The Rockets and guard Jalen Green have agreed to phrases on a three-year rookie scale extension value $106M, brokers Aaron Mintz, Andrew Morrison and Shakira Wardally inform Shams Charania and Bobby Marks of ESPN (X link). The deal will embody a third-year participant possibility.
The No. 2 general choose within the 2021 draft, Inexperienced has averaged 19.8 factors, 4.1 rebounds and three.3 assists per sport in his 225 NBA outings (all begins).
Inexperienced’s capturing percentages throughout his first three seasons have been modest (.421/.337/.794) and his protection has been inconsistent, however he has proven tantalizing flashes of placing all of it collectively, together with throughout a 15-game stretch close to the top of the 2023-24 season when he averaged 29.2 PPG on .488/.422/.782 capturing and led the Rockets to 13 wins in 15 video games to maintain them within the play-in hunt.
The phrases of Inexperienced’s new deal are fairly uncommon for just a few causes. For one, most rookie scale extensions cowl at the least 4 seasons and people who don’t are usually far much less profitable contracts signed by position gamers.
Primarily based on our analysis, the most important three-year rookie scale extension signed previous to this 12 months was the $52.5M contract Caris LeVert acquired in 2019. Inexperienced’s contract will greater than double the annual common worth of LeVert’s.
Inexperienced additionally acquired a participant possibility, which has change into a rarity for rookie scale extensions. Of the 31 rookie scale extensions accomplished since 2022 earlier than this deal, only one featured a participant possibility, and that contract (for Nuggets massive man Zeke Nnaji) was for 4 years. Inexperienced’s possibility can be for the 2027-28 season, permitting him to probably attain unrestricted free company at age 25.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes (via X), as a result of Inexperienced’s new contract is for simply three years as a substitute of 4 or 5 seasons, he’ll additionally change into eligible for his subsequent extension sooner than most rookie scale extension recipients. He’ll have the ability to signal an extension value as much as a projected $227M+ over 4 years as of Oct. 26, per Marks.
Whereas it stays to be seen whether or not or not the Rockets will attempt to change into a cap-space staff in the course of the 2025 offseason, Inexperienced’s new contract received’t essentially have an effect on their capability to take action, since he would’ve had a big cap maintain (exceeding $37M) as a restricted free agent. His first-year wage on his new deal can be $33.5M, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic (X link), which is a bit more than $5M beneath his projected max.
