been a miiiiiiiiinute since i wrote in this community! very excited to talk about some Rockets specific stuff. this one i just wanted to talk about some of the prospects in the upcoming draft that fit our team needs and how we should handle the luxury suite of Phoenix Suns first rounders that we own.

first and foremost- make an offer for Devin Booker. this much is obvious, even to non-Rockets fans. i won't get into the details of what that offer might look like, but that's for sure the first thing to address. historically, there's precedence that helps the Rockets out- star players simply don't get dealt for the utterly massive hauls that online mock trades often predict. but that's enough of trade talk, what about the actual pick and prospects?

there are 3 tiers of prospects Houston should be looking at. the first tier is players that could realistically be available with the PHX pick. in this tier is Khaman Maluach, Collin-Murray Boyles, Liam McNeeley, and Kon Knueppel. of course, not all of these guys will be there, but our odds of being able to draft at least one of these guys is pretty high. backup center has been one of our biggest holes, and i think Maluach is an absolutely PERFECT fit for our team. his defensive toolbox and skillset is exactly what we need. bizarrely, he's nearly a better defender in space than he is on the block. this is mainly due to his poor lower body strength. but we're clearly beyond drafting indiscriminate talents regardless of fit or floor. Maluach is a perfect backup 5. CMB is similar in that he's an excellent defender, rebounder, and a crafty scorer for his build and position. less than KM, but CMB is another great fit for us. as for McNeeley and Knueppel, we continue to address our horrid spacing/shooting. a fair amount of defensive potential with these two as well. Kon is also a capable ball handler, and just plays a fundamental basketball game with a really tough attitude.

the second tier is for prospects who might be available at some point in the later phases of the draft, where we could potentially trade into a pick. we do also own PHX's 55th overall, which could be used to move up a bit or to just take a player. in this tier is Danny Wolf, Joan Beringer, and Kam Jones. we're not really in position to take any of these guys except for Beringer, but its good to have a list. if one of these guys ends up falling a ton could sneak in and steal one of them. Wolf and Beringer, again, address our hole at backup 5. Kam is another older, grittier playmaker and defender we could potentially stash.

the third and final tier are guys who may or may not get drafted and could be targeted in UDFA. some of these guys could fit in the last tier too, we just don't know for sure what their draft stock is. a much bigger list of players here, many of them centers: Maxime Raynaud, Hansen Yang, both/either of the Ivisic bigs, Rocco Zikarsky, Jojo Tugler, Igor Milicic. and a player who i would've mentioned sooner, but just don't know what other people think- Chaz Lanier. i legit think he's a first round caliber player. but that seems to not be the consensus. but i would love to have him on our team.

so yeah. these are the prospects i wanna keep my eye on. let me know who else you think the Rockets should try to get!