Rockets 2022-2023 player previews: Bruno Fernando

On February 10, 2022, many Houston Rockets fans were expecting a blockbuster trade that included one of or both Eric Gordon and Christian Wood in order to go full youth movement. However, that didn’t happen.

What ended up happening was the Rockets and the Boston Celtics struck a deal in which Daniel Theis was traded for Dennis Schroder (a man who rejected an $84 million contract extension) and what, at the time, many believed was a throw-in in undersized big man Bruno Fernando.

Many of the fanbase who hoped for a youth movement were in shambles to hear that Eric Gordon and Christian Wood weren’t traded. Even if there was a pathway to take the glass half full route for the front office to dump Theis after signing him in the offseason due to poor roster fit, it wasn’t enough to quell fans.

Nonetheless, a few games and “scrotum” memes later, no one cared, and then Bruno got on court and carved a niche role for himself. In the 10 games that Bruno Fernando played for Houston, he tallied 6.9 points, 4 rebounds, an 0.8 blocks on 71 percent shooting from the field.

The game that showed Fernando’s talent was the matchup against the Sacramento Kings in which he put up a cool 16 points, 10 rebounds and a block, shot 83 percent from the charity stripe and logged an efficient 75 percent field goal percentage.

Regardless of his impact, he wasn’t life changing in any way. The team still continued their losing ways as they went 1-9. But it still was a pleasant surprise of what he can bring to the table

The front office also agrees as they re-signed him this offseason to an Exhibit 10 contract that can be converted to a two-way contract prior to the start of the 2022-2023 season.

He has a chance to make some noise as a a backup big man, but there’s plenty of competition, including Usman Garuba and Boban Marjanovich. We’ll see how it all shakes out.