MAY 7: The Rockets have officially signed Thomas, the team announced today in a press release. Since Houston was granted a hardship exception as a result of all their injuries, no corresponding roster move was required.
Houston announced the deal as a 10-day contract — there are only 10 days left in the regular season, so it’ll cover the team’s remaining games.
MAY 5: Free agent shooting guard Khyri Thomas is set to ink a new deal with the Rockets, according to Kelly Iko and Alykhan Bijani of The Athletic (Twitter link). Terms of the agreement have yet to be disclosed, but Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle suggests it could be a 10-day contract.
Selected with the No. 38 pick in the 2018 draft, Thomas spent his first two NBA seasons with the Pistons. The 6’3″ wing logged time across 34 games during his two seasons with Detroit, averaging 7.5 MPG.
Thomas and swingman Tony Snell were sent by the Pistons to the Hawks in exchange for Dewayne Dedmon during the 2020 offseason, and Thomas was quickly released by Atlanta. The 24-year-old Creighton alum was mostly recently signed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Spurs, but San Antonio waived him before he could play a regular season game with the club.
Given that they are already eliminated from playoff contention with a 16-49 record, it makes sense for the tanking Rockets to take a flyer on a young player with some upside during the waning days of the 2020/21 regular season. Houston has seven games remaining in its schedule.
The Rockets will need to waive someone in order to make room for Thomas unless they’re granted a hardship exception that allows them to add an extra player. That’s a possibility, given all the injuries the team is dealing with.
Houston probably needed an 8th healthy player for tonight’s game.
They need to release someone to make room, most likely Dante Exum.
Khyri won’t play until Friday. Augustin will be the 8th guy but not play.
I would love to see Eric for one last game or two but may have seen last of him jump roping during warm ups a week ago. I want to see 3 point shooting return as well for next season. Anyone out there to help. These teams lately just dropping them against us. But will feel different with playoffs to not see Rockets and hope we can rebound next season
Dante Exum …. liked him when he came out. Can’t believe he’s never really played. I know there are injuries. But it seems there is a lack of commitment. At some point you have to get ahead of injuries, get strong. Just don’t let health be a part of equation. Seems it’s always a small injury, now. This is his last check he will see at top pick money. Made 9.6 mill this yr. He has 46.1 mill career earnings. In 7 yr career only 245 career gms. Seems like no incentive to even get well lol. And he’s still injured this year, healing. Who said Aussies were Tough …. !!!!
Yes Al he’s had the injury bug. The one year he was healthy he really showed a lot and proved he was a high-end player. He could score, was fast, great defense and size, and could do multiple things with great success on the floor. But then he got hurt once again. Hope for the best with this guy.
Houston might just hold onto him for the rest of the season as I must assume they’re eligible for a hardship exception to add this other guy. To make matters even worse (which is amazing at this point after the season they have suffered through) Porter rolled his ankle early in the second half and they had to play the final 20 minutes of the game with only 6 players.
The Rockets are just a mess, maybe they will get back to being a somewhat decent team again in the next 10 years
Sure, whatever. This is a team having its first losing season in 15 years and only its fourth losing season over the last 37 years. It won’t take anything close to 10 years for them to be “somewhat decent again”. They will be one of the top 10 teams in the West next season, despite what all the haters here say. So enjoy the Rockets being bad this year, because it’s not going to last.
I guess if you consider being top 10 in the West next year successful…my team hangs championship banners not winning season banners
Be back in playoffs in 23. Book it.
I bet casinos love guys who say “book it”… way too confident. Rox may not even try to win in ’23. Players may still want out if they are still acquiring risky talent to speed up the rebuild.
I bet the people who actually know the facts understand why the smart money will be on Houston. Since they began the lottery in 1985 (because of the Rockets) only 3 other NBA teams have missed the playoffs fewer times than Houston. Utah (28), San Antonio (32), and the Lakers (28) are the only teams to make the playoffs more than the 27 times the Rockets have made the postseason since 1985.
Your statistics support that your team is inferior to the team you constantly bash on…envy is an ugly color on you bro
So does he become a free agent on the 16th or is he technically on the end of season roster?
My understanding: Since it’s technically considered a 10-day contract, I think he’d become a free agent on May 17.
Since teams can’t sign players after May 16, he wouldn’t be able to join a new NBA team this season, but (if he wanted to) could sign with a non-NBA team before August (when other NBA players on expiring contracts will technically become free agents)
Came into the draft as this defensive specialist but he really hasn’t carved out that niche. We’ll see I liked Khyri coming out, needs someone to work with him and get PT.
Houston looked as good as could be expected, losing on the road by just 8 points against a team tied for 2nd place in the east. They were without 5 of their 6 best players with five other players missing the game as well. Can’t wait until next season.
Making excuses for their lack of success doesn’t change the fact that they are just flat out awful
Of course it’s just a tiny sample size after two games, but this kid has been really impressive so far. In his first game against the Bucks he played 23 minutes and had 16 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and a block. On his 25th birthday today he played 33 minutes in Utah and had 27 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals, and 2 blocks.