Fred VanVleet Is Headed To The Rockets On A Monster 3-Year, $130 Million Deal

As expected, Fred VanVleet entered free agency this summer after declining his player option in Toronto, joining a loaded point guard market this summer.

VanVleet is coming off of a solid 2022-23 campaign, averaging 19.3 points, 7.2 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game on 39.2/34.2/89.8 shooting splits. He saw a dip in his typical three-point efficiency, posting his worst shooting season of his career from beyond the arc, but that was partially a product of the shooting around him — Toronto was 28th in the NBA in three-point percentage. The biggest question facing VanVleet in free agency was how the rest of the point guard market would shake out around him, with Kyrie Irving and James Harden as free agents.

After Harden opted in to his player option to facilitate a trade and Kyrie Irving re-signed with Dallas, VanVleet was the biggest name available and that led to a bidding war between Houston and Toronto that the Rockets won out on, inking VanVleet to a massive 3-year, $130 million deal, per Adrian Wojnarowski.

For weeks, there were rumors Houston was going to offer a 2-year, $83 million deal to try and lure him out of Toronto, but as Friday rolled around, they were apparently willing to make a 4-year, $120 million deal to give him the longevity he sought. The Rockets, seeing most of the top names already gone, were determined to make a splash and tacked a third year onto VanVleet’s max deal to give him more money than Toronto’s total offer over a shorter timeframe, ensuring Ime Udoka got the defensive-minded point guard he wanted in Houston.

It’s quite the financial commitment to VanVleet, but Houston had gobs of money this summer and had to spend it. While they hoped to clear their books in two years when extensions started kicking in for their rookies, they had to pony up the third year to get VanVleet and now they will hope he can live up to a massive deal.