1 Secret weapon that could propel the Houston Rockets to success this season

NBA fans like to see their team make moves. By that measure, the Houston Rockets were a disappointment this offseason. They had one of the quietest summers in the league.

Stop lamenting. Here are the facts: good general managers don't make moves for the sake of making moves. Rafael Stone knows this. He had a quiet summer because there were no pressing reasons for the Rockets to make a major trade.

That could be their secret weapon in 2024-25.

Rockets boast the most continuity in NBA

The Rockets don't just have continuity. They've got the most continuity in the league.

We're not joking. Neil Paine of ESPN ran a sophisticated study to determine which teams had the most continuity. We'll let him explain.

"To measure this, we'll look at a team's combined ranking across two different dimensions: the share of minutes played and the share of estimated RAPTOR wins above replacement (WAR) for the franchise from the previous three seasons (weighted by recency, such that last season gets a weight of 6, the year before that a 4, and the year before that a 1"
-Neil Paine, ESPN

Got it?

In simpler terms, Paine is looking at minutes played, and impact. He's trying to determine which teams are bringing back the biggest share of players who helped them win over the last three years.

Quick: go to a side-by-side comparison of last year's Rockets and this year's. They're remarkably similar. Houston will be hoping Steven Adams is healthy enough to contribute, and that Reed Sheppard is ready as a rookie. Otherwise, they'll be leaning on familiar faces.

So, no team is bringing more impact players back than the Rockets. Should we expect this to be a trend moving forward?

Rockets enjoy continuity - for now

We're not sure.

A lot of folks are expecting the Rockets to make a blockbuster deal soon. It feels entirely possible. This roster boasts a surplus of young talent. In time, the Rockets will have to make a consolidation deal.

That doesn't mean this continuity isn't valuable. The Rockets are trying to figure out which of their young players complement each other. The more time they have to make that determination, the better. We're not sure how this roster will look in a few years, but we do know that for now, the chemistry these guys are developing should benefit them.

If it does, fans won't be disappointed for long.