Houston Rockets Team Review

 

2023-24 Finish: 50-32

 

Season Highlight:

The season highlight for the Rockets was the blossoming of the Tyrese’s in the backcourt into fully fledged studs. They went from averaging 18 and 15 (Maxey and Hali respectively) to 27 and 25, providing everything and more that the franchise face of Jokic could ask for. Maxey earned a max contract, to go alongside the one Hali signed the year earlier and the rest is history. This team didn’t get as far through the playoffs as they hoped, but they now have a 3 headed monster to rival them all.

 

Season Lowlight:

Despite possessing one of the most feared offensive trio in the land, that produced on averaged 76 points per game combined, the Rockets still only managed to get to 4^th seed in the West and “only” a 50 win season. Their complete lack of defensive presence was the consensus for the blame and the GM’s lack of desire to spend and overall fear of the luxury tax zone might have been a big contributor to this lack of team depth. Luckily the main guys all stayed relatively healthy through the year, but this team needs much more than 3 guys to get to the top and the GM is yet to show they are willing to spend.

 

Best Trade:

Rockets send: Norman Powell

Rockets receive: Marcus Morris and Brandon Boston Jr.

 

This isn’t a particularly great trade by any means, with Powell probably being the best player in the deal and going on to be a strong 6^th man contributor for the 76ers that season, but Morris isn’t a slouch and slotted into their front court with the other no defense guys, and Boston still had some hopes of breaking out. This is probably more a reflection on the other trades they did in the year.

 

Worst Trade:

Rockets send: Harrison Barnes, TJ McConnell and Chris Duarte
Rockets receive: Chris Paul

This might just be an all timer really. They dumped all of their versatility in trading and team depth in one transaction so that they could waive CP3s non-guaranteed deal and save $30mil. Yep, that’s it. Salary dump which didn’t even put them in a position to use the salary. Those contracts, even if the players aren’t the most valuable, were the key to the Rockets getting better and making deals through the offseason and they threw them all away for nothing.

 

Other Notable Trades:

Rockets send: Devonte Graham
Rockets receive: Landry Shamet

Pretty simple swap, to save some cash. Got the worse player, but saved cash.

 

Rockets send: Royce O’Neale, Goga Bitadze, Pick 51 2024 and 2025 Portland 2^nd
Rockets receive: PJ Tucker and Dariq Whitehead

Rockets are very high on Whitehead, obviously, which is hard to fault with their track record. But that’s a steep price to pay, overall.

 

Rockets send: Furkan Korkmaz and Houston 2025 2^nd
Rockets receive: Chris Duarte

Simple swap of expiring shooter for rookie deal shooter.

 

 

 

Rockets send: Luke Kennard
Rockets receive: Kelly Olynyk and Chicago 2027 2^nd Round pick

Simple deal. Dump the expiring shooter, gain a big man and pick.

 

Rockets send: Kelly Olynyk
Rockets receive: Robert Covington and Washington 2025 2^nd

Pick up another 2^nd for swapping out dudes. Got the much need defensive guy they needed, but he got injured from memory, and/or was waived due to not being in the plans.

 

Rockets send: Thaddeus Young
Rockets receive: Furkan Korkmaz

This one made no sense to me at the time, and even less as the season went on. What did the Rockets need most? Defense. And they had a defensive forward that could fit the bill and they swapped him out for basically nothing, just to save a little cash. The lux fear is an issue.

 

 

Free Agency:

The Rockets were super quiet in free agency last year, opting only to bring back their RFAs and to fill out the 2way slots. Reed, Butler, Bitadze and Champagnie were the guys, and Hinton, Castleton and eventually Ricky Council were the 2way winners.

This year, they have pretty much the same happening on paper with Maxey due to be paid. They will earn a Full MLE however and need to fill at least 4 roster spots, so they will actually make bids this year. Maxey of course is a lock to return as an RFA and everyone else is already signed. Who might they target to fill out those forward slots this year?

 

Star:

Nikola Jokic

Despite the rise of the Tyrese’s, the man in Houston is the MVP caliber big man, Nikola Jokic. Last year he averaged 24 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal and a block while shooting 61/48/88 splits and playing all 82 games. How is that for stability in the middle and at the top? The Joker is someone everyone would want to build a team around and he will be the Rockets star for years to come.

 

Flop:

Paul Reed

Reed is probably the flop here. For some reason, he was completely out of favour with his GM for that PF slot despite being eligible and seemingly the best fit for it, and subsequently he put up only 5 points, 6 rebounds and we didn’t see much of the line up which looked like it would tear the league apart the year before (Reed next to Jokic) before the GM shelved it to look to the next season. What happened to BBall Paul?

 

 

Draft Grades:

Pick 22 – DaRon Holmes II

Overall Grade: B+

Holmes was a candidate to be grabbed early here being a young but established big man with athleticism and handles, and he was the Rockets guy to make an impact. He looked like the perfect draft guy honestly, and Vitt was a happy man. Unfortunately, which isn’t included in the grade, he tore his Achilles shortly after the draft and he’s been shipped out for naught.

 

The Future:

The Rockets are going to be stifled for a while after the salary dump for CP3. They are right there, on the cusp, right now, but they have very limited means to get better unless they see some true growth from within around the big three. Realistically, the salary dump trade has meant that they now will basically HAVE TO trade one of the big three if they don’t want to be just a team sitting in the middle making up the playoff numbers and being bundled out in the 2^nd round. Maintaining that diversity of contracts is key when operating over the salary cap, and the Rockets don’t have it anymore. That said, they are a legit contender as long as their big 3 are healthy and as long as they can get something to work and fill the gaps around them. It’s just a matter of how, now. And, they are all young too so the core can stay together for a decade.

C: Nikola Jokic / Paul Reed
PF: ________ / Julian Champagnie / Chris Livingston
SF: ________ / Dariq Whitehead / Jordan Walsh
SG: Tyrese Maxey / Ricky Council / Brandon Boston / Mason Jones
PG: Tyrese Haliburton / Keyonte George / Jared Butler