{"id":675528,"date":"2026-03-24T02:10:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/675528\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T02:10:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:10:48","slug":"rockets-acknowledge-that-fred-vanvleets-return-is-unlikely-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/675528\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets acknowledge that Fred VanVleet\u2019s return is unlikely this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neither the Houston Rockets nor Fred VanVleet (torn ACL in right knee) have officially ruled out<\/a> the veteran point guard for the 2025-26 season, but time isn\u2019t on their side.<\/p>\n

With the start of the NBA\u2019s 2026 playoffs less than a month away, it doesn\u2019t appear that anything is imminent. And that\u2019s a problem for any potential return this season, since VanVleet would almost certainly need an extended period of physically ramping up before playing in meaningful games.<\/p>\n

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Prior to Monday\u2019s game in Chicago, head coach Ime Udoka was asked for an update on VanVleet and his current activity levels.<\/p>\n

Udoka replied (via Dave Hardisty, ClutchFans<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Shooting, cutting, moving, non-contact (drills). That’s pretty much the extent of the on-court. Right around the six-month mark, you can start to ramp up things. But, no contact at any point soon, or nothing we\u2019re looking forward to, honestly.<\/p>\n

Obviously, you\u2019re not looking at playing if you’re not getting on the court and (going through) contact, this late in the season.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Western Conference playoffs will begin in mid-April, approximately seven months after VanVleet\u2019s September 2025 injury<\/a>. That\u2019s much faster than the average timeline to return to NBA games after ACL surgery, which typically takes\u00a0at least nine months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Houston (43-27) is currently at No. 4 in the Western Conference standings, which puts the Rockets in line to have home-court advantage in at least the first round of the postseason.<\/p>\n

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With VanVleet unavailable, rising stars Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard have taken on the vast majority of ball-handling and playmaking responsibilities for the Rockets.<\/p>\n

If he does not play this season, VanVleet is expected to be fully cleared by the time training camp for the 2026-27 season opens in late September.<\/p>\n

Over his two playing seasons (2023-24 and 2024-25) with the Rockets, VanVleet averaged 15.9 points (36.9% on 3-pointers), 6.9 assists, and only 1.7 turnovers per game as Houston\u2019s starting point guard. He\u2019s also well regarded for his abilities on defense and as a leader.<\/p>\n

More: Injured Rockets guard Fred VanVleet still not ruling out 2025-26 return<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rockets acknowledge that Fred VanVleet\u2019s return is unlikely this season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neither the Houston Rockets nor Fred VanVleet (torn ACL in right knee) have officially ruled out the veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[883,7,919,86071,866,292,194,4066,1272,6,1081,211],"class_list":["post-675528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-amen-thompson","tag-basketball","tag-chicago","tag-clutchfans","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-ime-udoka","tag-nba","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-rockets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116281729572946789","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675528","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=675528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}