Fred VanVleet has a latest home.
The Ranger has agreed to a three-year, $130 million deal – the first maximum free agent contract in that period – to affix the Houston Rockets, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Friday night.
The 29-year-old declined his $22.8 million option from the Toronto Raptors for the 2023-24 season on June 12, creating league-wide intrigue as certainly one of the best players to enter the free agent pool.
Undrafted at Wichita State in 2016, VavVleet has emerged as a solid NBA defender over the previous couple of seasons – earning an All-Star nod in 2021-22 – and has now signed the largest contract for a player not drafted, in keeping with ESPN.
As of the 2019-20 season, VanVleet has averaged no less than 17 points per game each season, including this 12 months wherein he scored 19.3 points per game on a 39.3 field goal percentage.
In his final season in Toronto, he also recorded career-best 7.2 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.8 steals.
In the 2018–19 season, he appeared as a key bench player in Toronto’s backcourt and helped the Raptors win their first NBA title over the Golden State Warriors.
In his sixth clinch game, he scored 22 points.
In November 2020, as he continued to strengthen, he signed a four-year, $85 million contract with the Raptors in 2020.
But earlier this 12 months, having had one other solid season, VanVleet said he was playing above his contract and indicated he wouldn’t sign an extension based on previous assessments of his play.
“I felt like I beat the deal to date. So I’m just attempting to put myself in a position where I can put the cards of their hands,” VanVleet he told ESPN in January.
“Without getting too far into it… [I’m] I’m just attempting to put myself in a good business position and never renew a deal that was made three or 4 years ago.
TSN previously reported in June that VanVleet is considering a deal much like Tyler Herro’s contract with the Miami Heat, who has a four-year deal price $130 million.
With the VanVleet contract in Houston, it earned the same dollar value but a higher average annualized value.
Over his seven-year profession, VanVleet averaged 14.6 assists and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 40.2% from the field and 37.3% from behind the 3-point arc.
The Rockets, who finished 14th in the Western Conference this 12 months, are expected to pursue forward Dillon Brooks, reports the Houston Chronicle.
Toronto quickly found a substitute for the outgoing VanVleet, adding guard Dennis Schroder to a two-year, $26 million deal, Wojnarowski reported.