Rockets general manager Rafael Stone already indicated his team is likely to operate above the NBA’s salary cap in the 2024 offseason. Doing so gives Houston more financial flexibility when it comes to retaining its own players.
So, even if reserve players such as Jock Landale, Jeff Green and Jae’Sean Tate don’t have clear rotation roles for the 2024-25 team right now, there’s no need to pinch pennies with those roster spots as long as each player has neutral to positive trade value. In fact, their slightly larger salaries for purposes of salary matching in trades could be a benefit, relative to cheaper options.
With that in mind, The Athletic’s Kelly Iko reports Houston is planning to pick up the option year of 2024-25 on all three of those players. In his latest notebook, Iko writes:
All signs point toward the Rockets picking up the options on veteran forwards Jae’Sean Tate and Jeff Green, team sources said. This list also includes reserve center Jock Landale, even with the expectation Steven Adams, who was acquired in February, will be a sizable contributor next season.
The Houston Rockets have maintained interest in Cavs All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell for months and continue to monitor his situation in Cleveland, sources tell @TheAthletic.
More from our draft notebook 1.0: https://t.co/AlW5C8iVSo
— Kelly Iko (@KellyIko) May 21, 2024
Each option is only for one season and below $10 million, so there’s no long-term commitment on any of the three players.
Better yet, all were positive locker-room contributors on a Houston team (41-41) that exceeded most expectations last season. That 19-win improvement was the biggest year-on-year jump of any NBA team.
So, unless those three are used in a trade between now and the late-June window to decide on those options, it seems like the realistic expectation is for all to return to the 2024-25 Rockets.
