Charlotte reportedly eyes the former third-overall pick, but a realistic deal requires more than Miles Bridges and draft capital to pry the young forward from Houston’s future.
With the offseason in full swing now, there will be endless rumors circulating for months. The Houston Rockets’ young forward Jabari Smith Jr. was in headlines recently, as one team seems to have some interest in acquiring him.
The Charlotte Hornets reportedly have their eyes on the former 3rd overall pick, but I’m not so sure how realistic any trade would be.
I think it’s clear from the Hornets side, they’d start their offer with Miles Bridges. Aside from it making sense to simply swap starting power forwards, he’s also on an expiring contract.
His $22.8 million dollar salary next year lines up well enough with Jabari’s $23.6 million, but a one for one swap would be ridiculous. That’d require a lot of picks from Charlotte in order for it to make any amount of sense.
Bridges is a solid player, but he’ll be a free agent in a year if the Rockets don’t extend him. He’s also five years older and already in his prime. Even if he was a minor improvement, it might only be for one season.
Jabari Smith Jr. is under contract for five years, as his rookie extension hasn’t even kicked in yet. He has so much more room to grow, and I think fans would love to see that happen in the ketchup and mustard rebrand.
Since that simple swap wouldn’t work for Houston, maybe Charlotte could throw in something other than just picks?
I was impressed by Ryan Kalkbrenner’s rookie season, and being a second round pick, he has a relatively low contract. That could fit into the same deal with no issues.
As a 7’1” rim protector, he’s definitely something the Rockets are looking for. Moussa Diabaté is on the same minimal contract too if he’s more Houston’s speed.
They could still get similar guys in this draft though, as covered on Roundtable. So would either of those bigs be enticing enough? Or Sion James? Probably not.
I think the last possible scenario would be to have Charlotte taking on Houston’s bad contract(s), mainly that of Dorian Finney-Smith. While it took some clever maneuvering for Rafael Stone to acquire the veteran wing last summer, things just didn’t work out.
His $12.7 million burnt a hole in the cap last season, and I’m hoping his $13.335 million this year doesn’t do the same. He could always bounce back, but at 33 years old it’s not something I’d put my money on.
The problem with this trade would be how much more salary the Hornets now have to send back. LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Kon Knueppel are obviously off limits, and I’m not interested in many of their other players.
Josh Green and Grant Williams each make over $14 million and would be the realistic options, but that’s just exchanging bad contracts. Again, I think this proposal falls flat for the Hornets.
No matter how I look at this trade, I just simply can’t figure out how it would make sense from the Rockets perspective. I don’t think fans will have to worry about Jabari Smith Jr. getting traded to Charlotte any time soon.
