Starting with the 2026-27 NBA season, Jabari Smith Jr. will be on a five-year, $122-million contract with the Rockets, according to reports. There are no player or team options.
The Houston Rockets are signing Jabari Smith Jr. to a five-year, $122-million contract extension without any player or team options, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic. The deal, which begins with the 2026-27 NBA season, is worth below $25 million in average annual value.
Smith, drafted at No. 3 overall in the 2022 first round out of Auburn, is eligible for an extension after three NBA seasons. To date in the NBA, the 6-foot-11 forward has averaged 13.0 points (43.2% FG, 34.0% on 3-pointers) and 7.5 rebounds in 31.1 minutes per game, and he remains one of the most valuable and versatile defenders for head coach Ime Udoka.
With both Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green headed to the Phoenix Suns in the blockbuster trade bringing All-Star forward Kevin Durant to the Rockets, Smith is expected to return to Houston’s starting lineup next season.
Smith, 22, started approximately the first half of the 2024-25 season at power forward for the Rockets, who finished at 52-30 and with the No. 2 record in the Western Conference. But Smith suffered a broken hand in a January practice and didn’t return until after the All-Star break, at which point Udoka opted to keep promising second-year talent Amen Thompson in the initial five. Thompson had begun the season in a sixth-man role.
From that point forward, Smith played off the bench without complaint, though he will now presumably regain his starting spot for 2025-26 and beyond. Thompson, too, will remain a starter, with Smith and Durant taking the spots that belonged to Green and Brooks at the end of last season.