Houston Rockets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Contract Details: Capela, VanVleet, Lopez, Ayton, LaRavia, Kalkbrenner

July 7th, 2025 at 2:16pm CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets‘ new three-year deal with Clint Capela includes a 5% trade kicker, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

The fully guaranteed deal is worth $21,105,000 over three years, Hoops Rumors has confirmed, coming in slightly below the initially reported price of $21.5MM. It includes a first-year salary of $6.7MM, with an ascending structure that sees it increase to $7.37MM by year three.

Here are a few more details on some recently signed contracts from around the NBA:

Fred VanVleet‘s two-year, $50MM contract with the Rockets has a flat structure, with a $25MM first-year salary and a $25MM player option for 2026/27, Hoops Rumors has learned.
Brook Lopez‘s two-year deal with the Clippers came in slightly below the reported $18MM price. It uses $8.75MM of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception for the 2025/26 season, leaving L.A. with $5,354,000 still to use. Lopez’s second-year team option is worth $9,187,500
The Lakers‘ used up their entire $14,104,000 non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Deandre Ayton ($8,104,000) and Jake LaRavia ($6MM), as expected. Those salary figures are also Ayton’s and LaRavia’s cap hits for 2026/27 — Ayton’s second year is a player option and LaRavia’s is fully guaranteed.
No. 34 overall pick Ryan Kalkbrenner signed a four-year, $9.97MM contract with the Hornets, according to Scotto (Twitter link). That’s the most he could earn under the terms of the second-round pick exception. Kalkbrenner’s first two years are fully guaranteed, with a third-year trigger date and a fourth-year team option, Scotto adds.

Seven-Team Kevin Durant Trade Officially Finalized

July 6th, 2025 at 2:10pm CST by Luke Adams

The seven-team trade that sends star forward Kevin Durant and free agent big man Clint Capela (via sign-and-trade) to Houston is now official, according to press releases from several teams, including the Rockets.

“Having played against Kevin and coached him before, I know he’s the type of competitor who fits with what we’ve been building here in Houston,” head coach Ime Udoka said in a statement. “His skill level, love of basketball, and dedication to his craft have made him one of the most respected players of his generation, and my staff and I are excited to work with him.”

The move sets a new NBA record for most teams involved in a single trade. The terms of the deal are as follows:

Rockets acquire:
- Kevin Durant (from Suns)
- Clint Capela (sign-and-trade; from Hawks)
Suns acquire:
- Jalen Green (from Rockets)
- Dillon Brooks (from Rockets)
- Daeqwon Plowden (from Hawks)
- The draft rights to Khaman Maluach (No. 10 pick; from Rockets)
- The draft rights to Rasheer Fleming (No. 31 pick; from Timberwolves)
- The draft rights to Koby Brea (No. 41 pick; from Warriors)
- Either the Thunder’s, Mavericks’, or Sixers’ 2026 second-round pick (whichever is second-most favorable; from Rockets)
Lakers acquire:
- The draft rights to Adou Thiero (No. 36 pick; from Nets)
Warriors acquire:
- The draft rights to Alex Toohey (No. 52 pick; from Suns) and the draft rights to Jahmai Mashack (No. 59 pick; from Rockets)
  - Note: Mashack’s rights will be sent to the Grizzlies in a subsequent trade.
Timberwolves acquire:
- The draft rights to Rocco Zikarsky (No. 45 pick; from Lakers)
- Either the Warriors’ or Nuggets’ 2026 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable; from Suns)
- Either the Suns’ or Rockets’ 2032 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable; from Suns/Rockets)
  - Note: The Suns, not the Rockets, retain the least favorable of the two picks.
- Cash (from Lakers).
  - Note: $3.25MM, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
Nets acquire:
- Either the Clippers’ 2026 second-round pick or the most favorable of the Celtics’, Pacers’, and Heat’s 2026 second-round picks (whichever is least favorable; from Rockets)
- The Celtics’ 2030 second-round pick (from Rockets)
Hawks acquire:
- David Roddy (from Rockets)
- The right to swap their own 2031 second-round pick for the Rockets’ 2031 second-round pick (56-60 protected; from Rockets)
- Cash (from Rockets)
  - Note: $85,300, per Marks (Twitter link).

Word first broke on Wednesday that the Durant trade was being expanded to be completed as a seven-team deal. For the most part, it was just a matter of folding separate draft-night trade agreements into a single transaction.

In addition to the original Durant blockbuster (story), this transaction incorporates trade agreements between the Suns and Nets (story), Suns and Warriors (story), Suns and Timberwolves (story), and Lakers and Timberwolves (story), as well as the sign-and-trade deal sending Capela from the Hawks to the Rockets (story).

