Rockets second-best to bitter rivals again in new five-year NBA redraft

The Houston Rockets have one of the best young cores in the NBA. A new 5-year redraft only reinforces that fact.

Bleacher Report published a redraft using players selected between 2020 and 2024. The Rockets were one of two teams to have a pair of players picked in the top 10. Alperen Sengun was picked 7th, and Amen Thompson was picked 10th.

You can guess who the other team represented twice in the top 10 was.

Rockets' rivals continue to be a problem

No, not the Kings. It was, of course, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Jalen Williams was picked 9th, and Chet Holmgren 10th. This comes as no surprise, but it's still deeply concerning.

After all, the Thunder have the reigning MVP in addition to their duo. The Rockets have Kevin Durant. That's great, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is in the thick of his prime.

As long as the Thunder are around, the Rockets will be capped at the second-best situation in the NBA. They're arguably there - although the Spurs are sitting pretty with Victor Wembanyama - but there's no lane to get past the Thunder.

Ultimately, Rockets fans shouldn't complain. They're still ahead of far more teams than they're behind, in a short and long-term sense.

Besides, they might be in better shape than this list indicates.

Young Rockets star underrated in redraft

Alperen Sengun was rated too low in this exercise. Isn't he always?

Is it an aesthetic bias? Does the consensus still hold that it's hard to build an offense around a big man? That seems foolish. The Nuggets exist, and the Rockets have the second-best Offensive Rating (122.0) in the NBA this year.

Have pundits not caught up to reality on Sengun's defense? He's been solid on that end for two years now, but sometimes, the national media lags compared to those who cover the team closely.

Whatever it is, there's no reason to take Evan Mobley (5th) over Sengun. If you put enough stock in Tyrese Maxey (6th)'s incredible 2025-26 season, you can justify picking him, but if you're looking at the broader bodies of work, you'd prefer Sengun. For argument's sake, let's say Sengun should have been sixth.

Having the sixth and 10th-best young players in the NBA is nothing to sneeze at. The Rockets are in a great position:

Even if those pesky Thunder won't relinquish their spot.