Rockets Ranked as Third Most Likely to win Title This Season

It's well-known that the Houston Rockets pulled off a successful rebuild. Many disagree with several of the steps taken along the way, like the preferential treatment given to Kevin Porter Jr. or the decision to have Alperen Sengun come off the bench early on, but that's all water under the bridge. 

We're well past that.

The Rockets have been on the come up for the last several years, posting a 19-win improvement from 2022-23 to 2023-24, which isn't the norm.

The Rockets then followed that up with an 11-win improvement from 2023-24 to last season, jumping to second in the Western Conference. The progress hasn't interfered with the development of the Rockets' young guns, which often happens.

Teams have a belief system that they're better off when being led by veterans, because they're more of a sure thing. They're proven players.

Younger, raw talents can have a higher upside but you don't know what you're going to get on a nightly basis. Case in point, Jalen Green. 

He has the talent to be a 30-point scorer. We've all seen it.

He'd put together a string of stellar performances and follow it up with a dud of a showing.

When a team's leading scorer is that inconsistent, it's difficult to legitimately contend for a championship. 

This summer, the Rockets moved Green to bring in Kevin Durant -- a surefire bucket-getter and closer. Houston had to give up Dillon Brooks in the deal -- which was a no-brainer, even though he played well under Rockets coach Ime Udoka -- and replaced him with Dorian Finney-Smith. 

The Rockets were also able to lock up Fred VanVleet and Jabari Smith Jr., inking them both to new contracts. Add it all up, and Houston is finally looking like a formidable threat to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who just won the championship and were able to keep all of their key pieces.

Houston was ranked as the third-most likely team to win the title this upcoming season, behind the Thunder and Denver Nuggets by NBA writer Ricky O'Donnell. 

"The Rockets' quick ascent to the No. 2 seed in the West was one of the best stories of the regular season, but their first-round playoff exit to the Warriors showed this roster still needed some work. Enter Kevin Durant, replacing the inefficient scoring of Jalen Green. 

It feels like Alperen Sengun is ready for an All-NBA turn after a dominant run at EuroBasket for Turkey. Amen Thompson should level up again in Year 3 after a standout sophomore season, Tari Eason could be ready to replace Dillon Brooks, and Jabari Smith Jr. needs to show some improvement after getting a $120 million contract extension. 

The Rockets have pulled off something close to a perfect rebuild in the wake of their James Harden trade, and they still have some premium assets coming in. This team is going to be really good for a long time, and they might already be a title contender with KD in tow."

We'll see how well the players are able to mesh, which can oftentimes be a major hang-up when a team adds so many players at once. Durant is perhaps one of the game's easiest to play alongside, as he can get buckets on a lower shot diet, so this may not be much of an issue after all.

The season is around the corner, so we'll find out soon enough.