The Rockets are opening up a 2025-26 roster spot by waiving Nate Williams, who had been on a non-guaranteed minimum contract with the Rockets.
By waiving Nate Williams – and assuming that Cam Matthews will end up on a two-way contract or waived – the Rockets are $3.55M below the first apron with only 13 players on the 15-man roster. They’ll likely need to sign someone else to a standard contract. https://t.co/uhi5AjxUTm
— David Weiner #🟦 (@BimaThug) July 13, 2025
The Houston Rockets opened up a roster spot Sunday by waiving 26-year-old guard/forward Nate Williams, whose minimum salary for the upcoming 2025-26 season was not guaranteed until October.
Williams played only sparingly at the NBA level in each of the past two seasons. With Houston’s G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Vipers, Williams tallied per-game averages of 19.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.7 steals last season on 50.5% shooting and 34.9% from 3-point range.
In the team’s announcement, the Rockets also said they signed undrafted rookie free agent Cameron Matthews, a forward out of Mississippi State. But according to The Athletic’s Kelly Iko, Matthews was signed to an Exhibit 10, training-camp contract, which will allow him to compete for a roster spot at that time.
So, in effect, the Rockets are leaving the status of Williams’ roster spot to be determined. A player such as Matthews could perhaps earn it with a strong training camp, or the Rockets could make another minimum-salary signing later in the 2025 offseason.
Exhibit 10 contracts are non-guaranteed, allowing teams to release those players without financial penalties before the ensuing regular season. In effect, they buy time and allow teams to further evaluate those players during training camp and the preseason.
Williams had finished up the 2024-25 regular season on a standard contract with the Rockets, and he went into the offseason with a deal that had yet to guarantee for 2025-26.
Both Williams and Matthews are part of Houston’s 2025 summer-league team, which has four games remaining in Las Vegas. Two are on Sunday and Monday afternoons versus the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks, respectively (schedule).
Guessing the timing of the Nate Williams waiver was that the team *just* decided to move on from him and didn’t want to risk him getting injured in summer league while under contract. If that happened, he would count against the cap/tax/apron until healed.
— David Weiner #🟦 (@BimaThug) July 13, 2025