2025 Houston Rockets Preseason Preview
The Houston Rockets finished last season with 41 wins and 41 losses, good for 11th in the Western Conference. Last year saw the Houston Rockets bring in veteran leadership with the addition of Fred VanVleet and Dillion Brookes. These additions proved to be valuable as the Rockets took a step forward and were able to provide their promising young core valuable experience playing winning basketball.
(AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Leading that young core was Alperen Sengun, who will enter his 4th season looking to make another sizable leap as his point progression has steadily increased from 9.6 per game his rookie year to 14.8 and then 21.1 last year. Joining Sengun is 4th year shooting gaurd Jalen Green, 3rd year power forward Jabari Smith Jr. and small forward Amen Thompson who proved himself NBA ready in his rookie season. With additional young talent in Cam Whitmore and Tari Eason Houston has a clear timeline and looked ready to execute.
It’s hard to find a component of their situation that Houston fans might be frustrated about, maybe that they could have a couple more years of fighting to get significant playoff experience in a Western Conference where some more senior teams could edge them out for playoff spots at they enter their twilight years.
Houston gave us our first taste of what roster building might look like in the new CBA. Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun both signed rookie extensions recently, and in first glance the deals seemed tamer than what many rookie extensions have recently. Both agreed to deals that will average around 20% of the cap, Greens for 2 years after this and Senguns lasting 4. Jabari Smith Jr will become extension eligible after this season and if he follows his contemporaries on the Rockets they could be in a fantastic cap situation in the coming years.
When their front office believes in his time they will be able to cash in a war chest of draft picks that could project to be quite valuable in the coming years. In the short term they will need to decide if they’d like to exercise their team option on Fred VanVleet who is set to earn 44 million dollars next season, and if they’d like to extend him long term to have a sizable contract to trade along with the draft picks when it comes time.
