the" guy the Rockets covet, but they would have you believe that he's better than what the team has now. Yeah, that's a stretch. Clearly the plan to get a star-level player wouldn't change with the acquisition of Biedrins.
Thabeet appears to be a lost cause unless he flips a switch that suddenly gives him the mental makeup of a guy who cares about his NBA career. His involvement in any deal is only about making the money work, so he's basically a non-factor. Hill has shown flashes of effectiveness and makes for a nice complimentary player. The deal pretty much boils down to Hill vs. Biedrins. Player to player I can't say I think one is tremendously better than the other. Presumably, Biedrins would be a full-time center in Houston, whereas there has been some power forward play sprinkled in with his center work in Golden State.
With the addition of forwards Marcus Morris and Donatas Motiejunas in the draft on Thursday, it makes sense that the Rockets are looking to move one or more of their plethora of frontcourt players.
Post-draft, Morey still has an immense amount of work to do to get this team into the playoffs, but getting to the playoffs clearly is not the goal. Oh, and there's still that little matter of what to do about Yao Ming.