When Sam Hinkie acquired Robert Covington from the Houston Rockets in 2014, there were not very many people that believed he would stick on the roster. The forward out of Tennessee State University was not exactly a highly touted recruit coming out of college, as he went undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft.
He spent the majority of his first season in the D-League playing for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, where he averaged 23.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game. He showed flashes of a potentially great “3 and D” player during this stint, but his game was still too raw and inconsistent to stick on the Rockets roster.