Rockets Notes: Offseason, Young Players, Growth, More
Rockets general manager Rafael Stone and head coach Ime Udoka addressed the media on Monday, a few days after the team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight season. Stone referred to the 2025/26 campaign as “frustrating and disappointing,” per Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required).
“As is constructed and what we had, we still feel we should have won more than 52 (games). Still should have won the first-round series,” Udoka said. “We had some injuries there and (the Lakers) did as well but we had more than enough to get it done.”
While Stone said Houston would look at several pathways to improvement, he expects the team to be better in ’26/27 due to the injury returns of Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams — both of whom are on track to be fully healthy at the start of next season — and continued growth from the young core.
“My expectation is that Tari (Eason), Jabari (Smith Jr.), Reed (Sheppard), Alpi (Alperen Şengün) and Amen (Thompson) all need to be way better basketball players next year and I think they should be,” Stone said. “That’s on them. It’s on us. But I expect that growth from them.”
Stone also addressed the contract situations of Eason and Thompson, Shankar writes. Eason will be a restricted free agent this summer, while Thompson will be eligible for a rookie scale extension. Although Stone noted things could change, he’s high on both players and expects them to be on the roster for the foreseeable future.
Re-signing Eason would likely push the Rockets over the luxury tax again next season, Shankar notes, and Stone said owner Tilman Fertitta is willing to foot the bill.
“I don’t see Tilman ever wanting to take a step back that isn’t strategic,” Stone said. “If we weren’t (in the tax), it’s because of some opportunity to do something else that is basketball-related.”
We have more from Houston:
- Explaining why the Rockets decided not to pursue a point guard ahead of the deadline in the wake of VanVleet’s injury, Stone said the players who were available wouldn’t have been difference-makers. “No one guards (some point guards) after they make the initial pass and then on the other end, they’re just a sieve,” he said, per Shankar. “And those players do exist in the NBA. There’s quite a few of them and they’re available. But I didn’t think that would make us better on the whole.”
- According to Shankar, Stone said the Rockets would like to add more shooting — but not if doing so would negatively impact other parts of the team. “I don’t know that we’re gonna get a shooter who can’t do anything else but trying to find a quality player who, maybe their strength is shooting, I think that makes some sense,” Stone said.
- In another subscriber-only story, Shankar recaps the Rockets’ season, writing that the ultimate outcome was disappointing for a team that entered ’25/26 with championship aspirations. Still, it’s not as though the season was a total lost cause, as many of Houston’s young played improved in ’25/26, even if none looked like stars in the playoffs.
- In a third article for The Houston Chronicle (subscriber link), Shankar lists five key storylines to monitor this offseason, including whether Eason will be on the roster, what an extension for Thompson might look like, and whether VanVleet could re-sign with the club on a new contract rather than exercising his $25MM player option for ’26/27.
Rockets Notes: Durant, Eason, Udoka, Stone, Sengun
After falling in seven games last season in the first playoff appearance for their young core, the Rockets traded for Kevin Durant to help them reach a higher level. Their next moves are uncertain following this year’s first-round loss to the short-handed Lakers, according to William Guillory and Sam Amick of The Athletic.
Durant missed almost the entire playoff series, first with a right knee contusion that kept him out of Game 1, then with a left ankle sprain and bone bruise that sidelined him for Games 3 through 6. In his lone appearance, he had 23 points, six rebounds and four assists along with nine turnovers in a Game 2 loss.
Coach Ime Udoka provided an update on Durant prior to Friday’s game, indicating that he wasn’t close to returning, Guillory tweets.
“The mobility is probably the biggest (issue),” Udoka said. “There is some pain. That’s something he’d have to tolerate. … Certain movements are bothering him for sure. He’s done some things on-court, but he’s limited with those. When you can’t do specific movements that hurt you or bother you, you can’t progress.”
