Houston Rockets: Danuel House should be rewarded with a new contract

The Houston Rockets are running out of time on Danuel House. The NBA portion of his two-way contract will expire soon. Here’s what the team should do.

The Houston Rockets are officially on a roll after winning 13 of their last 16 games to elevate themselves to a 24-17 record, seven games above .500 which was lofty goal just a couple of months ago for this team.

Their turnaround has been impressive and it certainly appears as if this team is absolutely keyed in on the ultimate goal of making the most out of this season and trying to unseat the Golden State Warriors as the presiding authority of talent in the NBA.

The Houston Rockets have faced a ton of injuries in the early goings, particularly to Chris Paul and Eric Gordon, who are still trying to get themselves 100 percent so that they can help this team be successful.

James Ennis, whom the Houston Rockets signed in the off season, needs to have a revolving door installed in the training room as much as he’s been there. Ennis has missed 13 games this season as a result of injuries and one had expected him to be an integral piece to what this team does.

He still helps out in flashes but he’s better suited for the bench rather than be a starter, his body can’t seem to hold up with starter minutes and that’s tough to admit.

With Ennis missing time and Gerald Green being on the shelf as well, the Houston Rockets had to turn to athletically-gifted yet raw Danuel House to help them out. He signed with the team in late November after being cut from the Golden State Warriors preseason roster and the rest has been history.

House is a local product, playing his grade school ball with Hightower High and going on to Texans A&M where his passion, thriving to live in the moment and his high-flying dunks being all part of his persona in earlier stages of his career.

Danuel has made stops with the Washington Wizards, Phoenix Suns and finally the Houston Rockets where it’s apparent he’ll be setting up shop for awhile.

But that depends on what Daryl Morey wants to do with him.

House signed a two-way contract with the Rox back early last month but with the terms of how these pacts work in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, there’s only so much time a team can keep a player at the pro-level before they must sign him to a standard contract and he’d occupy a permanent roster spot on the team.

Morey seems to have already started making preparations with this when he somehow figured out how trade Michael Carter-Williams and cash to the Chicago Bulls for a conditional, future second-round pick. The fact that he pulled that off is nothing short of amazing considering MC-W made little contribution to the team despite having multiple opportunities to shine.

That roster spot is still open and I think it should be occupied by House.

Here’s what Morey should do — he should sign House for the rest of the season with a partial guarantee for 2019-20. This two-year deal needs to be worth $3 million which is a tremendous pay raise from the $80K or so he would’ve made this season as a two-way player.

House deserves this as I would be hard-pressed to figure where the Houston Rockets would be

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without him. This man came off the G-League roster to jump two guys in Ennis and Green to nab the starting three-spot for this team, not necessarily an easy feat in most regards.

But with the under-performance by House’s counterparts, the position was wide-open and his for the taking. He has not only usurped it but embraced it fully, knowing the journey he took to get to this point. I’m positive that he’s not taking it for granted.

Aside from contractual definitions, he truly is a two-way player being a terrific marksman from behind-the-arc, pounding the boards and playing hard-nosed defense on the other end of the hardwood. He truly gets when to make his switches, a heavy-focus in Jeff Bzedilk’s daily defensive game strategy.

That’s not only the recipe but the prerequisite to being a part of the Houston Rockets and he certainly checks all of the boxes.

Morey will need to make a decision quick as this team will be facing the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies over the next two nights in a back-to-back and I’m positive his services will be needed for both opponents.

We’ll have to see!

Next. Rockets: It's time to re-ignite the Jimmy Butler talks. dark

House, 25, has averaged 8.6 points, 3.7 rebounds with an impressive shooting line of .462/.372/.818 through 23 games — 10 starts — this season.

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