Will Tate be back next season?
Anyone remember the days when Jae’Sean Tate was one of the best players on the Houston Rockets? Yeah, those were interesting times. Yes, Tate is still effective as swiss army knife, do-it-all kind of player, but thankfully, the Rockets have gotten way more talented over the last couple of seasons, relegating Tate to a back-end bench role or in case of emergency, break glass.
I’m actually a little surprised Tate didn’t get traded this past season for some shooting. The 29-year-old multi-position man is on the last year of his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent this coming season. I don’t really expect him to be re-signed, so I figured he wouldn’t make it past this year’s deadline, but Rafael Stone was dead serious when he said he liked the team’s roster as-is.
Tate finished the season playing in 52 games, starting 2, and averaging 11.3 minutes per night. He had career lows in 3.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1 assist per night, while shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from beyond the arc.
Season highlights include 16 points on 6-for-6 shooting in a January 28 win over the Atlanta Hawks, 7 points and 7 rebounds and a game-high +30 in a March 17 overtime victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, and the fact that the Rockets were 38-14 in games in which Tate saw action. It’s obvious he does the little things that affect the game’s outcome.
Despite this — and I could be wrong — but I think we’ve seen the last of Tate in a Rockets uniform. If Houston is not going to make any major moves — and that remains to be seen — they need to get better on the margins. And one of the margins they need to improve on is long-distance shooting. And Tate, for all of his strengths, is not a shooter. He’s seen his minutes and production decline each year for the past several seasons, and despite being part of the “stay ready” crew for the Rockets, the team has two new draft picks coming in to make room for as well, so I’d be surprised to see him back.
It’s not impossible he returns, I just feel like the Rockets have other needs that they need to prioritize this offseason.