The 37-year-old Durant was productive and surprisingly durable during his first season in Houston, leading the team in scoring and finishing second in the league in minutes while playing 78 games. However, Guillory and Amick confirm that allegations Durant trashed current and former teammates – including Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. – while using a burner account in group chats harmed team chemistry.
Several league sources with close ties to Rockets players confirm to the authors that the controversy brought a “significant distraction” to the team that was “never truly resolved internally.” Teammates reportedly agreed to keep their reactions to the situation private, and it’s not clear if Durant admitted that the accounts belonged to him.
Lingering bitterness over that situation is one of several factors that could determine whether Durant remains in Houston next season. At $43.9MM, he’ll be the highest-paid player on a team that’s hovering close to the tax line, and he holds a $46MM player option for 2027/28, so he’ll essentially be entering the season with an expiring contract. Guillory and Amick also cite concerns that the offense stagnated around Durant and Sengun, as teammates were unable to consistently hit shots to give them room to operate.
There’s more from Houston:
- Working out a new contract for restricted free agent Tari Eason will be among the Rockets’ offseason priorities, Guillory and Amick add. They report that the sides came close to an agreement worth more than $100MM before the October deadline, but decided to revisit negotiations this summer. While Eason appears to be a good investment at age 24, the authors point out that the roster is already becoming expensive, and Amen Thompson may sign a five-year extension valued at more than $250MM.
- There are no plans to replace either Udoka or general manager Rafael Stone, sources tell Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports. Ownership still has confidence in the team’s leadership structure, according to Iko, believing that the Rockets aren’t far behind Oklahoma City and San Antonio with Durant, Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams all healthy. However, nothing is off the table in terms of upgrading the roster, Iko adds.
- Sengun, who has been mentioned as a possible trade chip if the Rockets pursue another star, addressed those rumors in a post-game session with the media on Friday, relays Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops. “I cannot do anything about those conversations,” Sengun said. “It is what it is. You stay with it. That’s the front office’s job to do it. I cannot do anything about it. But wherever I go or stay over here, I’m just going to stick with it, doing what I’m doing.”
Rockets Notes: Smith, Sheppard, Young Core, Durant
Fourth-year forward Jabari Smith Jr. raised some eyebrows when he said the Rockets were “obviously the better team” ahead of Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Lakers, but he backed up the statement by helping his team stave off elimination again, per Matt Young of The Houston Chronicle.
“It’s just a mindset to have,” said Smith, who had a team-high 22 points, seven rebounds and two blocks while playing solid defense. “I don’t care who we play, I don’t care what team I’m on. When we were winning 22 games (in his rookie season), I would probably have said we were the better team every night. I mean, people are gonna take it how they want to take it, but I don’t care. Whoever I’m with on the court. I’m gonna think that my team is better than the other team.”
The Rockets lost the first three games of the series, blowing a lead late in Game 3. But they now have a chance to even the series at three games apiece on Friday when they return to Houston.
Smith only averaged 20.4 minutes per game in last year’s playoffs, Young notes, but he’s at 42.0 MPG through five games in 2026. The former third overall pick has averaged 19.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG and 1.2 SPG in the series, which he’s hoping to extend further on Friday night.
“You can’t just say it and then come out and tuck your tail,” Smith said of his comment. “You’ve got to get out there fighting and do the things that it takes to win. So, I’m gonna stand on that statement, and we’ve just got to keep proving it.”
We have more from Houston:
- Late-game miscues from Smith and Reed Sheppard contributed to the Rockets’ Game 3 collapse, but Sheppard was more composed with the Lakers attempting another comeback on Wednesday, as Varun Shankar writes for The Houston Chronicle. The second-year guard made some key plays down the stretch, scoring four straight points after the Lakers went on a 11-1 run to get the game within three (Twitter video link). “We didn’t want to let that happen again,” said Sheppard, who played through a cold.
