Rockets Contract Extension STANDOFF With Kevin Durant & Tari Eason | Is Houston’s Future At RISK?

Rockets Contract Extension STANDOFF With Kevin Durant & Tari Eason | Is Houston’s Future At RISK?

On today’s show, the latest reports and speculation on contract extensions for both Kevin Durant and Tari E. Why the Rockets may not be feeling pressured to extend KD this summer. Plus, what’s the right number for Tar’s next deal. It’s all coming up right here at Locked on Rockets. This is mission control Houston. Ignition sequence 5. 6 5 4 3 2 1 zero. What is up and welcome to another edition of Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. As always, I’m your host Jackson Gatlin, native Houstononian and credentialed media member. I’m also the host of Lock on NBA Thursdays. Be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube. Just search Lock Rockets where the best way you can help us grow our show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. On today’s show, we’re getting into the latest reports and speculation about the kind of the final two dominoes of this Houston Rockets offseason, the possible extensions for both Kevin Durant and Tari E. We’ll take a look at why the Rockets may not be feeling pressured to come to terms on a KD extension this summer and what the right number is for a Tar Een rookie scale contract extension and kind of why maybe they haven’t struck a deal quite just yet. uh at least not as quickly as they did with Jabari Smith Jr. First want to let you know that today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner. Visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your futures bets now. And as always, thanks so much for making Lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day, whether it’s on your way to work, on your lunch break, in the gym. Thank you so much for being an everydayer. Let’s start with the KD stuff first because we had a report from uh ESPN from Tim McMahon on the Hoop Collective podcast talking about uh the Rockets and the Kevin Durant contract situation. Let’s go ahead and throw it out. Uh we’ll run that audio back and then we’ll talk about it. The Rockets aren’t going to go all in. By all appearances and and by what I’ve heard, they’re not going all in on an extension for Kevin Durant. Now, doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but you know, there’ve been rumblings of, hey, KD doesn’t, you know, he’s not going to push for the full max. I don’t know that the Rockets are going to put anything on the table that’s close to the max. I think the Rockets are like, it’s not ideal, but I don’t think they would panic if they go into the season with Kevin Durant just on the contract that he’s on, just on the on the expiring. Okay. So to unpack that, first and foremost, I want to highlight here that, you know, in the leadup to the Kevin Durant trade, you know, the the teams that were all involved in this this KD sweep stakes, it was kind of a foregone conclusion that, okay, if KD gets dealt to one of his, you know, quote unquote preferred destinations that he would land there and then subsequently inc that 2-year maximum extension, which is like two years, like approximately $121 million or something. Um, and that seemed kind of like a foregone conclusion, like, okay, you’re not trading for KD on a one-year deal. You’re trading for KD, and he’s going to sign, you know, at least like an extension, like a oneplus one, you know, one more guaranteed year and then maybe a player option that final year. So, you get at least two to three guaranteed years of Kevin Durant because that’s always the risk that you run when you trade for a player with one year left on their contract. It’s kind of a, you know, wink wink, nudge nudge. like you’ve got to, you know, have the confidence that that player wants to be in in your city, that that player wants to play for your organization or you run the risk of that player just bouncing after one year, right? You know, similar to what happened with Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptor, right? The Raptors ran that risk, they traded for Kawhi, they won a title, and then Kawhi bolted, right? Went to the Clippers. So, let me I I don’t think that that that’s what’s happening in this situation with the Rockets and KD, but it doesn’t it feels a little funky because at the end of the day, you would like to have that peace of mind. I’m sure Rockets would love to have that peace of mind of just, okay, cool. Katie’s committed. He’s locked in. He wants to be here long term. He’s, you know, the Rockets have a window of two to three years where Katie’s under contract and and you they’ve got him till he’s, you know, 39 or 40 years old, whatever it may be. And yes, there was a little bit of reporting out there that suggested previously that KD might be willing to accept less than his maximum contract salary in order to maybe help facilitate, you know, some some roster construction or, you know, maybe making it a little bit easier on the Rockets down the line with some of the payroll implications that they’re going to have, needing to pay the young guys like Jabarisma Jr. who they already inked