The Rockets made forward Tari Eason a “strong” contract offer prior to Monday’s deadline for rookie scale extensions, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on the latest episode of the Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link).
“From what I understand…it was in excess of $100MM,” Windhorst said. “I don’t know how much of it would have been guaranteed.”
When he reported on Monday that the Rockets and Eason had failed to come to terms on an agreement, Windhorst’s ESPN colleague Shams Charania wrote that the two sides were unable to bridge the gap in their negotiations “on multiple fronts.” That report, along with Windhorst’s comment, could signal that Eason and his camp weren’t satisfied with the amount of guaranteed money in Houston’s proposal.
Each of the nine players who ultimately signed rookie scale extensions in 2025 received fully guaranteed deals.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- Entering the 2025 offseason after their first-round loss to Golden State, the Rockets’ front office wasn’t “trying to move guys,” general manager Rafael Stone told ESPN’s Michael C. Wright. However, Stone and the Rockets ended up pulling the trigger on a trade for Kevin Durant because they felt the opportunity was too good to pass up. “Jalen (Green) and Dillon (Brooks), we love those guys,” Stone said. “Everybody does. Not a single person on this team felt they needed to be moved out. And you’re never trying to give away the 10th pick of the draft because that’s still a really good player. We did it because of the opportunity. Kevin’s a very unique player. His archetype is unique. He’s this high-volume efficient scorer who doesn’t have to have the ball in his hands 24-7. In that sense, he’s kind of a unicorn. He’s also a two-way player. There just aren’t a whole lot of Kevin Durants. We’ll just have to see how he ultimately fits.”
- Durant’s first game with the Rockets was a nail-biting double-overtime 125-124 loss to the defending champion Thunder. Durant, who missed a free throw late in regulation and then fouled out with 11 second left in the second overtime period, put the blame on himself after the game, according to Wright. “I missed the free throws, and I fouled somebody at the end,” the star forward said. “I think those two plays are the reason we lost. … I’ve got to be better.” Durant was also in the middle of a near-disaster at the end of the first overtime, when he called for a timeout the Rockets didn’t have — he wasn’t called for a technical foul because the referees didn’t see his signal, crew chief Zach Zarba later explained.
- While Durant’s Rockets debut didn’t end in a win, Alperen Sengun‘s performance in defeat was an extremely encouraging sign for the team, as William Guillory of The Athletic and Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) write. On the heels of an impressive EuroBasket performance for the Turkish national team, Sengun posted a monster line of 39 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists vs. Oklahoma City and showed that Houston won’t always have to lean on Durant for half-court scoring. “He was kind of the backbone of our offense tonight,” forward Josh Okogie said of Sengun, per Lerner.
- Although the trade for Durant was a win-now move for the Rockets, the rest of their core is still so young that they place just 21st in the “now or later” rankings compiled by ESPN’s Zach Kram. As Kram explains, the teams at the top of his list are the most desperate to win right away, while the clubs near the bottom are the most content to win later.
Rockets gave away the game. They need to play better defense down the end of the game
Agreed, but it also doesn’t help that they let SGA push off on every drive and let Hartenstein push and go over the back on every rebound opportunity. I’ve been saying this since last season. Regardless at the end the Rockets had the chance and couldn’t pull it off. 81 more to go.
Whiplash, if you’re a fan of the Rockets, there’s no worries at all. They’ll be there at the end.
They are a very good team. They’re young and hungry, Well coached, improved the roster, and now have some experience under their belts.
Rockets future looking good in the short term and the long-term.
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Kim Kardashian loves Luka Doncic
As a Rockets fan, my real concern right now is the PG position. Hopefully, Thompson locks it down because Sheppard struggled badly last night.
It should be till they get one. Thompson is not a PG. And you take him away from his strengths when playing SG. Sheppard didn’t look good. Tunnel vision
Lol, the Rockets got the better whistle all game.
It’s so awful to watch. Every play SGA pushes off to create separation. It’s just not a good look for the league.