The only two new additions to this deal are Plowden and Roddy, who are both entering the second year of two-way contracts. The addition of Plowden ensures that the Hawks are “touching” a second team besides Houston in the deal. He’s being waived by the Suns, reports Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter link).

In exchange for sending out Plowden, the Hawks are filling that newly opened two-way slot with Roddy, a former first-round pick who spent more than half of the 2024/25 season in Atlanta on a standard contract.

Attaching the Capela sign-and-trade deal into this transaction has cap-related benefits for the Rockets, who would otherwise have had to send out a separate matching salary in order to sign Capela to his reported three-year, $21MM deal.

However, for the most part, amalgamating all those draft-night deals is just about streamlining the process for several teams, allowing them to take part in (or wait out) fewer trade calls and get their newly acquired rookies under contract sooner.

Wizards, Pelicans, Rockets Compete Three-Team Trade

July 6th, 2025 at 1:57pm CST by Luke Adams

As expected, the Wizards have rolled a pair of trade agreements with the Pelicans and Rockets into the same deal, officially completing the two deals as a single three-team transaction, per a press release from New Orleans.

The terms of the trade are as follows:

Wizards acquire CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk, Cam Whitmore, and the Bulls’ 2027 second-round pick (from Pelicans).
Pelicans acquire Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey, and the draft rights to Micah Peavy (No. 40 pick).
Rockets acquire the draft rights to Mojave King, the Bulls’ 2026 second-round pick (from Wizards) and the Kings’ 2029 second-round pick (from Wizards).

The original trade agreement between Washington and New Orleans was reached on June 24, a day before the first round of the draft, with the Whitmore deal between Houston and Washington just agreed upon yesterday.

It was beneficial for the Wizards to combine the two deals into a single trade because they were sending out any matching salary to the Rockets for Whitmore. While they could have used one of several cap exceptions they had on hand to take on Whitmore’s $3.54MM salary for 2025/26, including him in this deal allows them to use their 125% allowance for Poole’s and Bey’s outgoing salary to acquire him, McCollum, and Olynyk.

The only new part of this deal is the Rockets acquiring the draft rights to King from New Orleans, which was necessary to ensure that Houston and New Orleans were “touching” as part of the three-team deal.

You can read our original story on the Wizards/Pelicans deal headlined by McCollum and Poole here, while our report on the Wizards’ deal for Whitmore is here.

Southwest Notes: Durant, Finney-Smith, Roddy, Shammgod, Pelicans

July 5th, 2025 at 9:46pm CST by Arthur Hill

Trading for Kevin Durant and adding Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency should solve the outside shooting woes that have bogged down the Rockets‘ offense, writes Kelly Iko of The Athletic. He notes that Houston went just 5-of-17 from beyond the arc in a Game 7 loss to Golden State while averaging just 78.0 points per 100 half-court plays. Management believed the team had become too reliant on scoring off the offensive glass and needed to find a way to stretch opposing defenses.

Durant, who remains one of the league’s top shooters at age 36, should go a long way toward fixing the problem. Iko notes that Phoenix managed to be a top-10 half-court team last season, which is largely due to Durant’s brilliance. He should provide the lion’s share of Houston’s offense, with elite athletes surrounding him to keep opposing defenses honest.

Finney-Smith posted two huge games against the Rockets in March and April, Iko adds, going a combined 12-of-20 from three-point range. Iko cites statistics from Cleaning the Glass showing that Finney-Smith’s on-off numbers were +10.8 during his time with Brooklyn last season and +9.3 with Los Angeles. Iko expects the Rockets to see fewer zones with Durant and Finney-Smith on hand to counter them.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

Rockets two-way player David Roddy appears to be headed to the Hawks as compensation for Clint Capela when a seven-team deal becomes official on Sunday, according to Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). Roddy began last season with Atlanta before being waived at the trade deadline.
God Shammgod talked to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News about his decision to leave the Mavericks‘ coaching staff and join his friend Jamahl Mosley with the Magic. Shammgod is among four assistants Dallas is losing this offseason. He has been with the organization since 2016 and said he never expected to make such a move a month ago. “I’ve been very fortunate, being under a great coach like Rick Carlisle, and then going to another good coach like (Jason Kidd) and being a part of one of the best organizations in the world,” Shammgod said. “And Mark Cuban, you know, probably one of the greatest owners in sports — but, to me, an even better person. There will always be a love relationship for me here in Dallas. I just appreciate everything Dallas did for me, as a coach and as a person.”
New Pelicans head of basketball operations Joe Dumars is taking a huge chance that the young roster he has assembled can be a playoff contender, observes William Guillory of The Athletic. If it doesn’t work out, Guillory believes Dumars will be facing a full rebuild that could include trading Zion Williamson and firing coach Willie Green.

