The Rockets are “determined” to re-sign Patrick Beverley this summer amid no shortage of interest from other clubs around the league, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes in a report on the latest surrounding the point guard’s season-ending wrist injury. Beverley, whom the Rockets have employed as their starting point guard for just the minimum salary, is set for restricted free agency this summer.
It will take four months for Beverley to recover from the surgery he underwent today, league sources tell Wojnarowski. There was a “fleeting hope” prior to surgery that Beverely could have been back to play in the Western Conference Finals if the Rockets made it to that round, according to Wojnarowski, but that’s not to be. A four-month timetable would mean he wouldn’t be ready until August, a month after free agency begins, but Beverley is expected to be near full recovery by the time he hits the market, Wojnarowski writes.
Houston has reportedly held interest in fellow soon-to-be free agent Goran Dragic since before the season began, though he apparently didn’t make them a preferred trade destination at the deadline because he worried that the Rockets would seek to trade him if he signed a long-term deal with them. The Rockets likely would have given up Beverley in a trade for Dragic, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, and when Houston was close to signing Chris Bosh last summer, the Heat were poised to target Beverley in sign-and-trade talks, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported.
Still, it appears that absent a desire from Dragic to sign with the Rockets, Houston is prepared to recommit to Beverley, and according to Wojnarowski, the Rockets want a long-term deal. Beverley has expressed contentment in playing for the team. The BDA Management client has a reputation as a strong defender, though he’s down the list of point guards on ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus/Minus ratings and of guards as ranked by Basketball-Reference’s Defensive Box Plus/Minus. Still, he averaged a career-high 3.4 assists this season, and he shot 35.6% from three-point territory.