The Houston Rockets don’t want James Harden going anywhere.
So they’re going to make sure he doesn’t.
After earning an All-NBA selection, Harden is now eligible for the designated player extension that was negotiated into the NBA’s new CBA. The deal, for him, would be worth four years and $168 million, and the Rockets plan to give it to him immediately, according to the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen:
The Rockets “plan to extend James Harden at the first opportunity,” the individual said. “That is the plan.”
Harden was the lone unanimous All-NBA first-team player, making him eligible for a full contract extension that would be worth as much as $168 million over four years. That is in addition to the $58.7 million he is due to make in the next two seasons.
Harden signed an extension last summer, keeping him under contract at least through the 2018-19 season. He has a player option for the following season.
This is a no-brainer. The four years would be tacked on to the final two seasons of Harden’s deal (not the 2019-20 player option), which keeps him in Houston through at least 2021-22, assuming he’ll have a player option for 2022-23.
Signing Harden makes the Rockets’ job a lot easier. It’s so much better selling free agents, or prospective free agents for whom you’ve traded, on sticking around when you have a top-10 player under lock and key for the foreseeable future. And chances are Houston will be successfull in its courtship. Harden is coming off an MVP-caliber season, during which the Rockets posted the third-best record in the league and he meshed well with head coach Mike D’Antoni.
It’d be more surprising, at this point, if a deal wasn’t hashed out.
