THE Houston Rockets signed free agent guard Austin Rivers on Monday.

Rivers appeared in 29 games with two starts for the Washington Wizards this season before being traded to the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 17 and being released the next day.

The 26-year-old was the 10th overall pick in the 2012 draft by New Orleans. He has appeared in 437 games with 132 starts and has averaged 9.3 points, 2.4 assists and 2.1 rebounds per game in his career.

Rivers was with the Clippers from 2015 until he was traded in June to Washington. He had his best season last year, when he averaged 15.1 points with four assists and 2.4 rebounds per games for Los Angeles.

After a heated game last season, Rockets players had gone into the home locker room looking for Rivers and former Rockets guard Pat Beverley, earning former Rockets forwards Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green suspensions. That inspired waves of jokes and memes about Chris Paul knowing the “secret” tunnels between locker rooms, but also brought an assumption that Paul and Rivers had issues with one another in their five seasons as Clippers teammates.

Rivers shot that down quickly, citing among other things the fact he was a free agent who chose to sign a one-year deal to play with Paul. Rivers pointed out Paul that they worked out together last summer. “I have no problems with Chris, as you guys will see,” Rivers said.

(SD-Agencies)