Butler gets away by signing four-year contract with Heat
House and Green remain onboard; moves jolt league
The Rockets’ free-agent game plan, ambitious if perhaps unrealistic as it was, barely made it to sundown on opening night. The next step will be a different sort of difficult.
As the stakes in the Western Conference arms race grew and at least some NBA power shifted, the Rockets’ top target stayed far from home.
Run it back? This time, after some delicate fence-mending, the Rockets might have no choice.
Jimmy Butler, the Houston native for whom the Rockets were willing to part with two starters, instead agreed to a four-year, $142 million deal with Miami on Sunday before the Rockets could offer their recruitig pitch.
The Heat, like the Rockets, are over the salary cap, requiring a sign-and-trade deal. They will send Josh Richardson to the 76ers in a three-team, sign-and-trade with the Mavericks, much as the Rockets would have been willing to part with center Clint Capela and guard Eric Gordon.
With Butler off the market, the Rockets will likely bring back Gor
don and Capela and hope they can get past any bruised feelings from having been so clearly involved in trade talks.
In choosing the Heat, Butler. 29, opted to be the centerpiece of a team in need of a more long-term retooling rather than among the stars of a contender.
The Rockets opened the freeagent period largely treading water, keeping a pair of their reserves but doing little in the initial wave of deals to keep pace.
The most ground-shaking moves happened in the Eastern Conference. Kevin Durant joined the Brooklyn Nets, taking Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Jordan and Garrett Temple with him The Sixers kept Tobias Harris and added Al Horford, in addition to Richardson. The Celtics landed Kemba Walker to replace Irving.
But while the Lakers and Clippers wait for their chance to chase Kawhi Leonard — who characteristically allowed the opening-night free-agent frenzy to explode without him — the Jazz moved to contender status, adding Bojan Bogdanovic and Ed Davis to last week’s acquisition of Mike Conley. The Warriors made a spectacular catch, getting D’Angelo Russell on a $117 million max contract in a sign-and-trade deal with the Nets.
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey had said Monday that the Rockets should be considered Western Conference favorites, saying they would add a significant player with their midlevel exception to their starting lineup, if not making a more substantial move.
With that larger move now out of reach, he can shop with at least some of his midlevel exception money. It is unclear which exception and how much he would have to spend. But meetings expected with centers JaVale McGee and Kevon Looney seemed to be if needed to replace Clint Capela if the Rockets had to move their starting center as part of the deal-making needed to land Butler.
The Rockets began with some House-keeping, locking up a pair of their own, and staying close to home to do it.
The Rockets reached agreements to sign key reserves Danuel House Jr. and Gerald Green, keeping both fan favorites off the bench in their hometown, three individuals with knowledge of the deals said.
For House, a three-year, $11.1 million deal will be a reward not just for his impressive play when signed during the season as the
Rockets were rocked by injuries but for his decision to turn down their three-year, $4.2 million offer and stay in the G League for two months during the season.
House, 26, exceled as a forward off the bench, averaging 9.4 points on 41.6 percent 3-point shooting in his 39 games with the Rockets. But he struggled in the postseason, falling out of the rotation.
The Rockets also reached a rapid agreement with Green, who had been clear about his intention to return to his hometown team.
Green, who like House had joined the Rockets to fill in when the team was shorthanded because of injuries the year before, had signed a 10-day contract Dec. 28, 2017, and quickly agreed to sign a one-year deal with the Rockets last July. He immediately took another one-year minimum contract with the Rockets on Sunday.
Green, 33, averaged 9.2 points in 20.2 minutes per game with the Rockets last season, his 12th in the NBA after he was drafted as the 18th pick in 2005 out of Gulf Shores Academy.
The Rockets needed to fill out a bench. With Nene choosing not to exercise the final season of his Rockets deal, they had no players from their postseason bench under contract. With House getting a chunk of the Rockets’ midlevel money, coming up with the next move could be a challenge.