Dealing
Morey's Money: Jonny Flynn trade makes it a franchise-changing draft night forHouston Rockets
Houston, we have basketball hope.
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey orchestrated the best night of his tenure in Thursday night's NBA Draft, trading for Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Jonny Flynn — the sixth overall pick in the 2009 draft — to go with Big 12 Player of the Year Marcus Morris. The deal for Flynn and the 20th overall pick Donatas Motiejunas with Minnesota came within a half hour of when the Rockets managed to draft Morris with the 14th overall selection.
To getting the potential-packed Flynn and the 7-foot Motiejunas, the Rockets only had to give up an overpaid, old center in Brad Miller, the rights to the 23rd pick in the draft and a future first round pick.
Yahoo! Sports NBA writer Marc Stein first reported the deal. It's a potential franchise-shifting one for the Rockets. Flynn, who came out of Syracuse as a highly-touted prospect, is the key to the whole deal and arguably now, many of the Rockets' plans. Flynn enjoyed a good rookie season, but he fell off dramatically last year and with the TWolves bringing in wunderkind Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio, many in Minnesota felt they needed to move a potential distraction out.
Now, Flynn becomes the Rockets hope — at the very least, another potential valuable chip for Morey as he attempts to revamp a going-nowhere team into a contender.