Seven months ago, the Rockets set out to speed up their playoff success and become serious NBA Finals contenders when they pulled off the blockbuster trade that landed perennial veteran All-Star Kevin Durant.
But the Rockets had to mortgage their future to acquire the 37-year-old veteran, shipping young star Jalen Green and defensive stopper Dillon Brooks to Phoenix in exchange for Durant. With the season at the All-Star Break, the question is: Are the Rockets in a better position in the Western Conference to take that next step, or should they stay the course of a steady rebuild with their young core?
The wins, losses, and positioning in the Western Conference seem about a wash when comparing where the Rockets were last season to now. But the difference lies in the toughness and hustle that have seemed to take a step back so far this season.
“The edge is missing,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said recently to the Defender. “We don’t have that on a nightly basis, so we’re toughing out wins whereas we used to be able to kind of lock down and take over games. We’re going through the motions at times.
“I would say overall, the energy and toughness of the team to start games is not there.”
It’s all worked to put the Rockets in an interesting spot as they look to break through last season’s ceiling, which ended in the first round of the playoffs despite entering as the No.2 in the Western Conference. Like last season, the Rockets entered the All-Star Break as a top-four team in the West with Green leading the way in his fourth season.
But the Rockets seem to have less margin for errors and more weaknesses than they had a year ago. Coming out of the All-Star Break, the third through seventh seeds in the Western Conference are bunched up with the Nuggets, Rockets, Lakers, Timberwolves, and Suns. A bad run of games could have the Rockets on the wrong side of the playoff bracket in the second half of the season.
That realization has led to questions about how much better the Rockets are now than they were a year ago.
General Manager Rafael Stone pulled off the blockbuster trade of this last offseason to bring in more scoring after the Rockets went flat in the first round against the Golden State Warriors, and Green all but disappeared. The Rockets have clearly fixed their scoring lulls with the addition of one of the game’s most prolific scorers, but they have seemed to leave themselves vulnerable in some other key areas.
“Just going out there, being tough and not getting punched in the mouth, being aggressive, communicating and just playing the right way. Playing physical, playing hard.”
Reed Sheppard
Udoka has at times expressed concerns about his young players sitting back and relying too heavily on Durant to save them. The Rockets are still without a consistent No. 2 scorer, with players like Jabari Smith, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, and second-year guard Reed Sheppard taking turns, all averaging in double figures.
But they have been anything but consistent, prompting Udoka to call out players like Sengun, who had a 39-point effort against the Indiana Pacers only to follow that up with a seven-point output a few nights later in a loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
A big part of the problem, however, has been injuries to key players. The biggest being the season-ending injury that veteran point guard and floor general Fred VanVleet suffered before the season began. Veteran big man and enforcer Steven Adams has also been lost for the season.
“Some personnel went out the door that brings that on a nightly basis. Dillon does that, Fred does that. Steven is out, and he is one of our tougher energy guys,” Udoka said to the Defender. “But we have enough without that.”
Given the voids, the Rockets’ non-activity at the trade deadline was made all the more curious. They were believed to have been in trade conversations with the Chicago Bulls for Coby White, but once that fell through, nothing else substantial turned up.
Stone has said that the team could get involved in the buyout market once teams start discarding unwanted trade pieces, but the Rockets are hard-capped at the first apron, which gives them little flexibility to add salaries.
“We like this group. And credit to Tilman Fertitta (team owner), he didn’t have an appetite for taking a step back,” Stone said of the team’s activity around the trade deadline. “He definitely wanted to spend the money and give this group a chance to be as good as it can be.”
In all likelihood, the Rockets will ride out the rest of this season as is, which means consistently uneven performances from the point-guard-by-committee approach and some problems with toughness and consistency down the stretch. But as proven against defending NBA champion and Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City, the Rockets can score and defend with the elite, as evidenced by their recent 109-99 win over the Thunder.
“I feel like we are a defensive … versatile defensive team that is really good at offensive rebounding,” Durant said to the Defender. “We try to create points in a variety of ways each night. You never know who is going to come and knock down shots and be a key factor for us. Some nights it’s me, some nights it’s Reed, some nights it’s Jabari, sometimes it’s me, Twin (Amen), Tari. I think we do it by committee on the offensive side of the ball, but we lay our hats on the defensive end and offensive rebounding.”
