The Rockets and veteran guard Aaron Holiday have struck a new deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Holiday is signing a two-year, $10MM contract to remain in Houston. The second year will be a team option, per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).
The younger brother of fellow NBAers Jrue Holiday and Justin Holiday, Aaron played a regular rotation role off the bench in Houston last season, averaging 6.6 points, 1.8 assists, and 1.6 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per game across 78 appearances. He posted a solid shooting line of .446/.387/.921.
After spending his first three NBA seasons in Indiana, Holiday has bounced around the league in recent years, spending time in Washington, Phoenix, and Atlanta in addition to Houston. This will be the first time since his Pacers days that the 27-year-old will return to a team for a second season.
Because he signed as a free agent with the Rockets last season, Holiday only has Non-Bird rights this summer, meaning the team can’t give him a deal worth more than 20% above the veteran’s minimum without using a different exception. As a result, Houston has to dip into either its mid-level exception or bi-annual exception to complete the signing.
Using the non-taxpayer MLE to sign Holiday to a starting salary worth a little less than $5MM would leave the Rockets with about $8MM of that exception left over. Using the bi-annual exception would result in a maximum two-year total of about $9.57MM for Holiday and would leave the MLE untouched. Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link) hears the club plans to take the latter route, using the BAE to bring back the reserve guard.
Solid keep. He played some good minutes for the squad last year and having him stick around doesn’t force Sheppard to play big minutes from the get go.
Thought a few teams could have interest, as I had said yesterday. Catch and shoot option at guard, and defends.