Despite all their work over the summer to acquire plenty of quality veteran talent – headlined of course by the acquisition of Kevin Durant in a blockbuster trade that caught certain writers unawares – the Houston Rockets have found themselves at an unexpected preseason crossroads.
Fred VanVleet, the teamâs starting point guard and floor general, is set to miss the entire 2025-26 NBA season after tearing his right ACL in an offseason workout. That blow creates an enormous hole in Houstonâs point guard rotation, one that is going to be very hard to miss at short notice.
There is however a plug-and-play veteran who is available, looking for work, and unafraid of a challenge. Therefore, the question is – should the Rockets turn back to a familiar name, and sign Russell Westbrook?
Westbrook’s First Go-Around In Houston
As all Rockets fans will remember, Westbrook is no stranger to Houston. He spent the 2019-20 season with the team, his first in the NBA that was not with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and it was also his only season in a stretch of five consecutive that he failed to average a triple double.
In that campaign, Westbrook averaged 27.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 7.0 assists across 57 games. His relentless energy and downhill attacking style provided a jolt that, at times, made Houston look like a contender. With James Harden still close enough to his prime, Westbrook (after some prompting) finally stopped taking so many long-range jump shots, leaned into what he does best, and put together an excellent streak of competitive play for both himself and his team – until injury, an ill-timed small ball experiment and the global pandemic combined to scupper it.
Five years later, however, the situation for both player and team is much different. Russ is not at the height of his once-considerable powers any more, and is not the type nor level of talent that franchises are built around like they once were. The Rockets meanwhile have completely rebuilt themselves since the end of the previous Westbrook experiment, and are on the ascendency – or at least, they were, until the VanVleet news broke.
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As ageing firebrands go, Westbrook is doing so quite gracefully. He is coming off a season with the Denver Nuggets in which he averaged 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game. He underwent surgery to repair fractures in his right hand in May, from which he is expected to have recovered fully, and while durability is an ever-greater concern with each passing year for any player aged 36, the explosiveness that once defined Russ’s game is still there when called upon..
While young talents such as Amen Thompson (whose point forward potential was already going to be more tapped into this season) and sophomore guard Reed Sheppard (who could use the opportunity to establish himself after a fairly empty rookie campaign) are promising but unproven, neither relying on them not asking Durant or Alperen Åengün to consistently take on primary playmaking duties are ideal solutions.
Westbrook, for all his flaws, still commands defensive attention and can manufacture offense in ways that few veterans on the market can. For a team with playoff ambitions, that matters. And because of a lack of suitors that has plagued him all summer, Russ should be considered very available.
Westbrook’s Lack Of Suitors
Westbrook declined a $3.47 million player option with Denver before free agency began, a move which was expected to be a formality to re-signing to a slightly higher minimum salary deal this summer. However, when Denver failed to do so, interest from other teams proved very sparse. Links to the New York Knicks never seemed to last that long, and the one major suitor Westbrook had – the Sacramento Kings – seemingly never actually put a contract offer on the table.
For the Rockets, who are already working under tight salary constraints, a stop-gap solution that raises the floor of the team without compromising the ceiling offered by the likes of Thompson is surely a desirable outcome. A short-term deal avoids over-reliance and/or upsetting the apple cart, and keeps the developmental path clear for Thompson and Sheppard.
Still, the concerns surrounding Russ, while always overblown, are nonetheless real. Westbrookâs efficiency has never been his strength, and his defensive engagement fluctuates. Too mercurial to ever be shackled, Westbrook’s strengths (his aggression, dynamicism and sheer ability to affect the game) lie right next to his weaknesses (overconfidence, poor shot selection, and spotty clutch-time decision-making). The Rockets cannot afford to let familiarity and convenience dictate their decisions
The Rockets do not need Westbrook to be the All-Star version of himself, nor anything like the player he was in his first go-around with them. They just need him to be steady, healthy, progressive with the ball, and capable of organizing the offense until the youth prove themselves ready for bigger responsibilities. In light of VanVleetâs season-ending injury and the shrinking market for veteran playmakers, Westbrook – if he is willing to accept a defined role and a modest contract, just as he did to some success in Denver last season – the reunion makes some sense.
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