Clint Capela agrees to 5-year, $90 mln deal with Rockets

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Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced that the team has re-signed restricted free agent center Clint Capela to a five-year, 90-million-US-dollar extension.

The 24-year-old Capela has been a key piece in Houston's resurgence in the Western Conference the past two seasons. He's coming off a career season in 2017-18, averaging 13.9 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, while shooting a league-best 65.2 percent from the field.

The official Twitter account of the Houston Rockets unveiled a poster to welcome Clint Capela. /Twitter

The Rockets were 42-3 last season with Chris Paul, James Harden and Capela in the lineup, a unit that keyed the team's run to the West's best regular-season record (65-17) and ultimate Game 7 loss to eventual champion Golden State in the conference finals.

Now, all three will be back and likely together for some time; Paul agreed to a four-year, 160-million-US-dollar max deal to return earlier this month, and Harden inked a four-year, 228-million-US-dollar supermax extension last summer.

Capela's deal includes 1.5 million US dollars in likely-to-reach annual incentives and 500,000 US dollars in unlikely to reach incentives, according to ESPN.

The contract now pushes the Rockets' payroll to 136 million US dollars, the fourth highest in the league behind Oklahoma City, Golden State and Toronto.

(With inputs from agencies)