Every NBA team has plans. They have contingency plans for those plans. Teams have three-year plans, five-year plans, and 10-year plans. The Houston Rockets are no exception.
One team’s plan can only be as good as the next team’s. The Rockets have big plans for the next three years. Unfortunately for them, every team in the NBA is hoping to have a better one.
Bleacher Report believes the Rockets have the 16th best three-year prospect in the NBA. Are they selling them short?
In our opinion, a little.
Let’s not put the cart before the horse. To be fair, Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale has a very positive opinion of the Rockets.
“Depth and flexibility are the pillars of the Houston Rockets’ trajectory, so much so that at first glance it seems too weak. It may be. But three years is a semi-immediate window, and the Rockets always play a longer game.”
-Dan Favale, Bleacher Report
That’s perfectly valid. The logic isn’t hard to follow. The Rockets (almost) certainly won’t win an NBA title in the next three years, which limits their room to maneuver in this exercise.
So we’re not outraged. At best, we’re a little miffed. There’s at least one team on this list that the Rockets should have been ranked ahead of.
We can say that there are two.
Let’s talk about the Sacramento Kings. They were the 14th ranked team on this list.
They won 46 games last year, five more than the Rockets. They are focused on a core of De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk.
The Kings don’t have many draft picks. If they wanted to make a significant deal, that wouldn’t be an option. In contrast, the Rockets have a myriad of options.
Additionally, it wouldn’t be surprising if Alperen Sengun surpasses Sabonis this season. Fox will likely remain the best shooting guard between these teams, but the Rockets have more depth. With the necessary assets to negotiate a blockbuster, The Rockets are likely to strike a deal in the next three years that would make them significantly better than Sacramento.
This seems to us to be a better three-year outlook.
And what about the Phoenix Suns, ranked 15th? We are less optimistic on this point. The Suns count on Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. That automatically gives them a chance to win an NBA title.
But it’s a very risky bet. The Suns underperformed miserably in 2023-24. If they have a similar result next year, they might be forced to make drastic changes.
Bradley Beal is about to sign one of the worst contracts in the league. Durant is close to retirement. The Suns have an even smaller draft pick than the Kings.
Who owns a large part of their future first round picks? Well, it’s the Houston Rockets! The Suns need to have a strong 2024-25 season, or their two-year outlook is suddenly much bleaker than Houston’s.
The Suns will have to adopt a different plan.
