Rockets Have Future Picks to Continue Team-Building

The Houston Rockets have seen a bright offseason, upgrading their already-good team in more ways than one.

They’ve retained rostered talent, inked new deals in free agency and added one of the top scorer’s of all time in Kevin Durant via trade — addressing their one major area of need.

And still, the Rockets have optionality moving forward.

Most contenders league-wide are at the end of their leash, having off-loaded their future picks to become a top team initially. The Nuggets, Timberwolves, Clippers and plenty of East teams fit into that mold, having no real way to upgrade aside from the re-shuffling of assets.

Unfortunately for many, the reigning champion Oklahoma City don’t fit that bill, owning a trio of win-now stars, a deep rotations and an enviable future pick cache. But the Rockets are close behind on all fronts.

Houston’s largely built its core through the draft, grabbing players like Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard and more. In identifying talent before entering the league, its allowed the organization flexibility to retain future draft assets. 

The team only needed to give up one in adding Durant, and now has seven future first still to work with moving forward.

Now a contender, the Rockets have little need to go spend their picks in once place, but can instead address and mid-season issues that could present themselves. For now the teams seems deep throughout, but a variety of factors could come into play as the regular season churns on.

Should the Durant era not work out in Houston, the team would theoretically have the assets to re-work the formula down the line. In the least, the Rockets could simply use the draft picks to continue to backfill the roster with low-cost depth.

The Rockets' front office, led by decision-maker Rafael Stone, has proven trustworthy on many fronts in the last handful of years. And should be trusted to adequately use future assets moving forward.