- No matter what happens the rest of the series, young players like Smith, Sheppard, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason have shown significant growth over the past two games, according to William Guillory of The Athletic. The Rockets have held L.A. below 100 points each of the past two contests. “Big-time performances by everybody across the board,” head coach Ime Udoka said Wednesday. “You start this really young lineup, and they are somewhat battle-tested now. (We needed to) show growth in certain moments and progress in certain moments. Obviously, in a game situation when you turn the ball over twice and foul a shooter (in Game 3’s collapse), you want to show growth, and I think we did that tonight.”
- ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Thursday morning that Kevin Durant (left ankle sprain) will remain sidelined for Game 6. The team hasn’t formally ruled him out yet, but he’s listed as doubtful, Guillory tweets, which suggests he’s unlikely to play.
Rockets Notes: Sengun, Eason, Smith Jr., Sheppard
The Rockets‘ 115-96 victory in Game 4 of their first-round series against the Lakers on Sunday gave them a glimmer of hope they can erase a 3-0 deficit. Game 5 is scheduled for Wednesday and Houston center Alperen Sengun is optimistic his team can bring the series back to Houston for a Game 6.
“The mood is good. We got one, but we’re not happy with it,” Sengun said, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net relays. “We’re going back to L.A. to fight again, no matter what. … I think we have been confident, just missing the shots. In the last game, we played with pace. We made them turn over a lot. Everybody did their job great. I think everybody is still hungry, and we are going over there to get another one, and come back home, and make them a little nervous.”
Sengun has averaged 22.8 points, 1o.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game in the series.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- Tari Eason played a huge role in the Game 4 win. He scored 20 points while hounding LeBron James on defense. The Lakers star had just 10 points with eight turnovers. “He’s just always flying around,” fellow forward Jabari Smith Jr. said, per Varun Shankar of the Houston Chronicle. “He always ends up coming up with a loose ball that just randomly seems like it just sticks to his hand. I’m used to it by now.” Eason will be a restricted free agent after the season.
- Speaking of Smith, he’s brimming with confidence that Game 4 was a turnaround rather than an aberration. “We’re obviously the better team, I feel,” he told Shankar at the team’s Tuesday practice. Smith went on to say that Houston is better than the Lakers “from top to bottom.”
- Reed Sheppard had a rough rookie season after being selected with the No. 3 pick of the 2024 draft, He told Shakeia Taylor of The Athletic it took a toll on him. “It was tough. It was different. I wasn’t used to anything like that,” Sheppard said. The second-year guard has appeared in every game this season, including 21 regular season starts. He has scored exactly 17 points in three of the four games against the Lakers. “I think a lot of it is just trust in yourself. I’ve played basketball my whole life, and I’ve been in moments that you dream of as a little kid,” Sheppard said. “So, now that I’m here, it’s like just have fun, trust in yourself and trust the work that you put in.”
- Kevin Durant has been ruled out of Game 5. Get the details here.
Rockets’ Kevin Durant Ruled Out For Game 5
Kevin Durant has been ruled out for Game 5 of the Rockets’ first-round series against the Lakers on Wednesday, Law Murray of The Athletic tweets.
Durant has only appeared in one game during the series. The star forward missed the last two games due to a left ankle sprain and bone bruise and didn’t participate in practice with the Rockets on Tuesday before they left for California, according to Kristie Rieken of The Associated Press. He was seen running on an anti-gravity treadmill.
Coach Ime Udoka provided an update on Durant, who missed Game 1 with a right knee injury, before the team headed out.
“We’ll see,” Udoka said. “It is day to day, game to game. But we’ll have to get on the court and do some things, and he didn’t participate in practice today. But he’s doing the conditioning and other aspects to try to get back.”
Durant scored 23 points in 41 minutes during the team’s Game 2 loss. In Game 4, Tari Eason supplied 20 points, eight rebounds and five steals in place of Durant as Houston staved off elimination.
