On July 17, , the Houston Rockets officially announced that they had reached a two-year basic salary extension contract with guard Austin Rivers, with player options for the second year.
Rivers Jr.’s salary next season is only $2.17 million.
The Rockets acquired Rivers through a trade in the middle of the season in December last year. He played 47 games for Houston last season, averaging 8.7 points and 2.3 assists in 28.6 minutes per game, shooting 41.3% from the field, 32.1% from three-pointers, and free throws.
The line hit rate is 51.0%.
Rivers Jr. started last season with the Washington Wizards and was traded to the Phoenix Suns, but the Suns promptly waived him, paving the way for him to sign with the Rockets.
A native of Duke University, Rivers was originally selected by the New Orleans Hornets with the 10th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.
In his rookie season, he played in 61 games, averaging 23.2 minutes per game, scoring 6.2 points and 2.1 assists, shooting 37.2% from the field, 32.6% from the three-point range, and 54.6% from the free throw line.
Rivers spent the first two and a half years of his career in New Orleans until he was traded to the Boston Celtics in the middle of the 2014-15 season, but he was then traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The 26-year-old spent three and a half seasons with the Clippers, and he had a career-best 2017-18 campaign, averaging 15.1 points, 4.0 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals.
Last summer, the Lakers traded Rivers for Washington Wizards insider Marcin Gortat.
Rivers has career averages of 9.2 points, 2.4 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game.
The Houston Rockets have re-signed several players whose contracts have expired.
Key players P.J. Tucker, Clint Capela, Gerald Green and Austin Rivers will all return to Houston.
They’re all looking to lead the Rockets further after last season’s disappointing elimination.
Austin Rivers explains his reasons for re-signing with the Rockets:
“First of all, I’m lucky to be able to play in Houston, the fans here are amazing…It’s great to be in Houston because they have a great team…Houston has three teams (besides the Rockets, and the NFL
The Houston Texans and MLB’s Houston Astros) are championship contenders, this is a sports town…and most importantly, I was accepted by the team in Houston…in Houston, after going through
After the mid-season madness, I thought, should I do something for this team? That’s all I care about — trying to get this team over. We’re here now. Now
Things are going really well… the league is full of opportunities next season and we can start over and we’re very confident about that.”
Rivers has been with the Rockets for more than a season after the Washington Wizards traded him to Houston midway through the 2017-18 season.
Last year, Rivers was usually the Rockets’ first backup guard, averaging 8.7 points and 2.3 assists in 47 games played.
Rivers will continue to provide Houston with quality minutes off the bench.
It’s clear that he’s ready to put his heart and soul into the game.
He’s confident and ready to help the team get over the barriers that have held them back from their playoff run the past few seasons.
Text/flicker