Rockets guard Austin Rivers plans to opt out, become free agent

“I love Houston,” Rivers said on The Ringer’s new podcast. “Houston’s still one of my main options. That’s a team I loved playing for.”

Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers intends to opt out of his contract and become a free agent later this month, according to new comments made by the 28-year-old on The Ringer NBA Show.

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).

As far as the 2020 offseason, Rivers was asked on The Ringer‘s latest podcast (35:30) whether he plans to exercise his player option and join this year’s upcoming class of free agents. Here’s how he responded:

That’s something I’m going through right now with my agent. 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.

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.

The question is whether the Rockets would deem Rivers worthy of going further into the luxury tax to retain his services, since Houston’s total payroll for the 2020-21 season is already close to the tax line. If Rivers’ asking price is too high, Houston might 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 is also valued off the bench for his on-ball defense.

Free agency is expected to begin later this month, shortly after the NBA’s Nov. 18 draft. A formal opening date has yet to be set.

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