Rockets reportedly met with Duke’s Paolo Banchero at draft combine

Like most NBA teams, the Rockets will cast a wide net with their workouts and interviews in the weeks leading up to the 2022 NBA draft on Thursday, June 23. With two first-round picks, Houston general manager Rafael Stone and his staff have much to evaluate and discuss.

But at the very top of the draft — where the Rockets have their own pick at No. 3 overall — workouts and interviews aren’t always a given. For example, an expected No. 1 or No. 2 pick may not choose to spend time meeting or working out with a team lower in the order.

While individual workouts will be determined at a later date, the Rockets did meet at this week’s NBA draft combine in Chicago with Duke forward Paolo Banchero, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. In his first mock draft, Feigen projects Banchero to Houston at No. 3 overall.

Banchero is one of the consensus top-three draft prospects, alongside Gonzaga big Chet Holmgren and Auburn forward Jabari Smith. Feigen’s report did not specify whether Holmgren and Smith met with the Rockets, or if perhaps they might be limiting their efforts for now to the two teams higher than Houston in the order (Orlando and Oklahoma City).

As always, stay tuned. But at a bare minimum, the news seems to signal at least some mutual intrigue between Banchero and the Rockets.

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Story originally appeared on Rockets Wire