After signing veteran players like Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks and hiring former Celtic head coach Ime Udoka last offseason, the Rockets were projected to surpass the 22-60 record they had posted in the 2022-23 regular season. Not only did they surpass that win total, they actually almost doubled their amount of wins by propelling themselves to a 41-41 record, something that was seen as not likely for them to accomplish.

What’s the Overarching Story?

Before the season started, the DraftKings over/under win total for the Rockets was 31.5, which was seen as reasonable to many NBA fans across the league. What fans were not expecting; however, was the emergence of Alperen Sengun before he sustained a season ending ankle sprain and Jalen Green’s success after Sengun went down with an injury. For us Rockets fans, the best time of the season was no doubt the month of March, where the Rockets finished with a stellar 13-2 record and an 11 game win streak to go along with it. The Rockets finished tenth in defensive rating compared to the other thirty teams across the league, which shows the impact that Ime Udoka has had on the development of the Rockets’ young players and defensive culture overall. Not only is this defensive season due to Udoka’s experience of making it to the NBA Finals and winning as an assistant coach with the Spurs, but the success also stems from the veteran leadership that VanVleet and Brooks brought on the defensive end. They were able to come in and shape a young, inexperienced Rocket team into a respectable team that other teams couldn’t mark off as an easy win on their schedule. The team seemed to develop a tone of discipline, and when compared to last season, this is a huge improvement as they were being linked to an AAU style of play in which fans thought they took turns scoring offensively. The development of Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green has to be on many fan’s radars, though, as they improved drastically from last season. This was seen when Alperen Sengun finished third in the Most Improved Player race and Jalen Green won the player of the week during the Rockets 12 game win streak. On top of this, the other core young guys such as Cam Whitmore, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, and Jabari Smith Jr. showed major improvements throughout the season. The core six of young guys will be added to as the NBA Draft Lottery is tomorrow, 5/12, and that’s where we will figure out what lottery pick the Rockets will get from the James Harden-Nets trade back in 2021. As it stands, the Rockets have a pretty solid chance at a top 4 pick, with a 7.2% chance. The Draft Lottery has been a very exciting night for Rockets fans, as the Rockets have accumulated three top 4 picks over the past three seasons.

As seen in the Tweet above, the Rockets also have a chance for their own pick to be top 4, but it is most likely going to end up outside of that range and go to the Thunder from the Russell Westbrook-Chris Paul exchange in summer 2019. In the 2024 Draft, there are a couple of solid names such as Serbian Nikola Topic and Alexandre Sarr from France. Although this draft class doesn’t have big name players such as Victor Wembanyama of last years draft, there are definitely still some players who can make a difference on contributing to winning.

Are the Rockets ready for Liftoff?

In short, yes they are. After three straight losing seasons from 2020-2023, the Rockets finally finished .500 in the regular season. This not only gives fans high hopes but executives around the leagues are finally to start to recognize and give praise to the Rockets’ young players. This has been seen mainly in Alperen Sengun, as many All-Star players such as Nikola Jokic and Paul George have consistently given high praise to the young Turkish center. Also, Jalen Green’s confidence going into next season should be at an all time high, as this was one of the reasons for coach Udoka benching Green in late game situations at the beginning of the year. As the season progressed; however, Green seemed to accept the role as the scorer on the team and looked more aggresive on the court. He looked for more opportunity to take risks, such as dunking on people’s heads, which led to some failures as it does for everyone, but more likely than not, he ended up scoring the ball and giving some exciting highlights on top of that.

Green gained some more swag, which is the ultimate reason for his success. Something else for people to monitor is the backup center position for the Rockets. After a disappointing start to the season, free agent signing Jock Landale had a revival to his season after Sengun got injured. This was due to the increased role he got from Sengun’s injury, and like Jalen Green, the confidence he was able to develop as the season progressed. There are questions for the Rockets, as they traded for center Steven Adams at the trade deadline this season. Adams has been known for throughout his career as the strongest man in the NBA, and this is definitely noticeable with his career average of 8.2 rebounds per game. Overall, these are good problems for the Rockets to have, and figuring out these situations will help them reach a new level.

So, What’s Next?

With the season not being over yet, as the Playoffs are currently going on, there are still many question marks that will be answered with time. For now, though, all us Rockets fans can do is wait for the next move the Rockets make, and be optimistic for the future of the team.