It hasn’t been the earth-shattering offseason that some Houston Rockets fans wanted. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been consequential.
Marcus Smart is a significant addition. There’s some hope (isn’t there? Some?) that Bogdan Bogdanovic has a bounce-back year. Bruce Thornton looks like he could crack the rotation.
There’s also a returning Fred VanVleet (optimism levels may vary) and Steven Adams, plus the potential for internal development from young players. So, the Rockets have plenty of opportunity
to improve on their 2025-26 win total.
According to the results of the latest SB Nation Reacts poll, you mostly agreed.
Rockets expected to improve by fans
So, there it is.
A sturdy 55% of you think the Rockets will get better. A solid 27% think they’ll stagnate, and 18% of you are not invited to my birthday party.
If there’s any valid reason why this team could worsen, it would be the competition rising. The Utah Jazz will be ready to compete. The Minnesota Timberwolves added LaMelo Ball. Even the Los Angeles Lakers might look more cohesive after dropping LeBron James and signing Walker Kessler:
Although they’ll miss Smart very badly.
Likely, the Rockets’ front office isn’t even thinking about regular season wins. They’ve been there and done that at this point. The more meaningful bar for success in 2026-27 will be playoff performance. The Rockets need to win a series, or there will likely be major consequences.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The subject is the upcoming season. You expect the Rockets to get better, and it’s a reasonable expectation. They ought to have better health luck by virtue of sheer probability, and they’ve made some sneaky additions:
Even if they didn’t rock your world.
Want to put your money where your mouth is? Find your way to FanDuel, who are kind enough to sponsor these polls. You can bet on the Rockets’ regular season win total, and lots of other stuff if you’re so inclined.
