- Eric Gordon heard his name mentioned a few times in trade rumors as the Rockets tried to add another star, but he tells Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle that he always expected to remain with the team. The four-year extension he signed last week should solidify his place in Houston. “I know I’m valuable to this team,” Gordon said. “I think I’ve showed that. … I feel like I am going into my prime years. I can shoot, defend, be creative on offense. I have a lot to give.”
Rockets star James Harden expressed confidence that he and Russell Westbrook will get adjusted to playing with each other quickly this season, sharing his thoughts in a recent interview with Alex Shultz of GQ.com.
“I don’t really do a lot of interviews, so I actually don’t answer it that much,” Harden said when asked if the questioned about him and Westbrook irritate him. “The questions are usually the same, though: How are you and Russ going to fit in? It’s like, yo, we’ll figure it out. Everything isn’t necessarily going to be smooth at first, there are going to be ups and downs, and that’s part of an 82-game season. Hopefully by the end of the season, we’ve caught a rhythm and everybody is on the same page going into the playoffs. That’s all you can ask for.”
Harden and Westbrook, known as two talented, ball-dominate players, will play in the same backcourt for the first time since the 2011/12 season with Oklahoma City. The duo is eager to prove they can co-exist, with both players still seeking their first NBA championships.
“We’ve formed into the players that we want to be, in terms of superstar status,” Harden said. “We had opportunities to be at the top, at the peak; he won an MVP and I won an MVP. And there were conversations before, when me and Chris [Paul] joined the same team about whether it was going to work. We ended up with the best record in the NBA and were a game away from the Finals.
“It’s not like me and Russ were just teammates in Oklahoma City for three years. We’ve known each other since we were 10 years old. There’s a different kind of relationship and communication that we have, a different type of excitement that we have for each other. We don’t really care or pay attention to what other people say or think.”
There’s more out of the Western Conference today:
- New Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins is eager to lead his young team into a promising future, Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com writes. “So, for me, it’s that mentality of defining each day who we are,” Jenkins said as part of a larger quote. “We’re naturally and organically going to grow and not just have this set plan for how we’re going to be from Game 1 to 82. That excites me, because organically, we’re going to get to a really good spot with everything we’ve laid down already. We’ve hit the ground running, and Oct. 1 (first training camp practice) is rapidly approaching.”
- Jovan Buha of The Athletic examines what the other newcomers (not named Kawhi Leonard or Paul George) could bring to the Clippers this season. Buha discusses the talents of players such as Maurice Harkless, Rodney McGruder, Mfiondu Kabengele and more in his piece.
- PJ Dozier hopes to make a strong impression with the Nuggets in training camp this fall, Alex Labidou of Nuggets.com writes. “I love the city [of Denver], it’s a beautiful city,” Dozier said. “[I want to] continue to show that I belong and that I belong for a reason. I feel like I have a lot to show for — a lot to bring to the table. It’s just all about getting the opportunity and being prepared for it.”
Kay Felder is a potential target for China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando reports. The team is expected to sign either Felder or Ty Lawson to replace another former NBA player, Ian Clark, who is sidelined by a finger injury.
A second-round pick by the Cavaliers in 2016, Felder was waived by the Raptors’ G League team in December after a domestic violence allegation. Felder, who appeared in 58 NBA games for Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit, played for Xinjiang last season after he was waived. The Flying Tigers’ interest in Lawson was previously reported.
We have more from the basketball world:
- There doesn’t seem to be a star on the level of Yao Ming coming from China in the near future, Marc Spears of ESPN writes. Currently, there are no Chinese players who could make a sure-fire impact in the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver hopes that will change. “It frustrates me that there are no Chinese players in the NBA,” he said. “There’s probably more basketball being played in China than anywhere else in the world. And more NBA basketball is being watched in China than anywhere else in the world.”
- An Atlantic City, NJ casino owned by Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta can now accept bets on NBA games, according to Wayne Parry of the Associated Press. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy has signed a bill allowing Atlantic City’s Golden Nugget casino, owned by Fertitta, to handle NBA bets that don’t involve the Rockets.
- Former Hawks guard Malcolm Delaney will play in Spain this season. Get the details here.
- Despite failing to reach an agreement in extension talks, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta believes Mike D’Antoni will remain head coach of the team beyond this season, as he told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. D’Antoni is entering the final year of his four-year contract. Extension talks were a hot topic in May and June but nothing got done. Fertitta remains undeterred. “I think Mike D’Antoni’s going to be coaching here for a long time,” he said.
The Rockets traded multiple future first-round picks in the 2019 offseason and will enter the ’19/20 season with a group of core players who are nearly all in their 30s. While the team has made deep playoff runs in recent years, the clock is ticking on the opportunity to win a championship with the current roster, as owner Tilman Fertitta acknowledged in a conversation with Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
“I think we put ourselves in the position that if we don’t win it in the next three or four years, we probably aren’t going to win [a title] in the next 10 years,” Fertitta said. “This is our window, and we need to seize the opportunity.”