On the Lakers’ side, Austin Reaves is listed as questionable. He hasn’t played in the series due to a left oblique muscle strain but is reportedly optimistic about returning for Game 5.
Injury Notes: Durant, Reaves, Embiid, Edwards, Gordon
Kevin Durant will miss Game 3 for the Rockets on Friday due to a left ankle sprain, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (via Twitter). Durant had previously been listed as questionable after suiting up for Game 2’s loss. He missed Game 1 due to an unrelated knee injury.
Before the announcement of Durant’s status, head coach Ime Udoka said that if Durant couldn’t play, Reed Sheppard and Tari Eason would fill out the starting five alongside Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, and Jabari Smith Jr., per Yahoo’s Kelly Iko (Twitter link). Sharania notes (via Twitter) that this would be the second-youngest starting lineup in playoff history.
According to The Athletic’s Will Guillory (via Twitter), Udoka said the team is looking at using more small-ball units in Game 3, which could mean that Dorian Finney-Smith sees his first action of the postseason.
On the Lakers’ side of the injury report, guard Austin Reaves has been ruled out as well, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link). Head coach JJ Redick told reporters during his pregame media session that Reaves would go through warm-ups at 5:45 pm local time and that the team would make a decision on his availability at that point (Twitter link via McMenamin).
Reaves, who has been sidelined since April 2 with an oblique injury, has been doing full-contact five-on-five work, Redick said (Twitter link via Dan Woike of The Athletic). It sounds like he’ll have a decent chance to play in Game 4.
We have more injury notes from around the league:
- Joel Embiid is out for the Sixers in Game 3 against the Celtics on Friday, Tim Bontemps writes for ESPN. The star center, who underwent an emergency appendectomy earlier this month, had previously been upgraded to doubtful, but isn’t yet cleared to return. “He’s just not ready,” coach Nick Nurse said pregame. “He’s lifted some, he’s got on court a bit, but we’re still at two weeks and a day, I think. So we’re just not ready yet.”
- Anthony Edwards is not on the injury report for the Timberwolves‘ Game 4 on Saturday, the team announced (via Twitter). He had previously been listed as questionable for each of the first three games of the series due to a knee ailment. “I think it’s definitely still something that we’re managing and he’s managing but all signs are pointing that it is getting better,” coach Chris Finch said when asked about the injury.
- The Nuggets are in must-win territory as they go into Game 4 down 2-1, but they still lack clarity on Aaron Gordon‘s status. According to ESPN’s Anthony Slater (Twitter link), the versatile forward is listed as questionable after doing a walk-through at practice and icing his calf. Gordon missed Game 3 due to calf tightness. Another injured Nuggets wing, Peyton Watson, remains out for Game 4 due to his hamstring strain, Slater adds.
Southwest Notes: Rockets, Capela, Pelicans, Coward
After being eliminated in the first round of the 2025 playoffs due in large part to their offensive struggles, the Rockets went out and traded for Kevin Durant last summer. But as good as Durant has been over the course of the season, he hasn’t solved the team’s scoring issues, according to William Guillory of The Athletic.
As Guillory details, after missing Durant in the first game due to a knee injury, the Rockets were even worse offensively in his return in Game 2. Although the star forward made 7-of-12 shots from the floor and scored 23 points, he consistently faced double-teams and committed nine turnovers, matching his career playoff high.
The Rockets have controlled the possession battle against the Lakers, attempting 44 more field goals than Los Angeles through two games. But Houston has been outscored by 16 points and failed to reach the 100-point threshold in either game, with Alperen Sengun (15-of-39), Jabari Smith Jr. (12-of-30), and Reed Sheppard (6-of-24) not scoring efficiently.
“I definitely need to be aggressive when I get the ball to the middle. I’m just missing so many easy shots,” Sengun said after Tuesday’s Game 2 loss, per Guillory. “I need to get back to who I am and dominate the paint when I have the ball. (I’ve got to) help KD a little bit and make my teammates better as well. … I’m not missing from long distance. I’m missing from under the rim. I’ve got to make those.”
The Rockets converted just 7-of-29 (24.1%) three-point attempts on Tuesday, with Sheppard – their leading outside shooter during the regular season -only playing 11 minutes due to the fact that he hasn’t fully earned head coach Ime Udoka‘s trust on the defensive end of the court.
As Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) points out, the Rockets lack reliable three-point shooters who can hold their own defensively. Dorian Finney-Smith, Houston’s big 2025 free agent addition, was supposed to be that kind of player but hasn’t looked like his usual self since returning from offseason ankle surgery. Tari Eason also has a three-and-D profile, but he has been up and down all season, including in this series so far — after hitting 7-of-7 shots from the floor in Game 1, he made just 4-of-14 in Game 2.
As the Rockets head back home looking to turn their series around, here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Earlier in the season, former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton griped about the Lakers “trying to make me Clint Capela,” a reference to his role within the team’s offense. With his Rockets facing Ayton’s Lakers in the playoffs, Capela told Melissa Rohlin of The California Post that he was “surprised” when he learned of Ayton’s comments. “I don’t know why I’m in someone else’s head. I don’t talk to the guy,” Capela said. “I mean for me, in my career, I did what I did for my team, had a lot of success. So, it worked out for me.”
- The Pelicans have at least 25 vacancies across their basketball and business operations departments, according to Shamit Dua of In The N.O., who reports (via Twitter) that the medical and performance team has seven openings. As Dua explains (via Twitter), while many of those vacancies are the result of an organizational restructuring, some staff members also left the team at season’s end because they didn’t know whether or not their contracts would be renewed.
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) previews the Pelicans‘ offseason, evaluating how they might go about upgrading their frontcourt and weighing which of the team’s veterans are the likeliest summer trade candidates. Based on the current make-up of New Orleans’ roster, Gozlan believes the front office should consider the possibility of rebuilding around Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears and moving several vets.
- After a promising rookie year, forward Cedric Coward is expected to play for the Grizzlies‘ Summer League team ahead of his second NBA season, according to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal, who takes a look at what other young players on Memphis’ roster are likeliest to join Coward.
Rockets Notes: Durant, Finney-Smith, VanVleet, Adams, Smith
In a lengthy interview with Varun Shankar of the Houston Chronicle (subscription required), general manager Rafael Stone stated that the Rockets are “very happy” with what they’ve gotten from Kevin Durant since trading for him last summer and expressed satisfaction with the steps forward the team’s younger players have taken over the course of the 2025/26 season.
Stone added that he remains high on the Rockets’ roster and would’ve liked to see it fully healthy, with starting point guard Fred VanVleet available. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll simply run back the same group and hope for better health luck, but Houston’s general manager also suggested that he’s not anticipating a roster overhaul this summer.
“Someone in my shoes should never say I’m going to make huge changes or I’m not going to,” Stone said. “There are teams I suppose that have run their course where players are older, maybe a reset is needed. I guess that was the first year of my tenure. But since then, you do what the market dictates and the opportunities presented to yourself. But I like this team. I think we’ve seen growth throughout the course of the year with individual players getting better.“
Stone also addressed last season’s free agent addition of Dorian Finney-Smith, which hasn’t worked out like the team had hoped. Finney-Smith’s season debut happened later than expected due to his recovery from offseason ankle surgery and he registered career lows in points (3.3) and minutes (16.8) per game, as well as field goal percentage (33.3%) and three-point percentage (27.0%). Still, Stone said he didn’t regret the signing and that it wouldn’t change how the front office operates going forward.
“I mean, I would do that acquisition again,” he told Shankar. “I think the player he was the last few years really fits our style of play and I expect he’s going to be a super contributing member next year. Everything is a calculated risk, and we were obviously not surprised that he had surgery, he’d had it months before we (signed) him and we understood that it takes time to come back and that there’s some risk when one comes back, that it’s not fluid, which in this case turned out to be the case. There’s risk in every single transaction you do.”
