The Oklahoma City Thunder made the eight-player trade with the Houston Rockets official on Friday. The trade was first announced on Thursday.
The Thunder sent Derrick Favors, Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, Maurice Harkless, a 2026 second-round pick and cash considerations to the Rockets in exchange for Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, David Nwaba, Marquese Chriss and two trade exceptions.
Jerome’s time with the Thunder unofficially ended on Monday as the team announced the fourth-year guard would not participate in media day. Harkless’ tenure with the Thunder only lasted a couple of days.
Burke is in the final year of his contract and is owed $3.3 million; Brown is in the final year of his contract and is owed $3 million; Chriss is in the final year of his contract and is owed $2.2 million; Nwaba is owed $5 million this season with a $5.4 million team option for next season — Nwaba also has an aggregate trade restriction that prevents the Thunder from trading him again until Nov. 30.
Due to their relatively small salaries, the Thunder could move on from three of the four players pretty easily — Nwaba’s situation might be a little bit more tricky though, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Thunder keep him on the roster just to be able to move him after the first six weeks of the regular season.
The details in the trade also changed a bit from what was reported to what was announced. RocketsWire editor Ben DuBose mentioned how the 2026 second-round pick the Thunder sent to the Rockets was originally reported as a 2025 Atlanta Hawks second-round pick that could convert in 2026 instead.
Overall, this trade is large in quantity but not in quality. The Thunder get two new trade exceptions and only costed them four inconsequential players, a second-round pick and cash.
