How Fred Vanvleet’s injuries affect rockets, during

Houston’s Rockets seemed ready to face the Western Conference before the pre-season according to the agreements for Kevin Durant and the veteran players Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela.

Anchored by the leader Fred Vanvleet, who signed a $ 50 million contract over two years during the summer, all the parts were in place so that Houston challenges the Thunder of Oklahoma City for the title and has faced his first NBA championship since 1995.

During an unofficial training session at the Bahamas, Vanvleet underwent a torn ACL which could put it aside for the entire season. Now, the Rockets are challenged to fill your place in alignment and changing rooms. How will the team deploy Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard and others when they try to stay in the conference race?

After the Rockets’ pre-season match against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, our NBA analysts broke the impact of the team injury, its players and what Houston could do to strengthen its programming.

Rockets adapt to the new reality

As smooth R&B pieces have flooded the room for the part of the recharge time of a recent training of the training camp at the Memorial Hermann Houston Rockets Training Center, the coach Ime Udoka placed himself on a chair next to it.

For several minutes, the two spoke while the rest of the team groaned until the end of the session.

During was aware of his changing role following Vanvleet’s injury. During will not do it alone, but the veteran of the stars is naturally the key cog of Houston’s co-commitment approach to facilitate the offensive, according to Udoka.

“I think they will be different guys in a way in a role,” the coach told ESPN. “For example, (second -year goalkeeper) Reed (Sheppard), you take Amen (Thompson), the guys who did it with Fred being sometimes released on a smaller scene. Kevin also with the attention he attracts.

Udoka did not waste time explaining this to the team at a meeting shortly after Vanvleet’s injury. Vanvleet was to serve as a veteran tablet of the team and the compensation force on the defensive, but Udoka still thinks that the current list contains enough collective talents to fill the gaps.

During the victory at the opening of the pre-season of Houston against the Hawks. In its absence, Udoka served potential options for offensive facilitation in a starting formation made up of Thompson, Sheppard and Sangun with Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason Manning the Wings.

Interestingly, Thompson, Sengun and Smith have turned the ball on the ground and have regularly found cracks in Atlanta’s defense for the basket’s records. The first Houston group ran an advance from the start of 16-9 against a start-up range from Hawks from Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Kristaps Porzingis, Zaccharie Risacher and Jalen Johnson.

“I have the impression that (we can) win a lot of games,” said Sheppard. “The expectations are high. We just have to go out and control what we can control. The coaches will have in the situations in which we want. So we will just play how we know how to play and have fun.” – Michael C. Wright

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Despite the reverse, Vanvleet’s injury is not a derailment

The trading of the Rockets for Durant, Finney-Smith and Capela was a clear signal of their intention to compete immediately for the West.

Each team would be a base by losing their veteran captain and his starting point person for an injury at the end of the season. For the Rockets, the benefits are that their replacements are not what you plan for a competitor. It would be the part -time ball manager Thompson, who plays a massive role defensively and has a limited experience in the position, or Sheppard, a choice n ° 3 of 2024 who is an intriguing player but who has barely played as a recruit.

Rockets are not lacking in options. During can certainly trigger an offense; It is itself an offensive system. Sangun can be the center of the offense and is one of the best great men in the league. But these are all secondary options and not the leading leadership that Van Vleet provides.

Despite this setback, it is not a derailment. Houston has depth and the team has time, but it’s absolutely a problem. Udoka had time to think about how to manage it, but it has no clear route. It is one of the most convincing scenarios in the West in the season. – Brian Windhorst

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The rockets must still fill the minutes of Thompson

Losing Vanvleet is an important success for rockets in my projection of victories based on statistics. Although we do not deploy the expectations of victories projected for the 30 teams until later this week, the preliminary version had Houston with the fourth best projection of the NBA, in accordance with the excitement after this summer trade for and perhaps even a little low.

The replacement of the minutes of Vanvleet with the guards Sheppard and Aaron Holiday, plus some supplements for Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. – already projected like key rotation players – drops the Rockets by nearly four projected victories.

It should be recalled that even if Thompson is the replacement of Vanvleet to the leader of the first five, Houston will always have to fill the rotation by replacing the minutes that Thompson had to play elsewhere. (Thompson lasted an average of 35.8 minutes per game last season during the departure next to Vanvleet, almost identical to the 36.1 that he has on average in 18 departures with Vanvleet put away.)

Unless the Rockets deploy a series of giant queues, this probably means much more important roles for Sheppard and Holiday, who had to fight to play time behind Vanvleet. Sheppard only played 654 minutes as a recruit, while Holiday played 792.

So much concentration as it is naturally on the role of Vanvleet as a playmaker and the soil spacing he provides, my projections in fact suggest that Houston could miss him more to the defensive of the court. After all, Sheppard can replace part of this shot if he takes a step forward in his second NBA season, while Thompson and Sengun will intensify their game functions.

The strong presence of Vanvleet is an underestimated factor in the defense of the Rockets, which ranked seventh in a defensive note. Houston granted 1.9 more points for 100 possessions with Vanvleet on the bench than in the game, by cleaning the glass, a greater removal than they suffered without him (1.3 points per 100 worse possessions).

Without Vanvleet, I project the Rockets to finish seventh in an offensive note and 11th in defensive note. They are always in the mixture for the advantage of the field with the fifth best projection of victories in the West. And it is before the Rockets plan to mix mid-season if Sheppard does not develop their hoping way.

However, the Rockets no longer resemble the kind of immediate threat to the thunder that we imagined when they were able to fill the lost depth in the trade in during signing Finney-Smith as a free agent. Before Vanvleet fell, I wrote that the backup leader was the biggest hole in the list. Now it takes advantage of more than ever. – Kevin Pelton

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Do not expect help on the back of the rear area

Houston has an open list place and will probably deposit an exception of $ 12.5 million for the disabled player. If the NBA determines that Vanvleet is absent until mid-June, the league will grant the exception, which would normally allow Houston to sign or trade against a player on a one-year contract.

However, even if the exception of $ 14 million is granted, Houston would not be authorized to sign a player (like the former Rockets goalkeeper Russell Westbrook, for example) in this exception at the moment, because there are only $ 1.25 million below the first apron. Houston’s movements made this offseason crowned the team hard at this level.

Rockets could trade to fill the absence of Vanvleet; They have five first negotiables, including a Phoenix of 2027 unprotected Phoenix first and two of the first most favorable in 2029, Suns and Mavericks. They also have the right to exchange the first with Brooklyn in 2027.

However, what the rockets are missing are negotiable contracts.

The eight Houston players signed this summer – Vanvleet, Steven Adams, Finney -Smith, Holiday, Jae’Sean Tate, Jeff Green, Josh Okogie and Capela – cannot be exchanged before mid -December. Holiday and Tate have the right to approve any job.

Meanwhile, Smith has signed a recruit extension and has a poisoned pill restriction. It has been almost 17 years that a player with a poisoned pill restriction was exchanged.

With nine players out of the set, the only players who left Houston could exchange are the starters during, Sengun and Thompson and reserve Sheppard and Eason. The two reserves earn 16.3 million dollars combined. – Bobby Marks