Rockets acquire Lou Williams from Lakers for Corey Brewer, first round pick

Splash! With the trade deadline just under 48 hours away, Daryl Morey and the Houston Rockets have made a trade.

The Rockets have acquired sixth man scorer Lou Williams, sending Corey Brewer and a first round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers, according to Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski.

Williams is a top candidate for Sixth Man of the Year, currently averaging 18.6 points a night and hitting a career-best 38.6% from long range. Another top Sixth Man of the Year candidate? Eric Gordon. The Rockets now sport two scoring machines off the pine in Gordon and Williams… and Williams can score in a hurry. He put up 38 against Utah then followed that up with a season-high 40 against Memphis.

Historically, Williams hasn’t been a brilliant three-point shooter (34.7%), but he has stepped it up this season, particularly from the corners where he’s hitting 52.5%. By comparison, Brewer was shooting 26.2% from the corner three this season.

There also was a steep dropoff for Rockets at the guard spot after James Harden, Patrick Beverley and Gordon, so with the team’s injury issues in the backcourt, this is a strong addition to the squad.

The team also unloads Corey Brewer, who was a very poor fit for Mike D’Antoni’s system and has another year and some change remaining on his contract. As a result, it cost the Rockets their first round pick. I’m rarely a fan of moving first rounders and it kills me the Rockets will be without one for two straight years now, but this is a worthwhile move at that price.

So the Rockets are doubling down on offense, giving D’Antonio plenty of weapons to try to make something happen in the West.