The Rockets completed a deal early today to move Tracy McGrady and might just have landed his successor.
A person with knowledge of the deal said the Rockets sent McGrady, Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to the Sacramento Kings for high-scoring guard Kevin Martin.
Six seasons after he arrived as the NBA scoring champion with league title aspirations and 6 1/2 weeks after he left the Rockets no longer believing he could help them, McGrady was dealt to the Kings when Martin became available.
The Rockets will also receive forward Kenny Thomas (a former first-round pick of theirs), center Hilton Armstrong and point guard Sergio Rodriguez. The Rockets will send cash to the Kings but, with the swap, will also move under the luxury-tax line, a secondary goal in the trade talks.
“With Yao (Ming) back next year, we think Kevin gives us a great shot,” the person with knowledge of the deal said. “This also gives us what we need this year.”
The deal reunites Martin with Rockets coach Rick Adelman, with Martin bringing the scoring the Rockets have lacked with McGrady out.
Martin, who has had injury problems in recent seasons, is averaging 20.3 points in 21 games this season, and 17.1 in his career.
Landry was the Rockets’ second-leading scorer, averaging 16.1 points per game.
The trade ends McGrady’s run in Houston much as he ended his time in Orlando. After playing relatively little following an injury, the seven-time All-Star was traded by both teams for a package of players amid varying degrees of acrimony and disappointment over promise unfulfilled.
With McGrady saying it was time he began receiving increased playing time, the Rockets instead granted an indefinite leave of absence Dec. 28 while seeking a trade.
McGrady is in the final season of the extension he signed with the Rockets before the 2004-05 season worth $22.46 million this season. Limited to brief first-half stints in six games while coming back from microfracture surgery, McGrady averaged 3.2 points in an average of 7.7 minutes this season, making 7 of 19 shots. Of his 19 points, 10 came in one game against the Clippers.
McGrady’s averaged 25.7 points with 6.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists in his first season with the Rockets, his top scoring season after consecutive years leading the league in scoring.
He finished last season averaging 23.1 points per game with the Rockets, but struggled with injuries through much of his six seasons in Houston and had knee surgeries after each of his two previous seasons with the Rockets.
He played playing just 47 games in 2005-06 because of back issues and just 35 games last season because of the knee problems that led to his microfracture surgery in February.
McGrady was second- or third-team All NBA selection in three of his first five seasons with the Rockets. The Rockets, however, never advanced past the first round of the playoffs, until last season when McGrady was out.
source:chron.com by JONATHAN FEIGEN
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