Rockets News: Fred VanVleet out, Nate Williams In

The Houston Rockets are breaking down. 

The wear and tear of a long NBA season is becoming evident for this squad. The Rockets play a particularly physical brand of basketball. They enjoyed great injury luck for much of the season, but now, they're paying the piper. 

Yikes. That's a gruesome injury report. Here's hoping most of these guys are either healthy enough to play, or will be as soon as possible. 

We already know VanVleet won't be available. 

Rockets need veteran floor general 

That doesn't bode well for their chances against the Thunder on Monday. 

If you hadn't noticed, the Thunder are good. This team's 12.6 Net Rating is the best in the NBA. Given that the Rockets are .500 (7-7) without VanVleet this year, this is cause for concern. 

There is more than tonight's game at stake. VanVleet has been largely absent since before the All-Star break. There is a nagging ailment at play. The Rockets can only hope that it resolves as quickly as possible if they're going to accomplish their goals for the season. 

Although, it's worth noting that they just added a guard to their roster. 

Rockets secure long-term deal with guard 

That would be Nate Williams. 

The Rockets just agreed to a 4-year, $8.2 million deal with Williams. He's been phenomenal for the Rio Grande Vipers this year. Williams has averaged 20.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.8 steals across 17 G-League games in 2024-25. 

In the 8 games Williams has appeared in with the Rockets this year, he's averaging 24.0 points per 100 possessions. Williams is a well-rounded guard who plays hard on any given night. 

He's also a flawed player. Perhaps that goes without saying - if Williams were better, he'd already have a standard NBA deal. His 30.0% three-point shooting in 2024-25 makes him a challenging fit with this roster, although it's worth noting that Williams connected on 37.5% of his threes as a rookie and 40.0% as a sophomore. 

Ultimately, Williams' NBA stats are moot. The sample size is too small. Rockets fans shouldn't be anticipating a high-minute player, but the Rockets didn't make a high-minute commitment to Williams. 

They gave him the smallest possible deal. They waived Cody Zeller to make roster space for Williams. This organization must like something about Williams beyond the on-court impact he's made at the NBA level. This could be partly a culture-setting move for the Rockets: 

Just don't expect Williams to replace Fred VanVleet.