Former UCF Knights Basketball star Jermaine Taylor will have a new fresh start to his NBA Career as Taylor as first reported by ESPN’s Marc Stein on Tuesday Night was traded from Houston Rockets along with cash considerations to the Sacramento Kings for a future 2ndround pick.
Taylor was traded after the Rockets made a 3-way trade with the New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Lakers as Rockets acquired small forward Terrence Williams in the trade. That move made Taylor expendable as the Rockets needed to make a move to clear roster space. The odd twist of the trade was the Rockets hosted the Kings on Tuesday Night and Taylor did not know about the trade until he got to the Rockets lockeroom right before the game.
“I’m OK with it, Taylor told the Houston Chronicle. “ The Only thing that’s bugging me is no one told me anything yet. I had to hear it like this. I look at as an opportunity to start over and go someplace else and play.”
The Rockets could have completed the trade with Kings before Tuesday Night game against Kings but because one of players in 3-way trade Joe Smith who going to Lakers was not eligible to be traded until Wednesday, thus the trade for Williams could not be finalized until Wednesday and as a result the Rockets did not want to trade Taylor until the Williams trade was complete.
Taylor departure from Houston was fitting of his stay in Houston as Taylor had been frustrated with his role in Houston for a while with lack of playing time as in his 2ndseason in the NBA Taylor had been averaging 4.9 points on 50 percent shooting from the field but only getting 9 minutes per game and had only played in just 8 of the Rockets first 24 games this season. The Rockets have had him on the trading block since the start of the season as Taylor was never really a favorite of Rockets Head Coach Rick Adelman who preferred playing veteran players like Shane Battier, Courtney Lee and Jared Jeffries who were ahead of Taylor on roster for playing time.Taylor chances of being big part of Rockets future took hits when Rockets last season traded for Kevin Martin from ironically the Kings as well as Jeffries as part of a 3-way trade where Rockets traded Tracy McGrady to the Knicks. Rockets acquired Lee this summer from the Nets as part of a 4-way trade where the Rockets traded Trevor Ariza to the Hornets.
Now Taylor will be playing with a familiar face from his college days as Taylor will play with Tyreke Evans who Taylor competed against in Conference USA. Taylor beat out Evans for C-USA Player of the Year in the 2008-2009 College Basketball season as Taylor averaged 26.2 points per game in his senior season at UCF to edge out the then freshman Evans who played at Memphis for the honor. Taylor and Evans faced off once in college as Memphis came down to Orlando to open conference play on January 10th, 2009 at the UCF Arena in front of a school-record 9,825 fans as Taylor scored game high 24 points while Evans had 15 points, 6 Rebounds, and 5 Asst as the Tigers won the game 73-66.
Evans and Taylor were both in the 2009 NBA Draft as Evans was drafted 4thoverall by the Kings while Taylor was drafted in the 2ndround of the 2009 NBA Draft going 32nd by the Washington Wizards and was soon traded the same night to the Houston Rockets. Evans had a huge first year averaging 20 points per game along with 5 rebounds and 5 assts per game becoming the 4thNBA player ever to accomplish that feat in his rookie year joining Oscar Robertson (1960), Michael Jordan (1984), and LeBron James (2003). Taylor did not get the opportunities that Evans did to show his talents as Taylor only played in 31 games his rookie season with a veteran Rockets team averaging just nine minutes per game scoring 4 points per game shooting 37 percent from the field. Taylor also got to play for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League who the Rockets assigned Taylor to so he can get playing time.
Despite the frustrations Taylor has gone through so far. It has not shaken his confidence as Taylor feels he can play in the NBA at a high level.
“I know what kind of player I am and I know if I get a chance, I’ll be a great player. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”