Houston Rockets Team Review

 

2024-25 Finish: 46-36

 

Season Highlight:

The Rockets highlight in a relatively vanilla kind of year would have to have been the emergence of their guard Tyrese combo. Haliburton went to the next level bounding into the 90s overall rated as he led his NBA Pacers to the Finals and Maxey became a scoring stalwart for the NBA 76ers making them a fearsome combo to face able to drop 50+ on you without much of a twinkle in the eye. Not to mention under the arm of big daddy Jokic. If you’re going to be a middle of the road team and struggle in the playoffs, getting a breakout from your young studs is a great thing for the future!

 

Season Lowlight:

It’s hard to pick a full lowlight for this team. They got great play from their stars and they had development from their stars, also. Some kids showed promise and they ended up in the playoffs. But, you might have hoped for more overall with a roster that rivals some of the best for name and star talent. They were hamstrung by dumping their contract versatility for a salary dump which meant they could do little to no trading to get better, as well as lost the depth, and the team stagnated from there instead of pushing to be one of those teams we all fear.

 

Best Trade:

Rockets send: Keyonte George

Rockets receive: Noah Clowney and Sacramento 2028 2^nd Round pick

 

This move isn’t a be all and end all, but it’s the best trade they did last year. George has some nice upside and talent, but he’s basically a lite version of Maxey and/or Haliburton of which they clearly have 2 already. So, they got a young PF player that they covet and a pick for him. Might have given away some extra upside, but covers positions.

 

Worst Trade:

Rockets send: Jordan Walsh, Chris Livingston, SA 2028 2^nd Round pick, Detroit 2028 2^nd Round Pick
Rockets receive: Jake LaRavia

Seems like a wild overpay for a guy that had his options declined in the NBA and then was basically dumped to the scrap heap. Two young guys with upside and 2 picks for a borderline NBA guy?

 

Other Notable Trades:

Rockets send: Washington 2026 2^nd Round Pick 57
Rockets receive: Chris Livingston

Run of the mill 2^nd for a young body.

 

Rockets send: Phoenix 2028 2^nd Round Pick and Charlotte 2029 2^nd Round Pick
Rockets get: Jordan Walsh

Possibly an overpay, but Walsh had shown some upside and a potential role going into the year.

 

Rockets send: Rights to DaRon Holmes
Rockets get: Charlotte 2029 2^nd Round Pick

In a stunning turn of events after Holmes went down with an achilles injury in the Summer League, Vit turned around and traded his 2st round picks rights for a lowly future 2^nd instead of having to sign him and wait him out of the injury.

 

 

Free Agency:

The Rockets have their main bodies locked up, but they do have a couple of very key role players to bring back if they hope to repeat on some of last years run, and also have sdome of those key bodies either playing or being able to be traded. I imagine they would want all of them back, if they can, but there might be some competition for the depth!

Paul Reed – UFA, cheap deal and resigned in the NBA which means he’ll be a fairly easy and key retain.

Jake LaRavia – UFA, a real threat to be gone, honestly. Only thing saving him might be the decent chunk of change that others might want to put on someone better.

Javonte Green – UFA, really nice role player that is on a minimum deal but no returning bonus so is likely gone.

 

Star:

Nikola Jokic

Even with the rise of the Tyrese’s, the Joker stands tall. He averaged 22 points wiot go with a team leading 17 rebounds and 5.4 assists a game, while also leading the team in steals and blocks per game at 1.5 and 1.2 respectively and even put himself in the conversation for defensive player of the year. Has 2k finally given the big man his dues in the eyes of Vitt or is that never going to happen? He’s the star of this team.

 

Flop:

Team Depth

The team didn’t really have a major flop of the individual variety. The bench did what they needed where they could and no one really cratered. They did however sorely miss having pieces like Barnes and McConnell around to add veteran leadership and stability while Maxey sat a lot of games and they had to then play worse players down the stretch.

 

 

Draft Grades:

Pick 16 – Nique Clifford

Overall Grade: B+

Clifford at this spot was a slight surprise, especially with Fears on the board and the guard rotation in Houston already, but he looked fantastic in the Summer League and is a ready made NBA player, big guard and can do it all on both ends of the court, so could really step into a role and play with Haliburton missing the year.

 

The Future:

The Rockets future is bright as long as they can continue to add depth pieces around Jokic and his guards. He might have painted himself into a corner that forces a trade of a Tyrese, as there’s limited ways to grow assets and talent with his current make up and asset pool outside of the big 3, but if he can make something work and keep all 3 while also getting them to play better together and cover their flaws, maybe he might be able to keep the 3 and go for broke one year, finally, when he decides it’s time to win?

C: Nikola Jokic / Paul Reed
PF: Noah Clowney / Julian Champagnie / Keshad Johnson
SF: Jake LaRavia / Dariq Whitehead
SG: Tyrese Haliburton / Nique Clifford
PG: Tyrese Maxey / Brandon Williams