to his rookie scale extension. they still need to figure out Tar’s rookie extension, which we’ll be talking about a little bit later in the show. Um, and then also the fact that they’ve got, you know, what is likely to be a rookie scale max extension coming down the pipeline for Aman Thompson. So, I don’t think that this is necessarily anything bad on the surface. Like I don’t think there’s like any level of like Katie’s a little worried like KD wants to make sure that the Rockets are good before he commits long term or the Rockets want to make sure that you know KD isn’t you know going to have a major injury or they want to make sure that KD fits with everybody else before they commit to him long term. I don’t think it’s that whatsoever. It just kind of feels like both sides more or less doing their due diligence, right? In particular from the Rocket side of things because we’ve had we have this track record, right? You know, there’s precedent from Rafllstone and the Rockets front office that they don’t just throw out contracts willy-nilly. You know, any other team in the association might have just walked up to Alper and Shingun and been like, you know what, rookie scale max deal. You were awesome in year three. We see you becoming a blossoming all-star. Here’s your rookie scale max. Cool. Instead, Rafel Stone did his due diligence. He looked at the market and he held, you know, Alper and Shingun kind of held his feet to the fire a little bit and he got him on, you know, a relatively bargain contract for being one of the, you know, arguably top five centers in the NBA at at just 23 years old. So, well, 22 at the time of signing the contract. And so this is just another in the in a long line of Rafel Stone making sure that he gets maximum value in these contract negotiations, finding a way to again if you can if you can get KD to sign for, you know, an extension for two years 100 million instead of two years 120 million, right? You know, he maybe sacrifices 10 mil a year, something like that. um that suddenly puts the Rockets in a much more advantageous position as far as their cap maneuverability and and any you know potential luxury tax penalties further down the line. Um elsewhere in this uh Hoops Collective podcast uh Tim Bonimps uh kind of talked about you know the Rockets financial perspective of this and he had this to say. The Rockets have done an outstanding job of understanding the new economic environment that the league is in. teams have to be much better about negotiating every dollar on deals. As we’ve seen over the past couple years, deeper teams are probably going to have more success with where the league is headed. You have to mind your P’s and Q’s when it comes to these contracts and not be giving out extra money on deals to where you wind up in the second apron sooner and you have all these difficult financial questions. The Rockets have done a remarkable job of showing fiscal discipline and restraint all the way through. And I think if they can continue to do that, they’re going to have a real advantage over the competition because we’ve seen other teams not do that. And I think it’s going to bite them later. So to me, this discussion about why the KD extension hasn’t happened yet, why the Rockets are maybe even comfortable with it, you know, being pushed later into either end of the season or even just revisiting the conversation entirely next off season is because they’re okay with taking a more cautious approach to the finances. And at the end of the day, even if they put kick the can down the road and they re they decide they want to renegotiate with KD next off seasonason, there are actually a ton of benefits that really play into the Rockets favor. Not necessarily KD’s, but certainly help the Rockets a ton if they wait on a KD extension. And we’ll talk about those reasons coming up here in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. August 26th is officially FanDuel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and preseason hunches. For just 24 hours, one day only, FanDuel is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. 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Let me know your thoughts, your concerns, your worries maybe about the Kevin Durant extension discussion in the YouTube comments. But here’s where I’m kind of sitting and looking, you know, looking at this situation from the KD side of things, right? You know, there’s obviously the the benefit of, okay, cool. You got traded to Houston. Yeah, you’re excited about it. They’re a young, you know, talented roster, uh, you know, defensive-minded, you know, a lot of depth, and there should be, you know, it should be a perfectly happy marriage. It should work out really well, and the Rockets have as good a chance as any to potentially dethrone the Thunder this upcoming season, actually win a title. So, from the KD perspective, right, the Rockets seem like a great fit of an organization, but it’s also not, you know, without its question marks, right? The Rockets were a two seed last season, but maybe they overachieved a little bit. There’s still concerns about the offense. Um, obviously KD is not going