BREAKING: Rockets Lose Fred ValVleet To BRUTAL Injury

BREAKING: Rockets Lose Fred ValVleet To BRUTAL Injury

Breaking news and it’s all kinds of bad. Fred Van Vleet, a torn ACL, his season potentially over before it’s even started. What will the Houston Rockets do now? I’m Trevor Lane. This is the Basketball Bulletin. Make sure you subscribe right here to the channel. You know, I’ve said it before, but about 70% of you watching, you’re not actually subscribed. So, hit that subscribe button. There it is from Shams Trannia making it official. The Houston Rockets guard Fred Vanble has suffered a torn ACL. sources tell ESPN a devastating potentially season ending loss for the Rockets with their starting point guard and leader. You know, this Rockets team, it’s particularly unfortunate because they’re a team that we picked to potentially contend for a championship. A team that I thought was very, very good last year. An incredible defensive team, beasts on the offensive glass. They did such great work there. But the one thing they were lacking was scoring in the half court. And they went and got that with perhaps the best guy to ever do it with Kevin Durant joining the Houston Rockets. So the Houston Rockets were picked even today in the poll that came out from ESPN. They were picked by executives, by scouts, by coaches as having made the best move of the off season with the Kevin Durant signing. This is a team that many people were looking at as a team that could really give OKC a run. OKC Denver, Houston looking like the top three in the Western Conference. But if you were to pick any one thing, any one particular thing where this Rockets lineup could be a bit deficient, it was in playmaking. And now that is going to be even more so. But Fred, Fred Vanble, again, a torn ACL now, we’re a week away from media day. We’re a month away from the start of the regular season. A torn ACL now probably means he’s not going to play this season for the Houston Rockets. So, what can Houston do at this point? I know the initial thought on a lot of people’s minds and mine too was, “Oh, well, just call up Russell Westbrook. He’s he’s sitting out there. He’s waiting for the Sacramento Kings to ask him to come play for them.” But that is actually very very problematic and maybe a big big challenge for Houston to get Russell Westbrook. But can they do it? Can the Houston Rockets go get Russell Westbrook right now? And should they? I’m going to explain that next. Sweeper is the number one fantasy sports actor. It pays to know sports. Pick more or less on top players. Your first pick is on us, so start winning now. Play in Texas, Georgia, Minnesota, and 27 more states. Pick anytime across all sports, pregame or live. Over 10 million players are already on Sleeper. Make your picks count. Score up to 1,000 times your cash. Join today. Get up to $100 credit using code bulletin. Call your shot on Sleeper. Download now. Okay, so here’s the problem that the Houston Rockets have. If they are going to go try to bring in Russell Westbrook or let’s say, you know, Malcolm Brogden just got a camp deal with the Knicks. What if he breaks free there and here would become available and and the Houston Rockets say, “Gosh, we have to have playmaking. We don’t have Fred Vanble.” All right, Russ, come on down. Let’s make a Houston Rockets return or or Malcolm Bro, whoever they can go get. Uh here’s the problem right now. The Houston Rockets, they do have an open roster spot, so that’s good. 14 roster spots filled. However, they are hardcaped at the first apron and uh they are just $1.2 million below that first apron. What that means is they do not have enough money below the first apron to sign anyone. They cannot sign Russell Westbrook. They could not sign Malcolm Brogden. So, where does that leave the Houston Rockets? Well, if they wanted to go add a guard off the market, they would have to pivot and find a way to change this situation, find a way. And I’m not saying that Russell Westbrook would be the savior of the Houston Rockets. I’m not saying that he would solve everything for them. But if they said Westbrook bugged, then if he breaks whoever it is that’s out there, if they say an outside source is what we need to solve this problem, they are going to have to do something to change that number. And that would mean trading away someone or waving and stretching a salary in order to clear up some space. For example, there’s Jeff Green, right? 2.3 million bytes of veteran minimum salary. Let’s say you were to wave him and stretch him. Um that would roughly come out to about $800,000 stretched uh over a three-year period because you would take the number of years remaining um times three. That’s what you’d be looking at. Well, it’s double the number of years plus one is the way that it works. So, so then you’d be at, you know, about $800,000 you would take off your books there for this coming uh or you would have on your books for this coming season. you’d free up uh what is that about 1.5ish million and then maybe you’re you’re right there in range to go sign somebody. Maybe that’s an option. Um otherwise, could you trade away a player and go get a point guard? Uh potentially. Could you find a team that’s got an extra point guard or so and go make kind of a minor a minor move? Go find another guard out there. Maybe there’s somebody that you can go get on the trademark. But this Rockets team has been constructed very very painstakingly, very well. I think I think this is a well put together roster. Who do you want to move? You’ve got plenty of guys who have value. You’ve got plenty of future draft capital. So, you have flexibility in that s in that sense. But who do you want to move to go make this happen? Now, if Fred Vanble Vleet, for example, let’s say that Fred Vanble Vleet was a team option on the second year. Whoa. Well, then that’s easy, right? You have a $25 million expiring contract then to go shopping with. It’s exactly what the Warriors did last year with DA Anthony Melton when they knew him. I believe he was ACL as well. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Anthony Melton, they know he was going to be out for the year. They went, “Okay, you’re an expiring contract.” Then the Warriors shopped him. They eventually made a deal. Off you go. But on a player option for the second year, you’re not going to be able to trade Fred Vanble. If he was an expiring contract, okay, then he’s hurt. He’s out the year. He just becomes that $25 million expiring contract. And you go and you find something. You don’t have that ability there. So, who do you really want to move? That’s where it’s going to get get tough. Jun Tate could have some value. Josh Aoji you just signed. And when are most of these guys trade eligible? Jun Tate not trade eligible till the 15th. A lot of guys not trade eligible till December 15th because they signed contracts over the summer. Jabari Smith not going to be trade eligible all season. You can see that that here. Uh Darin Finny Smith not traded. So a lot of these guys you’re not going to move Durant. You’re not moving Sangon. it it’s going to be tough to make a trade unless you’re willing to part with Tari E who is um extension eligible or if the Rockets can just make it to about sometime in January that’s when the minimum salary would prorrate enough for the Houston Rockets to go sign a veteran minimum player now the other alternative from going after an outside player um again could you trade a player into the Brooklyn Nets cap space sure potentially You could do something like that. Attach a second rounder to a player and then boom, off you go. But which of these trade eligible guys do you really want to move? Probably nobody. So that’s where it gets a bit challenging there, too. Now, what about the guys that are on the roster? Um, first of all, first and foremost, Reed Shepard would could step up into a huge role now, um, for the Houston Rockets. He was already going to have a bigger role this season. Now Reed Shepard is going to I mean just out of necessity be has to do a lot more because look I mean Ahmed Thompson is listed as a point guard that’s not really what he is in terms of playmaking chops. Alprin Sangon can do some things out of the high post but there would be a lot put on to Reed Shepard who really didn’t play much last year. Didn’t get a lot of action for uh for the Houston Rockets but was expected to step into a bigger role this coming season. So does that then put too much? Probably. you probably need to go find someone else. But in the meantime, Reed Shepard immediately steps into a much bigger role in Houston out of necessity. After that, it’s Aaron Holiday and then you’ve got JD Davidson, Cavon Harris. I mean, these are two-way players that we’re talking about here. So, in terms of making it work until can these guys get you to January if you’re Houston, that’s going to be tough. That’s going to be tough. Look, I know the Rockets have a lot of faith. They’re very excited about Reed Shepard. I know he didn’t play a ton last year, but they’re excited about him. But how much do you believe that he can step in to be the full-time starting guard on the Rockets? I mean, he played 52 games last season at 12.6 minutes per game. Didn’t get a huge opportunity there. Reed Shepard, 4.4 points, 1.5 uh rebounds, 1.4 assists. I I mean that’s I know they like him, but that talk about getting thrown into into the deep end there if you’re Reed Shepard. So I do think the Houston Rockets are going to need to do something. They’re going to need need to make some kind of a move. Their options are essentially rely on Aaron Holiday and Reed Shepard and then try to run playmaking through Alper and Shenun more through Kevin Durant more and try to hold on until January when you can get uh the ability to sign a veteran minimum contract or it’s do something to change your hard cap situation and that means freeing up more space below that hard cap whether that’s waving and stretching a player waving a play they don’t have any non-g guaranteed money on their books we’re probably looking at a trade, sending a trade a player into the Brooklyn Nets cap space, maybe something like that that they can get done, but this is for a Rockets team that was already short on playmaking. This is a devastating devastating blow for Houston and certainly not what we want to see here. So, reacting kind of in the moment as all of this is happening, but man, absolutely brutal and not what anybody was wanting to see to before, you know, we’re a week out. I I’ve been on pins and needles. So excited about the start of the NBA season here and now the Houston Rockets are going to be missing Fred Van Vleet for potentially the entire season. Everybody give me your thoughts. What should the Rockets do? Should they find a move and give their old friend Russell Westbrook a call? Should they just put the ball in the hands of Reed Shepard and try to hold on till they can do something, sign a veteran minimum in January? Is it a trade? Do they need to take some of the players, one or two of the players on their roster, and go trade for a point guard? What do you think Houston should do? Let me know in the comments down below. Till next time, everybody. See you. Man, I hate news like this. See you and stay safe.

In this video Trevor Lane breaks down the shocking news that the Rockets may have lose Fred VanVleet for the season. What will they do now?

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