Thursday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Houston Rockets and forward Amen Thompson reached an agreement on a five-year, $208 million extension to remain in Houston.
Just in: Houston Rockets' Amen Thompson has agreed to a five-year, $208 million rookie-scale contract extension with the franchise, sources tell ESPN. The new deal includes a 10% trade kicker. pic.twitter.com/3YR9F6lYnv
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 3, 2026
Thompson was extension-eligible as he is entering the final season, the 2026-27 NBA season, of his NBA rookie-scale contract.
On the heels of a sizable performance leap as the Rockets’ starting point guard for the 2025-26 NBA season, Thompson seized an impromptu opportunity created by guard Fred VanVleet’s season-ending injury.
Thompson's results - 2025-26 regular season averages 18.3 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game, 5.3 assists per game, and 1.5 steals per game in 79 regular-season games for the Rockets.
With Thompson’s contract extension on the Rockets' books, Bulls forward Matas Buzelis and Bulls lead front office executive Bryson Graham now have a solid benchmark to target when Buzelis becomes extension-eligible during the 2027 NBA offseason.
Matas’ Chicago Bulls momentum
The trajectory and results of Thompson’s 2025-26 NBA season should serve as a critical measuring stick to judge how much of a leap, if any, Buzelis makes in his upcoming third NBA season, the 2026-27 NBA season.
Buzelis entered the 2025-26 NBA season with a notable NBA media groundswell of expectation for an All-Star leap. Modest progress was realized in Buzelis’ second NBA season in his scoring - from 8.6 points per game as a rookie to 16.3 points per game by the end of the Bulls' 2025-26 season.
Thompson's influence on a Buzelis extension
Thompson, similar to Buzelis, entered his third NBA season riding the wave of a second-season scoring bump - from 9.5 points per game as a rookie to 14.1 points per game during the 2024-25 NBA season.
Where Buzelis and Thompson differ in their respective second NBA season progress is that Thompson also earned an NBA All-Defensive First Team selection while increasing his scoring production.
The point guard assignment handed to Thompson at the beginning of the 2025-26 NBA season gave him a platform in which he realized an expected improvement in his passing contributions, finishing with a career-high 5.3 assists per game, while also achieving a career high in steals with 1.5 steals per game and another scoring bump, finishing the season averaging 18.3 points per game.
What is an interesting nuance in Thompson’s career progress over his first three NBA seasons is that he’s delivered two-way impact on both ends of the court with an incredibly efficient usage rate: 18.8% usage across his entire NBA career, according to Basketball Reference.
For context, Buzelis’ career usage rate is 21.1%, according to Basketball Reference.
In judging Matas Buzelis' third season for contract extension implications, the questions that must be answered in his game are centered on his ability to increase his offensive contributions with efficient usage, while also evolving into a multidimensional defender as opposed to simply collecting blocks.
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