Do Rockets Deserve ESPN’s No. 2 Power Ranking?

The young Oklahoma City Thunder came away with last year’s NBA title, and have now set the standard for both on-court play and team-building as the rest of the league plays catch-up.

The Houston Rockets were one of those teams, arming themselves this off-season with the tools to become a contender. The team inked already rostered players to new deals, sought rotational bids in free agency and, most importantly, added Kevin Durant via the biggest trade of the offseason.

Per ESPN’s most recent power rankings, the Rockets moves helped them to move to No. 2, trailing only the previously mentioned Thunder.

There’s little question the Rockets have had a spectacular offseason. But do they really deserve to head into next year as the second-best team on-paper? The simple answer would be yes.

With the addition of Durant on the wing, Houston now has the only thing its lacked for the last few seasons: premier scoring ability. While losing scoring guard Jalen Green and veteran Dillon Brooks were tough losses, the team replaces the offense with one of the greatest scorers of all time, and has plenty of defense to go around.

All in all, the Rockets now have a versatile backcourt with both youth and experience in Fred VanVleet, Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard, as well as functional frontcourt of Alperen Sengun, Steven Adams and Clint Capela. Durant, and other wings and forwards like Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr. and Dorian Finney-Smith, slot in between.

While OKC has a solid lead on the field having just won the title, Houston doesn’t feel too far behind at No. 2. Other contenders — the Nuggets at No. 3, Cavaliers at No. 4 and New York Knicks at No. 5 — don’t have tons of ways to continue to upgrade their rosters.

For now, teams will look to continue to upgrade their rosters ahead of NBA preseason in early October.