11:10 pm: The trade is official, according to press releases from the Hawks and Rockets. As expected, Houston waived Springer to complete the deal.
1:44 pm: The Hawks are trading veteran center Cody Zeller and Houston’s own 2028 second-round pick, which Atlanta controlled from a previous deal, to the Rockets, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, Houston will acquire Zeller’s $3.5MM contract without having to send a player back in return by using a portion of its non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
Kelly Iko of The Athletic hears (via Twitter) that Atlanta will acquire the draft rights to Alpha Kaba from Houston to complete the deal. The 29-year-old French forward was selected No. 60 overall back in 2017, but has spent his entire career overseas to this point.
It’s a straight salary-dump move for the Hawks, who will remain below the luxury tax line as a result of the deal. They were in danger of surpassing that threshold as a result of taking on additional salary in their De’Andre Hunter trade with Cleveland.
As for the Rockets, they’ll reacquire their own future second-rounder for taking on Zeller’s salary, which is non-guaranteed beyond 2024/25.
The No. 4 overall pick of the 2013 draft, Zeller spent his first eight NBA seasons in Charlotte before becoming a journeyman over the past handful of years, spending time with Portland, Miami and New Orleans from 2021-24.
The Pelicans re-signed Zeller last summer to use his contract for salary-matching purposes in the Dejounte Murray trade — he has yet to play a game for the Hawks in ’24/25, having been listed as away from the team for personal reasons for much of the season.
Considering he hasn’t played at all this season and the Rockets already have three centers (Alperen Sengun, Steven Adams, Jock Landale), it wouldn’t be surprising if Houston decides to waive the 32-year-old big man in the coming days in order to open up a roster spot.
The Rockets will be waiving newly acquired Jaden Springer in order to finalize the trade, per Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle.