Houston Rockets 2025 Offseason Recap

Houston Rockets 2025 Offseason Recap

Yo, what’s going on, guys? And today we are back doing a video on the Houston Rockets off season recap. If it’s your first channel, if I can speak right there, if it is your first time at the channel, hit that like and subscribe button if you enjoy this type of content. We holistically cover the NBA, all 30 teams, cover the draft, cover international basketball, and whatnot in between. Now, today we’ll be discussing everything that the Houston Rockets did this off season. They made a lot of moves. One might say the biggest move was them going out and getting themselves Kevin Durant. And obviously, I think if you’re a fan of this organization, you would have to agree that so far they put all the cards on the table without having to risk anything. All right. They’re not mortgaging the house to become a contender, but they’re building it up. I’m not going to say similar to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but in an era that prioritizes depth, they are making sure that they have enough of it while having two solid shot creators and Kevin Durant and Alpar Shaun lead the way. So, as I said, hit that like and subscribe button. It will mean a ton. It helps out the channel a ton. But I’d like to hear what you guys have to say in the comments. What do you think of the off seasonason that the O Houston Rockets have had? And do you guys agree with my sentiment that this is a team that is primed to be contenders this coming season? Now, I just also don’t like how like I feel like I should be more in the middle and now I feel like this is better in the middle. Either way, let’s discuss how they kept the core together. Yes, in a year that they brought in Kevin Durant, they didn’t gouge the roster to do it. They were able to keep the core together and not only keep the players that were already on the roster, but bring back the ones that were free agents. Steven Adams, a guy that they love to play backto basket bigs with Steven Allen, Steven Adams and Alpine Shagon being able to play off of one another. Now, Aaron Holiday, Jeff Green, Jun Tate, which Jate was probably the most surprising out of all them. I actually thought JJ Tate was gone, ladies and gentlemen. I thought that was a guy who contending teams were going to want to bring in a point of attack defender that was of his caliber and move forward. But with him staying, that gives them just more and more depth that that what we talked about a few minutes ago, the prior prioritization of depth. And sometimes right now, I feel like when I’m speaking, I’m just not speaking in the fullest of terms. Three sip of coffee cuz that’s what was needed. And Fred Vanble brought back on a cheap deal. Shout out the hoops hype rumors page and of course the Houston Rockets team announcements. Now who came in? They brought back Clint Capella, ladies and gentlemen. Great. Now they have Clink Capella, Mr. Alpen Shigon, Steven Adams as their guys. I love that. Backto back backto backto back bigs who are able to all rebound the ball especially on offense. Protect the rim. And that’s something about Alpurn Shagon that people are going to be like, “Oh, Alpurn Shagon isn’t a good defender.” Well, you didn’t watch basketball last year because Alpurn Shigun statistically actually qualified as one of the better centers in the top half of the league this past season. Ma Udoka has been working with our boy and he’s a fantastic rebounder and a fantastic passer. Quinn Capella isn’t the passer that Steven Adams or Mr. Alper and Shagon is but him technically being the third screen big and it’s because they run a lot of two backto basket big sets where Steven Adams will run screens for or Albert Alberon will run screens for other players and they do it to create a lot of offball movements and create shot opportunities but also they create this almost like they’re both doing gore top screens and they create so much space. So, I expect Clink Capella to be another guy who’s going to be center by committee approach right there that I’m absolutely going to adore. We all know Kevin Durant through that seven team trade. Yeah, there were so many teams involved in that deal, but they were able to get it over the finish line and bring in a shot creator for basically just Jaylen Green and Dylan Brooks where it felt like it was going to be Jaylen Green and Jabari Smith. Not only did they do that, but they extended Jabari Smith to a very, very friendly contract that not only is friendly towards him, but is friendly towards the team in terms of its cap hit. They brought in Dorian Finny Smith, aka DFS, on a four-year deal. That’s a guy who can, you know, score in a double- digit amount while being a 40% three-point shooter. A guy who can grab like seven rebs, rebounds a game, and guard one through four, maybe even some fives. JD Davidson from the Boston Celtics and Isaiah Crawford from the Sacramento Kings both were on two ways last year are going to be on two ways with this team. They also brought in another defensive player and Josh Kogi who people really forget what he was doing with the Suns at one point averaging like for a stretch 16 points a night. He’s a former teammate of Kevin Durant. He’s a point of defender that this team needs. All right. In terms of third layer, like they already have Taran and Mr. Amen Thompson. Now they brought in Mr. Dorian Finny Smith. And by the way, they had J Shantate. So right there, four defenders. Oh, but there’s been in the past where injuries have happened. So if two of those guys are hurt, if three of those guys are hurt, you still are going to have Josh Kogi now. So you have five defenders that in all honestly all five of those guys if they played starting minutes for any team they would be all defense caliber defenders. Now Cam Matthews on exhibit 10 will probably be on the G-League team unless he shocks somebody and one of the two ways gets cut for him. But basically be on the G-League team, spend 60 days there, gets a $50,000 bonus. G-League salary I think bumped up to 60some and change. So, you basically make north of 100 figures playing in North America basketball, specifically in the United States. And I think the G-League even takes care of your housing now. So, it’s a really good deal. And again, he could get himself a two-wave. He surprises the team and earns that and they cut somebody for him, which is possible. Now, who has left? We mentioned it earlier. Dylan Brooks and Jaylen Green was the part of that seven team trade. Jack Landell was waved on a non-G guaranteed contract, which freed up $8 million in cap space. and Cam Whitmore just it was a salary cap crunch and in terms of playing timeline and everything Cam Whitmore was just not fitting where the team was at anymore and they go and send him to a great situation where dude he could be a most improved player candidate like most improved player of the year candidate next year like I honestly if you haven’t for put out a bet yet put those bets out. I’m not a betting guy but hey put one out there. How was that guys? Now let’s move forward. Let’s look at this depth chart. Fred Van Vleet, Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant to Jabari Smith we assume is going to return to the starting lineup lineup or he’ll play that six-man role that he was playing at the end of the year. Alpa and Shagon make out the starting lineup. Now Reed Shepard or Aaron Holiday will duke it out for that final or not final but that backup point guard guard spot rotation because I think they are going to run like three wings off the bench with Josh Kogi, Dorian Finny Smith, Tori Een, Deshawn Tate, and Jeff Green. All five of those dudes I think are going to just take turns replacing Jabari Smith, Kevin Durant, and Mr. Amen Thompson. While Aaron Holidayiday, Reed Shepard, and Mr. Fred Vanble Vleet are going to be guys who will be more of the pure guard rotation and then they’ll go three wings and then a big and like we said, they have three big Steven Adams, Clint Capella, and Kyle Pen Shagon with Jabari Smith being able to play switch big, small ball five, like he’s able to do it. I not like I would say consistently or like long-term minutes, but he is able. So, who is getting paid? Obviously, as you see Kevin Durant making the most money and right now it seems like they’re going to going to do a 2-year $100 million deal or two-year $90 million deal. seems like he’s going to not take the max and is going to leave some money there which seemed to be always the biggest thing with any of this these trades or that were going to happen for Kevin Durant were always hinging and you know a contingent part of the trade was that he was going to resign there and a large part that certain teams weren’t interested in Kevin Durant allegedly was not wanting to pay him the two-year $10 million Max. Now we’re hearing that Houston isn’t probably going to give him that, but it’s going to be maybe a 2-year $150 million annual average value. While Albert Jagon got extended, that’s paying him this year just under $34 million. 25 for Fan Fleet on that extension that he returned to. Stephen Adams making $14 million on the resigned contract. Dorian Finny Smith on that new deal is making 12.7. Jari Smith, I believe, is in the final year of his rookie deal as the new year deal will kick in next year and that’s making 12.35 this year. Reed Sheper second year of a rookie scale contract is making 10.6. Amen Thompson in the third year of a rookie skills contracts making 9.6. Quinn Capella on that three-year deal three-year deal that he just signed making 6.7. Tar East going to be extension eligible is coming up in his fourth season making 5.6 on that standard rookie contract. And I think Tari is going to be someone that they keep. Now let’s look at the payroll. Well, this is a team that you would have thought was going to have to start doing solid cap gymnastics because of the moves that they made. Nah, dude. Raphael Stone. Raphael Stone. Raphael York. I don’t know how to say next in Spanish, but either way, $194.69 million is the total payroll, which basically they’re over the tax line. They’re going to have a tax bill of $7 million. That’s fine. They don’t really care. They are $1.26 million under the or 1.26 mil below the first apron and 13.13 million below the second apron. That’s what they want. They still have the non- taxpayer midle mid-level exception of 1.7. What does that mean? They can basically sign someone if let’s say the minimum my understanding right here they can sign a guy to 1.7 more than the minimum contract whatever their year of service let’s say I think