Latest Power Rankings Place Rockets Third in Western Conference

The NBA is in a good place. Or so they always say.

This typically refers to the amount of stars in the game, which is constantly a big concern. After all, it's a star-driven league.

They help drive interest from fans and sponsors, especially. 

And this has especially been a topic of discussion with LeBron James, Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Kevin Durant all getting older and winding their careers down.

There's a formidable crop of younger stars, making for a perfect, seamless transition. 

There's also parity, finally. Gone are the days of teams stacking superstars and/or players taking less money to play alongside other superstars. 

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement makes that quite difficult. 

Every team has a legitimate opportunity to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy, hence why so many teams have been so active, as it pertains to tweaking and re-tooling their rosters.

The Houston Rockets were perhaps the most active team this offseason, adding Durant to replace Jalen Green and Dorian Finney-Smith to replace Dillon Brooks. Houston also added Clint Capela once more.

All told, Rockets GM Rafael Stone has concocted one of the deepest rosters in the league.

According to NBA writer John Schuhmann, Houston enters the 2025-26 season with the third-best team in the Western Conference -- a jump from last week's fifth-place landing spot.

The writer remains leery of Houston's shooting, in spite of their summer activity. 

"The Rockets certainly needed a bucket-getter like Durant. They ranked 10th offensively (115.2 points scored per 100 possessions) in non-clutch situations, but scored 8.6 fewer per 100 (only four teams saw a bigger drop-off) when the score was within five points in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime. If the defense could contain the Fred VanVleet-Alperen Sengun pick-and-roll, the Rockets struggled to get good (initial) shots down the stretch.

There’s still not a ton of shooting around Durant, with Finney-Smith and Aaron Holiday being the only other Rockets who shot the league average or better on at least 100 3-point attempts last season. It will be critical for VanVleet to shoot closer to his mark from 3-point range in his first season in Houston (38.7%) than last season’s (34.5%)."

The shooting, or lack thereof, is a viable concern. Especially with Brooks' departure, as he made nearly 40 percent of his long-range attempts. VanVleet regressed in the regular season from three but he made over 43 percent of his 3-point bombs in the postseason, so there's reason to be optimistic about his ability to return back to form.

Reed Sheppard will have a great opportunity to justify his draft position (fourth overall in 2024), as he was the best shooter in the country during his lone collegiate season at Kentucky, shooting over 52 percent from three. If he can return to any semblance of that version of himself, Houston may need to be moved higher on the power rankings.