The Houston Rockets looked poised to blow the NBA away this season. They were planning an opening night invasion of the contender’s club, taking on the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. However, fate dealt them a devastating setback. Their starting (and more or less only) point guard, Fred VanVleet, will be out for the season with a torn ACL. Still-hopeful Rockets fans must look to history for some examples of aspiring contenders who faced lift-off malfunctions.
What History Says About The Rockets’ VanVleet Injury
The Opening Night Calamity
Few can forget the Boston Celtics “super team” that never was. Live dribble revolutionary Kyrie Irving was to be flanked by All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Al Horford. The hype wasn’t just around the three fringe All-Stars that made up its core, but the tremendous glut of depth that existed behind them. That depth would be tested when the prized jewel free agent, Hayward, fractured his leg on opening night. This was the 2017-18 season, Jayson Tatum‘s rookie year. Tatum and 2017-18 sophomore Jaylen Brown would eventually bring a championship to the franchise in 2023-24. That same season proved to be Hayward’s last before retirement.
Houston’s situation has some passing similarities. Despite the setback, the Rockets still have depth and a premier isolation scorer in Kevin Durant. They also have a couple of young build-around talents in Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson. They aren’t a rookie and a sophomore, but like Tatum and Brown, they’re expected to stay put for the foreseeable future. Even if the Rockets’ chances at a title are stymied for this season, any progress in the playoffs at all would be huge for these two young stars.
The Rockets also have an actual sophomore who will certainly be put to the test by the VanVleet injury. After an underwhelming rookie season, Reed Sheppard will get plenty of opportunities in year two. The 2017-18 playoffs were a coming-out party for Tatum and Brown. They made the conference finals despite also losing Irving before the first round. A breakout season from Sheppard would certainly cure a lot of Houston headaches. If it doesn’t materialize, the Rockets could be in for a bumpy ride. Will it be too much to put on the young player’s shoulders?
The Butler(less) Did It
History does have one even more encouraging titbit for despondent Rockets fans. An NBA champion that saw one of its key starters cut down only 29 games into the season. That would be the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks—the casualty in question: Caron Butler.
Butler averaged 29.9 minutes per game and 15.0 points over his 29 games for the Mavericks that season. He started every game and was viewed as a key contributor. In the 2009-10 playoffs, he averaged 19.7 points per contest.
However, over the Mavs’ 2010-11 championship playoff run, Shawn Marion would start every game at the small forward position. What they lost in scoring, they made up for with Marion’s suffocating perimeter defense. It’s possible the Rockets will start Sheppard, but more likely they’ll lean even harder into their defensive identity instead.
VanVleet’s importance to the Rockets is realistically much higher than Butler’s was to the Mavs. That would be true of the starting point guard versus the starting small forward for most teams. With the way the jumbo ball Rockets have built their team over the last two seasons, it’s especially true in this case. The Rockets’ roster was already short of guard depth. A midseason trade looks even more likely now than it did before.
The Last Word
It’s not just Rockets fans wishing VanVleet a speedy recovery. No basketball fan wants to see a contender robbed of its floor general before the season is even underway. VanVleet, in particular, is a highly regarded veteran across the league. His bet-on-yourself backstory and his generally stoic professionalism are an inspiration to young hoopers everywhere. Hopefully, these few tidbits from history can “inspire” some Rockets fans not to lose hope in 2024-25 just yet.
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