to, you know, squash all of the offensive wos of this team by himself. He’ll certainly help a ton and I think the Rockets will easily be a top five or arguably top three defense this upcoming season, as well as a top 10 offense with the addition of KD and some additional shooting for Dorian Finny Smith and, you know, regression to the mean for guys like Jabari Smith Jr. and and Fred Van Vleet, things like that. But from the KD side of things, maybe he doesn’t want to be locked in to a long-term contract in Houston, right? Maybe for KD, you know, he gets an audition season, right? Where he gets one year with no pressure of, you know, the additional years two and three on an extension of, okay, he’s, you know, trapped in Houston for the remainder of his career, that kind of thing. Or in a situation where he would have to demand another trade somewhere down the line, which these are all like, you know, absolute worst case scenarios kind of thing. But those would be I guess that would be the only benefit for KD, right? To to, you know, not have that contract extension, to have the optionality to leave Houston after this season if things go sideways. The downside though, right, is KD, you know, he’s going to be 37 when the season starts. He’s had an injury history. Not that I’m saying I not that I think he’s going to suddenly regress, but like if he does regress a little bit, right, if his numbers don’t pop the way they did this past season, if he does take a step back in his efficiency, his scoring output, whatever, if he doesn’t look like a top 10 player still this season, then maybe that gives the Rockets even more negotiating leverage for that next contract next summer, right? So that’s actually a point in favor of the Rockets. That’s a downside for Katie if he doesn’t sign the extension this off season from the Rockets perspective. The only fear, right, is if you don’t lock in KD this summer, then yeah, he could bolt next next off seasonason. And if there’s a team with with, you know, max salary space that wants to sign Katie and wants to take a flyer on at that point 38-year-old KD to take him somewhere, then they could do that, right? And KD could leave next summer and and, you know, the Rockets would have then dealt Jaylen and Dylan and a number 10 overall pick and a bunch of second rounders for one season of Kevin Durant. And I think that on the surface, right, unless you somehow win a title with that one season with KD as like your your hired gun, your mercenary to bring him in, he brings a title and then he bounces. Like again, similar to Kawhi Leonard, unless that happens, then I think you view that trade as a as a catastrophic failure, right? That’s that’s a gigantic mistake. Um, so that’s the one major concern for the Rockets if you don’t lock in KD. But the benefits feel like they kind of outweigh the concerns because again, if you’re the Rockets and if you feel like there’s even a remote possibility that you can save money long term by waiting on a KD extension either by, you know, waiting him out and pressing him about it or if you just want to navigate through the regular season and see how things look because at the end of the day on paper the KD acquisition makes perfect sense and on paper it should all work out. But maybe it doesn’t work out. Maybe KD doesn’t fit with the young guys. Or maybe Alper and Shingun takes another step forward. Amen Thompson takes another significant leap forward. And maybe you feel really good about those two guys being the torchbearers for your team and you kind of feel like you’ve moved on past KD. Maybe you don’t maybe you don’t realize that or maybe you get into this season and KD this would be a complete shock, but maybe KD isn’t the team’s best player this next season. Maybe it’s still Shingun because he levels up again. Or maybe it’s Almond Thompson because he catapults himself into, you know, one of the best player in the league conversation in just year three because of that’s that’s how good he has a chance to be as a player. If any of those kind of things come to fruition, then do the Rockets really want to be on the hook for two more years of Kevin Durant making, you know, 60 million a year or even even north of 50 million a year if they really feel like they can contend at the highest level with Amen and Alp as their two best players. And then maybe they’d be better off utilizing that money elsewhere to bolster the roster, to improve other positions, to add more depth, to add a player that better complements Shingun and Amit. Again, this is all just I’m just trying to throw out every possible permutation of why this KD stuff um is maybe potentially being put on the back burner if you’re the Houston Rockets because at the end of the day, it is it is strange because you would think that both sides would want that peace of mind, that assurance that they’re committed at least for the, you know, the next couple years, next two to three years, um and knowing that that’s the direction that the franchise is going in rather than this kind of, you lame duck situation where KD comes in and and he has to prove that he’s still a top 10 player and he has to prove that