Just a month before the 2025-26 NBA season tips off, the Houston Rockets have been hit with bad news. Rockets starting point guard Fred VanVleet has suffered a torn ACL, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported
Monday.
VanVleet is one of the veteran leaders of a Rockets squad that is entering the year with championship aspirations after a second-place finish in the West last season and the acquisition of NBA superstar Kevin Durant this summer. Now, VanVleet is potentially out for the entire upcoming campaign.
The 31-year-old VanVleet averaged 14.1 points, 5.6 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 35.2 minutes per game last season, while shooting 34.5% on 3s. He appeared in 60 regular-season games, all of them starts. Houston finished the season with a 52-30 record, before being upset in the first round of the playoffs by the seventh-seeded Golden State Warriors in seven games.
The Rockets made waves this summer when they dealt guard Jalen Green, forward Dillon Brooks, the 2025 No. 10 pick (used on center Khaman Maluach) and second-round draft capital to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Durant as part of a larger seven-team deal. With Green gone and VanVleet now injured, the Rockets will need to depend more on young guards Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard.
