Among NBA teams, the Houston Rockets don’t have the highest quantity of future draft assets, but they are among the best when it comes to quality.

Sam Quinn of CBS Sports recently completed his annual exercise ranking the value of future first-round picks that have already been traded. In total, that is 63 at the moment.

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Among those traded picks, he has these in the top seven:

7.) 2027 Brooklyn Nets (unprotected swap right)

5.) 2027 Phoenix Suns (unprotected)

3.) 2029 Phoenix Suns (unprotected swap right)

Quinn’s explanations for each choice are available via the CBS Sports article. In both cases, the swap rights are highly likely to be used, since the Rockets would appear to have a significantly better future outlook than either the Suns or Nets.

What is most noteworthy is that no other NBA team has more than one asset among the top nine on Quinn’s list. Houston, by comparison, has three (and all are in the top seven).

It’s important to note that this is strictly a ranking of draft picks that have already been traded. It does not include picks that are owned by their original team, i.e. a future Houston selection that is currently owned by the Rockets (the next is 2028).

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But for trade leverage purposes, owning picks that have already been traded can be uniquely valuable.

As an example, if Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was to demand a trade in the coming weeks or months, Brooklyn could hypothetically offer its unprotected 2026 first-round selection as part of a package.

However, sending Antetokounmpo to the Nets would inherently lower the value of that 2026 pick to Milwaukee, since the presence of a perennial All-Star and Most Valuable Player (MVP) candidate would make Brooklyn win many more games — and thus, decrease the value of that team’s draft equity.

Houston, hypothetically, can get around this conundrum by offering assets from other teams that would be unaffected by any star player landing with the Rockets.

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It doesn’t appear that any such player is on the trade market at the moment, but it is potentially useful that Houston has this path available in the months and years ahead.

More: 2025 offseason update: Rockets’ NBA draft assets, protections through 2032

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Among traded future picks in NBA draft, Rockets own three of the best