he can still be the best player on a contender before the Rockets commit that two-year extension to him and say, “You know what? Yeah, we we don’t see any signs of you slowing down. We still think you can be a a top 10, top 15 player for the next couple years. You know, here’s your here’s your bag. two years, 100 million, two years, 110 million, whatever it may be, whatever potential discount KD is willing to uh give back in these discussions. But yeah, that’s that’s kind of the crux of it is just the Rockets have to have this gigantic kind of balancing act between what they’re willing to pay right now and the cost of putting together a title contending team right now with KD as their best player versus the long-term ramifications of potentially signing KD that two-year extension and how that imp how that impacts the team and its ability to field a competitive roster. once the other salaries start kicking in, right? Once the extension for Jabari kicks in, once the possible extension for Tari kicks in, once the extension for Amen Thompson kicks in, all these different concerns and so I just think it’s the Rockets doing their due diligence and at the end of the day, I hope they’re able to come to terms on a deal. That would be my preferred outcome is to be able to, you know, report on and talk about a successful Kevin Durant extension this off seasonason. But there is no denying that there are benefits seemingly um for the Rockets to delay these extension negotiations until you know midway through the season possibly or even you know all the way until next off seasonason after they know what one year of KD and this Rockets partnership ultimately looks like and what direction the organization is headed how much better Shingun gets a man gets Jabari Tari what Reed Shepard looks like all that kind of stuff um so that’s it for the KD side of things. Um, for the Tar Een stuff, um, the Tar Een one’s a little bit more peculiar to me and in part because, you know, I kind of assumed, um, incorrectly. So, more on that in a second, but I kind of assumed that when the Rockets offered Jabarius Jr. his contract that they probably offered both Jabari and Tari contracts at the same time. And my understanding of the situation is that they prioritized getting Jabarius Jr. taken care of first and foremost, right? He is he was the number three overall pick. They wanted to make sure that he was, you know, settled in, that they got him under, you know, on a good contract. Um, and that they just wanted to take care of that first this off season and that the Tari situation is something that they’re dealing with ongoing, right? It’s not something that they’ve handled that they handled at the same time. It’s not like the Jaylen Green Alper and Shingun situation where those two contracts were very intertwined, right? Because of like locker room politics and like you couldn’t really even though Shingun absolutely earned his extension, right? You couldn’t just give Shingun the extension and not give Jaylen Green the extension because of the politics of like, oh well, Jaylen Green was the number two overall pick and Shingun was the middle first round pick and like Shingun outplayed Jaylen Green, but like do you want to like mess with Jaylen Green’s confidence by making him be a, you know, go in, you know, as a restricted free agent in the final year of his rookie deal, like all these different things, you know, at the end of the day. And so it my understanding of the situation is that the Rockets viewed and handled these situations um separately of one another, right? They they view the Jabari contract as one thing and they’re viewing the Tari E contract as a completely separate ordeal. And so obviously the Jabari Smith Jr. contract has been inked, signed, it’s all good. The ink is dry. It’s been dry on the page for a little while. Um, and so we can use that, or maybe we shouldn’t use that, but I guess it can be used as a potential point of reference when we start to take a look at the Tari Een contract and what would be a fair number for Tar Een’s rookie scale contract extension. That’s what we’re going to talk about here coming up in just one moment. and final segment here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast, home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right, let me dive into a little bit of a breakdown that um former NBA front office executive John Hollinger did about the Tar Een situation. I want to read what Hollinger wrote first for The Athletic um and then we’ll talk about what he had to share about the Tar Een situation. For starters, the Rockets may have inadvertently set the bar for Een when they did Smith deal given that Een is a better player. It seems like Smith deal 5 years and 124 million should be Een’s floor. Of course, realists will note the true question is whe is what the market will ultimately pay. While Een’s hyperactive defense and aggressive transition play make him valuable, his halfcourt offensive limitations likely put a cap on his future paydays, similar to how it would be for Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels. The second issue here is the presence of both Smith