Rockets Projected to Offer Tari Eason $110 Million Contract

Houston Rockets General Manager Rafael Stone has done his best Oprah Winfrey impression, as it pertains to doling out contracts, of late. You get a contract, and you get a contract, and you get a contract.

Stone and the Rockets even offered Victor Oladipo a $45 million contract, which Oladipo surely regrets rejecting.

Since then, the Rockets gave Kevin Porter Jr. a four-year $82.5 million contract, in spite of the issues they'd had with him, both on and off the court. The Rockets chose that alternative instead of letting Porter Jr. hit restricted free agency, giving him the deal with a year left on his contract.

We've also seen Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun reach rookie-scale extensions, in addition to Jabari Smith Jr. 

Fred VanVleet landed a new deal, as did Steven Adams (three years $39 million). Aaron Holiday, Jae'Sean Tate and Jeff Green also landed new deals, although those all just had a year tacked on.

Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela also landed multi-year deals in free agency, which are both quite different than everyone else mentioned, as they weren't already on the roster.

There's one lone name, however, who hasn't been as fortunate. Yet.

Tari Eason.

And you know it's gnawing at him and nagging him. You could easily pick that up during Houston's Media Day, although he respeectfully made it clear that he wouldn't be getting into the specifics of the negotiations with the media.

In true Rafael Stone fashion.

(I'm sure Stone enjoyed that).

But according to Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey, the Rockets and Eason just might come to terms on a five-year deal worth $110 million.

"Part of a focus on the future could include a commitment to Tari Eason, who's already established himself as one of the best forward defenders in the NBA. Over the course of his three seasons, the Rockets are plus-1.6 points per 100 possessions with Eason on the floor and minus-4.4 when he's off."

Bailey wasn't reporting, but rather sharing his projection and prediction of what will happen between the two parties.

Such a deal would give Eason $22 million in average annual value. By comparison, Smith is raking in $24.5 million.

Sure, both players have very different archetypes and do very different things, but they were in the same draft class.

In other words, they're peers. Eason may be wanting more than Smith. Who knows?

Again, he's been tight-lipped thus far.

Maybe, just maybe he'd agree to such a deal, if offered.

The main knock against Eason has been his lack of availability due to injury. He's missed 85 games in total, to this point.

He's missed significant chunks of time in each of the last two seasons (although he played all 82 games as a rookie).

That's really the only drawback (and is likely why he was omitted from ESPN's Top 100 list).

Eason is going to have a prime opportunity in 2025-26 to show his value, for multiple reasons. Kevin Durant has missed chunks of games in five of the last six seasons and will likely be on a load management plan, as it pertains to back-to-backs.

Amen Thompson is going to have his hands full orchestrating the offense and may get a breather here and there on the other end.

Dorian Finney-Smith isn't fully healthy and will also miss games.

All of this bodes well for Eason, as it pertains to showing his worth, which again, merely boils down to staying healthy.