After the news of the unfortunate and likely season-ending injury to Fred VanVleet, the rest of the NBA is wondering what move the Rockets will make next. On the hunt for a cheap ballhandler, Houston could make a call to the Detroit Pistons about Jaden Ivey.
This was suggested briefly on The Bill Simmons Podcast, as the host and NBA guru Zach Lowe threw out some names the Rockets could inquire about, including Jaden Ivey.
I wrote about how this awful injury could provide an opportunity for the Pistons to orchestrate a trade for Tari Eason, a young power forward who would satisfy their biggest long-term need and give them another strong and versatile defender.
But there are challenges to such a trade, largely because Houston is an apron team and cannot take back more money than they send out.
The same issue is present for any potential trade for Ivey, which is only one of the reasons it is very unlikely to happen.
Detroit Pistons trade: Jaden Ivey to the Rockets would take more teams
The Pistons aren’t actively shopping Ivey and seem to be content to let him play out the last year of his contract and go from there.
Even if they were, it’s doubtful the Rockets would be interested in Ivey as a replacement for VanVleet. Ivey is not a real point guard, turns the ball over at a fair clip, and is not a great defender. He did shoot the ball better than VanVleet last season, but he's a worse defender and isn't the same type of leader, at least not at this point in his career.
As Bill Simmons said, it’s hard to see the Rockets beating the Thunder with Jaden Ivey as primary ballhandler, and I tend to agree with that assessment. Houston will want a veteran facilitator who can be trusted in big games (Derrick White anyone?), and Ivey is not that.
Even if Houston were interested, it’s nearly impossible to make the money work. While I am somewhat intrigued by an Eason for Ivey swap, Eason is making about half of what Ivey does, so the Rockets would have to send at least one more contract to make the money work.
And who is that player going to be? I’ve tried to make it work, but the only swap I could find that doesn’t fleece one of the two teams is to swap Ivey for Reed Sheppard, which doesn’t really solve Houston’s problem.
It’s an interesting idea, but Ivey doesn’t fit the profile of the player Houston wants and it would be tough to make the money work without expanding the trade into something bigger and involving several teams.