2OT game decided by free throws, what a waste.
i agree and the run into the defender play shouldn’t get free throws. I watched yesterday Luka do it over and over and always get teh call.
Reed Sheppard can’t guard his own shadow. He’s going to be unplayable at his size. And it wasn’t like the starters were torching him, even bench guys took him straight to the basket.
Sheppard is going to be a bust. If they had Vanfleet the win in regulation. I see them making a trade in a few weeks for a vet that has handles. Segun is horrible dribbling up court. Thompson can handle the ball but once he went down it hurt.
Ayo is calling on line 1. :-)
Give us a 1st.
I do it ….
That Capela deal really hurt them in being able to at least try to to get some help for the PG spot before the season started. I agree that if Vanvleet was there they win in regulation.
Vanvleet for McCollum ?
Thunder keyed on KD all nught. Rockets had trouble finding him. Rockets D let them down in 4th Q. And it’s painfully obvious they need a real PG. i told you Reed wasn’t ready. They need to be smart with him. He didn’t look good last night. He was trying too hard. Trying to prove something instead of just playing.
After one game ???? see @arc — that’s called hating .. wait a few yrs
To be fair, even I could take Redd Sheppard to the basket
After Rockets ran out of timeout,
Durant called for timeout at the end of the game?
Eason is the type of guy I would want next year on the Bulls. Plays hard and plays tough defense and is a wing defender. We got bums out there pretending they are the next Kawhi or Jimmy making max RFA money, so what’s one more, right?
Seriously, Eason would fit with the timeline from AKME.
No rookie extension for the Houston Rockets and Tari Eason.
He was not in a good shape last night due to recent pressure and sleeping issue?
Eason is what Williams can be and should be. Bulls don’t want that kind of player lol.
So you gave up Williams, Al? lol
KD’s 0-4 on threes didn’t help either.
Amen 0-7, Reed 2-7, Jabari 2-6, Okogie 1-3, the only guy hitting was Sengun at 5-8
“FUGLY”
Honestly, none of them except for KD are realiable consistent shooters
This team really lacks shooting (and a point guard). They will really miss FVV.
Sengun looks like he could be significantly improved over last season.
And you can’t really judge based on 1 game vs the Bad Boys Thunder defense.
If Katie will ever get off social media, he might become a reliable winner, instead of losing his focus time after time
KD’s TO dribbling the ball off his foot was a good example.
Rox hold that early L….
That was a high-level game. Houston looked really solid without “a real PG” against that tough OKC team.
Yes, Amen wasn’t very smooth on the ball and often lacked ideas in half-court, but he was giving his team a lot elsewhere. Defended Shai very well for 3 quarters, and just generally made Houston hard to play against.
I’ve seen “real PGs” like Trae or Schroeder or Murray get absolutely smoked by OKC’s press. Amen did fine.
But didn’t Houston have a foul to give in that last possession by OKC in regulation? I think they did, and Amen didn’t know about it. Could have fouled Shai on the ground.
I felt like Udoka outsmarted himself a little in that game. He had a lot of guys who do well 1v1, but he kept calling doubles that OKC were beating more often than not. Also, his team didn’t appear to have clear ideas in certain moments; OKC seemed more like they knew what they were going to do.
Does OKC have elite top 5 defense? I’m not sure. I would say better defense teams like GSW will cause Hou a lot of problems this year without a point guard with a good handle.
I’m confident that over the course of 82 games, there won’t be 5 teams with better defense than OKC’s.
It’s not that Amen is perfect as a handler, he isn’t. It’s that having him handle the ball allows them to have both Sengun and Adams on the floor, which they love to have, plus Jabari, who is on a great 5-year deal and they want to fulfil his potential, plus KD.
@Davey J
They were the best defense last season by a significant margin, and should be top 2 or 3 this season.
link to statmuse.com
Yeah I knew they were top last year, but this year? Not sure. Other teams (GSW) got way better.
