The 2025-26 Houston Rockets have underwhelmed, by and large, as the team has regressed from last season. Last year’s team won 52 games and finished with the second seed in the Western Conference, even without a true superstar. 

Naturally, when you add Kevin Durant to the fold, expectations change. Durant was viewed as the missing piece, and understandably, considering what he brings to the table and what Houston has lacked leading up to this season. 

And considering the level of talent that Houston has assembled over the last five years, it’s understandable why this team was given title expectations before the season even started.

But it also became clear pretty early on that this team was different than last year’s, as they’ve struggled to beat bottom level teams throughout the season. Even with sizable leads.

The Rockets have lost to the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers and Chicago Bulls all this season, with many of which teams having beaten Houston on several occasions. 

And they haven’t necessarily impressed this season against Western Conference contending teams either. Especially not as of late. 

We’ve seen Houston get demolished against the Denver Nuggets on national television. We’ve also seen the Rockets get obliterated by the San Antonio Spurs on national television. 

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Rockets twice, with Lakers coach JJ Redick making the key adjustment to send doubles at Durant, which has proven effective, buy and large, all season. 

However, Houston’s recent overtime loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves caused many to jump off the ship, if they were still hanging on. The Rockets had a 13-point lead with three minutes remaining in overtime and lost. 

Following the game, Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports ripped into Rockets coach Ime Udoka, suggesting that Udoka is holding the team back on The Kevin O’Connor Show.

“The Rockets are never going to win anything, as long as Ime Udoka is their head coach. Ime didn’t use his timeouts to rip into his team or get them back on track. And this all happened with the Wolves only having one starter?”

O’Connor continued. 

“This all trickles down when you have a coach who lacks discipline, who’s reckless, your team is going to play the same exact way. And it was a problem with Udoka’s teams in Boston, too. The Rockets need a new head coach today, in order to have any chance of accomplishing anything with this young core.”

This take is yet another example of how things change rather quickly in the NBA. Last offseason, Udoka was regarded as one of the league’s best coaches after orchestrating Houston’s turnaround from pretenders to contenders. 

And even given a new contract. Now, less than a year later, he’s being regarded as the bottleneck preventing the Rockets from legitimately contending for a title.Â