The Houston Rockets have waived Rafael Castro, ending a brief two-way association that began only in August. Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints first reported the move on Thursday.
Castro, a 6-foot-11 center, had signed a two-year two-way deal with Houston after going undrafted in June, but the club has now released him before he could establish himself in the organization.
The decision carries almost no financial consequence for Houston. Two-way contracts are non-guaranteed and do not count against the salary cap, so the Rockets will not absorb dead money by cutting him.
That structure is designed to let teams try developmental prospects without locking in a standard roster salary, and it also makes those deals easy to unwind when the front office wants the slot for someone else.
Castro’s path to the NBA was unconventional. He spent his first two college seasons at Providence, from 2022 to 2024, without earning a consistent role.
He transferred to George Washington for his junior year, stepped in as the Revolutionaries’ full-time starting center, and stayed there through his senior season.
In each of those two years, he earned All-Atlantic 10 second-team honors and a place on the conference’s All-Defensive team, a run that turned an overlooked big man into a legitimate professional prospect.
His senior numbers in 2025-26 explain why teams were interested.
Across 27 appearances, Castro averaged 15.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and 1.7 blocks in 27.3 minutes per game. He shot 62.7 percent from the field and 66.1 percent from the free-throw line.
At 23, he offered size, rebounding, and rim protection more than a polished offensive skill set, the profile that often lands undrafted centers on two-way deals rather than standard contracts.
His free-agency trail was already uneven before Houston entered the picture. Shortly after the draft, reports indicated he had agreed to a two-way contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. That deal was never signed.
Either the agreement collapsed or the original report was inaccurate. Houston then brought him in during August, on a two-year two-way that has now been terminated.
Waiving him this early suggests the Rockets have reassessed the fit, or simply prefer to keep the two-way opening available as camp and the preseason sort out the back end of the roster.
For Castro, the cut returns him to the open market, where a strong summer-league or training-camp showing elsewhere, or a path through the G League, remains the most realistic route back into an NBA organization.
