The Rockets and guard Jalen Green have agreed to terms on a three-year rookie scale extension worth $106M, agents Aaron Mintz, Andrew Morrison and Shakira Wardally tell Shams Charania and Bobby Marks of ESPN (X link). The deal will include a third-year player option.
The No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft, Green has averaged 19.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game in his 225 NBA outings (all starts).
Green’s shooting percentages during his first three seasons have been modest (.421/.337/.794) and his defense has been inconsistent, but he has shown tantalizing flashes of putting it all together, including during a 15-game stretch near the end of the 2023-24 season when he averaged 29.2 PPG on .488/.422/.782 shooting and led the Rockets to 13 wins in 15 games to keep them in the play-in hunt.
The terms of Green’s new deal are quite unusual for a few reasons. For one, most rookie scale extensions cover at least four seasons and those that don’t are typically far less lucrative contracts signed by role players.
Based on our research, the largest three-year rookie scale extension signed prior to this year was the $52.5M contract Caris LeVert received in 2019. Green’s contract will more than double the annual average value of LeVert’s.
Green also received a player option, which has become a rarity for rookie scale extensions. Of the 31 rookie scale extensions completed since 2022 before this deal, just one featured a player option, and that contract (for Nuggets big man Zeke Nnaji) was for four years. Green’s option will be for the 2027-28 season, allowing him to potentially reach unrestricted free agency at age 25.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes (via X), because Green’s new contract is for just three years instead of four or five seasons, he’ll also become eligible for his next extension earlier than most rookie scale extension recipients. He’ll be able to sign an extension worth up to a projected $227M+ over four years as of Oct. 26, per Marks.
While it remains to be seen whether or not the Rockets will try to become a cap-space team during the 2025 offseason, Green’s new contract won’t necessarily affect their ability to do so, since he would’ve had a significant cap hold (exceeding $37M) as a restricted free agent. His first-year salary on his new deal will be $33.5M, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic (X link), which is a little more than $5M below his projected max.