and more importantly Durant. Those two likely conspire to keep most of E’s minutes from being at his best position, power forward, and instead push him into wing roles that tax his offensive skill set and thus may make him look worse when he hits the market next summer. Uh Bour has a 21.7 million annual valuation on Een, partly because his recent health track record has been shaky. But even if the Rockets and East had a workable number, say three years for 65 million to 70 million, another issue crops up. The Rockets might not want to commit to paying him yet. Houston has multiple decisions on whom to pay in coming seasons, and the Rockets will be particularly expensive in 2627 and 2728 regardless, assuming Durant signs an extension. Because of that, one wonders if Houston might choose to strategically cash in their een stock before next season, and if so, whether that would be more easily accomplished without an extension. All right, that’s a lot to unpack there. First off, the very first line of that article, I don’t necessarily think that it’s a given that Tari is better than Jabarisma Jr. I think they’re on the same tier, and I think they both have their respective strengths and weaknesses of their game. I think that on a probably like on a perm minute basis like just especially when you look at some of the impact me met metrics advanced stats that kind of thing I think that Tari is probably the more impactful player at this stage but given Jabari’s versatility given how seamlessly he plugs into multiple different lineup permutations right that you can run him as a small ball five you can slot him all the way down at the three um he provides more reliable floor spacing than Tari and still feels like there’s a lot to you know that we’ve We’ve only barely scratched the surface of Tar of of Jabari’s offensive repertoire and some of the things that he can probably do operating out of the elbow, facing up, um getting to some of his post-up game, things like that. Whereas Tari is that chaotic, you know, defensive playmaker. You know, you inject him into the game and he provides that burst of energy. Um can completely change the flow and complexion of a game coming off the bench, that kind of thing. I I don’t know that one is necessarily flatout better than the other. That being said, Jabari’s deal, 5 years,$124 million, does provide a little bit of a baseline for what I’m sure Tari and his representation are using as, you know, their kind of negotiating uh chip to be like, “Okay, well, you guys paid Jabari this. We feel like Tari’s worth at least that amount.” Um, and then the Rockets now have to go back and forth. And this is where, you know, Rafel Stone being, you know, the lawyer that he is and and always trying to find a good deal, is definitely using probably every bit of ammunition that he has in order to try and get Tari on a more teamfriendly kind of contract. So, I will say first and foremost, the idea of the Rockets, I guess, you know, cashing in their Een stock, I really cannot see the Rockets letting go of Tar Een. They love Tari. Tar loves Houston. The relationship is great. Um, it kind of just feels like one of those situations where both sides are again having to do their due diligence. Tari and his representation want to get him paid the most the absolute maximum amount of money they can get him paid. The Rockets are able to use examples like this past season of Tari being, you know, still limited because of the, you know, the injury from a year ago. um you know not playing on backto-backs, having to load manage his minutes, having to be careful with his minutes, you know, output earlier in the season. Uh as well as you know, him missing, you know, so much of his second year in the NBA. Uh there there are significant concerns, right? Tar’s missed a chunk of his NBA career so far, unfortunately. Now, granted, it was kind of a freak injury weird situation with the the leg and the tumor and all that. So, um, with all that being said, you know, is it is it fair for Rafllstone to hold that against him? Probably not. But at the same time, you know, it’s Refellstone’s job to get the best possible deal. And knowing that you’re going to have to pay, you know, guys like Aman Thompson further down the line and knowing that guys like Jabari and Tari are more of your, you know, they’re your role players, right? They’re not the stars. They’re not the guys that are the engines that are going to be running this team. So you want to get those guys on, you know, as close to team friendly kind of contracts as you can get them. Furi, you know, Jabari is making a little over, you know, 20 million per year annually um on his extension. 