{"id":516516,"date":"2026-01-04T18:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/516516\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T18:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:00:13","slug":"rockets-sign-tristen-newton-to-two-way-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/516516\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Sign Tristen Newton To Two-Way Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>January 4:\u00a0Newton has been signed and Smith has been waived, the Rockets announced in a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/rockets\/news\/rockets-sign-tristen-newton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">press release<\/a>. The moves were officially finalized on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-414910\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_24366557-scaled-e1767477686434-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\"  \/>January 3: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/newtotr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-03_bbr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tristen Newton<\/a> is joining the Rockets on a two-way contract, a league source tells Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JakeLFischer\/status\/2007564034066002166\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter link<\/a>). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithty02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tyler Smith<\/a> will be waived to create an opening.<\/p>\n<p>Newton, a 24-year-old shooting guard, signed a two-way deal with Minnesota in September, but was waived prior to the start of the season. He has been playing for the Iowa Wolves in the G League, where he\u2019s averaging 26.8 points, 7.7 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 49.4% from the field and 37.6% from three-point range.<\/p>\n<p>Newton was selected by Indiana with the 49th pick in the 2024 draft, and he appeared in five games on a two-way contract before being released early last January. Minnesota claimed him off waivers, and he saw action in three more NBA games.<\/p>\n<p>Newton will be eligible to appear in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hoopsrumors.com\/2025\/11\/active-game-limits-for-two-way-players-in-2025-26.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">up to 29 games<\/a> with Houston if his new contract is finalized by the end of the day. His two-way salary will become fully guaranteed as long as he remains on the roster through Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, a 21-year-old power forward, hasn\u2019t made any NBA appearances since <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hoopsrumors.com\/2025\/12\/rockets-plan-to-sign-tyler-smith-to-two-way-deal.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">signing<\/a> his two-way deal with the Rockets on December 2. He was the 33rd pick in the 2024 draft and got into 23 games with Milwaukee last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"January 4:\u00a0Newton has been signed and Smith has been waived, the Rockets announced in a press release. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,17642,15333],"class_list":["post-516516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-tristen-newton","tag-tyler-smith"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115838139456530373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}