The Houston Rockets are the strangest team in basketball

The Houston Rockets are the strangest team in basketball

Breaking NBA news. Rockets point guard Fred Van Vleet has torn his ACL according to multiple reports. On September 22nd, 2025, the Houston Rockets received news that would alter the fate of their franchise. Fred Van Vleet, their starting point guard making $25 million a year, suffered a torn ACL during a scrimmage. That’s quite unfortunate. and combined with the trade that sent away Jaylen Green. You’d imagine they would try to fix this issue and find an actual point guard and you know actual guards to replace them. But no, instead they moved Amen Thompson from small forward to point guard and Kevin Durant from power forward to shooting guard, thus creating an absurdly tall lineup with a 68 point guard and a damn near 7 foot shooting guard. But it’s not just their lineup changes that makes the Rockets such a strange team. In the span of a single summer, they went from being perceived as a young rebuilding team to a team that’s ready to win right now. With the arrival of an older Kevin Durant, their window for contending is wide open. Underneath the surface, however, is a team filled with people who are apprehensive towards the new direction this franchise is going. You know, Kevin took below the max. So, he was eligible for two at 120. He took two for 90. Generous guy. That’s why I’m saying great guy. Who is Tari Een exactly? If you don’t watch the Rockets, you probably have no idea, but he is unequivocally the biggest hidden gem in the entire league. Een is a fast, agile wing player who’s one of, if not the best help defender as a wing player in the entire league. Kar Irving blocked from behind by T. Perimeter. Warriors very deep to the shot clock. Isa got a piece of that. The way he plays the passing lanes and rotates to support his teammates are major reasons why the Rockets established a worldclass defense. Not only that, but offensively he knows his role and never tries to do too much. This is a guy who every team would love to have, except for the Rockets, apparently. You see, upon Kevin Durant’s arrival, the Rockets had been working on a rookie extension for the 24year-old Een with the hope of signing him to a long-term deal that would secure his place on this team for years to come. Um, do you expect to sign uh your first scale extension? I’m not going to answer that. We do not discuss contracts. Unfortunately, the negotiations reached a stalemate and in fact they lasted all summer with Een and the front office realizing they could not reach a number that would satisfy either party. Behind the scenes, it was quiet with no reporters having knowledge of what the discussions were like. We don’t know how much Een wanted or how much the Rockets were willing to give. Then fast forward to October 19th, 2 days before the start of the season, the Rockets gave Kevin Durant a 2-year $90 million extension. This wasn’t that surprising for the average fan. But for Tari Een, this extension for Durant was a revelation that made him wonder what the team’s priorities were. Immediately after this announcement, Een’s mother went on Twitter to deliver this message to the Rockets front office. During the negotiations, maybe she heard that her son was accused of wanting too much money as some fans blamed him for being greedy. But this message implied that it wasn’t because Tari Een was greedy, but because the front office simply prioritized Durant over him. Speaking of extensions, early in the summer, the Rockets quickly signed their other young player, Jabari Smith, to a 5-year, $122 million extension. Considering that Een has statistically a bigger impact on winning with far better advanced stats than Jabari, it’s likely that he wanted a similar contract as him, and that’s where the Rockets ran into an issue. They can’t pay everybody. They can’t give four of their young players maximum rookie extensions. Enter Amen Thompson. While Thompson has no ill will towards Durant or anyone on the team, it’s quite obvious that besides Shangun, Thompson is the guy with the most potential on this team. Among the younger guys still looking for an extension, Thompson is the most invaluable and untouchable player. But it won’t be until the summer of 2026 when the Rockets can offer him an extension, presumably a maximum scale rookie extension. With the front office knowing they need to retain Thompson and preserve their salary cap flexibility, they offered Een less than he desired. Essentially, Een is the odd man out with Jabari Smith already getting paid, Thompson is for sure going to get paid, and Durant getting his extension. Where does that leave Een? It’s a situation that’s contentious and this team could collapse with the snap of a finger if they find themselves losing more games than expected. Remember, they were most recently the second seed of the Western Conference. So, the expectation this season is to at least maintain a top four seed. The Kevin Durant effect. Outside of all the contract drama, the mere addition of a game-changing player like Kevin Durant has layers of implications for the Rockets. Let’s rewind a bit. When the Brooklyn Nets traded Kevin Durant to Phoenix, they received a massive hall in return. Quality role players and four unprotected firstround picks. This trade depleted the Suns roster, leaving them with no competent players outside of their stars. So Durant’s time in Phoenix was a disappointment. Fast forward a couple years later and when the Rockets traded for Durant, they also gave up some key pieces like Jaylen Green and Dylan Brooks and also the 10th pick of the draft who may turn out to be very good. Of course, they didn’t give up nearly as much as the Suns did before. And after Jaylen Green disappeared for most of the playoffs, perhaps