5 years 124 million. So he’s making it’s like 23.3 or something a year. For Tari, I feel like that number has to be at least similar to Jabari’s. But the problem here in lies, you know, can the Rockets get him on a deal that’s slightly cheaper than Jabari’s, right? Can you get Tari to commit to five years 100 million, five years 120 million? Um, you know what? You know, maybe you do less years, maybe you do four years only, and you do four years, you know, four years 80 million, four years 90 million. Like what at what point, what is the breaking point for Tari? um and how much are the Rockets ultimately willing to spend to be able to keep him because you look at the situation with this team and you know obviously we still don’t know what’s going to happen with the KD extension although you know the the idea is that KD is probably going to be in Houston until he’s ready to retire so at least the next two to three more years but what does the Rocket starting lineup look look like down the line right is Trey Een the expected you know guy to eventually take over in that starting spot for Kevin Durant to where eventually you have a starting lineup that features Amen and Tari and Jabari and Shingun as four of your five starting lineup members and then potentially even further down the line Reed Shepard eventually replacing Fred Van Vleet. Right? That would be the dream is that all five of these young players, the five remaining members of the young core, all become good enough to be starting caliber players and that the Rockets are still able to contend at a very very high level or still be legitimate title contenders with that as their starting lineup. Plus, you know, continue to replenish the young talent on the bench or maybe making a star level trade further than the line, further down the line for somebody else. Um, so maybe it’s not Tari and Jabari in the starting lineup. Maybe one of them still coming off the bench. Who knows? um or they trade for a star level guard and Reed Shepard’s the one coming off the bench. Who knows? Um for Tari, I kind of feel like his production and and how valuable he is to this Rockets team, if they could get him somewhere in the realm of like 22.5 million or less per year on a four or five year long deal. That’s great value for a guy like Tar Een for what he provides. and you go around the landscape of the NBA and you see what some other role players are commanding guys that are kind of in the same, you know, cut from the same cloth as Atari E type. Um, Tari could absolutely be a starter on probably like more than half the teams in the NBA. He’s coming off the bench for the Rockets, though, because they’ve got that front court depth. They don’t have an available starting spot for Tari E. So that’s the thing that’s going to kind of artificially hold him back is unfortunately he doesn’t get starters level minutes. He hasn’t gotten starters level minutes. So his production numbers aren’t as inflated as they might be if he was playing for a team where he was getting 30 35 minutes a night. Um and that’s absolutely something that I’m guessing the Rockets are using in these negotiations against him of like, oh well your numbers look like this. And you know um that’s when the agent plops down the per 36 numbers and they’re like ah but look at these. So, you know, you you look at a guy like, I don’t know, like Jaylen Suggs who commanded, you know, about 30 million a year, and he’s, you know, an upper echelon kind of role player for the Orlando Magic. He’s obviously their starting point guard. Um, you he’s not exactly like the best, you know, floor general, table setting, you know, gravity commanding point guard, but he plays elite defense. He’s an allNBA caliber defender. He’s a knockdown three-point shooter. Um, and that’s maybe like the true like 99th percentile top end for what Tari could possibly command, but Tari’s not, you know, a a lights out three-point shooter. He’s not a consistent outside shooter. Um, defensively, he gamles a little bit. He’s a he’s a great disruptive presence defensively, but he’s not quite yet, you know, a true AllNBA caliber defender. Um, and there are some limitations to his game, especially in the half court, right? He thrives operating in transition. He thrives, you know, on the defensive side of the ball, creating chaos on that end and then generating extra opportunities. He’s a menace on the glass on both sides, defensively and offensively. So, how much do you pay guy pay a guy like that? Um, I don’t subscribe to that notion whatsoever that the Rockets would dangle Tar Een in a trade unless it was truly for another star level kind of upgrade. Um, you know, maybe there’s a star player that shakes loose in the middle of the season and that’s where the Rockets would be. um you know inclined to include Tari Een in a in a trade discussion but if the Rockets extend Tar Een then they can’t dangle him in trade talks right and I do think that if they were to run the risk of letting Tar Een get to restricted free agency next summer there will absolutely be a team out there willing to pay Tari somewhere in the realm of 25 to 30 million a year to possibly even come be a starter for their team and then the Rockets get screwed into the position of having to match that contract as opposed to just handling their business right here, right now with Tari E. And so I think that’s probably their best move and the the outcome that’s beneficial for both sides is to handle the agreement now, come to terms on a contract and Tar’s camp may just turn their nose up at whatever the Rockets offer and they may very well feel like he has a chance to get to restricted