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- According to Stone, both VanVleet (ACL tear) and center Steven Adams (ankle surgery) are making good progress in their injury recoveries and remain on schedule to return to action in the fall. “They should be fully cleared well in time to ramp up for the season,” the GM told Shankar.
- Stone is confident about VanVleet’s ability to reintegrate into the lineup next season and play alongside Reed Sheppard and/or Amen Thompson, referring to the veteran point guard as an “enhancer” who makes other players better. During his ACL recovery, he had to do that from the sidelines by imparting his knowledge to Sheppard and Thompson as they took over point guard duties. “I’ve watched Fred play pretty much my whole life … he’s been a great leader, especially for me, a great coach,” Sheppard said, per Shankar (subscription required). “He’s just been able to show me different things and it’s easier to learn and get into it when it’s a guy like Fred and you watched him play and watched him do it.”
- Former No. 3 overall pick Jabari Smith Jr. admits that he came into the NBA envisioning himself as the sort of primary scorer who “gets the ball every play,” but the Rockets have appreciated his willingness to sacrifice and take on the sort of complementary roles the club needed from him, Shankar writes in another Chronicle story (subscription required). “Jabari is the ultimate pro and a selfless player,” Udoka said. “He understands what the team needs and provides a bunch of different roles for the team but as most young guys are, he’s ambitious.” Smith’s five-year, $122MM rookie scale extension will begin in 2026/27.
- In yet another article for the Chronicle (subscription required), Shankar identifies stars Durant and Alperen Sengun and role player Tari Eason as the three Rockets with the most at stake in the team’s first-round playoff series vs. the Lakers. Eason will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer, so a strong postseason could increase his chances of securing a lucrative long-term contract.
Southwest Notes: Wemby, Champagnie, Pels, Rockets, Davison
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama missed last Thursday’s win at the Clippers with a right ankle injury that has been bothering him for multiple weeks, writes Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News.
“That ankle is still angry at him,” head coach Mitch Johnson said.
Despite the discomfort, the two-time All-Star big man has been putting up spectacular statistics lately, McDonald notes, and Johnson suggested Wembanyama was held out Thursday for precautionary reasons — it was the second night of a back-to-back.
Wembanyama, 22, needs to play in two of San Antonio’s final four regular season games to qualify for major postseason awards. He’s only at 62 appearances right now, but the NBA Cup final counts toward the 65-game minimum requirement even though the statistics from that game aren’t officially recorded.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Julian Champagnie set the Spurs‘ single-season record for three-pointers made in Saturday’s overtime loss in Denver, per McDonald. The fourth-year small forward converted six threes during the game, moving him up to 192 on the season, one past Danny Green, who set the previous record in 2014/15. “Obviously I put the work in and I’m confident in my own abilities,” the 24-year-old Champagnie said, “but any record you get to break in this league is a blessing.”
- The Pelicans aren’t trying to lose games because they don’t control their first-round pick, but they haven’t had any success trying to win games lately either, according to Rod Walker of NOLA.com. New Orleans blew a 17-point lead during Friday’s loss at Sacramento, then followed that up with a four-point home loss to Orlando. The Pelicans are riding an eight-game losing streak with three games left on their schedule.
- Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has been rotating between Tari Eason and Reed Sheppard as the fifth starter the past couple weeks. William Guillory of The Athletic examines which player makes sense to stick in the starting unit, suggesting that Eason gives the team a higher floor while Sheppard provides a higher ceiling. “Me and Tari have talked to each other, and neither one of us care who starts,” Sheppard said. “It doesn’t matter to us. We just want to win.” Who finishes the game is ultimately more important than who starts, Guillory observes, but this could also be an important “crossroads” for both Houston and Sheppard, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 draft.
