The opening night loss for the Houston Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder led to more discourse over if the Rockets are title contenders yet. Houston had the second-best record in the Western Conference last season and added an all-time great in Kevin Durant. The Thunder coming back to win soured Houston’s first game, but the 1-point game proved that the Rockets held their own against the defending champions.
Durant still felt that the talk of the Rockets being title contenders needs more time, and he shut down the idea that he is already thinking about the NBA Championship via Marc Spears and Andscape:
“I mean, I don’t even look at a title. It’s Game 1, bro. I just want to solidify our offense and defense even more. We will know more about our team as the season progresses. But I’m not looking at championships or playoffs. It’s about Game 2, how we can be better.”
This is a smart approach for a veteran like Durant, who has seen the best case and worst case scenarios for joining promising teams. Both the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns tenures of Durant’s career featured title contention, yet zero postseason runs going past the second round before getting traded to Houston.
Durant Acknowledges Fred VanVleet Loss
The biggest negative factor surrounding the Rockets is that they lost their starting point guard less than a month before the season started. Fred VanVleet re-signed with Houston and was the perfect veteran point guard to help the young roster develop faster in recent years. Durant expressed the disappointment he feels for VanVleet and the loss for the team.
“He took less money to stay with the team,” Durant said. “He is a veteran presence, a leader in the locker room who was going to have a lot of opportunities to showcase his game and have more space. It’s tough for Freddy, but he’s a dog.”
VanVleet is not expected to return this season and will need full recovery time to ensure that he’s able to play at a high-level next season. Durant and VanVleet were considered the closers in late game situations, but Alperen Sengun hit some big shots in the season opener to put his name in that conversation.
Pressure Is Still Weighing On Durant
Durant has had the expectations of contending for a title every season since he led Oklahoma City to success in the early 2000s. Houston having such a great run last season and only losing the flawed combination of Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks for Durant should still see a great season coming for the franchise.
Despite telling fans and pundits to pump the brakes on talking about his team as title contenders, Durant didn’t say he does not expect to contend at the end of the season. The Rockets will have as good a chance as most upper echelon West teams to make an impact. Durant and Sengun are expected to be the All-Stars leading the team to great success.
Time will tell if Houston can hold their own against teams like the Thunder, Denver Nuggets, and Golden State Warriors when all teams are healthy. Durant deserves some credit for not forcing the situation and looking forward to the evolution of going through a long season being more important than rushing to be called contenders.
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