Salman Ali Articles - Page 5

When the Houston Rockets originally traded for Christian Wood, they were trying to accomplish two goals: 1) Acquire a helpful player that could neatly fit next to Russell Westbrook and James Harden 2) Ensure that player is young enough in case they have to transition to a rebuild Wood’s floor spacing as a rim runner […]

Star players are the most valuable commodity in basketball. It’s why teams are willing to give up several years’ worth of draft pick control in exchange for them. There’s only three ways to acquire these kinds of players: draft, trade, and free agency. As a rebuilding team, the Houston Rockets will take bites at the […]

For the last few years, I covered a Houston Rockets team that was very openly trying to win a championship. When analyzing the offseason for a team like that, the baseline question is pretty simple “Did the Rockets get better?”. Now that the Rockets have transitioned to a rebuild, there are multiple questions you have […]

The 2021-22 Houston Rockets are shaping up to have a pretty clear identity: youth and exuberance. Equipped with six players under the age of 21, the Rockets will likely go through their fair share of speed bumps again next season as they navigate a pretty exciting and promising future. As their season tips off in […]

Trading multiple first-round picks is one of the riskier things you can do in the NBA. Most of the time, teams only do it in exchange for superstar players. So when the Houston Rockets traded two future first-round picks to acquire the 16th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, it projected a high degree of […]

Going into Summer League, few players had more eyeballs trained on them than Houston Rockets shooting guard Jalen Green. The number two overall pick already came with a ton of expectations, but Green added his own by claiming on multiple occasions that he should have gone number one.  Already a compelling prospect due to his […]

When the Houston Rockets initially got the second overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft, their fans were rightly split on who the franchise should draft. Cade Cunningham is the consensus number one overall pick, leaving a tantalizing tier of Evan Mobley, Jalen Suggs, and Jalen Green. Then, the tide shifted heavily in the direction […]

Prior to this week, the Houston Rockets were expecting to be greeted back from their trip to Japan with questions related to training camp and preseason. While there was still plenty of basketball questions hurled their way, mixed in were inquiries about Houston’s latest controversy involving general manager Daryl Morey and China. It’s been a […]

For the better part of the 2018-19 season, many fans and pundits maligned James Harden for his patented step-back jumper. In the eyes of many, this was a travel and not being legislated properly by the NBA. However, the league informed head coaches across the league this summer that Harden’s jumper was perfectly legal, according […]

With the polarizing acquisition of Russell Westbrook, the Rockets figure to be a part of the national NBA conversation for the fourth straight season. There are tons of storylines and questions that demand to be resolved this season, but today is not the day to preview that serious stuff. Today is the day we make […]