their 10 year it’s 3.3. So, I think they could sign somebody to a 5.5 million flat even contract and use $ 1.7 million of that in the non- taxpayer exception and 3.3 I believe. Someone quote me on that which would allow them to do a little bit of salary gymnastics. But it’s more so if in the sense cuz I don’t know if they could do it for trade. The way that that would actually work is if they were trading for a guy and let’s say they used the trade exception of Cam Whitmore and they were still short $1.7 million, they can use the non-t taxpayer mid-level exception now to Yeah, but the thing is is that that non- taxpayer, they want to probably use that 1.7 in a trade or something because if they don’t get out of the tax, there’ll be a taxpayer mid-level exception moving forward. So whole little sided cap gymnastic things that to watch out for which could be a foreshadow of a trade that happens which maybe they’d want to avoid the tax which would allow them for more cap flexibility down the road which is always possible with how this these contracts are staggered. Now that was cap holds and stuff but I forgot to delete that slide cuz I didn’t like I I didn’t like how it came out. I forgot to delete the stuff about Bob Boanovich and Jack McVy. So, ignore it cuz they technically have cap holds on them according to like spot spot rack and capshets.com. But that’s not what you guys are here for. What are you guys here for? What do we want to talk about? They added Kevin Durant. They didn’t gut the roster by doing so. They got themselves a Kogi, DFS, and Capella all on team friendly deals. They kept cat flexibility. They got defense, both perimeter and interior upgrades. They have 15 dudes or at least 13 dudes, 12 dudes that would be rotational players in an eight-man rotation for 20 of the other teams in the league. They have the versatility positional wise, a lot of wings, a lot of forwards. You could say maybe an extra guard might make you happy, but I think it’s fine. They have a lot of rim pressure with Amen Thompson and Alper and Shagon. Kevin Durant’s more of a three-point shooter at this point, but I really like this. And obviously they were able to keep the main rotation pieces, the grit grinder and Fred Vanble, FVV. Steven Adams seems like a really good locker room guy for them. I like that they kept Jabari in tape. They kept their identity and they have continuity here even though they made a move. But now Emma Yodoka has at his disposal. One of the most switchable lineups. They can play any style. They can go big with Alpine Shagon, Steven Adams or Clink Capella depending if Clint Steven or Clint’s knee holds up knees hold up. And then you also have yourself Kevin Durant who could play shooting I mean not shooting guard small forward in that thing. So you have two bigs, a small forward and Kevin Durant. And then you could have men Thompson at shooting guard and Fred Van Fleet at point guard and you still have Jabari Smith to Een and so many other guys and Dorian Finny Smith, Josh Kogi that then if you wanted to go small you can play Jabari Smith at center as we mentioned earlier. Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Dorian Finny Smith, and Fred Vanble Vleet out there with Jabari Smith or Alpen Shagon at center. And I think they’ve been able to Raphael Stone has been able to take the patient rebuild that they had to this aggressive title push without handicapping themselves or shooting themselves in the foot in under three seasons. Now they’re primed to leap into contender status if everybody takes the leap that is expected. That is good roster construction right there. So, as we wrap up today’s video, I like to hear you guys’ thoughts. What do you think? Comment your opinion. Subscribe for more content. I do work for hoopsipype.com. So, go to hoopsite.com if you guys want to see more work like this. It’d be greatly appreciated. But yeah, that’s everything I had to say right here, guys. If you guys made it to the end, you clearly like this type of stuff. So, subscribing will help out the channel a ton. Like and comment. I’d like to hear what you guys have to say. Till next time, guys. Next, we’ll be doing Golden State. I think is still like oh Indiana because Golden State’s technically incomplete because we’re waiting for the Jonathan Kaminga thing. I should have done that with the Chicago Bulls but at the time I thought Josh Gdy was a locked to go to the Bulls and I’m still hoping for that and it seems like Kaminga is too. I’m you know I think the news that’s coming out is that Kaminga is just going to come on the qualifying offer. So maybe we just do that too but that’s it.

The Houston Rockets made major headlines this summer, landing two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant in a blockbuster trade with the Phoenix Suns. The deal sent Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and five second-rounders to Phoenix, immediately raising Houston’s championship ceiling.

The Rockets also added Dorian Finney-Smith, Clint Capela and Josh Okogie, re-signed key depth pieces, and maintained a strong young core around Durant, Alperen Şengün, and Amen Thompson. With a balance of star power and youth, Houston is set to make a serious push in the Western Conference next season.

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