Rockets have the luxury of thinking about the future.<\/a><\/p>\nOnly, we\u2019re not talking Antetokounmpo here (for once). The operating assumption here is that he doesn\u2019t come to Houston. The Rockets run it back next year with Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams back in the fold. They run it back for one more year, with two fresh first-round prospects (more on that later) in the mix. Durant retires.<\/p>\n
What now?<\/p>\n
Reductively, there are two options: Stay the course, or change course. So, the decision in this hypothetical will rest on how the Rockets feel about their core guys + whoever they pick in the 2027 draft.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Big reveal: This was all an elaborate ruse to allow me to talk about 2027 draft prospects. There are two guys I\u2019m interested in as potential future Rockets.<\/p>\n
The first is soon-to-be Dukie Cameron Williams. This is your classic Evan Mobley, Alex Sarr type. Williams is 6\u201911\u201d with a 7\u20191\u2033 wingspan and is basically good at everything. He\u2019s a stout rim protector who can switch defensively. He\u2019s a palpable floor spacer, heady passer, surprisingly deft ball-handler, and whatever else you can think of on offense besides an elite half-court scorer.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had a vision.<\/p>\n
Alperen Sengun \/ Cameron Williams \/ Jabari Smith Jr. \/ Amen Thompson \/ Reed Sheppard. This works on several levels. You\u2019re getting plus positional passing at every position but the 3. You get plus positional size at every position but the 1. The massive two-through-five could insulate Sheppard defensively.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
You\u2019re still a bit light on shooting, and half-court creation. This lineup needs to lean into Sengun as a hub and run a motion-heavy offense with constant cutting, relocating, and general on-and-off ball movement.<\/p>\n
Put differently, it probably needs a new Head Coach if we\u2019re being completely honest. It also needs a carefully constructed bench. Assume Tari Eason is still around on a team-friendly deal. This could be the cue for the inevitable James Harden reunion tour.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, Maryland commit Baba Oladotun makes for a stronger hypothetical direct Durant replacement. Yes, I know. He\u2019ll almost definitely not be as good as Durant, no prospect is likely to be as good as Durant, etc, etc. I\u2019m only saying that in terms of skillset, he\u2019s a better analog.<\/p>\n
Oladotun is a 6\u201911\u201d scorer. He\u2019s an excellent ball-handler at his size, and he\u2019s got advanced footwork as a midrange scorer. Three-point efficiency has not been his friend, but if that changes during his first college season, he\u2019s someone for the Rockets to look at.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
That said, Williams is currently projected as a top-three pick. Oladotun\u2019s projection varies, but if he does find his form from long range, he\u2019s got a chance to be a high pick. The Rockets have the rights to both Brooklyn and Phoenix\u2019s first-rounders next summer. There\u2019s real hope that they\u2019ll land a high pick, but no assurance.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say they draft a solid role player. They\u2019re left with the current core five and another decent guy. Let\u2019s say they give it one more year, and it doesn\u2019t look like enough.<\/p>\n
The next step is consolidation.<\/p>\n
Anthony Edwards, welcome to Houston. When did you get here, Franz Wagner? It\u2019s a bird, it\u2019s a plane, no! It\u2019s Tyrese Maxey!<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
An attractive proposition for some. A nightmare scenario for young core truthers. Personally?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m somewhere in the middle. But something about Sengun and Eason, arm in arm, throwing deserved shade at Kevin Dickerson (\u201cwe don\u2019t talk behind each other\u2019s backs\u201d) put a twinkle in my eye.<\/p>\n
These guys like each other. That matters. The Rockets have chemistry. It would be ideal to keep them together:<\/p>\n
But that will mean identifying a contending-level lineup that doesn\u2019t include Durant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has not been a storybook season for the Houston Rockets, but the suggestion that it\u2019s been a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[979,1307,883,108,375,7,670,28916,1314,87486,576,403,866,292,194,4066,2497,560,938,304,6,1081,211,962,873,1101,1263],"class_list":{"0":"post-694304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alex-sarr","9":"tag-alperen-sengun","10":"tag-amen-thompson","11":"tag-antetokounmpo","12":"tag-anthony-edwards","13":"tag-basketball","14":"tag-brooklyn","15":"tag-cameron-williams","16":"tag-deaaron-fox","17":"tag-dukie-cameron-williams","18":"tag-evan-mobley","19":"tag-franz-wagner","20":"tag-fred-vanvleet","21":"tag-houston","22":"tag-houston-rockets","23":"tag-houstonrockets","24":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","25":"tag-james-harden","26":"tag-kevin-durant","27":"tag-knicks","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-reed-sheppard","30":"tag-rockets","31":"tag-steven-adams","32":"tag-tari-eason","33":"tag-the-rockets","34":"tag-tyrese-maxey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116336335842301815","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694304","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=694304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}