[SHAMS] Fred VanVleet - Torn ACL - Out for the season

Not entirely. That expiring contract could be useful for the Rockets next season.

 

What point guards are even out there? Being able to add Quentin Grimes to our guard rotation would be immensely helpful, but he's a restricted free agent so I don't see a chance in hell of prying him away from the Sixers. Really, the only way I can see it happening is if they decide they can't come to an agreement and so we arrange some sort of sign and trade with them. I don't see another point guard out there fit to even step into the rotation.

Ben Simmons? Patrick Beverley? I just don't think so.

Man, we really just can't have nice things.

 

Possible Trade?

If Amen is elected the starting PG and if JD Davison shows enough in camp to be a viable backup PG, with Holiday as the 3rd, would you be open to trading Reed?

To Philly - Reed and a #2
To Hou - Quentin Grimes

Starting lineup

C - Sengun
PF - Jabari
SF - KD
PG - Amen
SG - Grimes

Bench - JD, Tari, Adams, Clint, DFS, Tate

 

I am still not convinced that FVV was better than Holiday last year.

 

I don’t think they will make a trade until December. They don’t really need a starting PG, they need a starting SG, that can play defense and hit spot up 3 pointers. That is what they were expecting from FVV. If Reed can provide that, they are fine, but it is a tall task. I think we can still be a top of the West team with our defense and the addition of Durant, until they find the solution at SG, be it home grown or through trade.

 

Zero hopes for a championship with our guard rotation. Devastating.

 

Yep they will be forced to trade him somewhere for starting pg, and maybe a fill in backup 5 rookie?
He is a starter most places.

 

Look, this sucks. But Stone built one of the best teams in the league in a mere 4 years, while other teams take a decade or more to rebuild into a mediocre team. He's done an outstanding job. If you can't see that, I genuinely question your intelligence.

 

It's hard to say how good we will be this upcoming year now. Reed on defense is a concern to me still. We have no Dillon Brooks or FVV now. It's a hit but we will see how DFS does and if Jabari has improved.

 

Amen literally spent his entire life prior to the NBA playing pg.

 

Some people are just dumb af.

Im gonna say something controversial, out of the entire starting 5 losing FVV will hurt the least. The reason why FVV was so critical last year is cuz the only other perimeter threat was Jalen who was always inconsistent.

Rox will be fine and will adapt. It would be even better if we kept Cam Whitmore but now Reed and Tari will need to step up.

 

A good take on the Athletic regarding the impact of FVV's injury.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6653617/2025/09/23/fred-van-vleet-injury-rockets-nba/

But gotta say this part of the article was painful to read. Sigh..

 

I think where the weakness comes in is not so much ballhandling as shooting, yeah. I think there are some ways in which this is a positive if it forces the Rockets to run Amen out there full time as a point guard, especially if he comes back much-improved in that department, which I think he will. My main concern is that we were counting on Fred to be out there knocking down threes, and I think assuming he would revert back to his career mean in that regard (37% on high volume).

So what this does, IMO, is put intense pressure on Reed Sheppard to step up and be the shooter we need him to be. I don't see how we can make a trade for a point guard right now given our cap situation and the trade restrictions on our new contracts for everyone we signed or brought back.

But at the trade deadline, absolutely. If Reed is not playing well and/or if Amen isn't as good of a lead ballhandler as I expect him to be, I certainly think we will make a trade.

In the meantime, I'm not going to jump to "the season is ruined". We were a .500 team last season without Fred, but that was also without Kevin freaking Durant, and I think we also saw Amen improve as a primary ballhandler over the course of the season, and I expect those improvements to really ramp up this offseason.

As far as whether we can still be considered contenders at all, that will depend on how well Amen and Reed adjust to being asked to carry heavier loads, and on what we do at the trade deadline. Just a lot of unknowns.

But do I think we can still make the playoffs without Fred? Yes, I do.

 

It would have to be after December 15th, but yes, once we start getting closer to the trade deadline, Grimes would be a nice fit here. I see him as a Mikal Bridges-esque player moving forward.

 

At this point, hopefully not. FVV is done in this league

 

In the end the Rockets just need their high picks to step up. You have two #3 picks who were definitively the best shooting prospects in their respective drafts. Neither of whom shot even average on the NBA level. If you want to contend at some point these high picks must contribute. If they don't step up the Rockets were never contending anyways.

 

Maybe more Senhub. We currently don't have a guard with good enough ball handling

 

Pretty good read on the situation.

One thing I think we all need to take a step back and remember--both Fred and KD are (or perhaps were in Fred's case...) stopgap kind of players for us. We were trying to be fringe contenders this season and accelerate the timeline, but the odds still weren't great of actually winning it all IMO. They call teams at our level "dark horse contenders" for a reason, it would be somewhat unexpected if it actually played out that way.

Our real window only happens if Amen and/or Alpi step up and become superstar level player(s), and if the other guys at least prove to be very good roleplayers (and yes, in Jabari's and Reed's cases, they need to shoot it well).

If they do that, whether it's this year or three years from now, we're in great shape to potentially win a chip with this group. If not, odds are we weren't going to win one anyway. Fred is... not necessarily irrelevant to that, but I don't think he is the cornerstone of this team finding a way to win a championship, either.

 

And? He’s a slasher/finisher.

He doesn’t have the handles nor can I see him as someone that can make everything go every trip down the court.

The Rockets can get by with him bringing the ball up the court from time to time but not run the show. It also takes away from his strengths.

 

He has shown plenty of ballhandling potential, and we know he's been working hard on it this offseason. I definitely think he can be the team's lead ballhandler as he continues to work on his game. You can call that a point guard or a point forward or whatever term you want to use, but I think that's his future role.

Whether he's ready for that responsibility full-time right now, I don't know, but I guess we're about to find out.