Rockets' Roster, Starting Lineup, Salary Cap After Dillon Brooks, VanVleet Contracts
The Houston Rockets have agreed to a four-year, $80 million contract with former Memphis Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks, highlighting a very busy Saturday for the franchise.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski relayed the news from Brooks' agent, Mike George of One Legacy Sports.
Wojnarowski later reported Brooks was acquired via sign-and-trade.
The Rockets already agreed to terms with point guard Fred VanVleet (three years, $130 million) on Friday.
Now the Rockets have added Brooks and center Jock Landale, who has agreed to a four-year, $32 million contract, per Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic. Veteran forward Jeff Green, who was most recently a member of the NBA champion Denver Nuggets, has agreed to a one-year, $6 million contract, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
Houston has also been busy on the trade market. Josh Christopher, the No. 21 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft, is now a member of the Grizzlies, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic.
In addition, K.J. Martin is headed to the Los Angeles Clippers for a pair of second-round picks, per Wojnarowski.
Lastly, the Rockets traded TyTy Washington Jr. and Usman Garuba to the Atlanta Hawks, per Charania, supposedly to clear roster space.
With all that in mind, here's a look at how the starting lineup, roster and team salary-cap space looks now.
Starting Lineup
PG: Fred VanVleet
SG: Jalen Green
SF: Dillon Brooks
PF: Jabari Smith Jr.
C: Alperen Şengün
The Rockets figure to have two new starters this year in VanVleet at the point and Brooks on the wing. On paper, Houston looks to have a deep and loaded bench featuring two first-rounders (Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore), guard Kevin Porter Jr., forward Tari Eason and the new big man in Landale. Jae'Sean Tate should also see minutes as well.
Amen Thompson, SF: Rookie-scale contract
Cam Whitmore, SF: Rookie-scale contract
Fred VanVleet, PG: $40.8M (2026)
Dillon Brooks, SG/SF: $21.6M (2027)
Kevin Porter Jr., PG: $15.9M (2027)
Jalen Green, SG: $9.9M (2025)
Jabari Smith Jr., PF: $9.3M (2026)
Jock Landale, C: $7.4M (2026)
Jae'Sean Tate, SF: $6.5M (2025)
Jeff Green, PF: $6M (2024)
Tari Eason, PF: $3.5M (2026)
Alperen Şengün, C: $3.5M (2025)
Darius Days, SF: Two-way contract
Trevor Hudgins, PG: Two-way contract
Frank Kaminsky, C: UFA
Boban Marjanović, C: UFA
D.J. Augustin PG: UFA
Willie Cauley-Stein, C: UFA
Michael Frazier, SG: RFA
Salary Cap
Spotrac listed the Rockets with an "active roster cap" of $120,996,422 after the VanVleet, Brooks and Landale signings as well as the Martin trade. Adding Green ($6,000,000) and dropping Christopher ($2,485,200 cap figure in 2023-24) would give the team an active roster cap of about $124.5 million.
That does not include the "cap hold," which notably includes (but is not limited to) contracts that rookies Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore will sign. That number is $21,906,273, per Spotrac.
That would give the Rockets a total cap of roughly $146.4 million at the moment. The NBA's 2023-24 cap is set for $136.021 million.
