Renewing the 24-year-old striker, Rockets gave two plans! Attendance rate becomes a stumbling block in the new contract, Stone should wait and see

The Rockets have obtained superstar Durant and have also introduced Capela, Okogi and Finney Smith. In terms of contract renewal, they also left behind Van Vreet and Adams. In addition, the Rockets also received three basic salary contracts and left behind three veterans Tate, Jeff Green and Holiday. The Rockets have basically solved all the veterans next season, so where should the young Tari Ethan go in the future? Between Ethan and Smith Jr., the Rockets chose the latter and gave a five-year, $122 million contract renewal. Although such a contract is not big, it is also a pretty good contract compared to Smith's performance and data. Smith Jr. has received a new contract and will execute his own new contract after next season. The problem is that another substitute power forward of the Rockets, Tari Ethan, who is two years younger than Smith, has not yet finalized his contract.

Next season, which is the 2025-2026 season, will be the last year of Ethan's rookie contract, and he will become a free agent next summer. If the Rockets are afraid that Ethan will be poached by other teams, then this summer's offseason should be given a contract extension in advance to avoid long nights and dreams.

After all, Ethan is paid attention to by many teams. Although he is a little older at the age of 24, his potential has not been fully developed. In the regular season last season, he averaged 12 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.9 blocks, and 1.7 steals per game. In the playoffs, Ethan's playing time was slightly lower, but he averaged 7.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.1 steal, 1 block, plus 0.7 assists per game. Moreover, his three-point shooting percentage in the playoffs increased to 36.8%, and only 34% in the regular season. It can be said that Ethan can indeed perform stably in such a critical game, and perform unexpectedly well on the defensive end.

But the problem is that Ethan's attendance rate is a bit low, missing 25 games last season. And in the second year of his career, he has been recovering almost all the time, only playing more than 20 games for the Rockets. So the Rockets' team reporter Ben Dubos also talked about Ethan's contract renewal. He said that it is impossible to estimate what kind of contract to Ethan before the start of next season. Although Ethan's potential is enough to get him a higher contract than Smith Jr., his durability is a big trouble.

So in the opinion of this team reporter, there is also a compromise plan for renewal: First, Ethan can choose to accept a short-term contract, or choose a second plan: simply wait until Ethan becomes a restricted free agent next summer, and hope that doubts about his health will be reduced accordingly, so that Ethan will have the opportunity to get a big contract.

So the Rockets can choose between these two plans: they can give Ethan a short-term contract to see how his performance in the next one or two years will give him a long-term contract; in addition, Ethan needs to prove himself next season. If his attendance rate is high and performs well next season, the Rockets will still keep him next summer, and even if other teams offer contracts, the Rockets will match it completely. So these two contract renewal plans are quite good choices. After all, Ethan's attendance rate and injury issues have always been a stumbling block for him to get a long-term large contract.

Ethan needs to spend a season to prove that he is a star forward with extremely high attendance and top-notch statistics and performance, so that he can impress the Rockets to give him a big contract.