The Surprise: Houston Rockets 2024/2025 Quarter Season Review
Growing Up. Welcome 2 Hell. The Polarizer.
We’re officially a quarter of the way into the NBA season, and nobody saw these guys coming. Not like this. The Houston Rockets have blasted out of the gates with a 15-6 record, their best start to a season since 2017/2018, when they won a franchise-record 65 games. So why, seemingly out of nowhere, are these Rockets the surprise of NBA through the season’s first quarter? Plenty of reasons, but the simple fact is this young team is finally growing up, individually, and as a cohesive unit. Jalen Green feels like the old man on this team, and he’s only 22 years old. Sengun is also only 22, and Amen Thompson is a spry 21 years of age. His fellow Terror Twin, Tari Eason is the oldest of the core that Houston’s drafted over the past several years. And Eason’s just 23 years old. Give these guys two or three more years to improve, and the Rockets are going to be a serious problem for the rest of the league for years to come. Just look Houston’s defense for an example of this overall team growth. Swarming and switching, as if they were on a collective string. But it’s not just the defense. The ball movement on offense seems to be at a record high, along with the assists. It always takes time to adjust to a new coaching system. And in Ime Udoka’s second season, everyone’s bought in to his system. And while the Rockets still aren’t shooting the ball at an efficient clip, their offensive rebounding and transition dominance have made up for struggles shooting the rock.
Welcome to Hell. If you’re here, you’re not dead. You’re not suffering in eternity. You’re an opposing player going up against the Rockets, and your offensive game plan is about to be wrecked by the Terror Twins, aka Amen Thompson and Tari Eason, who make up the NBA’s best bench duo. Dillon Brooks still guards the other team’s best player to start the game. But it’s not until the Terror Twins enter a game when Houston really starts to wreak havoc on defense. It’s like a pair of your worst favorite relatives showing up unexpectedly at the last minute, only to sadistically ruin Thanksgiving dinner. It’s not a coincidence that the team’s 13-9 start last season coincided with Eason on the court. Eason missed the final 58 games, and the Rockets weren’t the same team without him. Throw in Amen Thompson’s vast improvement in his second season, and you have the NBA’s best bench duo. And while, “watch these two bench guys play defense” isn’t the most enticing elevator pitch, the Terror Twins live up to their nickname. Watching them decimate a good offense is as fun as watching a red-hot offense go off. They don’t so much play defense. Rather, the Terror Twins hellaciously haunt their opponents souls and terrorize their spirits. Courtesy of these Terror Twins, welcome to the NBA’s version of hell: a confounding, incessantly physical experience that is likely to exhaust any opponent.
And now, allow me to introduce you to Jalen Green. Not many NBA players score 41 points one night, only to score 9 points the next game. Such is the inconsistency that has defined Green’s career as we’re a quarter of the way into his fourth season. Green isn’t only the most polarizing member of the Rockets, he’s arguably the most polarizing player in the entire league. One night he plays with the superstar potential Houston fans hoped he’d blossom into by now. Other nights he’s benched in the fourth quarter for one of the Terror Twins, and it’s resulted in wins. If there’s any silver lining regarding Green, he’s followed suit with his teammates, and made solid improvements on defense. When his offense is on, Green is one of the best two-way players in the NBA. But after a deceptive start, Green’s offensive efficient nights are few and far between. Green is the ultimate basketball enigma: and one the Rockets need to eventually solve if they want to be considered a true championship contender. And despite the 60-win pace Houston is currently on, it’s unlikely they reach that mark, or win the title this year. But whoever is planning to better be ready… these Rockets are coming for the throne sooner than anyone anticipated.