2017 NBA Draft: Houston Rockets' Last-Minute Whiteboard

The good news for the Houston Rockets is that they finished with the third-best record in the NBA and made it to the conference semifinals, exceeding almost all expectations.The bad news is that they don't get much of a draft.Their deadline trade for Lou Williams cost them their first-round pick for this year, which would have been only the 28th pick anyway. They don't have their second-round pick, either. They gave that to the New York Knicks on Feb. 19, 2015, as part of the trade for Pablo Prigioni, according to RealGM.com.However, they do have the Denver Nuggets' second-round pick (as part of the Ty Lawson trade in 2015) and the Portland Trail Blazers' second-round pick (from the Thomas Robinson trade in 2013). So, Houston will be picking in slots 43 and 45.That's not entirely bad. Daryl Morey has done pretty well with second-round selections in his tenure as general manager. Chinanu Onuaku (taken No. 37 in 2016), Montrezl Harrell (No. 32, 2015), Chandler Parsons (No. 38, 2011), Chase Budinger (No. 44, 2009) and Carl Landy (No. 31, 2007) all had a degree of success in the NBA (or look like they will in Onuaku's case).We've learned two things from Morey over the years. First, he subscribes to the "best player available" philosophy of drafting. And second, whoever he picks is going to see a lot more action with the Rockets NBA G League-affiliated Rio Grande Valley Vipers than they are with the mother ship next year.Morey tends to draft for the highest ceiling and then uses the developmental league to develop. That's the kind of outside-the-box thinking he gets paid the big bucks for.With that in mind, let's look at one player from each position who might be available to the Rockets in the second round of Thursday's draft and who might be Morey's next success story.Begin Slideshow
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