Headed into this past regular season, the Rockets offered Tari Eason a four-year, $100 million extension with protections tied to injuries given Eason’s already extensive injury history. Eason kindly rejected that offer and chose to bet on himself. Now that the dust has settled on the 2025-2026 season, we can begin to answer the question of whether he won that bet or not.
The 6’8” Forward out of LSU made himself a fan favorite immediately in his rookie season with his intense effort and tenacity on the
court, specifically on the defensive end. Eason played all 82 games that season, and it appeared that Rafael Stone may have gotten the steal of the 2022 NBA Draft. While there is a chance that can still be the case, unfortunately Tari Eason hasn’t played more than 60 games in a season since his rookie campaign.
In 2023, he suffered from a lower leg stress reaction and benign bone growth issue. From 2023-2025 he continued to have soreness and would miss a multitude of games for injury management. In 2024, he missed two games due to concussion. He’s missed time this past season with both ankle and oblique strains and only played in 60 games, which was the most he’s played since his rookie season. The positive for Eason is that both of those injuries are not the kind of soft tissue injuries that wouldn’t throw up too many red flags under normal circumstances, like an ACL or Achilles injury would. However, with Eason’s previous health issues it raises some cause for concern.
Aside from the health portion of the question of whether Tari was right to bet on himself, when he was on the court, did he play well enough to earn a max contract as a restricted free agent? In the 60 games Eason played, he logged 25.8 minutes per game, scored 10.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game. Eason shot 41.6 percent from the field including 35.8 percent from the three-point line, 77.6 percent from the free-throw line, and a true shooting score of 51.4 percent. Granted, that Eason is the kind of player that puts up numbers strictly with effort and hustle, having zero plays drawn up to specifically get him a shot, those numbers do not add up to a max contract, which for Eason would be in the range of about five years $240-245 million from the Rockets and four years $178-180 million should another team offer it to him.
For Eason to win this bet he made on himself, he will need to get more than the Rockets initially offered him, either from another team or from the Rockets if they decide to match the offer, but one thing I do know, Tari Eason is not getting a five-year max contract from the Rockets. If I’m wrong, then I will resign my post as a staff writer on this beloved website. There is no chance. However, can he get more than the Rockets initial offer? Well, sure… it’s the NBA, and there is always one team that is willing to overpay or at least pretend to be willing overpay to put the pressure on the Rockets to match in order to keep the player they drafted. But if I am being honest, I don’t believe Tari Eason deserves much more than the initial contract the Rockets offered him. It’s possible he will get less.
The thing I would point out if I were Eason’s agent is that his soft tissue injuries were not severe, and that Tari stepped up his scoring output in the playoffs. He scored 13.8 points per game in 32.5 minutes played per game. He shot 47.7 percent from the field, (I’d point to his career and regular season three-point percentages) 84.6 percent from the free-throw line and a 58.7 true shooting percentage. The one thing I do like is a guy who steps his game up when the stakes are higher. Tari Eason is going to have to convince either the Rockets or another NBA team that he is that exact type of player, that he will continue to be that type of player, and that he is going to be healthy if he wants any shot out pacing the extension he turned down last summer. If not, 2025-2026 will be the season Tari Eason bet on himself and lost.
