As he hinted at in comments last week, veteran guard Austin Rivers is opting out of his contract with the Rockets to become a free agent.
The official news was broken Thursday by ESPN’s Marc J. Spears, just over 24 hours in advance of Friday’s start to free agency at 5:00 p.m. Central. It does not mean that Rivers is necessarily leaving Houston.
For the past two seasons, Rivers has been a key backup behind the All-Star duo of James Harden and Russell Westbrook (formerly Chris Paul).
Here’s what the 28-year-old said on a recent podcast:
I definitely want to… probably be out there on the market, and just see what else is out there. But I love Houston. Houston’s still one of my main options. That’s a team I loved playing for. But there’s other teams out there that you want to look at. You owe it to yourself to at least see the best situation.
Rockets guard Austin Rivers has decided to opt out of his contract to become an unrestricted free agent, a source told @TheUndefeated.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) November 19, 2020
The move was largely expected for financial reasons, since Rivers took a perceived discount to play for the NBA’s minimum salary last season. Since Rivers has now played in Houston for two seasons, Houston can theoretically use the “Early Bird” salary cap exception to retain him.
With the Early Bird exception, a team can re-sign its own free agent for the greater of up to 175% of his salary in the previous season, or 105% of the league’s average salary in the prior season. A year ago, the Rockets did not have any additional rights to retain Rivers, since he had only been with the team for one season at that time. Thus, the minimum bid was the best they could realistically do in 2019. That’s not the case today, which is why Rivers could be hoping for a greater payday.
Not at all surprising that Rivers is opting out of his deal. He’s pretty much guaranteed to get at least the vet minimum somewhere (possibly Houston). Worst case scenario, he takes a 5% pay cut in the process. https://t.co/Ie7FI7D3tW
— David Weiner (@BimaThug) November 10, 2020
The question is whether the Rockets will deem Rivers as worthy of going closer to the team’s expected hard salary cap to keep him. If Rivers’ asking price is too high, they may search for a cheaper replacement, since he’s a solid rotation piece but probably not an essential one.
In two seasons with the Rockets, Rivers has averaged 8.7 points (34.0% on 3-pointers) and 2.3 assists in 25.6 minutes per game. The 6-foot-4 guard has also been valued off the bench for his on-ball defense.
[lawrence-related id=40038,40015]