the Rockets aren’t losing much by trading him. But Durant is even older now at 37 years of age. It’s only a matter of time until he visibly regresses. What truly changes, however, is that Durant accelerated the timeline of this team. Much like the Phoenix Suns, who were once a young budding team still growing together, the arrival of Durant created a championship or bust scenario. Even though the Rockets still have plenty of young players on the roster, the mere existence of Durant means they won’t get as many touches with less opportunity to develop. Tari Een, as I mentioned, is one of those guys who will get fewer touches and also probably Jabari Smith and Reed Shepard. Sometimes the difference between a player averaging 12 or 13 points a game and somebody averaging 18 to 20 points a game is the opportunity they’re granted. For example, do you guys think like Kawhi Leonard or Jimmy Butler could go from 13 points a game to over 20 a game if Kobe Bryant joined their team? Of course not. They’ll be stuck at 13 points a game and their path to becoming a star is much harder when their roles are diminished. Now, I’m not saying adding Durant will have the same effect, but it’s very possible that he stunts their development. And in an alternate universe, maybe Tari Een or Jabari Smith Jr. would improve more if they developed without him on the roster. Maybe Alprron Shenun would average Jokic numbers. In theory, the point of getting Durant and extending him for two years is hopefully to win a championship within this time frame. But with the injury to Fred Van Vleet and this Rockets team being very shallow, on paper, it doesn’t look like a championship contender. I guess they do have the advantage of their incredible size, length, and defense. They’re unique in the modern NBA landscape with so many tall players that most teams are not prepared for. The sheer construction of their roster would make them a tough matchup for any team. So, there’s a chance the Rockets could be darkhorse contenders. With that being said, there’s one aspect of the game that Kevin Durant impacts like no other. Offense. He is a generational scorer for nearly two decades. And what separates him from other scorers is he’s not ball dominant. As witnessed in Golden State, Durant is a plug-and-play superstar. He could join any team and play within the flow of any offense ever constructed. that makes him so so important to the Rockets because under the guidance of coach Eme Udoka their offense has been garbage. In the past almost every possession boiled down to Fred Van Vleet or Jaylen Green pounding the ball on the perimeter until something happens. And if nothing happens they give it to Shangun to pull out a miracle. There’s minimal offball movement. There’s no stagger screens. No innovation whatsoever. Udoka’s offense has been a point of criticism among the fan base. They can get away with running a bad offense if you have a top five scorer in history. Just bailing you out. Durant circles dunks. Unlike Jaylen Green, every shot that Durant takes is a high percentage shot cuz he’s Kevin Durant. Not to mention, he’s proven he’s able to adapt and play off the ball like in Golden State. So, with a passer like Shenun feeding him, this duo will be leaps and bounds better than whatever the hell Jaylen Green was doing. Nobody on this team is in their prime. Have you ever seen a team built like this? Aside from their ridiculous height and length, another unique aspect of the Rockets is every player on this team who gets major minutes are either in their early 20s or over 31 years old. The future cornerstones of this franchise are all so young, in their second, third, or fourth year in the league, whereas the older vets are all past their primes. Heck, you know how Oklahoma City is one of the youngest championship teams ever, the second youngest team to ever win a title, but their lone superstar was still 26, 27 years old, the age where players typically hit their prime. The Rockets young core are still 3 or four years away from that. A newly minted phrase in NBA lore is two timelines. Originally coined by Steve Kerr when the Warriors drafted James Wisman, Jonathan Kaminga, and Moses Moody. By two timelines, Kerr meant he has an older core of players who can still compete for the title along with a younger core of prospects to develop alongside them and contend in the future. In actuality, the Warriors failed in their two timelines method as it just led to misfortune and drama with the younger guys desiring more minutes than they could get. Kuminga, for example, is clearly a great scoring talent, but with flaws. For his entire time in Golden State, he’d been fighting to get playing time and get out of the doghouse. With the Rockets, they’re pouring more resources into their younger players. While they don’t have anyone close to reaching their ceiling yet, they’re trying their best to make sure their young guys develop in the best way possible without favoritism towards the older vets. At the end of the day, the Rockets are without question the most intriguing team in the West. not just by the construction of their insanely tall roster, but how they accelerated their timeline to try and win right now during the span of Durant’s contract. It’s possible they could be amongst the best teams in basketball. But it’s also possible they’ll flame out early and see all the brewing tension rise to the surface. Thank you all so much for watching. I hope you all enjoyed the video and of course, as always, I’ll see you next time. Peace.

The Houston Rockets have made drastic changes to their roster compared to the previous season. Let’s take a look at how these changes impacted the mentality of the players and the future of this franchise. Hope you enjoy!

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