Houston, looking at a brutal and loaded Western Conference, has gone out and added a little depth on the wing.
Minnesota has agreed to terms to send Corey Brewer to Houston, something first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports and quickly confirmed by Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
Brewer is the best player and key part of this deal, but there are other players and contracts on the move.
Houston will send Troy Daniels to Minnesota as part of the Brewer deal, sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 19, 2014
Minnesota sends Ronny Turiaf to Houston w/ Brewer, but Turiaf could be shuttled to third team, source says. Turiaf is injured, out for year.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 19, 2014
Houston will send two future second round picks to Minnesota in the deal, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 19, 2014
The Rockets offer beat out the Cavaliers and Clippers, both of whom were interested in Brewer as well and were talking to Minnesota. The Rockets and Timberwolves had gone back and forth for much of the season about a possible deal.
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This is not a potential game changer for Houston (like Rajon Rondo to Dallas) but it does give them some solid depth on the wing so they can spell James Harden and Trevor Ariza more. What Brewer does better than any player in the NBA is leak out when a shot goes up then catch long passes for easy buckets. He is the best wide receiver in the NBA. He gets almost half his shots (46 percent) near the rim where he finishes a good percentage of them. However, once you get beyond three feet and into his jumper both his shot selection and shooting percentage drops off fast. Defensively he’s solid but likes to gamble (and leak out).
The picks are assets the rebuilding Timberwolves could use. Troy Daniels was a three-point shooting machine in the D-League who has yet to prove himself at the NBA level. He only got in 17 games for the Rockets this season (108 minutes total) and 43 of his 47 shots are from beyond the arc, but he is shooting just 30.2 percent on those. There are questions about his defense as well.