It's long been debated whether or not the Houston Rockets should trade center Christian Wood at the upcoming trade deadline. While it's pretty unlikely that Houston decides to pull the trigger on such a trade this year, we've now entered the NBA's annual rumor season. Kelly Iko of The Athletic reported on Monday that the Heat have been a persistent suitor for Wood. This was backed up by reporting from Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report on Thursday.

It's rather odd for Miami to be pursuing Wood considering they already have Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker, and Bam Adebayo sharing a frontcourt together. However, the idea could be for Butler and Tucker to both slide up a position and Wood to play power forward next to Adebayo. It's very similar to how the Hawks use John Collins next to Clint Capela, but still an awkward fit in theory. Nevertheless, let's assume the Heat are actually willing to pay market price for Wood and make it happen.

What would it cost them?

For starters, Duncan Robinson would need to be shipped to Houston to make the salary-matching work. Robinson is a starting caliber player in the prime of his career at 27-years-old and on a fair value contract so he's got decent value by himself. In a vacuum, Wood is still the better basketball player and that means it would likely need to require an additional asset. This is where it gets tricky as the Heat can't trade any of their first round picks until 2025 due to the NBA's Stepien rule. Given the age of their roster, this pick has a good chance of becoming a lottery pick.

Robinson's contract and a potential lottery pick is probably over the fair-market value for Wood. So if Miami is really dead set on completing this deal, they probably have two options:

  1. Ask for a sweetener from Houston
  2. Give Houston swap rights on any first round pick 2024 or later

Now Houston hasn't had great luck with pick swaps going their way yet. Last season Brooklyn kept their first round pick and the Rockets are on pace to earn nothing for the pick swap they got from Miami last season. It's a bit of a gamble for Houston to say they'll be better than Miami by 2024. However, what they could do is combine the swap with Brooklyn's 2024 first round pick obligation like they did with the Victor Oladipo trade last year.

This is just one creative way of going about it. The Rockets could also shoehorn in any other Brooklyn pick that they own into the swap they ask for. They could also just include use one of their own picks, but it would have to be pretty deep into the future considering how bad Houston is right now. A smart first round pick swap basically splits the difference in market value between a first round pick and a second round pick.

With all that being said, let's look at theoretical deals Houston could construct.

Deal 1 framework (the sweetener):

Heat receive:

Christian Wood

K.J. Martin.

Houston receives:

Duncan Robinson

2025 first round pick

Reasoning:

This trade could be an unpopular one amongst Rockets fans, but K.J. Martin is your textbook example of a trade sweetener. In market value terms, he's probably worth somewhere in the neighborhood of an early second round pick or a late first round pick. Wood himself is probably worth two first round picks. It's important to note though that Houston is acquiring the rough equivalent of three first round picks in this deal. The 2025 first Miami is giving up here has real lottery potential, meaning it could be worth about two late firsts. Additionally, Robinson could be flipped again by Houston for a first round pick.

Houston could also do this trade with someone like David Nwaba instead if they feel uncomfortable giving up a young asset.

Deal 2 framework (the pick swap):

Heat receive:

Christian Wood

Houston receives:

Duncan Robinson

2024 first round pick swap with Brooklyn pick

Reasoning:

The idea of Houston pursuing a swap from Miami instead of an outright pick was explained above, so let's just go over the alternatives. If they wanted to bank on themselves being better than Miami, they could ask for their 2025 or 2027 first round pick swap to be attached to their own pick. If they wanted to bank on Brooklyn being better, they could ask for Miami's 2024 or 2026 first round pick swap to be attached to one of the Nets' picks.

Both frameworks are unlikely, but we'll have to keep watching to see how serious Houston gets about moving Wood.