The Rockets are still in talks with restricted free agent K.J. McDaniels regarding the player re-signing and returning to Houston, Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). The franchise wishes to use the mid-level exception, worth $5,464,000 to ink the swingman, Watkins adds. It’s not clear what contract length and annual salary the player is seeking.
McDaniels has received what Watkins refers to as a “strong offer” from another team, though the ESPN scribe doesn’t mention which franchise that may be. No offer sheet has been signed by the swingman as of yet, notes Watkins. Houston would have three days to match any signed offer sheet it received for the player, which the team reportedly intends to do, as a result of tendering McDaniels a qualifying offer worth slightly more than $1.045MM. The Knicks were one franchise that was reported to be interested in the second-year guard out of Clemson, though it’s unknown if they are the team that has made McDaniels a contract offer.
In 62 appearances split between the Sixers and Rockets last season, including 15 as a starter while with Philly, McDaniels averaged 7.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 21.8 minutes per contest. His slash line was .396/.287/.752. McDaniels is a solid perimeter defender, and his skillset and upside are a tantalizing combination, which makes it a bit surprising that he hasn’t garnered more interest this offseason. That’s likely due to the fear that Houston would match any reasonable offer, but that’s merely my speculation.
Any chance the Lakers go after him and add to their young core? (Would be a crowded backcourt with Russell, Williams, Young, Kobe, and Clarkson, but if they planned on trading away Young ever, it would be a nice building block for the post-Kobe era.)
I think my Rockets got this in the bag. I hope they offer him the full 5.4 million MLE because at his scale, he can’t make over that. Have something to do with being a veteran of 3 years and less.
So, that’s the max offer he’d get and we retain his rights as a restricted free-agent. I still don’t like the way Daryl Morey handle this. He should have made McDaniels a priority much, much earlier and never should have signed Cory Brewer to that 23 million dollar contract.
We don’t really need Brewer if we got McDaniels. He can sub for Harden or Ariza. I just hope McHale give him all the minutes he need to continue to develope. Amd McHale tries to put him further back on the depth chart, it’s time to fire McHale. I really don’t like McHale as Coach for thr Rockets. He sucks.
He has a similar skillset to Jimmy Butler of the Bulls. Solid defender and needs to work on his shot. Took Jimmy a few years but the training and patience paid off. KJ could get there.
Im a big fan of the Rockets and if I were the management, I wont let KJ McDaniels go to other team..Hes promising and a very valuable asset