Houston surrendered its 2024 first-round pick (top-four protected), and 2026 first-rounder (top-four protected), along with two potential pick swaps, to acquire Russell Westbrook this summer, which will limit the team’s flexibility to make blockbuster trades going forward — and will reduce the club’s ability to add young talent down the road. However, Fertitta sounds ready to go all-in with the current group over the next couple years.
“This is the time,” Fertitta told Haynes. “I just re-signed Eric Gordon who is 30 and I’ve got Russell and James [Harden] and Eric and Clint Capela for the next four years. P.J. [Tucker] is 34 and our two stars are 30. So this is their window. Let’s seize the opportunity.”
In the wake of Gordon’s extension, all five of the players Fertitta mentioned are under contract for at least the next two years, with Westbrook and Harden locked up through at least 2021/22 and Capela’s and Gordon’s deals extending even further. Additionally, the Warriors team that eliminated Houston from the postseason in each of the last two springs is no longer quite so loaded, with Kevin Durant now in Brooklyn and Andre Iguodala in Memphis.
The Rockets’ championship upside may ultimately come down to the backcourt fit between Westbrook and Harden, and Fertitta sounds confident that the pairing will succeed, given Westbrook’s “superior” athleticism and the former MVPs’ existing relationship.
“It’s so important to have the right chemistry,” Fertitta said. “These are two guys that grew up in L.A. together and have known each other most of their lives. And they can talk to each other. You can say things to each other and the other would not get offended because you’re lifelong buddies. And so I think the chemistry’s going to be great this year.”
As we first relayed on Wednesday, the Rockets‘ new deal with Nene is an unusual one, structured to maximize his trade value. The two-year, $20MM contract has a $10MM cap hit for 2019/20, but only has a base value of approximately $2.56MM, an amount equivalent to the minimum salary for a 10-year veteran. The remaining $7.44MM on the deal is made up of “likely” incentives.
The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement dubs an incentive likely to be earned if the player met the criteria the year before, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the player will actually meet the criteria again in the following season.
In fact, in Nene’s case, the Rockets will probably try to ensure he doesn’t meet that criteria, since the more guaranteed money the veteran center earns, the less trade value his contract has.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks has the full details on Nene’s incentives, which are as follows:
- Base salary: $2,564,753
- If Nene appears in at least 10 games and his team wins 52+ games: $2,435,247 bonus (cap hit increases to $5MM).
- If Nene appears in at least 25 games and his team wins 52+ games: $2,500,000 bonus (cap hit increases to $7.5MM).
- If Nene appears in at least 40 games and his team wins 52+ games: $2,500,000 bonus (cap hit increases to $10MM).
As Marks points out, all those incentives are considered likely because Nene played in 42 games last season and the Rockets had 53 wins. It seems safe to assume the 37-year-old won’t appear in as many games this season as Houston attempts to limit his earnings.
However, there’s another important detail worth noting here, as Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights outlines: If Nene were to be traded to a team that didn’t win 52+ games in 2018/19 (ie. any team besides the Warriors, Nuggets, Trail Blazers, Bucks, or Raptors), his contract incentives would change to “unlikely” and would no longer count against his cap hit.
While it may seem as if that discrepancy would complicate Nene’s trade market, it’s actually a good thing for both the Rockets and their potential trade partners, as Siegel explains. In that trade scenario, the Rockets would still get to count Nene as $10MM in outgoing salary, while the other team would only consider him a $2.56MM incoming piece.
In other words, let’s say the Rockets swapped Nene for another player with a $10MM cap hit. That’d be an even match for Houston, but the team acquiring the big man would technically be sending out a $10MM player for a $2.56MM player and could create a traded player exception worth $7.44MM.
The second year of Nene’s contract is fully non-guaranteed, but would become partially guaranteed if he’s kept under contract beyond February 15, 2020, just over a week after this season’s trade deadline. So, whether or not the Rockets trade him, Nene may hit the buyout market in February.
For more details on how Nene’s contract works, be sure to check out Marks’ report and Siegel’s analysis in full. If you still have questions, leave them in the comment section below.
The Rockets got creative with Nene‘s new contract, according to Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights, who reports (via Twitter) that the deal spans two years, with a non-guaranteed second season. Although Nene is only owed a minimum base salary in each of those two seasons, likely incentives increase the annual value of the contract to $10MM per year, per Siegel.
The criteria for Nene’s incentives will be fascinating, since it’s hard to imagine he’ll actually earn all $7MM+ in bonus money. The Rockets may be artificially inflating his cap hit using incentives that will be tricky to earn (even though they’re technically considered “likely”). A $10MM cap hit – made possible because Houston held Nene’s Bird rights – will make the veteran center one of Houston’s most valuable salary-matching pieces leading up to the February trade deadline.
