always count on Sundays with the NFL on CBS and Paramount+. Breaking NBA news. Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet has torn his ACL. According to multiple reports, he averaged 14 points, five and a half assists a game for the rockets last season. They finished second in the West.
A year ago, they added Kevin Durant this offseason looking to become a real title contender. But now they’re going to be without their number one point guard for potentially the entire season. Let’s get John Gonzalez in here. John, how does this impact Houston’s title hopes? Because they just gave him a two year, $50 million deal.
They clearly thought he was a key piece for this team. Yeah it’s not ideal Chris. Right I mean we’re late September right now. You’re about to have media days. You’re about to have teams reporting for training camp.
And this is a team, as you mentioned, that has designs on potentially winning the Western Conference, advancing to the NBA finals this year, at the very least, challenging the defending champion OKC Thunder in the Western Conference.
This is going to make it more difficult now. They went out and traded for Kevin Durant. They’ve got a really good deep loaded team. But I was just going through their roster and I was thinking okay well now what happens with their starting guard position.
Who else do they have on that team. Well they’ve got Reed Sheppard who I like a lot and factored into their plans anyway, but much more as like a bench option is what they were forecasting this season. Chris. Now all of a sudden he’s probably going to get pretty heavy rotation minutes.
The only played 52 games last year.
I like him a lot, but we’ll see. That’s a big load for him. Then after that you’ve got Aaron Holiday right. And then the guards really fall off. You don’t have any proper guards who have full time NBA experience.
So this is going to be one of those situations where they’re going to have to sort of duct tape this thing together on the fly. I also suspect, Chris, that you’re going to get a lot of point Iman Thompson moving forward. But yeah, this is not great news for the Houston Rockets, given the fact that they’ve spent so much money. And you know, they’re they’re spending over the cap here. And you got the apron issues.
Is there anything they can even do outside of just elevating people from within inside the franchise already. Yeah, I would suspect that they’ll look to get creative and add a guard as the season continues before the trade deadline. Because you’re losing a starting player, you’re losing a key rotation piece.
You’re losing somebody who is basically instant offense for that team. Right now, Fred VanVleet is known to be pretty streaky, but that’s a lot of points that you’re taking off the table that all of a sudden you’re going to have to account for now, again, as I mentioned, I really liked what the Houston Rockets did this off season.
They bring in Kevin Durant. They bring in Dorian Finney-smith I was less bullish on Clint Capela. But they liked that double big lineup last year with Alperen Sengun and Stephen Adams. So I guess he’s going to factor into their plans too.
So there’s this is a team that’s going to play through its defense anyway.
But yes losing Fred VanVleet is a lot of offensive scoring that you’re going to have to account for. So I would suspect as the season rolls along, they’re going to look to address that and bring somebody in. Unless unless as I mentioned, I’m really high on Reed Shepard. If all of a sudden Reed Shepard or point Iman Thompson really flash. You know, maybe it’s an in-house thing, but I would suspect that they’d look out.
We just saw the odds in the West knowing what we know now in Fred VanVleet with an ACL injury might not play this entire season. Where would you put them in the pecking order in this conference? I’m not going to drop them down too far here because I do like the makeup of their team again.
They’re a really good defensive team. They bring in Kevin Durant.
Yes, it hurts that you lose Fred VanVleet. The Thunder are still going to be the favorites. I still have the nuggets right behind them. And then I think it’s the rockets. And then a whole bunch of other teams in the Western Conference.
That’s absolutely loaded again this year Chris where you’re looking at maybe 14 teams that think that they’re going to have designs on making the Western Conference at least play in situation this year, because after the rockets you’ve got the Lakers and the Clippers here in LA. You’ve got the Wolves who made two straight Western Conference finals. The Warriors with a full season of Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry and Draymond Green together. Then you’ve got that Grizz Mavs tier. We haven’t even gotten to Wemby and the Spurs.
So yes if you are the Houston Rockets losing Fred VanVleet it doesn’t help your odds any when you’re trying to win an absolutely loaded Western Conference.
However as these things go this is a really deep team and I think that they’re better situated to withstand this injury blow than I think a lot of other teams might be. Yeah. Well preseason is coming up fast. It actually begins for for many teams at the end of next week.
So this is a horrible timing. It’s never a good time for an injury like this, but just horrible timing for the rockets going into the season. John Gonzalez with us as we get news that Fred VanVleet has torn his ACL, looking at the odds to win the whole thing. And it’s the Thunder. They are expected to to repeat.
And they could win a few here with this young core. Then it’s the Cavs from the Eastern Conference at plus 650. The nuggets at 8 to 1. Knicks at plus 950. And there are the Rockets and Lakers at 14 to 1 right now tied for the fifth shortest odds.
