{"id":742362,"date":"2026-05-24T01:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742362\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:42:14","slug":"where-did-houstons-2026-first-round-pick-end-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742362\/","title":{"rendered":"Where did Houston&#8217;s 2026 first-round pick end up?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>May 23, 2026, 6:00 p.m. CT<\/p>\n<p>The Houston Rockets traded their 2026 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 2019 deal for Russell Westbrook.The Thunder later traded this pick to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for guard Jared McCain.Philadelphia acquired the pick after previously sending their own 2026 first-rounder to Oklahoma City in a separate deal.The Rockets currently hold two second-round selections, No. 39 and No. 53, in the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/houston-rockets\/10\/\" data-autotag=\"13a51ca7-e216-40c0-a272-58d18f5541d7\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Houston Rockets<\/a> are one of the few NBA teams without a first-round selection in the 2026 NBA Draft. But where did that selection go?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Rockets gave up their 2026 first-round pick almost seven years ago to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/oklahoma-city-thunder\/25\/\" data-autotag=\"cd165858-eeda-4db8-a84a-db7a782e61e3\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> in a package deal that sent Russell Westbrook to Houston, pairing him up with James Harden once again. The Thunder acquired Chris Paul, a 2024 first-round pick, a 2026 first-round pick and two first-round pick swaps (2021 and 2025).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Earlier this season, the Thunder traded Houston&#8217;s 2026 first-round pick to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/philadelphia-76ers\/20\/\" data-autotag=\"b3f2a355-8d98-44c0-a603-3f9a2d8bc375\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> in exchange for former Duke guard Jared McCain, who&#8217;s played a pivotal role in Oklahoma City&#8217;s playoff success this season. This helped Philadelphia get back into the first round of a loaded draft class after previously trading their 2026 first-rounder to Oklahoma City to move on from veteran center Al Horford.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Although Houston doesn&#8217;t own any first-round picks, they hold two selections in the second round, No. 39 and No. 53.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 23, 2026, 6:00 p.m. CT The Houston Rockets traded their 2026 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72400,7,6,12,90586,72742,72743,72404,72933,72740,72559,74794,72444,72422,72570,72484,72405,72475,72936,72406,72558,1928,72403],"class_list":["post-742362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-sourcerockets-wire","tag-sstssportsnbarockets","tag-sstsnrockets","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagchris-paul","tag-taghouston","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagjared-mccain","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagnba-draft","tag-tagoklahoma-city-thunder","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagphiladelphia-76ers","tag-tagrussell-westbrook","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-tx","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116627016475032451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742362","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=742362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}