The Rockets sign Clint Capela to a bargain 5-year, $90 million extension

The Houston Rockets have officially re-signed their starting center, and it was a great deal for the team.

The Houston Rockets have been trying to re-sign restricted free agent Clint Capela for quite some time now. Free agency officially began on July 1 and the two sides are just now coming to an agreement on a new deal: a 5-year extension. Kelly Iko of USA Today Sports was the first to report this (from what I can tell).

And what a deal it is. For a big man who has shown improvement in every single season of his young NBA career, signing Clint Capela for under $20 million a year is a bargain. In most every other offseason, somebody would have offered him a max deal. Thankfully for Houston, he’s here for at least 5 more years on a great contract. And somehow, he is still making less than Ryan Anderson.

This is a huge leap up from Capela’s rookie scale contract, though. He is still making $18 million a year for one of the best teams in the league. Morey was right when he told us that Clint would be “a very wealthy guy.” If he keeps improving and grows into the player that he definitely has the ability to be, he will certainly be making max money after this extension.

James Harden reacts to the Rockets getting a deal done to retain restricted free agent big man Clint Capela on a five-year, $90 million deal pic.twitter.com/uBKyiAWV7o

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 27, 2018

What’s next?

Now, the roster is pretty much complete. The Rockets have re-signed the pieces they prioritized in the offseason, Chris Paul and Clint Capela. Now, they have a couple of things left.

Rookies

The Rockets will look to lock down a couple of their rookies for next season. They already were able to do that with Isaiah Hartenstein, as he agreed to a 3-year deal this week. De’Anthony Melton and Vince Edwards are the other two that you could see signing in the near future.

Melo

Carmelo Anthony is all but guaranteed to be coming to Houston on the veteran’s minimum contract. He still has to get the buyout mess figured out with the Atlanta Hawks, but he should sign here as soon as that is done.

After that, the Rockets are pretty much done until the buyout market. Morey told me that they are always active in trades, but nothing is imminent. We should be ready to wait till around February for any more improvements to the team.

Congrats to Clint Capela on securing his first big contract! He deserves every bit of it and the Rockets got him on a great deal!