A full year of rehab, then five-on-five
One full season watching from the side. That was the price of the torn ACL and meniscus in Fred VanVleet’s right knee, and on Monday at Rockets media day he sounded like a man who is done paying it. He’s fully cleared. He’s already in five-on-five work at practice.
“I’m moving well. I feel really good,” the veteran point guard said. “It’s still a process, so what you see won’t be the finished product, but I’m in a very good place.”
The former All-Star didn’t pretend the last twelve months were easy. Nobody expects him to be the full VanVleet by opening night either, least of all Ime Udoka, who told reporters he won’t play his point guard on back-to-backs early in the season.
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52 wins, and the same first-round exit
Houston went 52-30 last season and finished fifth in the West. Same record as the year before. Same first-round exit, too.
Udoka isn’t pretending otherwise. His team kept blowing double-digit leads, and he knows the ceiling is real. “We’re not here just to get through the first round,” he said. “We want to make some noise.”
His fix starts with a deeper bench. The head coach wants a 10-man rotation, fewer minutes for Kevin Durant and Amen Thompson, and more of Thompson away from the ball, where his length can wreck opposing offenses.
General manager Rafael Stone saw a roster that was short on skill a year ago. Too many turnovers. Too many ugly half-court possessions. Getting VanVleet and Steven Adams back helps, and so does adding Marcus Smart, a guy VanVleet called the “ultimate competitor.” He hasn’t forgotten going toe to toe with him in the 2020 Raptors-Celtics playoff series.
Year 20 for Durant, and he isn’t looking for the exit
Durant’s first season in Houston looked a lot like the rest of his career: 26 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists a night on 52/41/87 shooting splits. He turns the page on his 20th NBA season with a player option for 2027-28 sitting in his contract.
Stone says those talks can wait until the summer. Durant has already let them know he’d like to stay, and the GM went as far as comparing his no-fuss approach to Yao Ming’s. “He just wants to play basketball, and that fits our culture perfectly.”
First real test? A trip to Austin to face the Spurs in opening week, headlining the first Prime night of the season.
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