The Houston Rockets are the official team of chaos this summer, as they can get to nearly $60 million in cap space, with no other team in the league coming close to that figure. As such, they are the team every free agent has been tied to, because they are among the very few teams that could give a free agent a significant contract this summer, but as Friday approaches the players Houston is serious about pursuing is becoming a bit clearer.
The James Harden reunion rumors have subsided, with the growing expectation being that he will return to Philadelphia, which has led to the Rockets shifting their attention on the point guard market. Fred VanVleet has become the new leading target for Houston by all accounts, with Marc Stein being the latest to tie the Rockets to the Raptors point guard. In his latest newsletter, Stein echoed Jake Fischer’s reporting that Houston is preparing a 2-year max deal worth north of $80 million to try and pry VanVleet out of Toronto.
I wrote extensively Monday night about Houston’s interest in signing Fred VanVleet away from Toronto. This has led to a flurry of informants advising me to give strong credence to projections that the Rockets want to sign VanVleet, who shot just 39.3% from the field this past season and 34.2% on 3-pointers, to a max two-year deal projected at $83.6 million.
That’s a lot of money for VanVleet, who Stein notes is coming off of a down shooting year. However, that’s the tax a team like Houston has to pay to get solid veterans to come play for them. We’ve seen teams use this playbook in the past — Philadelphia once gave JJ Redick a massive two-year deal to be the first solid veteran to play for the post-process Sixers — and for a team that’s nowhere close to the salary floor and has most of its players on rookie deals, it’s a good use of money that doesn’t clog up the books for the long-term when extensions need to start getting paid out. Now, its fair to wonder if VanVleet is the right guy to use that on, but the options this summer are pretty limited and he would be an adult in the room who has played on championship teams and plays at their biggest position of need. That checks a lot of boxes, even if he is coming off of a bit of a rough year shooting the ball.
The other well-reported rumor with Houston right now is that they’re the most-known suitor for Dillon Brooks, as they clearly have identified the defensive end as where they need to improve. Brook Lopez is still a possible target for Houston, per Stein, but is expected at this moment to go back to Milwaukee.