Four-year, $53 million contract! The Lakers’ old players are still recovering from injuries. Did the Rockets lose money on this signing?

In two preseason games against the Jazz and Pelicans, Durant made a total of 13 of 23 shots. Adu's high efficiency definitely has more advantages than disadvantages for the Rockets:

First of all, the transaction chips paid this summer have not been "wasted". More importantly, it gives the team an extra layer of protection on their way to the championship.

Of course, not all of the Rockets' new signings this summer can make immediate contributions to the team like Durant. Like Finney Smith.

According to NBA China official website: As Finney Smith is still recovering, Okogie's role may have improved.

Let’s not talk about Okogie for now. This summer, Finney Smith refused to exercise the player option for the 25-26 season and left the Lakers. Then the Rockets signed the former with a four-year, $53 million contract.

The question is, the injury occurred before the official game was played. Did the Rockets lose money on the signing of Finney Smith?

Features

After being traded to the Lakers by the Nets in the middle of the 24-25 season, Smith took a total of 442 shots, 206 of which came from beyond the three-point line. Two points need to be explained about this:

1. All three-pointers are from received shots;

2. The three-point rate is 39.8%.

In terms of characteristics, Smith, like Hield, Beasley and other pitchers, mainly finishes with three-pointers. More importantly, he mainly finishes without the ball.

Therefore, in my opinion, injuries will definitely have an impact on the feel, but the degree will not be as great as that of Curry, Doncic and others. I mean, offensively Finney Smith doesn't have a ball-carrying role. To be precise, injuries have a far greater impact on holding the ball than without the ball.

Contract

As mentioned just now, Finney Smith and the Rockets reached a four-year, $53 million contract this summer. It should be noted that the first two years are fully guaranteed for 12.32 million and 12.94 million respectively, and the latter two years are non-guaranteed + player options.

In other words, if the Rockets are willing, this is only a two-year contract. Therefore, even if Finney Smith's outstanding performance is acclimated or his performance is poor after returning from injury, it will be easy to deal with it as long as he endures the 25-26 season and his contract expires.

To sum up, in my opinion, the Rockets signed Finney Smith. This signing is not a loss, mainly reflected in two points:

1. Injuries have little impact on off-ball play;

2. The follow-up operations of the contract are relatively flexible.

Relatively speaking, I think the second point is the main reason.

First of all, although the salary cap will continue to rise in the future, a contract with an average salary of less than 13 million is not large in itself. More importantly, it is guaranteed for the next two years, which makes the team very flexible in operations.

Finally, it should be noted that the Lakers are not unwilling to renew Finney Smith's contract, but Pelinka only offers a two-year contract at most, in order to not affect the recruitment of Jokic and Antetokounmpo in 27 years.