Rockets' young core has made one colossal improvement since last season's heartbreak

As the Houston Rockets enter the 2025-26 NBA season, their hopes for making a run at a championship will be entirely dependent upon their young core's ability to coalesce around superstar Kevin Durant, eliminating many of the weaknesses that led to their playoff demise at the hands of the Golden State Warriors last season.

According to Rockets' Analyst Paulo Alves, on the latest episode of the Rockets LaunchPod podcast, they have shown this precise improvement through their first two preseason games, and, if players such as Sengun and Thompson can truly clean up their games this season, Houston could catapult themselves right back into championship. contention.

While there remains much to be seen regarding how this Houston rotation will shake out and how their ultimate lineup combinations will be sorted by head coach Ime Udoka, early signs of improvement on this front are massive for the team's continued ascendance.

The Rockets' basketball IQ already looks vastly improved from last season

As Houston shocked the NBA last season, claiming the second seed in the Western Conference and looking like one of the best teams in the league heading into the playoffs, they still had one glaring weakness: their offense in the half-court.

Apart from starting point guard Fred VanVleet, the Rockets were relatively turnover-prone, and, at times, any semblance of offensive momentum they could get going on would be squandered by a careless mistake from one of the team's young players.

According to Alves, however, the team has already shown growth in this area through just two preseason games: "The biggest thing is just how much higher the basketball IQ seems to be from everyone across the board. Last season, from every player on the court we saw a lot of bone-headed mistakes, hesitation... It seems like guys are a lot crisper in the passes that they make and the decisions that they make [this season]."

In fact, beyond Durant's debut in a Houston uniform, there has been quite a number of things to get excited about this preseason. Sengun's 13 assist performance against the Utah Jazz gave fans a glimpse of what him fully operating as an offensive hub could like, and his ability to facilitate not just from the paint but also from the top of the key and in transition bode well for a budding Rockets' offense this season.

Players like Thompson and Tari Eason, meanwhile, looked exceedingly comfortable in their evolving roles, getting to the rim with ease and playing their part in freeing up the offense by cutting to the basket rather routinely.

The biggest concern with Houston last season was that they were too inexperienced to make a deep playoff run. With Durant on the roster, and a young core becoming increasingly comfortable in their skill-sets, the Rockets could prove to be an exceedingly dangerous team this season.