Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet has exercised his $25 million player option for the 2026-27 season, team sources told The Athletic on Monday.The veteran point guard could’ve declined his option and become an unrestricted free agent. Instead, he chose to stick around for one more season and remain a pivotal figure in Houston, both on and off the court, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss the deal. He would have been the 20th-ranked free agent on The Athletic’s big board.VanVleet, 32, was already highly regarded by the Rockets before this past season. His importance, however, became more evident after he missed the 2025-26 season with a torn right ACL suffered in a team minicamp in the Bahamas just before the start of the preseason. The Rockets struggled with guard play all season and lost in the first round of the playoffs despite adding Kevin Durant last summer.VanVleet recently revealed that his knee injury was more damaging than initially reported and required surgery to repair the ACL and meniscus.“My knee exploded,” VanVleet said on a recent episode of his Unguarded podcast.It’s still unclear how healthy VanVleet will be once next season’s training camp begins.Before his ACL injury, VanVleet played at least 50 games in eight of his first nine NBA seasons and gained a reputation as a big-shot maker and reliable on-ball presence.What happened to the Rockets?Esfandiar BaraheniHe joined the Rockets in 2023 after signing a three-year, $130 million deal before subsequently signing a two-year, $50 million extension in the summer of 2025.