Sekou Doumbouya has gone from the 15th overall pick and the youngest player in his draft class in 2019 to given up by three franchises, including two early in the rebuilding process in just over a month.
After the Pistons shipped Sekou to Brooklyn as part of a DeAndre Jordan salary dump that netted Detroit four second-round picks, the Nets have sent Dombouya to the Houston Rockets along with a second-round pick as part of a three-team trade in order to decrease its luxury tax bill by roughly $8 million.
The Rockets were in it simply for the second-round pick and plan to release Doumbouya who will be a free agent looking to catch on with an NBA team a little more than two months before his 21st birthday.
Doumbouya played in one preseason game for the Nets and scored 11 points in 12 minutes going 3-of-3 from the field, 5-of-5 from the line with four rebounds.
The Doumbouya deal is part of a series of move that could even become a three-team deal for Brooklyn also involving Edmon Sumner and the Indiana Pacers. The Nets are trading a second-rounder and Juan Pablo Vaulet for Sumner and a second-rounder. Sumner is injured and not expected to play this season.
As someone who believed in betting on youth with the Doumbouya pick, the whole thing just bums me out. But you can’t really say it any better than Laz Jackson did on Twitter so i’ll cede the floor to him.
(sekou worth, so far, negative 5 second-round picks)
(big ouch)
— Lazarus Jackson (@lazchance) October 6, 2021
Big ouch indeed.