The Rockets are declining Fred VanVleet‘s $44.9MM team option and will instead re-sign him on a two-year, $50MM deal, reports Shams Charania of ESPN. The second season will be a player option, Charania adds.
According to Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link), VanVleet’s new deal will have a flat structure, paying him $25MM next season, with his option also worth $25MM.
During his 60 healthy games for Houston in 2024/25, the Wichita State alum averaged 14.1 PPG, 5.6 APG, and 3.7 RPG, with a .378/.345/.810 shooting line that was well below his career average.
The 2023 offseason veteran additions of VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, Jeff Green and head coach Ime Udoka proved to be the kind of steadying forces needed to take a talented young team to the next level. During VanVleet’s first season in town, Houston finished with a solid 41-41 season and barely missed the postseason in a deep Western Conference.
Last year, the Rockets’ youth movement exploded. Houston finished with the West’s No. 2 record, 52-30, and almost outlasted the Warriors in a hard-fought first round playoff loss.
Houston has now reconfigured its core by bringing in 15-time All-Star forward Kevin Durant in a blockbuster pre-draft trade, which cost the team Brooks, the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft, young guard Jalen Green, and five second-round picks.
Retaining VanVleet on a cheaper deal with give the Rockets more room to maneuver this summer, as the club hopes to become a true title contender in 2025/26.
To wit, cap expert Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron tweets that Houston now projects to be comfortably below the league’s first tax apron and luxury tax line. Keith Smith of Spotrac reports (via Twitter) that the new agreement will give the Rockets access to the $14.1MM non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception this year, though using all of the MLE would push the team back above the tax threshold.
While VanVleet’s new contract is a short-term agreement, Charania hears from sources that both sides would like their partnership to ultimately last longer than just the next two years.