The Houston Rockets may be trying to rid themselves of Kevin Porter Jr. one way or the other.
Kelly Iko of The Athletic reported on Thursday that the Rockets are hoping to find a resolution for the Porter situation before training camp. Iko adds that Houston is considering either trading or waiving the 23-year-old guard.
Porter, a former first-round pick, was arrested on felony charges of assault and strangulation after an incident with his girlfriend, former WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, at a New York City hotel this week. The alleged details of the incident were disturbing and cast huge doubt on Porter’s continued future in the NBA.
The Rockets were already known to be shopping Porter in the wake of the arrest, but it wouldn’t be surprising if no team wanted to touch him right now. That may be why Houston is reportedly trying to incentivize teams to take on Porter’s contract.
Obviously, the Rockets would prefer to find a taker for Porter in a trade. That is because Porter has a good-sized chunk of guaranteed money left on his contract (a full guarantee of $15.9 million for next season and a partial guarantee of, at the moment, $1 million for 2024-25). The Rockets would have to pay all of that if they were to waive Porter outright. But if the Rockets can’t convince another team to bite the bullet on Porter before camp, they might do so themselves and waive Porter just to be able to get him off their team.
More must-reads: