{"id":147503,"date":"2025-07-04T20:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147503\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T20:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:42:12","slug":"the-ringer-on-rockets-2025-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147503\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ringer on Rockets\u2019 2025 offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHow did the Rockets construct this monstrous blend of experience, size, athleticism, and upside, while staying under the first apron?\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Winner: Atlanta\u2019s new front office \ud83d\ude0a<br \/>Loser: LeBron &amp; Luka \ud83d\ude41<br \/>Winner: Houston \ud83d\ude0a<br \/>Loser: Milwaukee \ud83d\ude41<br \/>Winner: Jokic\u2019s new teammates \ud83d\ude0a<br \/>Loser: Everything Sacramento \ud83d\ude41 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/353cnHlq7W\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/353cnHlq7W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Pina (@MichaelVPina) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichaelVPina\/status\/1940814684527251645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 3, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Between the additions of Kevin Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Clint Capela to a team that previously finished at No. 2 in the Western Conference, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/houston-rockets\/10\/\" data-autotag=\"13a51ca7-e216-40c0-a272-58d18f5541d7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Houston Rockets<\/a> have had what most NBA observers believe to be <a href=\"https:\/\/rocketswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rockets\/2025\/07\/01\/organizational-hot-streak-espn-gurus-praise-rockets-2025-offseason\/84432637007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/rocketswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rockets\/2025\/07\/01\/organizational-hot-streak-espn-gurus-praise-rockets-2025-offseason\/84432637007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a productive 2025 offseason<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>How productive?<\/p>\n<p>In a column on winners and losers from the league\u2019s ongoing 2025 offseason, The Ringer\u2019s Michael Pina <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/2025\/07\/03\/nba\/nba-free-agency-trade-rumors-giannis-antetokounmpo-lebron-james\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/2025\/07\/03\/nba\/nba-free-agency-trade-rumors-giannis-antetokounmpo-lebron-james\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">offers his perspective<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theringer.com\/2025\/06\/22\/nba\/kevin-durant-trade-houston-rockets-phoenix-suns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I was extremely high on the Kevin Durant trade when it happened<\/a>, I love Fred VanVleet\u2019s new contract, and I think Jabari Smith Jr.\u2019s extension may end up being the steal of his draft class. The addition of Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela, though, gives Houston an embarrassment of riches. How did the Rockets construct this monstrous blend of experience, size, athleticism, and upside, while staying under the first apron? With all due respect to the Thunder, they may have the best defense in the league next season.<\/p>\n<p>To Pina\u2019s point, the Rockets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/defense?dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING&amp;SeasonType=Regular+Season\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/defense?dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING&amp;SeasonType=Regular+Season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">were bringing back a top-five-rated defense<\/a> from the team that finished 52-30 last season. Now, they add a 6-foot-11 All-Star and future Hall of Famer, a strong defensive wing, and a capable center that has started for the vast majority of his NBA career.<\/p>\n<p>Talented young prospects such as Smith, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, and Reed Sheppard all remain in place, and each could reasonably improve over the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>As the 2025-26 season looms in October, it\u2019s a good starting point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"related-link\">More: <a href=\"https:\/\/rocketswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rockets\/2025\/07\/01\/organizational-hot-streak-espn-gurus-praise-rockets-2025-offseason\/84432637007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Organizational hot streak\u2019: ESPN\u2019s top voices praise Houston\u2019s 2025 offseason<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHow did the Rockets construct this monstrous blend of experience, size, athleticism, and upside, while staying under the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1495,1307,1987,883,7,4514,311,4513,984,1692,374,2133,2225,1693,2104,866,292,194,4066,6175,2497,106,1936,938,70,85,6,67,310,179,61,134,132,2613,1081,211,876,639,6176,66,83,2224,873,1988,312,2105],"class_list":{"0":"post-147503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen","9":"tag-alperen-sengun","10":"tag-amen","11":"tag-amen-thompson","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-capela","14":"tag-city","15":"tag-clint","16":"tag-clint-capela","17":"tag-dorian","18":"tag-dorian-finney-smith","19":"tag-durant","20":"tag-eason","21":"tag-finney-smith","22":"tag-fred","23":"tag-fred-vanvleet","24":"tag-houston","25":"tag-houston-rockets","26":"tag-houstonrockets","27":"tag-jabari","28":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","29":"tag-jr","30":"tag-kevin","31":"tag-kevin-durant","32":"tag-national","33":"tag-national-sports","34":"tag-nba","35":"tag-news","36":"tag-oklahoma","37":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","38":"tag-overall","39":"tag-overall-positive","40":"tag-positive","41":"tag-reed","42":"tag-reed-sheppard","43":"tag-rockets","44":"tag-sengun","45":"tag-sheppard","46":"tag-smith","47":"tag-sports","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-tari","50":"tag-tari-eason","51":"tag-thompson","52":"tag-thunder","53":"tag-vanvleet"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}