{"id":608817,"date":"2026-02-17T23:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/608817\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:05:15","slug":"cbs-sports-ranks-rockets-as-nbas-third-best-front-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/608817\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS Sports ranks Rockets as NBA\u2019s third-best front office"},"content":{"rendered":"

In new rankings completed after February\u2019s in-season trade deadline for 2025-26, CBS Sports<\/a> ranks the Houston Rockets<\/a> as having the NBA\u2019s third-best front office.<\/p>\n

The only two teams ranked ahead of Houston are the previous two NBA champions: the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> (No. 1) and Boston Celtics (No. 2).<\/p>\n

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Relative to previous rankings issued in July, Sam Quinn moved Houston up from No. 4 to No. 3 and San Antonio down from No. 3 to No. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be blunt, I don’t believe I weighed San Antonio’s lottery luck heavily enough in July,\u201d Quinn writes<\/a>. \u201cIf they win a championship in the near future, that will be the single biggest reason why. If Houston wins a championship in the near future, it will have less to do with luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Rockets specifically, CBS credits Houston\u2019s negotiating prowess under general manager Rafael Stone. Quinn writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Rockets have ultimately been slightly bolder in charting their organizational course. They kickstarted the offensive rebounding revolution sweeping across the NBA this season.\u00a0Alperen Sengun\u00a0is, by a country mile, the best non-lottery pick either team has made, and in the long run, I suspect\u00a0Tari Eason\u00a0is better than any other non-lottery pick San Antonio has made as well.<\/p>\n

Both Houston and San Antonio made blockbuster trades within the past year. Houston paid less for\u00a0Kevin Durant\u00a0than San Antonio did for\u00a0De’Aaron Fox. Fox is a good deal younger than Durant, but it’s notable that Houston convinced Durant to take a pay cut whereas Fox insisted on the full max after forcing his way to the Spurs. Right now, he’s justifying it. It’s worth wondering if his speed-reliant style will age particularly well, and with two other young, star guards in the pipeline, the Spurs may one day wish they’d negotiated a bit harder with Fox.<\/p>\n

The Rockets appear to be, by far, the NBA’s toughest negotiators. They got Sengun to take less than the max.\u00a0Dorian Finney-Smith\u00a0got only two guaranteed seasons from them.\u00a0Clint Capela\u00a0took a pay cut and a role reduction to come to Houston.\u00a0Jabari Smith’s\u00a0deal descends after the first year, making it a bit easier to trade if needed. This is a real point in Rafael Stone’s favor. His single best trait as an executive is how effectively he manages contracts.<\/p>\n

Quinn does note some concerns with \u201calignment\u201d in the organization, citing unsteady playing time for second-year guard Reed Sheppard in the aftermath of losing incumbent starter Fred VanVleet to a serious knee injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFiguring out what they have in Sheppard is important moving forward,\u201d Quinn writes<\/a>. \u201cThat means letting him play through some mistakes. If the front office wasn’t comfortable letting him do that, it likely would have added a guard to replace VanVleet. It didn’t, but Udoka is still a bit unsteady with his playing time. That situation will play out over time, but the Rockets have earned the benefit of the doubt here.\u201d<\/p>\n

At approximately two-thirds of the way through the 2025-26 regular season, Houston is currently 33-20 and at No. 4 in the Western Conference standings<\/a>. Considering the serious injuries suffered by VanVleet and Steven Adams, that lofty placement speaks to the organizational depth that Stone has built since taking the GM job in October 2020.<\/p>\n

CBS Sports\u2019 complete NBA front office rankings can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More: Houston Rockets viewed as one of NBA trade deadline’s biggest losers<\/a><\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: CBS Sports ranks Rockets as NBA\u2019s third-best front office<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In new rankings completed after February\u2019s in-season trade deadline for 2025-26, CBS Sports ranks the Houston Rockets as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,7,75,11508,984,65885,374,866,3225,292,194,4066,1346,938,6,2828,179,7473,1081,211,7838,969,534,962,873],"class_list":{"0":"post-608817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-cbs-sports","12":"tag-clint-capela","13":"tag-de39aaron-fox","14":"tag-dorian-finney-smith","15":"tag-fred-vanvleet","16":"tag-front-office","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-houston-rockets","19":"tag-houstonrockets","20":"tag-jabari-smith","21":"tag-kevin-durant","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nba-trade-deadline","24":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","25":"tag-rafael-stone","26":"tag-reed-sheppard","27":"tag-rockets","28":"tag-sam-quinn","29":"tag-san-antonio","30":"tag-spurs","31":"tag-steven-adams","32":"tag-tari-eason"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116088479707420636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608817","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=608817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}