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Regardless, this has been a remarkable season of growth for this still very young team. The first two-thirds of the season surrounded the emergence of Alperen Sengun as a bonafide young star and the surprising emergence of Cam Whitmore as a legitimate scorer off the bench despite being a rookie.
In the last half of the season, Jalen Green, who was the subject of trade rumors after a disappointing start for the former second round draft pick, absolutely blew up having one of the best March’s in all of basketball. In addition, rookie Amen Thompson, thrust into a starting role, demonstrated a versatility that could make him a budding star sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, Jabari Smith, Jr. has been a steady and steadily improving presence in the low post.
All this has happened despite missing second-year forward Tari Eason for most of the season due to a leg injury and incorporating a new system with coach Ime Udoka, who was just named Western Conference Coach of the Month for March. Never mind the additions of Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks, both of whom have brought exactly what you would expect from the two veterans.
At 38-37, the Rockets are well ahead of last year’s 22 wins and on pace to perhaps even be better than .500 for the first time in four years. At the beginning of this season, we suggested that the Rockets might make a 12-game leap this season to 34 wins. We believed the likely win total ranged between 30 and 38. They have already met the top range of that projections with seven games remaining.
The improvements on the floor have been sometimes slow and often painful. Defensively, they have remained in the top 10 in defensive rating all season, but poor shooting has seen them drop to the bottom third of the league in offensive rating. Still, a team with only two rotation players shooting better than 37 percent has managed to be fairly resilient, relying on a stingy defense that is Udoka’s calling card.
Perhaps most incredibly, they have gotten better as the season has drawn on, even with the injury to Sengun. Thanks to a somewhat softer schedule and the emergence of Green as a legit star (again), they rattled off 11 straight wins to vault themselves back into playoff contention, something virtually everyone had thought impossible in February.
Credit Udoka with sticking to his philosophies and the players for responding to them. With some health and hopefully some adding shooting, this is a team that should be poised for the postseason next year.
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Jeff Balke
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