The Houston Rockets will be surefire title contenders in 2025-26. Even the least optimistic people have the team penned for 47 wins.
The masses have the team right around 50 wins.
They should very well be a top-four seed in the Western Conference. But even the most pessimistic person wouldn’t drop them to the play-in tournament tier.
A trio featuring Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Alperen Sengun shouldn’t face that fate.
The Rockets have an ensemble of formidable wings and boast arguably the league’s best center rotation in Sengun, Steven Adams, and Clint Capela. And the jumbo lineup (or double-big lineup) worked to perfection last season (and throughout the preseason).
It’s certainly here to stay, giving the Rockets size that other teams simply won’t have, at all five positions, depending on the lineup. To be clear, the Rockets’ starting lineup hasn’t been announced yet.
We just know their first four starters: Sengun, Thompson, Durant, and Jabari Smith Jr.
That fifth starter would’ve been Fred VanVleet, but his torn ACL at the team’s minicamp in the Bahamas changes things a bit for the franchise. The Rockets find themselves in need of a starting floor general now.
Granted, they lacked guard depth prior to VanVleet’s injury, with Reed Sheppard and Aaron Holiday as the only other guards on the roster, but it’s all the more amplified without VanVleet.
And VanVleet’s $25 million salary prevents the team from being able to sign a veteran off the free agency wire, since they’re practically right at the hard cap, with just $1.2 million in breathing room — not enough to offer the veteran’s minimum.
The team will have more options on December 15th, when they’ll be able to trade players that were signed in the summer, but the season will be a quarter of the way over at that point.
There will have already have been an identified solution by then.
And it’ll be either Amen Thompson or Reed Sheppard taking on the brunt of VanVleet’s playmaking and ballhandling duties. To be fair, it’s presumed that both will be sharing those reps (along with Sengun and Durant), but when it matters most, one guy will be trusted more.
Following the preseason, Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley still questions how Houston will piecemeal VanVleet’s presence.
“Hopefully, the Rockets’ young guards are ready to fill the void created by Fred VanVleet’s ACL tear, because Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard will feature prominently in their attempt to replace their floor general on the fly.”
Buckley continued.
“The committee approach could work, but only if Thompson can expand his offensive game and Sheppard can prove himself worthy of holding down a rotation role. If those things don’t happen, Houston could wind up scrambling to the trade market, and while it has the assets needed to make a big addition, that would also leave this club racing to find its rhythm ahead of the postseason.”
If the preseason serves as any indication, Sengun will be the team’s primary facilitator. He did the bulk of the team’s distributing, to the tune of 8.7 assists (and 2.7 turnovers).
Thompson averaged four assists, along with an identical 2.7 turnovers, as his need to develop a handle has remained on display. Sheppard averaged three assists, compared to 2.8 turnovers.
It’s going to be a committe approach, but Sengun seems primed to be the team’s offensive fulcrum.
