NBC Sports Lists Rockets as Team with the Best Offseason

The 2025-26 NBA season is essentially wide open, due in part to injuries to several of the top teams. Sure, the Oklahoma City Thunder are fresh off of winning the title and they didn't lose any key contributors, but there's a reason we haven't had a team win consecutive championships in nearly a decade.

You'd have to go back to the 2016-17 and 2017-18 Golden State Warriors to find the last time a team pulled it off.

The league finally has parity, as yesteryear's model of compiling three superstars on the same team to form a "Big Three" has been scrapped. Superstars have even been changing teams midseason, as both Luka Doncic and Jimmy Butler were traded during the 2024-25 season.

This offseason, the Houston Rockets joined the fray, trading for Kevin Durant -- the league's eighth all-time leading scorer. That move (along with other moves) prompted NBC Sports' Kurt Helin to handpick the Rockets as one of just a handful of teams that had stellar offseasons, placing them atop the list.

"Kevin Durant.

Those two words alone made this a winning offseason for Houston. Anyone who watched their first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Warriors saw Houston’s problems with half-court shot creation and end-of-clock situations — Durant solves those problems. Even at age 37, the man is still a walking bucket.

However, the Rockets did more than just add Durant. The addition of Dorian Finney-Smith — adding more defense plus 3-point shooting to the mix — was one of the best moves of the offseason. Clint Capela gives Houston another solid rotation big man. They locked up Fred VanVleet on a good deal, and also re-signed Steven Adams, Jae’Sean Tate, Jabari Smith Jr., Aaron Holiday and Jeff Green.

Houston enters the coming season a clear title contender — that’s the sign of a good offseason."

The other teams were the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and San Antonio Spurs.

The Rockets' blend of youth and veterans provides a perfect balance, and their young prospects -- Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, Smith, and Tari Eason -- have now all played competitive basketball, after getting their first taste of the postseason in 2024-25. 

They'll certainly be among the league’s elite, but will they be able to ascend to Oklahoma City' s level? Only time will tell.