When the Houston Rockets signed Nene to a new contract, it was obvious he was signed for trade purposes. For starters, we know Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is one of the elite general managers in the NBA and is willing to creatively find ways to improve the roster.
But not only that, the initial contract was drawn up to inflate Nene’s outgoing value for trade purposes, so it left little doubt that Nene would be traded. Unfortunately the league intervened and reduced his outgoing salary from $10 million to $2.