Nene to Rockets: Latest Contract Details and Reaction

Despite myriad injuries that have eroded his effectiveness, Nene isn't ready to walk away from the NBA after the Houston Rockets announced a deal with the veteran big man on Wednesday. He should serve as a backup behind Clint Capela and Ryan Anderson.

Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical and Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com first reported the two sides agreed to a one-year, $2.9 million deal on July 6. He will be signed using the "room exception," meaning the Rockets can now only add minimum-salaried contracts.

Nene, 33, is the third free-agent addition in Houston, joining Anderson and Eric Gordon.

Nene spent the last four-and-a-half seasons with the Washington Wizards. Coming over via trade from the Denver Nuggets, Nene was part of a concerted effort by Washington to get more veteran leadership around point guard John Wall.

For a while, the plan worked. The Wizards made the playoffs in 2013-14 and 2014-15, with Nene emerging as a tough, defensive stopper when he was on the floor. Nene and Marcin Gortat helped stabilize the locker room and helped give Wall and Bradley Beal vital playoff experience. General manager Ernie Grunfeld talked about Nene's impact on the club, per Todd Dybas of the Washington Times.

"Nene was huge," Grunfeld said. "Nene came from a winning environment. ... He changed the whole culture. He gave us toughness. Defense. He gave us some good rebounding. He's a team player. I think that was the first big piece to the new culture that we tried to create."

That all fell apart in 2015-16. Brought on by their spirited playoff run a year prior, head coach Randy Wittman tried to employ a space-and-pace style despite a roster that was ill-equipped to handle the change. Nene became Gortat's backup, and Washington shuffled in a revolving door at power forward. The Wizards missed the playoffs, and the team fired Wittman in favor of Scott Brooks.

Nene talked about what went wrong for the Wizards last season, per Dybas: "Too much stretch. A lot of stretch. Stretch it here and stretch it there. Too much stretch. It was a distraction. That's what I can say about the season."

In Houston, Nene can go back to doing what he does best. He's going to bring a veteran presence, grab some rebounds and have a lot less responsibility. Nene, at this point in his career, is more of a luxury than someone you can count on for 82 games.

The Brazilian has missed at least 15 games each of the last five seasons and 20-plus in four of them. The injuries have been both recurrent and random to the point that anything Nene gives you beyond 60 games is a bonus.

The Rockets—who lost Dwight Howard in free agency, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical—are planning to move forward with Anderson and Capela as their front line. Anderson agreed to a four-year, $80 million deal July 2, according to Wojnarowski, and the 22-year-old Capela has been Howard's understudy for the last two years.

While he's not the player he was when he arrived in Washington, D.C., he's still effective on a per-minute basis. His per-36-minute stats last year were actually better than his career averages and among his best as a Wizard.

Keeping him on the floor, however, has long been the issue.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.