Houston Rockets Trade Royce White to Sixers

Nobody puts Sam Hinkie in a corner. Though the Sixers missed out on Golden State's expiring contracts while they cleared room to sign Andre Iguodala, Sam Hinkie would not be denied twice. As Houston looks to clear space to acquire Josh Smith to pair with Dwight Howard, they've dealt the extremely enigmatic Royce White to the Sixers for "future draft considerations" which probably means nothing-adjacent if you ask Kyrylo Fesenko.

Houston has traded Royce White to Philadelphia, league sources tell Y! Sports.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 6, 2013

There is no player in the NBA as risk-reward as Royce White. If things work out for him, he can be an absolute beast, capable of doing ridiculous things on the basketball court. On the flip side, he hasn't played a game in the NBA yet because of his mental illness. We'll be talking about this forever, but the official Liberty Ballers stance (and yours, if you don't want to get booted) is that Royce's anxiety disorder is a mental illness and should be treated as such.

Here's great reading material on it.

Royce White the Player will be given plenty of rope and plenty of respect. Sam Hinkie was with him in Houston. He knows the guy. They probably drafted him 16th last year because Sam wanted him. His offensive ceiling is absolutely higher than anybody else on the Sixers. I trust Sam Hinkie. So should you. He took him off Daryl Morey's hands.

The Sixers' D-League team is not too far away in Delaware, so because of Royce's flying issues, the bus will not be out of the question. I imagine both sides will have long conversations about what is best for both of them and ultimately come to the right decision. The Sixers ownership has acquired him for nothing. He will work out or he won't. But I strongly believe we should give them the benefit of the doubt and see what happens.

A lot of dumb articles and insensitive things will be said about this. But the fact is: he's a kid and he's immensely talented. He deserves a chance. He'll get it in Philadelphia.

This will be an interesting season. I am ridiculously excited. Sam Hinkie, you guys.

UPDATE: Sixers also acquire 2013 second-round draft pick Furkan Aldemir, 6'9 forward from Turkey. Here's his DX page -- more on him here.