Wizards Notes: Whitmore, Gill, Centers, Outlaw

July 5th, 2025 at 7:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Wizards‘ acquisition of Cam Whitmore from the Rockets will be folded into a four-player trade with the Pelicans that was reported last month, a source tells Varun Shankar of The Washington Post (subscriber link). That deal sends Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey and the 40th pick in this year’s draft (Micah Peavy) to New Orleans in exchange for CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and a future second-round selection.

Combining the two trades into one will allow the Wizards to acquire Whitmore without using a separate trade exception or a portion of their mid-level or bi-annual exception.

Houston is trading Whitmore to a rebuilding team to give him a shot at increased playing time, but Shankar points out that it might be just as difficult for Whitmore to get on the court in Washington as it was during his two seasons with the Rockets. He views Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George and lottery pick Tre Johnson as locks to be in the rotation.

Whitmore will have to compete with young prospects Will Riley, AJ Johnson, Justin Champagnie and Dillon Jones, along with McCollum and fellow veterans Khris Middleton, Marcus Smart, Corey Kispert and Richaun Holmes.

Shankar also points out that Whitmore and Coulibaly were part of the same draft class in 2023, which means they’ll both be eligible for rookie scale extensions next summer.

There’s more from Washington:

The Wizards waived Anthony Gill last weekend to avoid paying his $2.5MM salary for the upcoming season, but he’s likely to be brought back as the team’s 15th man, Josh Robbins of The Athletic states in a mailbag column. A new deal will be a win for both sides, Robbins explains, as the 32-year-old forward will earn about $121K more on a veteran’s minimum contract and the league’s reimbursement policy will cause Gill to have a smaller salary cap hit. Washington has a minor roster crunch as a result of its moves so far, so the team would have to make additional trades or cuts to make room on the regular season roster for Gill.
The Wizards aren’t likely to pursue another center to join Sarr, Olynyk and Holmes, Robbins states in the same piece. Even though Washington ranked near the bottom of the league in defensive rebounding percentage, Robbins notes that there’s not a strong incentive to win this season because the team’s first-round draft pick will convey to New York if it falls out of the top eight. Robbins adds that the Wizards didn’t try to sign any big men when free agency began, and he doesn’t expect that stance to change unless Olynyk or Holmes gets traded.
Assistant J.J. Outlaw will serve as the Wizards’ Summer League coach, team sources tell Robbins (Twitter link). Outlaw joined Brian Keefe’s coaching staff last July after five seasons in Cleveland.

Rockets To Trade Cam Whitmore To Wizards

July 5th, 2025 at 3:17pm CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets have agreed to trade forward Cam Whitmore to the Wizards, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Charania, Houston will acquire a pair of second-round picks in return.

Whitmore, a Maryland native who will turn 21 on Tuesday, was selected out of Villanova with the 20th overall pick in the 2023 draft. It was viewed as a steal at the time for the Rockets, given that the 6’7″ forward was widely viewed as a top-10 – or even top-five – pick leading up to the draft.

However, while Whitmore flashed some major upside as a scorer off the bench during his first two NBA seasons, he wasn’t able to carve out a consistent role for a deep Rockets team. He made a total of 98 appearances from 2023-25, averaging 10.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .449/.357/.707.

The Rockets worked with Whitmore and his representatives in recent weeks in an effort to find a new home, per Charania (Twitter link). He should get an opportunity to play more significant – and more consistent – minutes for a rebuilding Wizards team that will be looking for some of its young players to establish themselves as long-term building blocks.

Moving Whitmore will help generate a little extra flexibility below a first-apron hard cap for a Rockets team that was expected to have to part with Whitmore or Jeenathan Williams to stay below that threshold once its reported deals for Kevin Durant and Clint Capela are official.

Houston will acquire Chicago’s 2026 second-round pick and Sacramento’s 2029 second-rounder in the deal, a league source tells Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The Wizards, meanwhile, have no shortage of cap exceptions they could use to take on Whitmore’s $3.54MM salary without sending back a player themselves, but it sounds like they won’t need to use their mid-level, bi-annual, or existing trade exceptions. Varun Shakar of The Washington Post says this deal is expected to be folded into a larger trade with the Pelicans when it goes official.

