The Rockets are signing free agent point guard D.J. Augustin for the rest of the season, agent Raymond Brothers tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. It will be a minimum-salary contract, tweets Kelly Iko of The Athletic.
It will be Augustin’s second stint with the Rockets. He was acquired by Houston in a March 2021 trade and spent nearly a year with the organization before being waived in February 2022 at the trade deadline. He finished last season with the Lakers but has been out of the NBA so far in 2022-23.
A reliable backup point guard for much of his career, Augustin has averaged 9.5 points and 3.9 assists per game in 976 career regular-season appearances (23.4 MPG). At age 35, he may not have a whole lot left in the tank, but the Rockets are presumably adding him to their roster to serve as a veteran mentor for their young players rather than expecting him to play big minutes down the stretch.
The Rockets have two openings on their standard 15-man roster, so no corresponding moves will be necessary to make room for Augustin.
In fact, since it has nearly been two weeks since Willie Cauley-Stein‘s 10-day contract with Houston expired, the team was just about due for a mandatory roster move in order to get back to the NBA minimum of 14 players on standard contracts. Teams can only dip below that minimum for up to two weeks at a time.
Augustin’s exact rest-of-season salary will depend on when he officially signs his contract, but he’ll earn $16,700 per day.
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