Houston Rockets Trade Rumors: Bismack Biyombo replacing Yao Ming

The Houston Rockets are the team with all the trading chips in the world on draft night with multiple picks this year and next year.

Yao Ming's, the Rockets' All-Star center, may no longer be with the team now that his contract is ending. Ming has been plagued with injuries the past several years, including half of the 2010-2011 season and all of the season before.

Now, Draft Express has tweeted reported that the Rockets are interested in trading their number 14 and 23 pick this year for the Milwaukee Bucks' pick at number 10.

Although drafting Enes Kanter or Jonas Valanciunas would likely be the dream candidate for Rockets GM Daryl Morey, they would both likely be gone by the number 10 spots.

Instead, the player that the Rockets might be targeting is international player Bismack Biyombo, who is suddenly appearing on every team's radar.

They very physical Biyombo is getting high praise from NBA scouts for his his defense and rebounding However, he will be a long term project in terms of developing a decent NBA shot and post game.

Interestingly, this was the exact opposite of what NBA experts were saying about Yao Ming when he first came to the Rockets with his scoring touch, but lack of physicality as a rebounder and defender.

Biyombo is garnering interest from the Golden State Warriors at number 11 and the Phoenix Suns at number 13, thus requiring the Rockets to leap over the other two teams in order to draft Biyombo.

If the Rockets are able to get Biyombo either by trading up or getting him at number 14 if he falls to them, then that will end the possibility of re-signing Ming.

Ming was selected by the Rockets in 2002 with the first overall draft pick out of China. He quickly became a popular player with a large Chinese fan base and made eight All-Star games. However, despite his individual success, the Rockets only made it past the first round of the NBA playoffs once during his career.