Houston Rockets

Locked in the entire young core: Amen Thompson signed a five-year, $208M rookie-max extension (10% trade kicker, starts 2027-28) weeks after Tari Eason's 5yr/$81.5M re-signing. Cleared the wing logjam earlier by sending Dorian Finney-Smith to Charlotte and letting Josh Okogie walk, while Smart and Bogdanovic provide veteran depth around Durant and Sengun with VanVleet preserving backcourt continuity. A top-six West seed is the baseline — and with Thompson, Eason and Sengun all secured through the decade's turn, Houston has the league's most enviable long-term foundation.

Used the taxpayer MLE on Marcus Smart — team salary cannot exceed $221.7M at any point this season.

2026-27 figures verified against Spotrac and HoopsRumors reporting. View full cap sheet on the Salary Cap page.