Armoni Brooks has signed with the College Park Skyhawks of the G League.

Brooks was waived by the Houston Rockets at the trade deadline to complete their 3-for-1 trade with the Boston Celtics. 

Brooks turned down several Two-Way offers and he could still return to the Rockets.

On a recent episode of The Lowe Post, Zach Lowe opened with a monologue of where the Los Angeles Lakers sit after the trade deadline. Lowe recapped the Lakers non-activity at the deadline, and LeBron James putting Los Angeles on notice with his recent comments at All-Star weekend.

With his opening segment, Lowe also added a new detail about the rumored Russell Westbrook for John Wall swap that the Lakers talked with the Houston Rockets. Previous reporting was that the Rockets were insistent on getting the Lakers 2027 first-round pick to take on Westbrook. Lowe reported that Houston's demands dropped to the right to swap first-round picks in 2027 with trading Wall for Westbrook.

The Lakers weren't interested in doing the deal, even with the lessened demands. That left Los Angeles with their roster as is, as they head into the stretch run of the season.

Dennis Schroder is likely to finish out the 21-22 season with the Houston Rockets and not negotiate a buyout.

Schroder was traded by the Boston Celtics to the Rockets at the deadline. 

Sources tell Marc Stein of Substack that neither Schroder or the Rockets favor a buyout.

Schroder has appeared in three games with the Rockets, averaging 12.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 7.7 assists in 29.0 minutes. 

The interest from the Brooklyn Nets in Ben Simmons dates back to when the Philadelphia 76ers made him available in a trade for James Harden with the Houston Rockets at the start of the 20-21 season.

"Another little tidbit to bolster my first fake conspiracy theory is that I've heard, and I think this is accurate, that the Nets.. so Harden said 'I wanted the Sixers originally when I got traded to the Nets' I'm pretty confident when that first started happening, the Nets were interested in Ben Simmons," said Zach Lowe on his podcast. "They obviously preferred Harden and chose Harden. They would have been happy to get Simmons as the outcome of a three-team trade. So here we are."

After the situation with Harden became untenable leading to the 2022 trade deadline, the Nets acquired Simmons along with Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first round picks. When the Nets traded for Harden, they sent out Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert as well as first round picks in 2022, 2024 and 2026 plus pick swaps in 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027.

During Harden's introductory press conference in Philadelphia, Daryl Morey referenced the possibility of a three-team trade last season and that it would have been the best outcome for all parties. 

During his introductory press conference with the Philadelphia 76ers, James Harden said his new franchise was his first choice when he was traded from the Houston Rockets. There were reports last week, however, that Tillman Fertitta gave Harden the opportunity to pick between the 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets.

"Originally, when I was going through everything I was going through in Houston, Philly was my first choice," said Harden."It just didn’t happen. Details, I don't really want to get into the Brooklyn situation. I knew for a very long time this was a perfect fit."

Harden went on to compliment the "best big man in the league" in Joel Embiid and the coaching and front office.

"From top to bottom, it made sense. I'm just happy and blessed that I'm here... I'm excited for the perfect opportunity."

The Los Angeles Lakers had an offer from the Houston Rockets of John Wall for Russell Westbrook that would not have included their 2027 first round pick. The Lakers reportedly were not ready to give up on the idea of the team figuring out to play with Westbrook, and may even be ready to do so heading into next season.

"The way I heard it was it could have been done for a first round pick, but it was even suggested they could have done it for a pick swap," said Ramona Shelburne on The Hoop Collective podcast. "I don't know the details of what that swap could be like, or how that would even work.

"It would have been John Wall for Russell Westbrook and a draft consideration," said Brian Windhorst. "There could have been first rounders moving, but it wouldn't have been losing a first rounder maybe?"

"Let's put it this way," continued Shelburne. "They would have had to incentivize Houston to do the trade with some kind of draft compensation. I think it was even less than what people have assumed.

"But I think the Lakers are not ready to pull the ripcord on that Russell Westbrook experiment. I think they feel like the team, the coach, the coaching staff, everything has not done enough to say this isn't going to work. Russell Westbrook is a future Hall of Famer. There are different ways of being used. And some of this is on Russ too. Russ can still change more too. But I think they feel they gave up so much to get him and he is a really talented player if used correctly. And he has not been used in any kind of way that's he comfortable with, or has been used, or been good before. We can argue forever whose fault that is. I think it's a lot of both. I think both sides take some... And some of it's just reality of playing with LeBron now. It's a different setup than he's ever been in.

"I think they just feel like you can't keep changing all the time. Especially just change for just change sake. That's kind of the phrasing I've heard. Let's not make a change just to make a change. Let's make a change when we know it's going to make us a lot better.

"I've even heard this phrasing of this is probably going to be the roster next year too. Obviously a lot of the minimum contract guys will change, but I think this is what they've got. There was a couple of weird signals I've seen since that. I don't think LeBron has been a situation where he just gets told no, flat out, very often."

Enes Kanter signed a veteran's minimum contract this past offseason and received a number of DNP-CDs while with the Boston Celtics. When Kanter was traded by the Celtics to the Houston Rockets, he was immediately waived and his future in the NBA is in doubt.

Kanter's NBA future is made murky by his political comments, which have also taken the form of provoking the likes of LeBron James and Jeremy Lin.

“I think people agree with almost of all of the positions he’s taken,” said one league exec. “I think this just comes down to basketball.

“Ime (Udoka) wants to switch everything on defense, which made it strange that Brad (Stevens) signed Enes. Switching is what he can’t do.”

Said another team’s GM, “I don’t know if anyone else signs him. Maybe not. I think from a basketball standpoint, it’s really questionable. I’m not sure if any of the other stuff will even come into play. I don’t think he won’t get a job because of anything he’s said or done. I think he just doesn’t guard, and the game is changing. He plays a lot older than he really is.”

Kanter averaged 3.7 points in 11.7 minutes over 35 appearances this season, playing behind Robert Williams, Al Horford and even Grant Williams in the big man rotation.

Daishen Nix and the Houston Rockets have agreed to a four-year contract.

Nix has widely been considered the best prospect in the G League and was previously on a Two-Way contract.

Nix went undrafted in 2021 after spending the 20-21 season with the G League Ignite. 

When Daryl Morey stepped down running the Houston Rockets in the fall of 2020, he expected to spend more time with family.

"My youngest son just graduated from high school, and it was just the right time to see what's next with family and other potential things in the future," Morey told ESPN at the time.

Morey was hired soon thereafter by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Sources tell Yaron Weitzman of Fox Sports that Morey had also considered the Dallas Mavericks as a potential future landing spot. The Mavericks had Donnie Nelson running the front office at the time, but they parted ways during the subsequent season. Mark Cuban is known as one of the NBA's most involved owners, while Morey had enjoyed relative autonomy for much of his Houston tenure. 

When the Houston Rockets traded James Harden in January 2021, he was given the opportunity by Tilman Fertitta to choose between the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets, sources tell Sam Amick of The Athletic. Harden chose the Nets, but of course now changed his mind and requested a deal 13 months later to join the 76ers.

There had been speculation that the Rockets refused to trade Harden to the 76ers due to the presence of Daryl Morey. Morey stepped down from his position running the Rockets late in 2020 citing family reasons only to be hired by the 76ers a few weeks later.

The relationship between Harden and 

The tenures of Morey and Harden with the Rockets predated the ownership of Fertitta.