Following up on his recent report that Russell Westbrook amended the payment schedule on his contract upon being traded to the Rockets, Marc Stein of The New York Times provided some additional details in his newsletter this week.
According to Stein, Westbrook’s contract previously called for 25% of his $38.5MM salary to be paid on August 1 and again on October 1. As part of his trade to the Rockets, those installments were adjusted downward to 12.5% of his salary, meaning they’re now worth $4.8MM apiece instead of $9.6MM, Stein writes.
The changes will allow Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta to avoid paying half of Westbrook’s $38.5MM salary by October 1. Under Fertitta, the club has been averse to making significant upfront payments in a variety of transactions — when Houston traded cash in three separate deals during the 2018/19 league year, it always sent that cash in many installments, rather than in a single lump sum.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Former NBA point guard Greivis Vasquez, who played for six teams over the course of seven seasons from 2010-17, has been named the associate head coach of the Pelicans‘ new G League affiliate, the team announced today in a press release. Vasquez will work under Ryan Pannone, the head coach of the expansion Erie BayHawks.
- New Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins spoke to Peter Edmiston of The Athletic about how he filled out his coaching staff and what traits he and the front office prioritized as they hired assistants. According to Jenkins, Brad Jones will be his lead assistant.
- Boban Marjanovic had his best NBA season in 2018/19, averaging 7.3 PPG and 4.6 RPG in 58 games (11.7 MPG) for the Clippers and Sixers. Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News looks at what sort of role Marjanovic might have with the Mavericks after signing a two-year contract with the club.
You wonder how liquid this Fertitta guy is.
He better get used to signing these big checks. Houston is the only team in the NBA with two players on supermax contracts. If they choose to sign Eric Gordon to an extension the Rockets will be paying a lot of luxury taxes over the next few years.
Fertita has probably developed the neat trick of threatening to not pay for work done.
Trying to make us much as he can off of interest from money in the bank.
I remember when they made a lot of roster moves last season to get under the luxury tax and people said they were just being cheap. But now that they have two players on supermax contracts it was obviously a very prudent move with the repeater tax that teams who go over the luxury tax get hit with. If they sign both PJ Tucker and Eric Gordon to extensions, they will be paying millions in luxury taxes over the next 5 years, but hopefully it will be worth it with all the talent they have and they can bring home multiple championships like they did 25 years ago.