Brief Rockets player has signed with a new team to continue his career

The Houston Rockets have worked through a number of players over the past few seasons to arrive at a team they hope can contend for a championship this season. One such player, Jermaine Samuels, is now joining a new team to continue his career.

Samuels made his way to the Rockets by way of Villanova University. He joined the program in 2017 and played for Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright, winning a national championship as a little-used freshman on the 2017-18 team. Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo, Omari Spellman, Eric Paschall and Collin Gillespie all made the NBA from that team, with Brunson growing into an MVP candidate.

Samuels had to stay behind as his talented teammates moved on to the NBA, and with COVID-19 ending a season prematurely, he stayed five years in total at Villanova before going undrafted in the 2022 NBA Draft. After a year with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Samuels earned a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets in 2023.

Jermaine Samuels joined the Rockets

At 6'7" with an NBA frame, Samuels had a shot to become one of the latest undrafted 3-and-D finds, joining a legacy of players like Lu Dort, Wes Matthews and PJ Tucker. He appeared in 14 games, playing a small number of minutes (60 altogether) and largely when the game was out of reach.

Yet in those minutes, Samuels was stout defensively. He had the length and strength to take on difficult assignments, defending wings and forwards with aplomb. The Rockets played extremely well defensively when Samuels was on the court.

The problem was on offense. Samuels shot just two 3-pointers across his 14 appearances, missing both of them. Shooters need accuracy or volume -- ideally both -- but Samuels brought neither. That is bad news for his NBA prospects.

Samuels shot extremely well during his first season in the G League, hitting 45 percent of his 3-pointers, and likely earned the two-way spot because of it. In two seasons with the Rio Grande Vipers, however, he hit only 28.9 percent from long range on significantly more attempts. He tried to grow into a 3-point shot, but he wasn't able to do it.

While the Rockets move on to contending, no other team decided to take a shot on Samuels this summer. The forward therefore turned his gaze overseas and signed a contract with San Pablo Burgos in Spain to continue his career.

Burgos spent the last three seasons in Spain's second-tier league and just finished atop the table to earn promotion back into La Liga ACB. Former NBA guard Raul Neto will now have an imported running mate and both Samuels and Burgos hope that Neto's passing unlocks a 3-point shot.

Samuels has the NBA frame to earn a return to the league if he can prove himself overseas. Playing in Spain, the world's top league after the NBA, is the right place to do so. Perhaps the Rockets will monitor his career and lineup him up as a replacement for Dorian Finney-Smith in a few years. Or another team could scoop him up and reap the benefits of his time in the Rockets' organization.

Jermaine Samuels didn't make it in Houston, but now he has a chance to blast off in Spain.