The Houston Rockets head into training camp with a familiar starting group and a lot of expectations attached to it. After another 50-plus-win season, the conversation around this team is no longer about whether it belongs in the Western Conference mix. It’s about how far this core can push.
Fred VanVleet sits at the center of the biggest question. He’s working his way back from a season-ending ACL injury and is expected to open next season as the starting point guard, with Marcus Smart and Reed Sheppard behind him.
VanVleet is 32 now and nearly five years removed from his All-Star nod, and his scoring has dipped to 14.1 points per game. For all the veteran steadiness he brings, he’s also the starter with the most to prove if he wants to hold onto that role.
Amen Thompson looks like the one Rockets starter whose ceiling keeps climbing. He put up 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 5.3 assists across 79 games last season, and earlier this month he locked in a five-year, $208 million extension. Thompson remains a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, but the next step is obvious: if his mid- and long-range efficiency takes a jump, an All-Star spot in 2027 starts to feel realistic.
Kevin Durant is still the offensive anchor here, even at 37. He averaged 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists while shooting 52% from the field over 78 games, good enough for All-NBA Second Team honors.
His trade value may have been a talking point this summer, but his standing as Houston’s first-option scorer is not. He finished in the top five in total points in the league last season, and there’s no mystery about who the Rockets will lean on to get buckets.
At power forward, Jabari Smith Jr. continues to be one of those players who can get overshadowed on a roster full of high-end talent. Still, he matters.
Last season, he averaged 15.8 points and 6.9 rebounds over 77 games, and his stock has only risen after he put up 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in a first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. He’s 23, not an All-Star-level projection yet, but there’s clearly room for more.
Then there’s Alperen Sengun, who looks like the heir apparent whenever Durant eventually moves on. The 24-year-old posted 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 6.2 assists over 72 games last season, and the passing stands out even more when you look at the big-man landscape.
Only Nikola Jokic had more assists per game among centers. That kind of playmaking gives Houston another layer, and it leaves Sengun with real All-NBA potential next season.
In Other News...
Rockets May Value Amen Thompson Far More Than Anyone Expected
Amen Thompsons rise inside Houston has become one of the more intriguing threads around the Rockets, especially as his growth keeps drawing attention beyond the usual box score conversation. Publicly available metrics already paint him as an impact player, but the deeper question is how the organization itself is measuring his value as he continues to sharpen the athleticism and shooting that made him such a fascinating prospect in the first place.
What makes the situation worth watching is what Houston may be saying without really saying it. The team has every reason to view Thompson as a core piece, and the way his profile is being framed suggests the Rockets are far more inclined to build around him than entertain outside interest. For a player still early in his development, that kind of internal belief can matter just as much as the numbers attached to him. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Face A Kevin Durant Debate That Could Reshape Their Core
Kevin Durants name keeps surfacing in Houston conversations because the Rockets are still trying to sort out how aggressive they want to be around a player who just turned in an All-NBA Second Team season at 37. He averaged 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists last season, production that makes any discussion about his future feel less like idle rumor and more like a real front-office dilemma for a team weighing its timeline against star power.
The debate gets even sharper when other teams enter the picture, with the Knicks among those being floated as a possible landing spot if the Rockets ever decide to move on. The fit and the cost would have to be sorted out carefully, and even around the league there is a sense that this is more of a later decision than a deadline rush, which leaves Houston with a complicated question to answer long before the market forces its hand. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Fans May Hate Which Core Piece Gets Left Exposed
Adam Silvers latest update on possible NBA expansion has reopened a familiar what-if around Houston, even if nothing is close to official yet. With Las Vegas and Seattle still in the conversation but no final vote on the table, the Rockets suddenly have another layer of roster planning to think about, and the exercise is less about fantasy than it is about which young core pieces would be too valuable to risk.
Under the old 2004 expansion rules, Houston would have to make some hard choices about who stays protected and who gets left exposed. The obvious center of the discussion is the top of the roster, but the real discomfort comes after that, when the margin gets thin and the final protected spots start to matter. For a team trying to build around its core, the possibility of losing a useful piece for nothing is exactly the sort of complication that makes expansion talk feel a little too real. [Read more 🡒]