I’ve become increasingly disengaged from the Rockets over the last few weeks, and it mostly comes down to the complete loss of team chemistry.

Watching the Sengun block against the Wolves was the final straw. In ‘24-’25, that’s a highlight that brings the whole bench to the floor! But this time, only Reed Sheppard went over to acknowledge the game-saving block. It’s a night-and-day difference from the 2-seed team last year to this year’s team. And as a diehard fan, it’s been heartbreaking to watch. 
I’ve become nostalgic for the brotherhood vibe of last year’s team; just look how excited the team gets on big plays! But now? We look dejected, out of sync, and are in danger of falling to the play-in. 

Here’s where it went wrong, in chronological order:

  • Injuries (25%): Losing Fred and Adams killed our veteran leadership – they were our “adults in the room.” We desperately miss Fred’s floor generalship and Adam’s rebounding presence.
  • The Front Office (15%): Rafael Stone basically punted on this season by not getting a PG at the deadline. Hell, even a 40-year-old, Game 5 hammy-hurtin’ CP3 would’ve been helpful. But actually, it would’ve been nice to acquire Dennis Schroeder or Jose Alvarado. 
  • Ime Udoka (18%): I love Ime, but he deserves heat. Zero offensive remedies for our current slump.
  • The KD Experiment (42%): This one stings the most. From the burner accounts to the poor body language and constant complaining to his teammates, it’s clear Durant has created a toxic environment that’s alienated what used to be a tight-knit young core. The young guys are starting to lose touch with what a true winning culture feels like. Winning teams stay positive through adversity, but this team lacks positivity even during wins. Deep playoff runs don’t happen without resiliency during tough stretches, and you can’t do that if your leader is always pointing fingers. If the Rockets continue this trend next season, major roster changes will have to happen and our title window could slip through our fingers.

The Silver Lining: I still believe in our young core and hope this adversity makes them better teammates and players. Everyone still plays their butts off, and they’ve shown how dangerous they can be when they’re on the same page. There’s also value in the reps without FVV—maybe they’ll be better for it when he’s back next year. And with FVV’s return, you’d hope the locker room settles down, guys make amends (ahem KD), and chemistry rebuilds itself. But barring a miracle, this season probably ends in five in the first round. Hopefully a healthy VanVleet next year can help reestablish the winning culture next year.

20 comments

  2. Halfway through the season I went to recording the games and only watching if they win.

  3. 1000000 percent yes. Every game is the same. Close game throughout and then choking in the fourth. The feeling of having wasted 3 hours of my life is really shitty so I have decreased my watching recently to protect my peace. 

    xxx5-xxx6 seasons are cursed! We should know by now

  4. a crazy idea; rest KD for load management, since we are already 6th and not going up, not going down, lets see if it helps, he is tired. And more ideas; rest Tari at some point, rest Amen, rest Alpi, put some fuel in the tank for playoffs during last nine games.

  5. Putting the majority of the blame on KD is wild. Without KD this team would be out of the play in

  9. Record is more important than vibes. With JG and DB this team would be around the 8th or 9th seed given their injuries. You guys would have been even more vocal in your criticism of JG and Ime. Last year the team over performed and that’s a big reason the vibes were great. This season the team is underperforming and so obviously the vibes are worse.

    Ultimately it’s the roster construction and the lack of a point guard or any semblance of an offensive system that hurts this team. Stone effectively punted this season and honestly if the Spurs hadn’t been ahead of schedule, the Rockets would still have been fighting for a 2 seed.

    What’s clear is without a modern NBA offensive system this team needs a floor general to run an average NBA offense. So either they get a coaching change, a real backup PG or just put all their eggs in the FVV basket.

  10. Everything is so hard. I don’t think the math is in our favor, so we have a low margin of error.

    Low volume of 3s + high TOs + no longer having a significant rebounding edge = tough to win

    I think the team is feeling it. One thing goes wrong and it feels like we’re fucked.

  12. Don’t mean to trigger anyone so apologies if I do but I honestly feel like I’m in a toxic relationship where my spouse beats me but I can’t leave. I don’t want to watch the games or care but I have no choice because I chose this team many many years ago. Weird analogy but feels appropriate.

  13. Bro the fact that no one even reacted to that insane sengun block tells u everything u need to know. I was more hyped than his teammates.

  15. Vibes haven’t felt this bad since early Harden and Howard drama. Among many other things, Howard refused to do pick and rolls, insisted the offense go through him, and strolled back on defense.

  16. I really disagree with the allocation of blame. Stone punted because losing both Adams and FVV we lost our contender status, that’s 35M down the drain and who else among the other contenders missing critical guys for the entire season? He was just being realistic but fans took his soundbite and acted like some vet signing was gonna make us win the championship. Secondly the Rockets are in luxury tax and only 1M below the apron. We cant even keep that vet signing he gonna be gone cuz we cant afford to keep AND he wont have PT with FVV coming back. Example we spend multiple assets to trade salary filler for Coby White. Ok so next season now what? FVV gonna start, White is the backup so where does that leave Reed Sheppard? 10 mins a night? Or maybe White leaves in UFA and we just lost all those assets for nothing.

    Secondly the KD experiment was a success simply because it got us off Jalen Green contract and it almost made up for losing FVV and Adams for the entire season. Last year the Rockets were 11-11 without FVV and this is with Adams, Jalen Green and Brooks all playing for most of those games. I prefer a team with bad vibes that won 49 games vs a team with good vibes that won 0.500 games and gonna give their pick to OKC. Anyone who keeps saying the KD trade was bad is just wrong period. You realize next year KD will just make 10M more than Jalen Green??? Thats a bad trade for us? LOL. What kind of “winning culture” doesnt involve winning? You win more games with KD than with Jalen 39% FG Green. When Jalen flops in the playoffs again will all this KD slander finally stop? Or will everyone still ignore it and pretend we are better off with the 90% vibes 10% actual playing ability group?

    Finally, the team vibes are off because Adams going down exposed Udoka’s offensive ineptitude. When Adams was here, he could get all the misses and still generate shots for everyone. He was also Udoka’s ideal center and served as his last security blanket. Now Adams is gone, every miss now hurts cuz we arent up by 20 rebs on the opponent. This leads to a domino effect and everyone is angry cuz we keep losing to trash teams due to bad offense.

    At the same time, all these problems are very fixable as long as Udoka gets a competent offensive coordinator to help him out. Stone and Fertita need to be real with him cuz that dude doesnt take any accountability and prob doesnt think he did anything wrong

  17. I was out when Adams went down. They have no chance this season and I’ve enjoyed not watching

  19. It’s just we aren’t that good. Amen didn’t take the leap we expected shooting wise. Tari started strong then fell off. Jabari has seemed to hit his ceiling. Sengun will never be as good as Jokic it seems. Durant is getting old. We don’t have a pg. udoka has no offensive brain. We just suck.

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