According to Siegel, the trigger date for Nene’s 2020/21 salary is February 15, 2020 rather than next summer, which suggests there’s a real chance the big man could be released during the season, perhaps being traded and then bought out in early February.
As we wait for more specifics on Nene’s contract, let’s round up a few more items out of Houston…
- Alykhan Bijani of The Athletic takes an in-depth look at the newly-formed backcourt duo of Russell Westbrook and James Harden, exploring how the two former MVPs will fit alongside one another in Houston. As Bijani fits, the success of the partnership will ultimately come down to how both players will contribute during offensive possessions when they’re not the primary ball-handler.
- Last week, the Rockets converted Shamorie Ponds and William McDowell-White to two-way contracts, then back to non-guaranteed standard contracts in order to ensure that the club has injury protection on the new deals. According to RealGM’s transactions log, Houston did the same thing for Chris Clemons, who initially signed an Exhibit 10 pact with the team in July at the same time as Ponds and McDowell-White.
- For all the latest updates on the Rockets, be sure to keep tabs on our Houston Rockets team page.
News that the Grizzlies are currently uninterested in negotiating a buyout with Andre Iguodala is unlikely to push the veteran’s potential trade suitors into action, according to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com, who hears from league sources that those teams are more likely to “wait out” the Grizzlies.
As Deveney notes – and as has been previously reported – Memphis would like to get a first-round pick in exchange for Iguodala, but teams with interest in the former Warrior don’t believe it will ultimately take more than a second-rounder. Even that price may be too high for some interested teams, who are hoping Iguodala will eventually become available via buyout.
One league executive who spoke to Deveney suggested that an impasse at this point shouldn’t be a surprise.
“What the Grizzlies are doing, it is to be expected,” the exec said. “They’re looking at him as an asset and they want to get something in return for him. He’s under contract, so they hold all the cards. The worst he can do is not show up and it is not like Memphis is going to be playing for a playoff spot. Him not showing up wouldn’t help anything. But if you’re on the outside, those teams, they’re just waiting it out.”
The Clippers are viewed around the NBA as the most likely landing spot for Iguodala, per Deveney, but they don’t necessarily have a simple path to a trade, given all the draft picks they’ve traded away and their proximity to the tax line. The Rockets, Lakers, Nuggets, and Mavericks have been linked to Iguodala, but all face potential roadblocks on the trade market too.
According to Deveney, the Grizzlies’ ideal scenario would be to have Iguodala start the season on the roster to mentor the team’s young players, then trade him at some point before the deadline in exchange for a first-round pick — or at least a second-rounder or two. But it’s unclear how enthusiastic the 35-year-old would be about spending much of the 2019/20 season on a non-contending team.
“It is going to be a matter of whether the Grizzlies blink on this one or not,” the league executive told Deveney. “You have a guy who does not want to be there but has some value. He does not have a ton of value, though. He’s 35, 36 years old. So what do you do, hold him hostage? If you want him to be a guy to help your young players but he does not want to do that, does that really help your young players? Most teams figure they can wait (the Grizzlies) out on this.”
Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian took a Grizzlies-centric look at the Iguodala situation on Monday, writing that “one way or another” the former Finals MVP figures to be on a new team after the February trade deadline.
- Eric Gordon will have four seasons’ worth of chances to guarantee the $20MM+ in the final year of his extension with the Rockets, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets. Gordon’s extension also contains a minutes criteria that he will likely reach in order to guarantee the final season, which only happens if he makes the All-Star team or the Rockets win an NBA championship, Marks notes. Gordon has this season, the 2020/21 season, 2021/22, and 2022/23 to reach the criteria needed for the final year.
SEPTEMBER 6: The Rockets have officially announced the signing, according to a team press release.
SEPTEMBER 3: Free agent big man Nene plans on returning to the Rockets, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Nene opted out of the final year of his most recent contract back in June, which led many to believe he would retire. He has spent 17 years in the NBA so far, with the past three seasons coming in Houston.
The Rockets inked veteran center Tyson Chandler this offseason, so with Chandler and Nene in the frontcourt, the team has solid depth at the five. Houston shouldn’t need to rely heavily on either veteran big man to spell starter Clint Capela, which should allow the team to give their elder centers nights off when needed.
Nene was selected by New York with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2002 draft and he was subsequently traded to Denver on draft night along with Marcus Camby and Mark Jackson in a package for Antonio McDyess. Nene is the only member of the 2002 draft class still in the league.
In addition to the Rockets and Nuggets, the Sao Carlos native has also played for the Wizards. Only nine active players have appeared in more NBA games than Nene.