Nene Hilario of the Houston Rockets has reportedly turned down his $3.8 million player option for the 2019-20 season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Another quality big on the market: Houston center Nene is declining his $3.8M option and will become a free agent, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2019
The Rockets were unable to move past the Golden State Warriors for the fourth straight series in the 2019 Playoffs, this time falling 4 games to 2 in the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs.
Though the Rockets were more or less fully healthy, the Warriors were without Kevin Durant for two games and DeMarcus Cousins for the entire series, yet the Rockets were still unable to make it past the then-defending champions.
Though Nene’s role has diminished for the Rockets of late, that’s understandable considering the 36-year-old big man has been in the NBA since the 2002-03 season, where he started his career with the Denver Nuggets. Nene spent 10 seasons with the Nugs before being traded to the Washington Wizards halfway through the 2011-12 season.
Nene was an important cog for those early 2010s Wizards teams led by John Wall, Otto Porter, Bradley Beal, Marcin Gortat and, fleetingly, Paul Pierce.
After that five-year stint with the Wizards, Nene signed with the Rockets in 2016 and has been with the team ever since, as his career likely winds down. Will the Rockets bring back the venerable big man on a cheap deal?
Though Woj’s reporting claims that Nene is a quality big man, it must be admitted that the market for big men has become increasingly depressed over the years, so it seems likely that the veteran’s minimum is in his future.
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