Washington will have until October 31 of this year to decide whether or not to exercise Whitmore $5.46MM team option for the 2026/27 season. Assuming the Wizards pick up that option, he’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension a year from now.

Chicago and Denver were reportedly among the other teams that expressed some level of interest in Whitmore before the Rockets made a deal with Washington.

Rockets Re-Sign Jae’Sean Tate On One-Year Deal

July 5th, 2025 at 3:16pm CST by Rory Maher

July 5: The Rockets have officially re-signed Tate, per NBA.com’s transaction log. Based on the fact that it was completed during the July moratorium, we now know definitively that it’s a minimum-salary deal.

Houston also finalized its two-way agreement with Kevon Harris. We have the full story on that signing here.

June 30: The Rockets and free agent forward Jae’Sean Tate have agreed to a one-year contract worth $3MM, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Tate holds five years of NBA experience — all with the Rockets — and his projected minimum salary for next season is approximately $2.67MM. It’s unclear whether Houston is giving him a little more than the minimum or if the figure reported by Scotto is just Tate’s minimum being rounded up.

Tate, 29, went undrafted in 2018 after four college seasons at Ohio State. He played a couple of years overseas before catching on with the Rockets in 2020/21.

In 52 games in 2024/25, Tate averaged career lows of 3.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.8 minutes per contest. His shooting slash line was .473/.348/.681.

While the 6’4″ combo forward’s role has steadily declined during his time with Houston, clearly the Rockets still value his contributions, otherwise they wouldn’t be bringing him back.

Tate is one of three veteran role players expected to re-sign with Houston in free agency, with Aaron Holiday and Jeff Green being the others.

Cap Observations: KD Trade, Valanciunas, Kings, H. Gonzalez

July 4th, 2025 at 9:51am CST by Luke Adams

As we catch our breath on the Fourth of July and await updates on the top remaining free agents - including an intriguing group of restricted free agents and veteran unrestricted free agents like Al Horford, Chris Paul, and Russell Westbrook - we're taking a look back at a few of the intriguing stories from the past few days.

In the space below, we're exploring what the seven-team Kevin Durant figures to look like, why the Nuggets and Kings are still moving forward with their Jonas Valanciunas/Dario Saric swap amid rumors about Valanciunas wanting to play in Greece, what the rumors about Sacramento's interest in Jonathan Kuminga suggest, and more.

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Rockets Sign Kevon Harris To Two-Way Deal

July 3rd, 2025 at 10:58pm CST by Luke Adams

July 5: The Rockets have officially signed Harris to a two-way contract, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

July 3: The Rockets and free agent shooting guard Kevon Harris have agreed to terms on a two-way contract, agent Darrell Comer tells Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Harris has excelled at the G League level in recent years, earning MVP honors at the NBAGL’s Next Up Game at All-Star weekend in February. On the season, he averaged 19.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.4 steals in 31.1 minutes per game across 44 Tip-Off Tournament and regular season outings for the College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta’s affiliate.

Harris’ NBA résumé is thinner, but the 28-year-old made 36 total appearances for Orlando from 2022-24 while on a two-way contract with the Magic. He was on an NBA roster most recently when he signed a 10-day deal with the Hawks in March.

Harris will join a Rockets team that currently has one of its two-way slots filled (David Roddy), with a two-way qualifying offer out to a second player (N’Faly Dante).

A two-way contract allows a team to shuttle a player back and forth between the NBA roster and its G League affiliate, with a 50-game regular season limit at the NBA level. Two-way players earn half the rookie minimum salary.

Rockets Waiving Jock Landale

July 3rd, 2025 at 2:26pm CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets will waive center Jock Landale before his $8MM salary for the 2025/26 season becomes guaranteed, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

Charania adds that Landale will sign with his “preferred destination” after clearing waivers, while Kelly Iko of The Athletic says (via Twitter) a number of teams have expressed interest in him.

Landale was signed by Houston in 2023 to a four-year, $32MM contract that included just one fully guaranteed season. However, the Rockets – who were operating well below the luxury tax line, hung onto him for the second year of the deal in 2024/25, even though he played a limited role for the team behind Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams in the frontcourt.

The 29-year-old averaged 4.8 points and 3.3 rebounds in 11.9 minutes per game across 42 outings (three starts) this past season.

With Sengun and Adams returning and Clint Capela joining the frontcourt mix, there was no place in the rotation going forward for Landale, and his $8MM annual salary is no longer palatable for the Rockets to carry with the roster getting more expensive. His release had been expected, even after he and the team reached an agreement over the weekend to push his salary guarantee date back to July 7.