The Houston Rockets are as high as second in NBA power rankings for the 2025-26 season, so it should come as no surprise that they’re second in ESPN’s future power rankings, as well.
Across five categories of current players, available money to spend, draft assets, market, and management, the exercise consists of ESPN asking analysts Kevin Pelton, Bobby Marks, and Tim Bontemps to rank each team relative to the rest of the league.
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Houston’s September 2025 average came in second, trailing only the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. The previous update had the Rockets at No. 7 among the NBA’s 30 teams.
Bontemps offered this explanation:
Houston is proof of how quickly these rankings can shift. The Rockets were among our bottom-five teams in four of the five rankings from May 2021 through October 2023, and they never finished higher than 22nd. But last year, the Rockets leapt to seventh after hiring coach Ime Udoka and amassing one of the best young cores in the league. The addition of future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant also helps, as Houston lands behind its Western Conference rivals thanks to top-five rankings in players (second), management (fourth), and draft assets (fifth).
While Durant will turn 37 years old at the end of this month, it’s worth noting that any decline in his play during the coming years could be offset by continued improvements from young players such as Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, and Reed Sheppard.
So, in the aggregate, the hope is that by the end of the “future” projecting window — the 2027-28 season — any effects from Durant aging will be counteracted by growth and development from the young core.
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And if not, led by the likes of general manager Rafael Stone and head coach Ime Udoka, Houston has the brain trust to potentially figure out alternatives.
More: The Athletic: All signs point to Kevin Durant, Rockets contract extension within weeks
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: ESPN ranks Rockets second in future NBA power rankings