Ethan guarantees a 5-year contract renewal of 120 million yuan? The Rockets are hard to keep him: 2 It is difficult to improve its shortcomings, Smith Jr. is more reliable

Some famous NBA reporter John Hollinger believes that Ethan's personal ability is better than young power forward Jabbarry Smith Jr. So, Smith Jr. renewed the Rockets for 5 years and 122 million yuan this summer. That's the implication that Ethan's contract will be guaranteed at least 5 years and 120 million yuan. After all, in his opinion, Ethan is more comprehensive and mature, and Smith Jr. has not improved much in his progress and data since he joined the Rockets for three years.

And Smith Jr. is not comprehensive enough. He is not a player who can score in the inside. Among the Rockets, although Smith Jr. plays as the power forward, he often relies on three-point shooting from the outside to score. His personal style is more like the Rockets' starting power forward Ryan Anderson, rather than scoring hard at the basket like an inside player. Therefore, Smith Jr.'s offensive methods are relatively simple, while Ethan is more comprehensive, able to hold the ball, shoot, and score rebounds for a second offensive score. He can adapt to many positions alone, and Smith Jr. plays more power forwards and centers, and his overall level is not as good as Ethan.

So, can Ethan guarantee a contract renewal with the Rockets for 120 million in five years? Obviously it is a bit difficult because the Rockets are not able to earn enough salary space now, and they have left behind two young players, Shin Kyung and Smith Jr., and the Rockets will need to renew their ace guard Amen Thompson in advance next season. Thompson's annual salary for renewal contract is at least 35 million yuan. After all, Amen Thompson is the Rockets' most talented player now and most likely to become a top superstar.

Former NBA player Jeff Teague said bluntly that as long as Amen can make a three-point shooting, he will be the top 10 superstar in the league. So the Rockets will definitely choose the latter to renew the contract between Ethan and Amen Thompson. If Ethan asks for a big contract, it will be difficult for the Rockets to keep him; even if they don’t ask for a big contract, the Rockets seem to find it difficult for the Rockets to keep him. After all, Durant alone occupies more than 50 million salary space, and Van Vreet and Shin Kyung combined, and they also earn an annual salary of more than 50 million yuan. The contracts of these three players have already exceeded 100 million. In addition to the contracts of other players, the Rockets really don’t have much salary space to keep Ethan next season.

More importantly, Ethan is not irreplaceable. The Rockets' power forward/small forward are Durant, Amen Thompson and Smith Jr., and there are players like Jeff Green and Finney Smith in the substitute lineup, so Ethan can indeed be traded among the Rockets.

And what's more troublesome is that Ethan also has two shortcomings that are difficult to improve. The first one is his age. As an older rookie back then, Ethan is now 24 years old, and his room for improvement should be gone. More importantly, Ethan's attendance rate in three seasons was not high, and the first season was basically normal, but he missed more than 60 games in the second season of his career, and he missed nearly 30 games last season.

is often injured and absent, which is an important reason why the Rockets find it difficult to give him a big contract. In comparison, Jabbarry Smith, who competes with Ethan, is more reliable. He is two years younger than Ethan, and has better three-point shooting ability and inside basket protection ability. Moreover, Smith Jr. still has a lot of room for improvement. After all, in terms of draft picks, Smith Jr. is the No. 3 pick, while Ethan's draft pick that year was only the 17th pick in the first round. Therefore, compared with Ethan, the younger and more distinctive little Smith is more reliable.