The Rockets have re-signed veteran forward Jae’Sean Tate, they announced today in a press release.

According to Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter link), Tate received a one-year, minimum-salary contract that includes a partial guarantee. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link) reports that the partial guarantee is worth $1.04MM. Tate will earn $3,066,143 on the deal, while Houston carries a cap hit of $2,449,421.

Tate, the longest-tenured member of the Rockets, joined the team in 2020 as an undrafted free agent and has appeared in 342 regular season and five playoff games since then.

While the 30-year-old is a respected figure in Houston’s locker room, his playing time has declined every year since he averaged 29.2 minutes per contest and made the All-Rookie first team in 2020/21. This past season, he averaged just 8.8 MPG in 46 appearances, contributing 2.8 points and 1.6 rebounds per night with a shooting line of .514/.313/.636.

Still, the terms of Tate’s contract suggest the Rockets envision the versatile 6’4″ forward being part of the regular season roster. The team is flirting with the luxury tax line, as we detailed earlier today, and likely wouldn’t give a $1MM+ partial guarantee to a player it plans to waive.

After re-signing Tate and Isaiah Crawford, Houston now has 15 players on standard contracts and is $2.57MM above the luxury tax line. The team could narrowly duck back below that threshold by waiving JD Davison, who is on a non-guaranteed $2.58MM contract.