VanVleet will be back on a cheaper deal.
The Houston Rockets continued a busy offseason on Wednesday, signing veteran point guard Fred VanVleet to a two-year, $50 million deal, according to Shams Charania.
Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet intends to sign a two-year, $50 million contract to stay with the franchise, with a player option in 2026-27, sources tell ESPN. Rockets are declining VanVleet’s $44.9 million team option and land the new deal with Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul. pic.twitter.com/rwtEUptBQT
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 25, 2025
VanVleet had a $45 million team option that the Rockets declined to make this deal happen, so Houston’s leader will be back at $20 million less per year, which is a good deal by GM Rafael Stone.
VanVleet had a bit of a down year statistically, averaging 14.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game. He shot just 37.8 percent from the floor and 34.5 percent from three, and he did miss 22 games due to injury, but he was Houston’s clear on-court general and is one of the remaining veteran leaders after the team dealt Dillon Brooks to the Phoenix Suns in the Kevin Durant trade.
This contract will take VanVleet to his age 33 season and also coincides around the same timeline with what they can hope to expect from KD. Make a two-year run at things while KD hasn’t fallen off yet, and then re-assess after those two and potentially make changes from there. Even though the last year of VanVleet’s contract is a player option, my bet is he’s bought in for the full two years, unless the team implodes this season.
In addition to the deal that brought in Durant, which also included Jalen Green, the 10th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and five future second round picks, the Rockets also re-signed Steven Adams earlier this offseason, retaining another key veteran leader, who also happens to be a former teammate of Durant’s in Oklahoma City. Houston also extended head coach Ime Udoka, making him one of the highest paid coaches in the league.
It seems fair to say that Stone has pretty much accomplished what he’s wanted so far this offseason. Hopefully, he has his eyes set on another two guard with some shooting and/or scoring chops. That’s the main hole remaining in my eyes at the moment.
Because Fred VanVleet is knocking somewhere around $20M off his salary for this season, Houston should now have access to the full NTMLE at $14.1M.
That has real spending power this summer, given the lack of cap space around the league.
Good offseason so far in Houston!
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 25, 2025
But in the meantime, congrats to VanVleet. He’ll be spending one-to-two more years in H-town.