free agency, get to next summer and command 25 or 30 million $30 million a year annually and force the Rockets to match any potential offer that comes their way that might just be the mentality that they decide to take. Um, but at the same time, you know, the market is unpredictable. You never know what teams are going to have money to play with, whether there’s going to be a free agency holdup, if there’s, you know, a top tier free agent or a star player or two that are out there and and teams are afraid to move because they’re waiting for that money to go elsewhere, waiting to see if they have a shot at a star before committing money to a player like Atari Eype. And because of the ramifications of, you know, getting your cap held up on a player for, you know, 72 hours as opposed to just 24 hours or or whatever it is on the the the restricted free agency market. You know, it’s a lot tougher to play that restricted free agency battle. Teams are a lot more careful with their money in restricted free agency. And it might not be as easy for Tari E to get to next summer and be like, “Yeah, I can I can make 25 or $30 million a year easy next summer, right? this team will pay me and this team will pay me and maybe this team will pay me and I’ll have all these offers rolling in. And weirdly enough, if they did get to next summer and there’s still no deal and Tar’s a restricted free agent, the Rockets might actually get him for an even cheaper contract than they could get him on right now. So, it kind of feels like the pressure is more on Tar’s camp to more or less accept whatever contract the Rockets have offered. And I’m assuming that they haven’t like they’re not going to lowball him and give him like four years$60 million. and they’re not going to hit him with like a $15 million a year offer. That would just be insulting. I think that Tar’s floor is at is at least probably $20 million a year annually and his ceiling is probably like 25 million a year. And so if you got him at like five years, 100 million or you know 5 years 110 whatever with with you know slight raises each season that feels like about par for the course for what you’d like for Atari E contract. I feel like the Rockets would view that as a win. I feel like Tari in his camp should view that contract as a win. Um, especially given some of the the limitations of his play style as well as the concerns with how much time he’s missed in his NBA career to this point. Being able to get a $100 million guaranteed would be a pretty sweet get. Maybe it’s something where you sacrifice that final year at the end. Maybe he wants one year less on the deal so that he can get out of that contract sooner. Maybe they throw him like a player option or something at the end. There’s so many different things that can be sprinkled in there. Um, but at the end of the day, I’m confident that the Rockets and that Tari and his camp and his representation will come to terms on a deal before the season ultimately hits. It might just be one that ultimately drags out until closer to the season actually or closer to the start of the actual season as opposed to, you know, something that gets hammered out as quickly as the Jabari Smith Jr. deal did. Again, it’s because they handled them as two separate, you know, occurrences. They treated Jabari as one thing, Tari is another thing. That’s why we haven’t heard um any updates on the Tar Een situation, but hopefully we’ll get one sooner rather than later. I want your thoughts, though. What would be a good rookie extension for Tar Een in your eyes? What do you think the Rockets should be trying to pay him for his next contract? Uh how do you feel about the KD contract situation? Do you want to see KD Inca deal? Are you okay with the Rockets going into next season with KD on a one-year contract and no guarantees that he sticks around long term? Let me know your thoughts in the YouTube comments. Uh, as always though, thank you so much for checking out the show. Remember, the best way to help us grow the show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. But as always, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. We look forward to having you back right here at Locked On Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball.

Rockets Contract Extension STANDOFF With Kevin Durant & Tari Eason | Is Houston’s Future At RISK?

Kevin Durant’s future with the Houston Rockets hangs in the balance. Will the team rush to extend his contract, or play the long game?

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) breaks down the Rockets’ strategic approach to Durant’s extension, exploring potential financial implications and roster flexibility. The discussion shifts to Tari Eason’s rookie contract situation, comparing it to Jabari Smith Jr.’s recent deal and analyzing its impact on the team’s future. Gatlin examines how these decisions could shape the Rockets’ lineup, considering rising stars like Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard.

Tune in for expert analysis on the Rockets’ contract negotiations and their long-term vision for success in the NBA.

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