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After a blowout victory over the underwhelming Utah Jazz, the Houston Rockets have clinched their first playoff appearance since the 2019-20 NBA season, when the team was led by former franchise star James Harden.
While they can’t move up in the Western Conference Standings, they could still slip as they only sit 3 games ahead of the 3rd and 4th seeded Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, who have clinched a spot for at least the Play-In Tournament.
It’s been quite a turnaround for the Rockets. After a last-second push in the back half of the 2023-24 season, the Rockets missed out, heartbreakingly, to contend in the Play-In Tournament. Now, they are sitting at 50 wins this year. All the credit has to go out to the young core that has been built in H-Town.
Inside a Gritty Yet Successful Rockets Rebuild
The Rockets’ success isn’t exactly coming as a surprise, as they’ve spent the last four years sitting within the top-5 picks of the NBA Draft, and we are now witnessing all of the pieces fit together.
While critics have weighed heavily on every selection the Rockets have taken since 2021, the boys from H-Town have silenced any doubters of the tedious rebuilding process as they’ve put together quite a frightening team to go up against.
Led by former 2nd overall pick Jalen Green, who is having his most efficient year thus far in his career, as well as rising Turkish native center Alperen Şengün, who is currently averaging a double-double, the Houston Rockets offer a high-powered, yet patient approach to the game that goes hand in hand with their ability to establish dominance early in games.
You also have to give credit to the veteran presence and skill they’ve added to their young core with Free Agent signings, Dillon Brooks and Fred VanVleet, who both joined the team in the offseason of the 2023-24 season. The team received a fair amount of criticism for seemingly “handing out” such lucrative deals to players that other teams shrugged off.
It seems as if criticism has followed this Rockets team ever since 2021, and while it may have taken some painful and heart-wrenching seasons to get the mesh they’ve desired, it looks like they’ve established themselves as a menacing force in the Western Conference for years to come.
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Warriors Rumors: Jonathan Kuminga, Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, Seth Curry
The Golden State Warriors’ offseason continues to revolve around one question. Namely, what happens with Jonathan Kuminga? Golden State currently has just nine players signed to standard contracts, and the Kuminga standoff is slowing the rest of its roster moves. Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report reported that the Warriors are keeping Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II in a holding pattern until Kuminga’s situation is resolved. Malcolm Brogdon and Seth Curry remain on the team’s radar, with Javonte Green also a possible addition. The Kings and Suns have both explored sign-and-trade deals for Kuminga, but the Warriors haven’t been impressed with what’s been offered. Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints noted that those talks haven’t reached a serious stage, and there are no other known suitors at the moment. Warriors Stuck For Now? Cap expert Yossi Gozlan explained in his Third Apron column that Golden State is “probably stuck” until the Kuminga situation plays out. The Warriors are believed to have deals in place with Horford and Melton, but those signings can’t be finalized while Kuminga is still unsigned. If Golden State uses its taxpayer mid-level exception, it would be hard-capped at $207.8 million — opening the door for a rival with cap space to swoop in and make Kuminga a near $30 million per year offer the Warriors couldn’t match. Gozlan views a sign-and-trade as the most practical solution for both sides. If Kuminga re-signs, Golden State would likely aim for a deal in the $22–23 million per year range, which would allow the team to use the taxpayer MLE and add three more players on minimum contracts while staying below the hard cap. For now, all signs point to Kuminga remaining with the Warriors to start next season, but the impasse continues to hold up the rest of Golden State’s plans. More NBA News Rumors
Padres already demoting one of their trade-deadline acquisitions
The Padres announced they’ve optioned JP Sears to Triple-A El Paso. They recalled reliever Sean Reynolds and will go with a nine-man bullpen in the short term. Sears will spend at least 15 days in the minors unless he’s brought up to replace a player going on the injured list. San Diego acquired Sears alongside Mason Miller in last week’s massive deadline deal. The 29-year-old southpaw made his team debut Monday night. He allowed five runs in as many innings on 10 hits and a walk against the Diamondbacks. Sears took the loss in a 6-2 defeat. He’d carried a 4.95 earned run average over 22 starts with the A’s. Monday's performance pushed his ERA to 5.12 across 116 innings. It’s a bottom-10 mark among pitchers to log at least 100 frames. Sears had the highest home run rate among that group, offsetting his nearly league-average 20.3% strikeout rate and solid 6% walk percentage. This is the first time in two-and-a-half years that Sears heads to the minors. He broke camp with the A’s in 2023 and has been in the majors since then. Sears has also avoided the injured list for that entire time. As a result, he’s tied for fifth in MLB with 87 starts since the beginning of the ’23 season. The durability is the big selling point, as his production (4.62 ERA/4.56 SIERA) over that stretch is that of a fifth or sixth starter. The demotion shouldn’t have any impact on Sears’ service trajectory. He has already surpassed the three-year mark and will qualify for arbitration next winter. He’s under team control for three seasons beyond this one. While he’ll probably be back up at some point this year, it may require an injury elsewhere in the rotation. San Diego optioned Randy Vásquez over the weekend. They have a four-man rotation of Dylan Cease, Nick Pivetta, Yu Darvish and deadline acquisition Nestor Cortes. Darvish and Cortes will get the ball for the next two outings. San Diego is off Thursday and could turn back to Pivetta and Cease on extra rest for their first two games of the weekend series against the Red Sox. That’d point to the series finale on Aug. 10 as Michael King’s return date. King threw 61 pitches in what is expected to be his final rehab start on Sunday, via the MLB.com injury tracker. He’d be on six days' rest for his first MLB appearance since he went on the injured list in late May with a nerve problem in his throwing shoulder.
