Without the Terror Twins (Amen Thompson and Tari Eason) the Rockets aren't the same team.
Add to that Jabari Smith Jr. breaking his hand in shoot around. Will likely miss two or three months.
Missing three important players right now. This is when we need Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green to step up and show out.
All this talk about Alperen Sengun becoming a first time all-star and Jalen Green being special. And the Celtics ate our dinner.
The good news is Amen Thompson's two-game suspension is over after the next game. He'll start for Jabari.
I'm more concerned with Tari Eason's lingering leg injury dating back to last year. He'll likely return next week.
But obviously they can't beat the Celtics (they spanked us!) right now. At full strength, Terror Twins + Jabari, it's at least competitive and interesting.
The Houston Rockets will need some luck staying healthy if they want to win a playoff series. Ending a five-year playoff drought isn't enough to get me that excited. Maybe a trade for superstar Devin Booker next off-season could light the fire that has me "All In" on the Houston Rockets again. But until then they just need to keep grinding away. Win enough games to make the playoffs. The seeding doesn't matter to me a whole lot, at this point, given their circumstances. Just try to lock down a Top 6 seed to avoid the 7 to 10 Play-In madness.
At this point I'm all in on the Devin Booker to the Houston Rockets trade fantasy next summer. Rather than using assets to acquire Jimmy Butler or De'Aaron Fox. The Houston Rockets have the assets to acquire a superstar in his prime via trade. No need to trade such assets for an aging star or just an average star player. It's better to be patient and wise when it comes to a franchise-altering trade that can help you win an NBA Title for the first time since 1995. We waited 30 damn years! What's another year of waiting?
Nothing in sports ever goes the way we expect it to. I must be patient with the Rockets a lot like I am with the Texans.
The Texans, also decimated by too many injuries, will limp into the wild-card game next Saturday. NFL Playoff time guys!
As long as the kids get to the playoffs it will be really good experience for them. its a huge step still even if they drop first round. Remember all that hype for SAC a few years ago? Maybe same kind of scenario but Rockets do have FVV who shows up in the playoffs when he needs to.