White to Denver

Apparently trying to pare down their guard roster, the Rockets today traded high-scoring G/F James White to Denver for the rights to Axel Hervelle, a 6-9 power forward from Belgium. White did great things in the D-League with Anaheim, but the Rockets had him low in the pecking order at the big league level. Only the Rockets' brass knows why he was traded and no NBA front office people reveal things like that. Perhaps that's out of kindness to the player or perhaps they just don't want to give away a free scouting report.

Axel Hervelle was drafted in the second round by Denver in the 2005 draft and has been playing in Spain ever since. Hervelle averaged 8.3 points and 5 rebounds per game last year for Real Madrid and is likely to stay there next year as well. He is a teammate of Sergio Llull, one of Houston's three 2nd round draft choices this year.

Thank goodness the Rockets landed another power forward. They were down to their last five. This is another trade that I don't completely understand. I have to assume that the team knew that White had no chance whatsoever to make the Rockets basketball roster this season and decided to get something for him in return, something that cost them nothing. Or maybe they were just being nice guys and wanted to give James a chance to succeed somewhere else.