Gap between star WR Terry McLaurin, Commanders revealed
As of Thursday morning, the Washington Commanders and Terry McLaurin remained in a contract stalemate after the 29-year-old wide receiver in the final year of his current deal requested a trade. During Thursday's edition of the ESPN "Get Up" program, NFL insider Jeremy Fowler noted that the Commanders and McLaurin are locked in "a classic standoff" as McLaurin allegedly looks to secure "parts" of the five-year, $150M deal that the Pittsburgh Steelers gave DK Metcalf this past March. "They have been far apart," Fowler said about the negotiations between the Commanders and McLaurin, as shared by Joseph Zucker of Bleacher Report. "...[McLaurin] has wanted metrics of the DK Metcalf contract, which is $32M. I'm told the Washington Commanders have only been slightly above where he was before, which is $23M. So take that gap, that's $7M to 8M that they have to bridge." Fowler added that Washington "has got some calls about McLaurin" this summer because "there's some interest league-wide" in learning whether or not the wideout could become available. For what it's worth, numerous reporters have said since McLaurin went public with his trade request that he likely won't go anywhere before Washington opens the season with a home game against the New York Giants on Sept. 7. ESPN's John Keim mentioned that Washington's joint practice with the New England Patriots on Wednesday showed that the Commanders "need McLaurin back on the field" as soon as possible. That's understandable, as McLaurin recorded team highs of 117 targets, 82 receptions and 1,096 receiving yards to help quarterback Jayden Daniels become the Offensive Rookie of the Year for the 2024 season. Additionally, McLaurin finished the 2024 campaign ranked second in the entire NFL with 13 touchdown catches. As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook continued to list a Washington team coming off a trip to this year's NFC Championship Game sixth among the betting favorites at +1800 odds to win Super Bowl LX. Perhaps Wednesday's joint practice will spark more positive conversations between McLaurin's camp and the Commanders that will result in the playmaker rejoining summer practices as soon as early next week.
Steelers' Aaron Rodgers tries to silence concerning report from training camp
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers may be silencing concerns related to a recent report that questioned his working relationships with his wide receivers. It was previously learned that Rodgers' "connection" with 2024 third-round draft pick Roman Wilson "took a step in the right direction" during Tuesday's practice. According to Brooke Pryor of ESPN, Rodgers then "showed off a strong rapport with" Wilson and his other targets on Wednesday. "I just got to get [Wilson] out of his head a little bit, because I think he's such a good kid," Rodgers explained. "He cares so much about -- whether it's my approval or he's doing it right and he's just got to trust himself. He's so damn talented. The more he can play free and not think out there, the better he is going to play. The more he can just trust what he's got and then just go out and react, the better he is going to play." Injuries limited Wilson to just five offensive snaps during his rookie season, but he could potentially emerge as Pittsburgh's WR2 this summer after the club traded George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys this past spring. Meanwhile, some outsiders previously feared that Rodgers remaining an unsigned free agent until June would hurt his ability to build on-the-field chemistry with his new teammates. On Wednesday, he suggested he's not losing sleep over some missed passes during training-camp sessions. "I think we've been clicking the last three or four days much better," Rodgers said. "Our defense, obviously, we added a lot of pieces to it. Always early in camp with the pads going, the defense seems to have the upper edge, and then the second week it starts to turn a little bit. So I felt like we've been playing better the last week and a half." There remain questions regarding whether or not Rodgers is a good fit for a unit led by offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Smith poured cold water over such concerns in late July, and Rodgers addressed the matter on Wednesday. "We sat [Tuesday] for two and a half hours, just talking ball," Rodgers said about his growing relationship with Smith, per Joe Clark of Steelers Depot. "It's not all Xs and Os. It's storytelling time to time. But he's not a rigid guy at all, so any ideas that I have or ideas that some of the receivers have given me to give to him, everything is taken into consideration. I've just really enjoyed him as a person a lot and the way he leads in front of the room. It's been a lot of fun so far." As of Thursday morning, it was unclear if Rodgers would play when the Steelers open the preseason with a matchup at the Jacksonville Jaguars this coming Saturday night.
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