[Woj] Austin Rivers returns to Rockets on 2 year deal

echoed, though he can dribble in a relatively straight line to hoop

 

What I didn't expect other than Harden starting the season with cold feet is Rivers' improved shooting and defense. He's had a regular steady diet of iso plays and he's had success most of the time. We brought him in as insurance to CP; he quickly became a viable defender against Steph Curry; and now he's a reliable defender every game.

 

Rivers is legit.

I loved him last year he was amazing the first 10 or so games were he was starting because both cp3 and EG were injured.

he hurt his shooting hand after that and wasn’t quite the same from three or finishing around the hoop.

but he’s prob my fav player we have on the team besides Harden.

I just like the way he plays I like his attitude on the court. He’s not buddy buddy with anyone when he’s playing and he knows his role and actually excepts it.

he could have went other places for more money or minutes.

he chose to stay because we embraced him and he’s about winning at all costs. I like that about him.

our culture is good it’s the outside ppl that think nobody wants to play with harden.

Ben McLemore, Rivers freaking 5’9 Clemons all got up 15+ shots and and scored 19+ each.

Role players come here and thrive if they except their role and they win and winning cures all.

 

I'm surprised he accepted 2 years at the minimum. I take that we will take care of him once we have his bird rights.

 

It's not really 2 years at the min his 2nd year is just a player option, he got that for security (in case of injury for example), he will definitely opt-out of his contract this offseason and become a FA again as long as he doesn't suffer a major injury.

 

Yeah but the fact he would even sign at a minimum to begin with is a massive deal already. Even Danuel House didn't sign for the minimum I'm sure Rivers could've gotten a 5M deal or more somewhere else.

If you think about it Rivers' signing is all love because nobody in their right mind would do it, not only is he underpaid he was coming off the bench and the Rockets were facing a lot of uncertainty going into the season. If he was willing to play for a vet min amount and come off the bench I'm sure both LA teams and Milwaukee would've wanted him.

 

I saw an Austin Tyson pick and roll about 4 or 5 games ago...coach is slowly trusting Austin more and hopefully he'll get more chances...you can't run the play if you rarely get them called for you...he's usually a backup plan out there. he can run that play.

 

i saw an interview where he said he did have an offer for 5 million a year...turned it downed....he loves playing for Dantoni. He's using this year as a stepping stone. no way he plays for that again next year.

 

We have House and Rivers for less than $5m this season, what an absolute steal. I don't know what his market will be next summer, I had no expectation we would be able to sign him for anything less than the MLE this year. We'd only have early-bird rights I believe which is an 175% raise. I'm pretty sure this time it would have to be MLE.

 

minimum 7-8 million a year.

 

Excellent comparison.
I agree on all points, particularly the fact that Rivers seems to have had the moment of clarity/epiphany that Lin never did.
Humility helped him find and accept his niche in the league and his career has been better for it.

I also agree that Rivers is a better playmaker than EG, largely because he has a much better handle. Gordon is a decent enough decision maker in limited circumstances but he is clearly a scorer first and farmost.

 

It's 175% of previous salary OR 105% of average salary of the whole league, which is about $9M.

 

Woah I did not know that, that could be useful. Imagine if we had an owner willing to pay the tax next season so we could bring Rivers on that deal AND use the MLE on another wing?

I'm reading the player has to play two seasons with the team without being moved however, I'm guessing that means Rivers won't count as early bird since he was with Washington at the start of last season?