SEPTEMBER 27: The Rockets have officially signed Anderson, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
SEPTEMBER 25: Ryan Anderson is returning to Houston, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the free agent forward has agreed to a new contract with the Rockets. The deal will feature a significant partial guarantee, per Charania.
Anderson is still collecting on the four-year, $80MM deal that Houston gave him in the summer of 2016. He spent two years with the team before being traded to Phoenix last August in a salary dump. In February, the Suns shipped him to Miami, which waived him in July under the stretch provision.
Anderson will earn more from the Heat ($5,214,584) than the Rockets this season, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. That number will be slightly reduced once Anderson’s new contract becomes official, providing a measure of relief to the Miami, which is up against a hard salary cap.
Anderson will be given a chance to earn back-up minutes at power forward, adds Alykhan Bijani of The Athletic (via Twitter). He states that Houston reached out to both Anderson and fellow free agent Luc Mbah a Moute this month about possible returns (Twitter link). Anderson averaged 11.6 points and 4.8 rebounds in 138 games during his first stint in Houston.
The Rockets are at the 20-man limit after reaching a deal yesterday with Jaron Blossomgame, so a move will have to created before he and Anderson can both be added to the roster.
I like it.
He won’t get a lot of minutes, but he gives the Rockets a ton of depth. They have Harden, Russ, Capela, Gordon, and Tucker starting. The bench will be Tyson Chandler, Danuel House, Austin Rivers, Sefolosha, Gerald Green, Ryan Anderson, and Nene. Plus they have a couple of really promising 2nd year players in Gary Clark and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Great pic. Bounceback year and another $80m contract?
More like a $2.5M deal and he’s about 10th or 11th in the rotation.
Obviously he won’t get anything close to the horrible contract they gave him 3 years ago, just like so many other players were grossly overpaid in the summer of 2016. But hopefully he can give them a handful of decent minutes while hitting a few threes for the veteran minimum.
How much cap relief do the Heat get by Anderson signing a minimum contract with the Rockets? I didn’t think that would matter.
If my math and my understanding of the rule are both correct, I think it’d be about $87K (half the difference between Anderson’s minimum-salary cap hit and the minimum salary for a one-year veteran).