NBA makes stance on Rockets crystal clear with schedule leak

The Houston Rockets are once again one of the NBA's premier teams. The league is telling us how they feel by scheduling them to play the Thunder on opening night (October 21).

This feels like a time to reflect. Imagine if the Rockets had been a scheduling priority over the last few years. Fans around the world would have been treated to some of the most abject basketball to ever curse their screens.

It was bleak. Now, it's blindingly bright. The Rockets are back. They're playing the defending champions in the 2025-26 season's opening salvo.

Is it time to break out the champagne?

Rockets face tough challenge against Thunder

Not exactly.

I've written about the Rockets compared to virtually every significant team in the Western Conference. They compare favorably to almost everyone:

But the Thunder aren't almost everyone.

This is the best team in the NBA by a landslide. The Thunder won 68 games last year. They had a league-best 12.7 Net Rating. Worst of all, they're bringing back virtually the entire roster that helped them dominate so thoroughly.

By contrast, Houston's 4.6 Net Rating ranked seventh in the league. They were a strong team, but not dominant. Perhaps that's why they shook up the roster. The idea is that turning Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks into Kevin Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Clint Capela will drag their Net Rating closer to the Thunder's.

That's likely to be a successful plan, but a leap from 4.6 to 12.7 is overly optimistic. This is the one team in the NBA that the Rockets will be consistently favored to lose to.

Is that likely to spell disaster on opening night?

The Rockets have a long season ahead of them

No.

This is one game in an 82-game season. The Rockets can't get hung up on it. If they start the season 0-1, 81-1 is still in play.

Jokes aside, it's nice to get off to a strong start, but it's not essential to win the first game of the year. Rockets fans will remember a loss to the woeful Hornets to kick off 2024-25 - unless they've chosen to forget.

It would be nice to keep this game competitive. A close loss would be acceptable, but getting blown out would be a difficult hit to the ego to start the season off. It's still not the end of the world, but it's suboptimal.

Yet, let's not presume a loss either. The Rockets are built to give the Thunder fits. This game will be well within reach:

It's just still hard to believe it's actually happening.