5:10pm: The Rockets have officially waived Robinson-Earl, per NBA.com’s transaction log. The club also converted Williams to a two-way contract and cut Darius Days in order to set its regular season roster.
1:18pm: The Rockets will waive center Jeremiah Robinson-Earl ahead of the regular season, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Robinson-Earl, who will turn 23 in November, was the 32nd overall pick in the 2021 draft. He spent his first two NBA seasons in Oklahoma City, averaging 7.2 points and 4.9 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game across 92 appearances, with a shooting line of .427/.344/.781.
The Thunder included Robinson-Earl last week in the trade that sent Victor Oladipo to Houston in exchange for Kevin Porter Jr. and a pair of future second-round picks. Robinson-Earl had fallen behind Jaylin Williams on OKC’s frontcourt depth chart and was projected to have his role reduced further in 2023/24 with Chet Holmgren healthy. As such, he became a victim of the Thunder’s preseason roster crunch.
While I speculated at the time of the trade that the Rockets might keep Robinson-Earl and waive the injured Oladipo, they’ll go the other direction, preferring to keep Oladipo’s $9.45MM expiring contract on their books for potential trade purposes rather than adding the healthy Robinson-Earl to their group of developing young players.
Houston already has Jock Landale and Boban Marjanovic as projected backups behind starting center Alperen Sengun and presumably saw no need to add a fourth big man to that mix, despite Robinson-Earl’s modest salary. He’ll earn a guaranteed $1.9MM salary this season, but the Rockets won’t be on the hook for his $1.99MM team option for 2024/25.
Unless a team uses cap room a trade exception to claim Robinson-Earl off waivers, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent later this week, free to sign a standard contract with any team except Oklahoma City or a two-way deal with any team besides the Thunder or the Rockets. A team can’t sign a player it traded away if his new team waives him; additionally, a club that cuts a player is ineligible to re-sign him to a two-way contract if he was owed more than $75K in guaranteed money.
Houston now has 16 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals, so one more move will be necessary today to set their roster for the regular season. Jeenathan Williams, who is on an Exhibit 10 contract, seems likely to be converted to a two-way deal, in which case the Rockets would have to waive one of their current two-way players.