With the NBA trading deadline finally upon us today at 2pm Houston time, we may finally get the answer to the questions we all have had the last few weeks.
Where will Derek Anderson end up and what can we get for him?
According to the Houston Chronicle, the Rockets have talked with Cleveland, Miami, Orlando, Denver and the L.A. Lakers in an effort to move the Houston guard, but all of those teams are focusing on other potential deals at the moment.
The Heat have a $1.9 million trade exception (from last year's Steve Smith-Malik Allen trade) that expires today, so they likely are considering an Anderson deal that would not involve a player coming back to Houston.
As for the Lakers, head coach Phil Jackson recently said the team is seeking a veteran backcourt player at the deadline, making Anderson a prime target.
Agent Tony Dutt, who represents Anderson, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram that his client signing with Houston was a mistake.
"Looking at it now," Dutt said of the Lakers, "that's probably where he should have gone."
"Everyone's aggressive right now to try to better their team," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy told the Chronicle. "I don't think there's one team that's not aggressively looking to better their team. Some general managers will tell you that. Usually the losing ones, like us ... you guys would think we were nuts if we said, 'You know what, we really like how it's going this year. This is good stuff right here, so we're going to stand pat and feel good.'"
Anderson has been an extreme disappointment for the Rockets since his signing back in August. He hasn't played in a game since December 14th due to injury, and once he was back healthy, Van Gundy decided it was best that he didn't play for the Rockets again.
So D.A. has been on a nice paid vacation since then, meaning just about anything that the Rockets get back via trade (save for a bloated contract) is an upgrade.
