{"id":110573,"date":"2024-12-04T12:40:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T17:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=110573"},"modified":"2024-12-04T12:40:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T17:40:34","slug":"rockets-nba-cup-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/04\/rockets-nba-cup-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Rockets NBA Cup Pursuit Set’s Up Rest of the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 15-7\u00a0<\/span>Houston Rockets<\/span><\/a> clinched an\u00a0<\/span>NBA Cup<\/span><\/a>\u00a0birth in the group stage, going 3-1. They continue to be one of the surprise teams of the 2024-25 season thus far. With the in-season tournament knock-out rounds set and soon to kick off, the Rockets will attempt to stamp their names as serious playoff contenders this season. Making their way to the NBA Cup finals will benefit them in many ways if their present run hasn’t already.<\/span><\/p>\n

Houston Rockets NBA Cup Pursuit Set’s Up Rest of the Season<\/h2>\n

An NBA Cup Run Bodes Well for the Houston Rockets<\/h3>\n

Houston might be the feistiest, grittiest, in-your-face team in the league\u2014mainly attributed to\u00a0<\/span>Dillon Brooks<\/span><\/a>\u2014but others like veteran\u00a0<\/span>Fred VanVleet<\/span><\/a>\u00a0bring their own level of aggression to the floor. It’s what makes the Rockets so incredibly fun to watch. They do not, and will not, back down from any opponent. The persona trickles down from their coach, Ime Udoka. Many around the NBA and associated media are labeling the Rockets as last year’s Indiana Pacers. Of course, the\u00a0<\/span>Detroit Pistons<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Orlando Magic also garner a similar perception from others. The Rockets, having come up just shy of the play-in last year, entered this season with playoff aspirations and expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Houston has a fair shot at the NBA Cup. Considering their outstanding start to the year, they can benefit from this experience for the remainder of the regular season.\u00a0As a team that sports one of the youngest cores in the league, any run through this in-season tournament can do a few things for Houston as an organization\u2014front office and players alike.<\/p>\n

The Players<\/h3>\n

An NBA Cup finals birth and potentially a win could be a massive confidence booster to a team of talented, skilled, yet very young players. The veteran presence is rock solid. VanVleet, Brooks,\u00a0<\/span>Jeff Green<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Steven Adams<\/span><\/a> round out that group. Houston’s youth comprises some of the best talent, ranking fourth in the league at an average age of 24.\u00a0<\/span>Amen Thompson<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Jabari Smith Jr<\/span><\/a>.,\u00a0<\/span>Jalen Green<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Tari Eason<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn<\/span><\/a>\u00a0all land in that age range. While talent and skill are evident in this group, winning has been vacant. And so therefore, usher in a chance to win something of value.<\/span><\/p>\n

Confidence, belief, trust, experience, and dependence are attributes that can propel a team to the playoffs. For the Rockets, it could start with winning the NBA Cup. The experience in and position of playing for something that results in league-wide recognition or even straight-up winning could be a catalyst for the remainder of the Rockets’ season and playoff chase.<\/p>\n

The Head Office<\/h3>\n

While the players play, the decisions get made upstairs. Early season speculation around the team is that GM Rafael Stone could look to make a big-splash trade to make his team even better. On the other hand, the Rockets have also made it known that some young players (Thompson, Eason) are off the table for trades. Whether Houston makes moves or not remains to be seen. Nevertheless, any deep success in the\u00a0<\/span>NBA Cup<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has the potential to highlight what the Rockets need down the season’s stretch. It will also shed light on whether their young core can win together as constructed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless, the Rockets are locked in for NBA Cup contention and should go all out for it. The Pacers are a prime example of a team that carried their success from the tournament into the quarter-finals of the postseason last season. The Rockets are in position to mirror that same trajectory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 15-7\u00a0Houston Rockets clinched an\u00a0NBA Cup\u00a0birth in the group stage, going 3-1. They continue to be one of the surprise teams of the 2024-25 season thus far. With the in-season tournament knock-out rounds set and soon to kick off, the Rockets will attempt to stamp their names as serious playoff contenders this season. Making their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":110587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,31,62],"tags":[4293,4703,49759,772,1244,3821,49820,3256,130,49189,543,4475],"class_list":["post-110573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-amen-thompson","tag-brian-windhorst","tag-dillon-brooks","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-ime-udoka","tag-jabari-smith-jr","tag-jalen-green","tag-jeff-green","tag-rafael-stone","tag-steven-adams","tag-tari-eason"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110592,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110573\/revisions\/110592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}