Ranking 6 draft prospects the Houston Rockets could draft by fit

There are no rules when it comes to the NBA draft.

Some will argue otherwise. They'll say that you have to take the best player available. Otherwise, you're denying yourself a potentially golden opportunity.

Others will suggest that roster synergy is paramount. If you draft a player who doesn't fit with the rest of your roster, how will you find opportunities for them to succeed?

As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Each front office has its own philosophy, and they're entitled to adhere to it.

The Houston Rockets have seemingly had a fairly rigid "best player available" philosophy. In all likelihood, they'll select the player they think has the highest probability of being a star player with the third overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Here, we're ranking 5 prospects who could be available in that range by fit anyway.

6. Nikola Topic, G, KK Crvena Zvezda

A plus-sized ball-handler with a questionable jump shot. Sounds familiar?

Topic and Amen Thompson would make for the biggest backcourt in the NBA. They'd also be the poorest three-point shooting backcourt we've ever seen. The Rockets don't need two players who fit into this archetype.

The largest sample size available for Topic had him knocking down 25.9% of his 4.5 three-pointers per game for Mega MIS over 12 games. Breaking news: that is bad.

Topic is a nice prospect. He's got strong floor vision and he's a crafty ball-handler at 6'6". He's a prospect who'd be better served to land on a team that's further behind in their rebuilding process. Whoever takes Topic will want to account for his limitations as they begin building their roster for the future.