AUGUST 8: The Rockets have officially signed Nwaba, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle.
AUGUST 2: The Rockets have agreed to a three-year, $15MM contract to retain athletic free agent wing David Nwaba, reports Marc Stein of Substack (Twitter link).
The journeyman Nwaba, 28, has suited up for several clubs after going undrafted out of California Polytechnic State University in 2015. Though not much of a jump shooter, Nwaba proved his prowess on the other end of the floor, during promising stints with the Lakers, Bulls, and Cavaliers.
20 games into his lone season with the Nets, Nwaba suffered a season-ending right Achilles tendon tear in December 2019. After being waived by the Nets, Nwaba signed a two-year deal with the Rockets ahead of the 2020 Orlando “bubble” season restart. The Rockets then exercised their $1.82MM team option on the small forward/shooting guard before the 2020/21 season.
He finally returned to action for the tanking Rockets during the 2020/21 season, and seemed none the worse for wear. Across 30 games, including nine starts, Nwaba averaged 9.2 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 0.7 BPG in just 22.6 MPG.
Houston will be Nwaba’s first long-term NBA home, the first club for which he has played for longer than one season, though he has technically been on the Rockets for portions of two seasons already.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Good for him. You root for players like this. He’s worked hard for this pay day. May not seem like much but for a guy that went undrafted and went the G League route his hard work paid off.
Team option on the 3rd year, good deal. Still needs to work on his 3-point shooting.
28 yr old savior . I predict Rockets win 23 gms
They might win 23 games, by the All-Star break.
Of 2022/23
And Wood might learn to play D by the allstar gm.
Chris Paul will avg more points than Rockets wins.
2021 CP3 avg 16.4 pts. Rockets 17 wins.
OMG Rockets actually had .6 more. My bad. Ok next yr I said
Houston’s win total will easily be twice whatever CP3’s scoring average is.
Very happy for Nwaba. When Houston were decimated by injuries last season he played with a broken wrist and held off his surgery just to try and help stop the free fall and slow the free fall. Team first mentality. He deserves this deal.