Rockets exercise team option to retain David Nwaba for next season

The veteran swingman has reportedly “looked good” in offseason workouts, and he could be a rotation piece for Houston in 2020-21.

As expected, the Houston Rockets are exercising guard David Nwaba’s $1.8-million team option for the 2020-21 NBA season.

The news was first reported Thursday by Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The 27-year-old swingman was signed by the Rockets in June, though he has yet to play for the franchise. Nwaba tore his Achilles last December while with the Nets, so the signing was a two-year deal — with Houston not anticipating his contributions until the second season.

Here’s what former Rockets GM Daryl Morey said about Nwaba shortly after the signing, which occurred late in the 2019-20 season:

David, we think has really good potential. And obviously, you saw the deal had both this year and a future component.

You guys have a good sense of how we’re playing now, and the kinds of players we need for that style. We are fully committed to that. David Nwaba, we think fits that very well.

Because the 2020-21 season isn’t starting until late December (due to the delay of 2019-20 from COVID-19), Nwaba will have had about a full calendar year to recover from the Achilles injury. That could make him much more of a factor for the Rockets than he would’ve normally been, had the season started in its usual time frame of late October.

As a 6-foot-5 guard with a long seven-foot wingspan, Nwaba has been best known over his career for athleticism and perimeter defense.

But in 20 games of the 2019-20 season prior to his Achilles injury, Nwaba showed renewed promise as a shooter by making a career-high 42.9% on 3-pointers. In his first three NBA seasons from 2016-17 through 2018-19, Nwaba had shot just 32.6% from 3-point range.

Per Kelly Iko of The Athletic, the Rockets see Nwaba as potentially a “key rotational piece” after having looked good in offseason workouts.

In all, Nwaba has played in 161 games over parts of four NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, and most recently the Brooklyn Nets. For his career, Nwaba — who went undrafted in 2016 after his third and final college season — has averaged 6.9 points (49.2% FG) and 3.7 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game.

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