Young and extremely deep team returning everyone that mattered – why would their defense get worse?
If they had a foul to give KDs foul was on the ground and should’ve been side out. They usually call it that way know. sGAs back was to the basket because all his foul merchant dancing.
I’m talking about his moment, with 8 seconds to go before the end of the 2nd half. I think they had a foul to give, but I’m not sure.
link to youtu.be
@Peter_C
Amen ended up with 5 ast and 4 TOs, and was 0-7 from three. The Rockets shot terribly from behind the arc, with the exception of Sengun.
The Rockets had 25 TOs leading to 28 pts by OKC. IMO that indicates they will need “a real PG” to duplicate last season’s win total.
If you just check the stats, it would seem like it. But after watching the entire game, I thought it was not horrible.
Sure, there will be many games where they will want more fluidity and somebody more natural. But I didn’t hate what I saw from Amen.
I will repeat. I’ve seen most “real PGs” get absolutely destroyed by OKC last year – they couldn’t dribble the ball, gave it away all the time, and couldn’t do anything when OKC was in possession. You know a guy called Cade Cunningham? When OKC played in Detroit last year, he was -28, the worst on his team.
Amen was not a passenger in that game.
I will not talk about Reed because it’s whatever. A green guy who has 650 minutes of NBA basketball looked poor against the team that made just about every PG in the league look poor last season.
Amen being the ball handler allowed them to have a very tall line-up that was hard to play against; they rebounded very well, and it was one of the reasons they were ahead during basically all the regulation.
“Not horrible” isn’t the same as good.
And comparing how OKC played last season to the home opener on ring night is pretty deceptive, they were not only missing JDub, but couldn’t shoot (with the exception of Holmgren), and they clearly weren’t playing defense at last year’s level.
OKC should start looking more like themselves in the next game.
I hate that SGA won the game by deliberately avoiding playing the actual sport. He literally juked around until KD jumped then jumped into him. That’s more egregious than flopping and just blatant unsportsmanlike play. His plan to win the game was by litigating fouls instead of playing basketball. And everyone is just fine with this.
I don’t blame SGA but the NBA needs to realize fouls are meant to discourage bad play and it’s to the point where it’s encouraging bad play. It wasn’t fun to watch. And SGA should be ashamed.
In your opinion, what should the NBA do ?
I’d rather them stop the game down for fouls like these and determine if there was any “basketball” move (intent) to borrow a phrase from the NFL, than some of the fouls they currently think are worth litigating. I know that’s not exactly what football move means but I think it communicates the concept.
If your first shooting motion is initiating the contact and you’ve made no effort to shoot or move towards the basket, you’re just not playing basketball. I get it’s not easy but requiring them to play the sport they’re supposedly playing is a pretty big deal.
I don’t see Amen viable for Pg year long, even quarter season long
Was actually a good matchup for him and he did well to beat the press but he’s a fish outta water here Imo. I see Hooliday getting some Big minutes here soon, maybe next game
Ime should give Davison some minutes – he might be their best PG now.
Giving up Brooks and Green significantly hurts the rockets defense, which is what made them good. The trade completely destroyed their identity.
Luckily Udoka is a top 2 coach in the NBA, but he has a lot of work to do to turn around the disaster this trade has created for him
I don’t agree that the Rockets losing to the defending champs on the road by 1 pt in 2 OTs = a “disaster”.
Both teams shot poorly, but the 25 TOs killed the Rockets. They looked impressive overall other than that.
Okc got to the hoop too easily. And even though they missed shots, that got a lot of good looks
Rockets D let them down in 4th Q. They could of closed it out. Considering Rockets had no PG play. Or a big night from KD. This was a good showing. Thunder keyed on KD, and it worked. Sheppard had a bad game. I told you he is not ready. Rockets have to get a PG. Go all out for Jrue. Can’t do anything till Dec 15.
But Dinwiddie and DSJ are out there.