The Rockets are “likely” to tender a qualifying offer to forward Tari Eason, league sources tell Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

The qualifying offer will formally make Eason a restricted free agent before rival teams can begin negotiating with him at 5:00 pm CT on June 30. It will also give the Rockets the ability to match any offer sheet Eason might receive from an opposing team.

Eason’s QO, which is essentially a one-year contract with an implied no-trade clause, is worth $8,014,182. His cap hold will be $17,027,298, though that doesn’t matter much, since Houston projects to be well over the cap anyway.

The 17th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Eason averaged 10.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals on .416/.358/.776 shooting splits in 60 regular season appearances in 2025/26, including 34 starts (25.8 minutes per game).

In other qualifying offer news, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype hears the Nuggets will issue a QO to Spencer Jones. The former undrafted free agent became a rotation regular for Denver amid a wave of injuries in ’25/26, averaging 5.5 PPG and 3.3 RPG while shooting 39.6% from long distance in 64 games (22.7 MPG).

According to Scotto, Denver expects to retain Jones this summer. The 25-year-old’s QO is worth $2.65MM, with an identical cap hold.