{"id":125048,"date":"2025-06-26T02:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T02:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/125048\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T02:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T02:21:10","slug":"technically-rockets-draft-duke-center-khaman-maluach-who-will-be-traded-to-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/125048\/","title":{"rendered":"Technically, Rockets draft Duke center Khaman Maluach (who will be traded to Suns)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Technically, Houston selected <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/ncaab\/teams\/duke-blue-devils\/1388\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Duke;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Duke<\/a> center Khaman Maluach with the No. 10 overall selection in Wednesday\u2019s first round of the 2025 NBA draft. He then donned a Rockets hat.<\/p>\n<p>The key word, of course, is technically.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Houston\u2019s No. 10 pick was sent to Phoenix earlier this week <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/stephen-smith-kevin-durant-rockets-172150444.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:as part of the trade package;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as part of the trade package<\/a> to acquire All-Star forward Kevin Durant. So, the Rockets picked on behalf of the Suns. Similarly, the Rockets will pick on behalf of Phoenix at No. 59 overall in Thursday\u2019s second round.<\/p>\n<p>But because the Rockets-Suns deal needs to include the <a href=\"https:\/\/hoopshype.com\/salaries\/houston_rockets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:elevated 2025-26 salary;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">elevated 2025-26 salary<\/a> of Jalen Green, the trade needs to wait until July to be made official. July is when the league\u2019s next fiscal year will start.<\/p>\n<p>Later in the first round, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that Maluach would be dealt from the Rockets to Phoenix as part of a trade \u201cto be finalized later.\u201d It\u2019s not a secret as to what trade that was in reference to.<\/p>\n<p>So, as with Rudy Gay and others from back in the day, Maluach was technically drafted by the Rockets, and Houston will officially be part of his NBA career story. He will then be officially traded in early July and likely play for the Suns <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/nba-2025-summer-league-set-195944641.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:at the upcoming 2025 summer league;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at the upcoming 2025 summer league<\/a> in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">More: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/rafael-stone-absolute-heater-rockets-184537883.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:\u2018Rafael Stone is on an absolute heater\u2019: Rockets draw more praise for Kevin Durant trade;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Rafael Stone is on an absolute heater\u2019: Rockets draw more praise for Kevin Durant trade<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/rocketswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rockets\/2025\/06\/25\/technically-rockets-draft-duke-center-khaman-maluach-traded-to-suns\/84362340007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Technically, Rockets draft Duke center Khaman Maluach (traded to Suns);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Technically, Rockets draft Duke center Khaman Maluach (traded to Suns)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Technically, Houston selected Duke center Khaman Maluach with the No. 10 overall selection in Wednesday\u2019s first round of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,861,938,958,6,12,2065,211,1373,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-125048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-jalen-green","13":"tag-kevin-durant","14":"tag-khaman-maluach","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-draft","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-rockets","19":"tag-rudy-gay","20":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114747283163985817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}