How much Rockets will improve next season?

[Han Solo]

I think Cade and Jalen Green both have big years.

Jalen Green is sort of cringe - but he’s still just scratching the service with his talent level.

I think Rockets could be good.

[hyper316]

Regardless of the overpaying issue, Rockets have definitely improved a lot. They finally have a real PG who can be a good mentor and be the closer if need to, in Fred. Their defense should improve a lot with both Fred and Brooks. Plus they get 2 pretty good rookies in Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore.

I think their starting lineup would be Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr, Alperen Sengun with Kevin Porter Jr., Jae'Sean Tate, Jeff Green, Jock Landale among major backups. This team is much better than the last season's team.

Last season's team finished with 22-60 record (.268). How much Rockets will improve next season? Do you think they can reach .500?

I also saw how Drake made fun of them calling them a Chinese league team where Fred has signed . Maybe this will light a fire in them? It would be great story if they can finish ahead of Raptors next season

Tell me you don't follow the raptors without telling me you don't follow the raptors

FVV and Siakam caused a rift between the young players, not a mentor to any young player. He called Barnes the golden boy and make him his project. If he was, he would mentor other players to bet on themselves and get their bag by worrying about personal stats. FVV isn't a true pg, he's a combo guard/SG stuck in a pg body. He's a shoot first guard, limited driving and finishing. As a closer, FVV has no quickness for separation 1on1, there were so many off balance heaves at the end of quarter you can find on youtube

His defense on perimeter took a sharp decline coinciding with his injuries likely due to logging the most minutes per game in the league for the past 2 seasons under nurse. FVV only plus on defense are his heavy hands stripping the ball inside the paint

[TheGeneral99]

Regardless of the overpaying issue, Rockets have definitely improved a lot. They finally have a real PG who can be a good mentor and be the closer if need to, in Fred. Their defense should improve a lot with both Fred and Brooks. Plus they get 2 pretty good rookies in Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore.

I think their starting lineup would be Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr, Alperen Sengun with Kevin Porter Jr., Jae'Sean Tate, Jeff Green, Jock Landale among major backups. This team is much better than the last season's team.

Last season's team finished with 22-60 record (.268). How much Rockets will improve next season? Do you think they can reach .500?

I also saw how Drake made fun of them calling them a Chinese league team where Fred has signed . Maybe this will light a fire in them? It would be great story if they can finish ahead of Raptors next season

Tell me you don't follow the raptors without telling me you don't follow the raptors

FVV and Siakam caused a rift between the young players, not a mentor to any young player. He called Barnes the golden boy and make him his project. If he was, he would mentor other players to bet on themselves and get their bag by worrying about personal stats. FVV isn't a true pg, he's a combo guard/SG stuck in a pg body. He's a shoot first guard, limited driving and finishing. As a closer, FVV has no quickness for separation 1on1, there were so many off balance heaves at the end of quarter you can find on youtube

His defense on perimeter took a sharp decline coinciding with his injuries likely due to logging the most minutes per game in the league for the past 2 seasons under nurse. FVV only plus on defense are his heavy hands stripping the ball inside the paint

The amount of self-hate some Raptors fans have is incredible.

FVV is a very good player, he has some obvious flaws and limitations due to his size and lack of explosiveness. Last season he struggled a bit with his shooting, but the year before he was fantastic and deservedly an all-star.

If you look at every advanced stat metric over the last 3-4 years, FVV will show up in the top 30 in WS and RPM pretty much every season. He's a high-impact player who will make your team better. He has excellent awareness defensively and has unbelievably quick hands which results in many steals and deflections.

In terms of leadership, previous teammates (particularly) Lowry have also praised him for being extremely mature, hard-working and a positive voice in the locker room. Masai and Nurse have heralded him as a natural leader and one of the most competitive players they've ever had.

This "golden boy" quote is taken out of context it's ridiculous. Maybe this guy should post the entire quote where Fred said that Scottie was the golden boy who didn't get much criticism in year 1, but in year 2 he's getting more criticism which will help him become a better overall player. It wasn't a dig.

To conclude - FVV is not worth close to 43m a year, but he will make the Rockets better, but not significantly better. I'm predicting around 35 wins with an outside shot of being a play-in team if some of the young guys are able to make a leap.

[zshawn10]

Not much imo. They tied for the 2nd worst record in the league and their big signings were... "Checks notes* Fred Van Vleet and Dillon Brooks.

