{"id":201520,"date":"2025-07-29T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/201520\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:52:10","slug":"in-2025-offseason-grades-espn-ranks-houston-among-nbas-two-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/201520\/","title":{"rendered":"In 2025 offseason grades, ESPN ranks Houston among NBA\u2019s two best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between the additions of established veterans including Kevin Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Clint Capela, the NBA\u2019s 2025 offseason has been a good one for fans of the Houston Rockets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a team that was already starting from a relatively high perch at No. 2 in last season\u2019s Western Conference standings (with a 52-30 record), there\u2019s a case to be made that Houston has elevated itself into the top tier<\/a> of 2025-26 championship contenders.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

And it seems that others around the league agree. In ESPN\u2019s offseason grades<\/a>, Houston is one of only two teams to receive an \u201cA\u201d grade, joining the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Regarding the Rockets, ESPN\u2019s Kevin Pelton writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

No team did more to improve its chances at the 2026 title than the Rockets, who added two-time Finals MVP\u00a0Kevin Durant\u00a0without sacrificing depth in the process. Give Houston credit for pouncing at a reasonable trade for Durant, then using a team-friendly contract for\u00a0Fred VanVleet\u00a0(two years, $50 million) to access the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. That allowed the Rockets to add proven 3-and-D wing\u00a0Dorian Finney-Smith\u00a0to help replace departed\u00a0Dillon Brooks.<\/p>\n

Houston is the only Western Conference team to earn Pelton\u2019s \u201cA\u201d grade.<\/p>\n

More: In signing with Rockets, Dorian Finney-Smith sees \u2018great team\u2019 with a chance to be special<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: In 2025 offseason grades, ESPN ranks Houston among NBA\u2019s two best<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between the additions of established veterans including Kevin Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Clint Capela, the NBA\u2019s 2025 offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[208,7,984,1195,374,866,292,194,4066,938,3570,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-201520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-clint-capela","11":"tag-dillon-brooks","12":"tag-dorian-finney-smith","13":"tag-fred-vanvleet","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-houston-rockets","16":"tag-houstonrockets","17":"tag-kevin-durant","18":"tag-kevin-pelton","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114937800001249980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201520","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=201520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}