Amen Thompson and Houston Rockets agree to 5-year, $208M extension
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to Amen Thompson and the Rockets agreeing to a 5-year, $208M extension. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Amen Thompson has agreed to a five-year, $208 million rookie scale contract extension with the franchise.
The new deal includes a 10% trade kicker.
Big money for Amen as he gets 208 million bucks for the Rockets.
This is a smart move by the Houston Rockets, and that is an awfully beefy contract, but I mean, Amen Thompson de- deserves it.
He's one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA.
He's one of the best young defenders in the NBA.
First team all defense just a couple of years ago.
And also, what he can bring offensively.
I mean, last year he averaged about 18 points per game.
I mean, does he have more that he can improve upon from the offensive side of the ball?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But you don't get better by not signing your great elite young players, and that's exactly what Amen Thompson is.
Now, the other side of that is the Rockets were the fifth-best team in the West last year.
Is that a different story if Fred VanVleet doesn't tear his ACL?
Sure, probably.
Yes, we can absolutely talk about that.
Does re-signing Amen Thompson all of a sudden make you better than the Spurs, than the Thunder, this version of the Timberwolves?
I don't necessarily think so, but what it doesn't do is make you worse, and I think that teams get better and avoid getting worse by re-signing their great players.
Now, I just wonder when Amen Thompson is really gonna make that next step in solidifying himself into superstar status in the, in the NBA.
I, I wanna remind people too, he's 23.
He just turned 23 a few months ago.
Yeah.
So you wanna talk about young and still has a long time to develop into, where he's gonna be.
And also, I think it's important that it's the third straight off-season Houston has extended a former draft pick, which speaks to the fact that they are drafting well.
They are re-signing well.
They're doing the right thing to build a young core.
I'm the worst, and I know it, because I look at every single transaction, and I'm like, "Well, does it make you better than the Spurs or the Thunder?
No.
Ah, it all kind of feels pointless."
It isn't.
You've got to at some point build towards the future, and I, I have to understand that and ackno- acknowledge that as well.
Like, at some point you can't just look at it and say, "Well, we're not gonna be better than the Thunder or the Spurs this year, so we give up."
The Rockets are building a young core.
Let's see how injury, bounce back sort of helps them moving forward.
But certainly that's the new economics of the NBA, a five-year, $208 million rookie scale contract extension.
Also important, that 10% trade kicker.
So this is a big day for the Rockets, who continue to tell you, "Hey, we believe that we have built a core and a future that will help us win at the highest possible level."
And when you're reminded how young these guys are, they're not wrong.