30-34 wins imo

I know you are a spurs fan an you are supposed to hate houston but you forgot to mention the upgrade in coaching and I would think a SA fan would know that. Silas was the worst coach in the league and has been, the culture was awful to the point where multiple players across the league were calling them out, and getting a PG who has a good A/T ratio and can lead to good stable PG play(yes I know he's a chucker and you can make fun of his contract even though it's 2 years really).

I don't like the Brooks deal either but thankfully it's on a declining scale.

Lopez was supposed to sign here but he pulled a Deandre Jordan at the last second. We got Jock Landale who was one of the more underrated signings of the offseason as well and we still got cap room

[Spider156]

Rockets pulled off a Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva summer and Josh Smith for that matter. I’ve seen this before.

FVV is BG, he’s regressing. Dillon Brooks is more like Josh Smith who can’t shoot and can defend.

The problem is I think this buries Amen thompson and gives Green less shots to take. Dillon Brooks shouldn’t be starting at SF over Amen and you shouldn’t be signing Dillon Brooks to that money if he’s coming off the bench…

Rockets took a major risk. What’s to say Udoka wasn’t good because of Tatum and Celtics organization culture?

[LegendOfSalmons]

Regardless of the overpaying issue, Rockets have definitely improved a lot. They finally have a real PG who can be a good mentor and be the closer if need to, in Fred. Their defense should improve a lot with both Fred and Brooks. Plus they get 2 pretty good rookies in Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore.

I think their starting lineup would be Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr, Alperen Sengun with Kevin Porter Jr., Jae'Sean Tate, Jeff Green, Jock Landale among major backups. This team is much better than the last season's team.

Last season's team finished with 22-60 record (.268). How much Rockets will improve next season? Do you think they can reach .500?

I also saw how Drake made fun of them calling them a Chinese league team where Fred has signed . Maybe this will light a fire in them? It would be great story if they can finish ahead of Raptors next season

Tell me you don't follow the raptors without telling me you don't follow the raptors

FVV and Siakam caused a rift between the young players, not a mentor to any young player. He called Barnes the golden boy and make him his project. If he was, he would mentor other players to bet on themselves and get their bag by worrying about personal stats. FVV isn't a true pg, he's a combo guard/SG stuck in a pg body. He's a shoot first guard, limited driving and finishing. As a closer, FVV has no quickness for separation 1on1, there were so many off balance heaves at the end of quarter you can find on youtube

His defense on perimeter took a sharp decline coinciding with his injuries likely due to logging the most minutes per game in the league for the past 2 seasons under nurse. FVV only plus on defense are his heavy hands stripping the ball inside the paint

The amount of self-hate some Raptors fans have is incredible.

FVV is a very good player, he has some obvious flaws and limitations due to his size and lack of explosiveness. Last season he struggled a bit with his shooting, but the year before he was fantastic and deservedly an all-star.

If you look at every advanced stat metric over the last 3-4 years, FVV will show up in the top 30 in WS and RPM pretty much every season. He's a high-impact player who will make your team better. He has excellent awareness defensively and has unbelievably quick hands which results in many steals and deflections.

In terms of leadership, previous teammates (particularly) Lowry have also praised him for being extremely mature, hard-working and a positive voice in the locker room. Masai and Nurse have heralded him as a natural leader and one of the most competitive players they've ever had.

This "golden boy" quote is taken out of context it's ridiculous. Maybe this guy should post the entire quote where Fred said that Scottie was the golden boy who didn't get much criticism in year 1, but in year 2 he's getting more criticism which will help him become a better overall player. It wasn't a dig.

To conclude - FVV is not worth close to 43m a year, but he will make the Rockets better, but not significantly better. I'm predicting around 35 wins with an outside shot of being a play-in team if some of the young guys are able to make a leap.

Oh please! All those limitations he mentioned were valid. I don't understand how that's self hate. His leadership and maturity is extremely overstated. With other veterans around he knows his role but when he's the veteran things go sideways. Imagine playing selfishly all of last season while being terrible for most of it and then ordering other players on what to do. He failed to connect with the younger guys on the team and did a poor job leading by example. Maybe had he connected with them and actually didn't play selfishly he wouldn't have lost all credibility and there wouldn't have been a rift. Also didn't help that he did a podcast tour complaining about his role in Toronto. Real leader he is.

[Moahst]

If Ime is as talented as everyone thinks he is, this team will be in the play in. The Rockets added defensive minded starters who can cover up a lot of mistakes for the young guys. Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr will take big steps next season (Jabari was already wilding out at the end of last season offensively). If Alperen Sengun can learn to be a passable defensive big (which I think Ime will help with) this team is going to win a lot more than 22 regular season games. I think Tilman Fertitta did just about as good of a job in his "2 year rebuild" as was possible given the luck of the lottery.