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Rockets won’t stretch-and-waive Brandon Knight following Ryan Anderson trade

Rockets, Brandon Knight, Ryan Anderson

The Houston Rockets will be standing pat after trading the overloaded contract of Ryan Anderson alongside rookie De’Anthony Melton to the Phoenix Suns for Marquese Chriss and Brandon Knight.

Knight, who spent the entire 2017-18 season on the shelf due to a season-ending injury, was a possibility to be stretched, then waived before the Sept. 1 deadline, but the Rockets won’t do so due to one constraint — time.

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton noted the possibility of stretching the remaining $30.3 million left in Knight’s contract over five years, which would have the Rockets pay merely a shade over $6 million by placing him on waivers, but there is simply just not enough time for Knight and the rest of the players involved to all pass a physical exam in the span of 24 hours and wait for the league to validate the trade and then agree to a stretch-and-waive structure.

While this scenario would have been ideal for the Rockets to land under the tax (which could also save them from an impending repeater tax in the future), the trade happened just way too close to the deadline, which would force Houston to eat the less gluttonous of the two contracts.

Both teams took a risk by trading some of their young assets, as the Suns punted on Chriss, who had yet to meet expectations in two years, but yielded Melton, a second-rounder in who they have been really high on since the draft.

What do you guys think of the Brandon Knight and Ryan Anderson fallout?

The post Rockets won’t stretch-and-waive Brandon Knight following Ryan Anderson trade appeared first on ClutchPoints.

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