The James Harden trade continues to look great as the Rockets landed the No. 3 pick in 2024 NBA Draft
The return for James Harden keeps getting better and better for the Rockets.
The Houston Rockets will select No. 3 overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, receiving the pick via the Brooklyn Nets as part of the James Harden package.
While they do not have the rights to their own selection in this draft, Houston was able to get this pick from the Harden trade in 2021. This was a massive win for the Rockets, who have built a solid core of young players since trading away their former face of the franchise.
They only had a 15 percent chance of getting a top-3 pick and now own the highest pick of any team in the Western Conference.
Houston was already able to select Tari Eason, who was named NBA All-Rookie Second-Team last season, in the 2022 NBA Draft as part of the massive haul for Harden. Now, they will keep growing on that return with the No. 3 overall pick. This trade will only continue to pay dividends as the Nets also owe future first-round picks to the Rockets over the next few years as well.
Even though some critics thought that Houston should target a win-now player to replace Harden, this was clearly the better path.
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Houston has several options for what they could do with this pick, though as of right now, our prediction is that they select Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard.
However, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, they could also use this pick to trade for a “impact veteran player” rather than select another yet young player.
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