- Fourth-year guard JD Davison has reached the 50-game active limit and won’t be able to suit up for the Rockets‘ final four regular season games unless he’s promoted to a standard contract, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Davison, last season’s G League MVP as a member of the Celtics, is currently on a two-way contract. The Rockets have also reached their under-15 limit, Smith adds, so unless they add a 15th player, their other two-way players can’t be active for the rest of the season either.
Southwest Notes: Wemby, Harper, Zion, Rockets
In recent days, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lakers guard Luka Doncic have each declined when given the opportunity to campaign for Most Valuable Players honors. However, Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama doesn’t regret arguing his own case for MVP last week. In fact, he doubled down on Wednesday night after a monster game in Golden State in which he had 41 points, 18 rebounds, and three blocks on 16-of-22 shooting in just 29 minutes.
“I do care deeply about (the MVP award),” Wembanyama told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt (story via Anthony Slater of ESPN.com). “I think that of the greats that are in the Hall of Fame — or the best of all time — they have fought and grabbed everything they could grab early on in their career. If I want to make my spot among the greats, I got to try to not miss any occasion to put my name up there.”
The Spurs have gone 26-2 since the start of February and Wembanyama has played some of his best basketball as of late, including averaging 30.0 points and 15.8 rebounds in 28.8 minutes per game in his past five outings. However, the Thunder – winners of 15 of their last 16 games – and Gilgeous-Alexander (three 40-point games in his last eight contests) have been just as hot, so the OKC guard remains the betting favorite for MVP.
Still, as Slater writes, even if he isn’t named MVP, Wembanyama is a lock to claim the Defensive Player of the Year award. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr referred to the Spurs star on Wednesday as “obviously the best defensive player in the league.”
“He’s got unbelievable confidence now,” Kerr said. “He looks like he knows exactly what to do on both ends. His first couple years, he looked young at times. He doesn’t look young anymore. He just looks like he knows exactly what he’s doing. Dominated the glass. There’s plays you can’t do anything. Several lobs where it looked like a Nerf hoop. He’s brilliant.”
We have more from around the Southwest:
- Last year’s No. 2 overall pick Dylan Harper is averaging just 22.3 minutes per game this season, far below what fellow top-five picks like Cooper Flagg, VJ Edgecombe, and Kon Knueppel are playing. However, the Spurs guard tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape that playing rotation minutes for a team with the potential to make a deep playoff run makes the trade-off well worth it. “That’s every kid’s dream, to play on the big stages,” Harper said. “I might come off the bench, but in a month or so, I will be playing in the playoffs. Not many rookies can say that they can do that at a high level and play meaningful minutes.”
- While Zion Williamson‘s camp hasn’t been given any indication that the Pelicans will look to trade him this summer, many outside observers are expecting it to happen, given the forward’s injury history and his awkward fit alongside new cornerstone Derik Queen, writes Yaron Weitzman of Yahoo Sports. For his part, Williamson recognizes his long-term future in New Orleans is far from assured. “New Orleans is home for me. It’s where I want to be,” he told Weitzman. “But at the end of the day, if we’re going to be realistic about it, the NBA is a business. I could be traded in the offseason, or I could be traded before (next season’s) trade deadline. Not that I want that to happen, but that’s just the realism of it.”
- Rockets head coach Ime Udoka inserted Tari Eason into his starting five on Tuesday vs. New York for matchup purposes before Reed Sheppard reclaimed his starting role on Wednesday vs. Milwaukee, as Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle details in a pair of subscriber-only stories. The moves paid dividends — the starting lineup with Eason outscored the Knicks 43-25 in 14 minutes in Tuesday’s win, while the same group with Sheppard outscored the Bucks 39-21 in just under 13 minutes in Wednesday’s victory. “(We) want to formulate what we want to go to this late in the season and getting into the playoffs,” Udoka said of his lineup tweaks. “Got five, six more games to figure that out.”