Houston Rockets Season Player Review: Steven Adams

Houston Rockets general manager Rafael Stone is always looking ahead. Stone was hired in the 2020 offseason at a turbulent time for the Rockets franchise. The Rockets' GM at the time, Darryl Morey, abruptly left the franchise. Mike D'Antoni, their most successful head coach since Rudy Tomjanovich, decided he no longer wanted to coach the team. Russell Westbrook wanted out of Houston, and a few months later, James Harden followed him out the door.

Stone was hired right after Morey's departure and had to navigate all those land mines and rebuild afterward. Stone's forward thinking was evident right away when looking at the Harden trade. Stone went for future flexibility and possible lottery picks instead of a win-now player. That same forward thinking went into his trade for Steven Adams.

Stone traded for Adams right before the 2024 trade deadline, even though Adams was already ruled out for the rest of the 2023-24 season. The reasoning behind this was that Adams would be ready for the 2024-25 season and be the perfect backup to Alperen Sengun.

It was a gamble as Adams had missed a lot of time the last two seasons before coming to the Rockets. Ime Udoka said from the start of this season that it would be a slow process for Adams as they would be cautious with Adams' playing time, and he wouldn't play both games of back-to-backs.

The Rockets' patience paid off as Adams began to get back into playing shape and started playing more minutes as the season went along. Adams' minutes started to increase in December, and his value to the team became even more apparent when the Rockets started to utilize their double-big lineup in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks in February.

When Adams was first cleared to play for the Rockets, the question of whether Adams and Sengun could play together on the court started to be asked. Up until that game, Udoka had been hesitant to have both big men on the court at the same time, but as the Rockets fell further behind in their loss to the Mavericks, Udoka went to that lineup and saw immediate results.

From that day forward, the Rockets used the double-big lineup more and more, which was a big reason why the Rockets had their best rebounding season since the 1972-73 season. The Rockets had one of the most considerable rebounding margins over their opponent per game in NBA history. It's no surprise that Adams has been on two other teams in the top five of that list.

Even though Adams played a career low in minutes this season, his impact was still felt across the team. Adams is still among the league's best offensive rebounders and screen setters. That stood out in the Rockets ' first-round matchup with the Golden State Warriors. Despite the struggles of most of his teammates, Adams was the one player the Warriors had no answer for in any of the seven games.

The Warriors even went to a hack-a strategy to get him out of Game 4 because he was such a big factor in the game. Adams increased his stats across the board in the playoffs as he played over 22 minutes a game, and in several games was actually in the closing lineup.

Despite the Rockets' loss to the Warriors, Adams proved that he had fully recovered from his season-ending injury with the Grizzlies. Adams will be a free agent this offseason, and the Rockets have said they would love to bring him back for next season, but it is a two-way street.

Whatever happens with the contract negotiations, one thing is for sure: Adams is one of the most impactful players in the NBA and was a big reason for the Rockets' success.