After trading top wing defender Dillon Brooks for Kevin Durant’s Phoenix Suns, the Houston Rockets landed an elite replacement during NBA free agency hours.
NBA free agency is officially underway, with most of the top players choosing to sign contracts or signing new deals to stay with older teams, but the league is shaken up.
In an effort to build a championship-worthy roster around Kevin Durant, the Houston Rockets ticked outstanding defender Dorian Finney Smith into a four-year, $53 million deal and stole him from the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Rockets give up Dillon Brooks on the trade that landed Durant, and Finney Smith is more than he can pick up from where Brooks left off.
After adding Durant in exchange for Brooks, Jalen Green and the 10th overall pick in the 2025 draft, Rocket was expected to remain the second seed in the Western Conference behind the Oklahoma City Thunder, but the chances of upsetting in the first round have drastically reduced.
While losing the volume scorer on the green and the wing of All-Defence at Brooks, they added an All-NBA scorer who could score 30 points with high efficiency on certain nights.
Adding Finney-Smith to the fold will ensure that Rockets will remain the top five defensive team, boasting a lineup of Fred Vanvleet, Amen Thompson, Finney-Smith, Durant and Alperen Sengun. Adding that Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard, Cam Whitmore and Steven Adams will come out of the bench, and Rockets could be on top of the Western Conference.
| player | ppg | RPG | 3pt% | SPG | GDP |
| Dillon Brooks | 14.0 | 3.7 | 39.7% | 0.8 | 0.2 |
| Dorian Finney Smith | 8.7 | 3.9 | 41.1% | 0.9 | 0.3 |
Brooks is a slightly better defender, and despite the statistics he is more physical players (pests?), but the new additions bring more attacks and floor spacing.
Not everything is good in Hollywood. The Lakers had borrowed LeBron James, which had roughly $52 million since he opted in, but wanted to bolster their defenses around James, Austin Reeves and Luka Donsic. If James restructured his deal to be more team-friendly, the Lakers could have made Finney Smith a better offer and We were able to compete for high-end centers such as Clint Capella, DeAndre Ayton and Clint Capella.
The Lakers still have cap space to add centers, but keeping longtime teammate and Donsic’s friend, Finney Smith, would have been good in and out of court success and chemistry.
When Don Sic was first traded for the Lakers, it was his reunion with Finney Smith, earning excitement rather than a chance to play with James.
If the Lakers have to choose between Luka and LeBron this season, it’s clear they value the youth and the future, but losing Finney Smith when it can be easily prevented is not a sign of good things going forward.