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Rockets still unsure if Jalen Green a foundational piece

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This season, Houston has to decide if Jalen Green is a foundational piece. (Sources say that still isn't fully decided yet.) If not, is there a pathway to use his contract for an upgrade next offseason? On Monday, the Rockets gave Green a unique three-year, rookie-scale extension with a third-year player option. That type of extension at that price ($35.1 million on average per year) would typically be for longer. Should Green thrive with the Rockets, he will command an even larger deal sooner than his 2021 classmates. That's why teams usually get more of a commitment from players on similar contracts.

Source: Bleacher Report

More on this storyline

Now the bad news: Houston’s decision to extend Jalen Green earlier in the day was among the more befuddling contracts I’ve seen in a while. I think this deal has very few routes toward being a positive value for the Rockets. I informally polled four front-office executives regarding the deal just to see if they were on the same page, and there was a general sense of confusion regarding why the Rockets chose to do this deal now. Two of those executives simply didn’t rate Green all that highly as a player and wouldn’t have been interested in extending his contract right now. That’s fair enough given his play thus far. Those executives may turn out right, or they may turn out wrong. But even the other two who were willing to think more deeply about Houston’s plan still came away questioning the structure of the contract. -via New York Times / October 24, 2024

Brian Windhorst on Jalen Green: "This is a contract that a lot of people in the league think was signed for the option to be traded and getting the 10% trade kicker in there, which is the biggest trade kicker that was given out yesterday in all these deals. To me, I’m not saying the Rockets are definitely going to trade him. I’m just saying this contract was designed to allow him to be traded." -via YouTube / October 24, 2024

Jonathan Feigen: Rockets announce Jalen Green's contract extension. GM Rafael Stone: “We couldn’t be prouder of the growth Jalen has shown. He is an extraordinary talent with an equally extraordinary work ethic. We look forward to his continued development as a pivotal part of our future.” -via Twitter @Jonathan_Feigen / October 22, 2024

This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Rockets still unsure if Jalen Green a foundational piece