Contract tidbits for Sterling Brown, Jae’Sean Tate, and Bruno Caboclo

Brown has a straight-forward minimum contract with the Rockets, while the terms for Tate and Caboclo are a bit more complex.

Courtesy of NBA salary cap experts Bobby Marks (ESPN) and Keith Smith (Yahoo Sports), we now have new details regarding three recent contracts given out by the Houston Rockets in the 2020 offseason.

Per Smith, the contract to guard Sterling Brown — formerly of the Milwaukee Bucks — is very straight-forward. It’s for one season at the minimum salary, and it is already fully guaranteed.

The new contracts for Jae’Sean Tate and Bruno Caboclo, however, are a bit more complicated. Per Marks, both Tate and Caboclo only have $50,000 guaranteed, which gives the team flexibility if they decide to go in a different direction with one of those roster spots at a later date.

Caboclo’s deal becomes fully guaranteed if he is not waived by the first game of the NBA’s 2020-21 regular season (Dec. 22), while Tate’s contract guarantee will increase to $500,000 at that time.

Caboclo’s contract is for two seasons in total, while Tate’s deal is for three. However, all of the future years are non-guaranteed. This gives the team a number of potential paths moving forward, depending on the level of play shown by both players and also the state of the overall roster.

Led by new GM Rafael Stone, Houston used a portion of its mid-level exception (MLE) to give Tate the three-year deal, which is not allowed under minimum exception contracts. There are several reasons for this.

One potential reason is that Tate’s first-year salary is $1,445,697 — typically the minimum for a player with one year of NBA experience — instead of the standard NBA rookie minimum of $898,310. In other words, it’s a higher salary for the rising 25-year-old prospect.

However, another plausible reason is that the three-year deal makes it harder for other NBA teams to claim Tate on waivers, should the Rockets decide they need his roster spot to acquire someone else.

“By giving Tate three years, it makes him ineligible to be claimed by a team using the minimum exception if Houston waives him,” Smith writes. “By giving Tate just $50,000 guaranteed, it makes him eligible for a two-way [contract] with Houston, if he is waived.”

With Houston subject to a hard salary cap after the sign-and-trade acquisition of Christian Wood, the Rockets are already close to their maximum team payroll. However, should a player they like (Glenn Robinson III?) come available at a later time, the unique terms in Tate and Caboclo’s deals could give the team additional roster flexibility.

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