For veteran teams in the NBA, preseason is a nuisance. It's something everybody has to do, but nobody wants to. For most teams, the number one objective is to not get injured. For a young team like the 2021-22 Houston Rockets, preseason takes on an added layer of importance.

“I just want us to get comfortable playing with each other,” said Stephen Silas “I think that's been a focus of ours over the last few days. Using it as a teaching tool so as we move forward it could be more organized, more together, all those things.”

The Rockets are going into the season with a practically new roster, having swapped out at least three-fifths of the starting lineup and adding four 19-year-old rookies. These rookies need to get used to preparing for regulation NBA games, they need to get conditioned for the pace, and they need to start forming their habits. It's not so much that Houston will treat preseason games the same way they treat regular season ones, but they won't go through the motions the same way a veteran team will. Part of this is because they don't know which motions to go through to begin with.

“It'll be great to be competitive, but I do want to make sure that we're doing things in the right way where everybody is getting better, not just individually, but as a group,” said Silas. “I want to see them play fast. I want to see them adhere to a lot of the defensive things that we've been talking about, the schemes, and where we need to be on the floor. Hopefully some of that that carries over from practice to game.”

The coaching staff has been pretty broad about their objectives for preseason. For the most part, they just want everyone to get acclimated – whether that's getting acclimated to the league or acclimated to the new teammates. Because of this acclimation process, Houston's first couple games could be pretty rough, but Silas isn't expecting anything different.

“I know there are bound to be some butterflies and there will be some mistakes that are made that we'll learn from,” said Silas. “I'm just looking for us to play and have fun and we'll learn from whether we're playing great or we're not.”

For veterans on the team, this should obviously be smooth sailing.

“Nothing different,” said Eric Gordon. “I'm going to prepare for a preseason game just like I prepare for a regular season games. I may not play as many minutes in a preseason game, but the preparation's still the same. ”

The preparation was a point of emphasis at Rockets practice on Monday. The Rockets got together with their rookies and asked them set up their own pre-game routines. Most players in the NBA have one of these routines and some contribute their longevity towards them. It keeps the body loose and prevents overthinking, essential for a read and react sport like basketball.

“For younger guys, it's harder to get a routine,” explained Silas. “Like when are you going to eat [before the game]? How long is your nap going to be? What time do you get to the arena? Who are you working out with? How long are you going to work out for? When are you going on the court before the game? All of those things are new for these guys. Setting a routine sometimes takes a little while and tomorrow will be the first day.”

Some of these pre-game rituals are so unique or bizarre, they grow to become iconic. However, it doesn't have to be anything special. They can be pretty mundane and uninteresting.

“I haven't heard that in a long time,” laughed Gordon, recalling the talk. “It's very important to have a routine, because on game day you got to be ready. You got to be prepared. It's a job. You got to go out there and perform and play at the highest level that you can.”

Gordon comes out an hour before the game to shootaround.  James Harden used to run away from the team huddle, shuffle his feet, drink Body Armor, and then stand next to Mike D'Antoni. Chris Paul used to jump into the padding on the basket stanchion. Clint Capela ate a sandwich and refused to talk to anyone. It's often random, but just a tool for players to get into the right headspace before games.

“Do whatever you need to do,” said Danuel House. “When the clock hits zero and the ball jumps up, let's get ready to play.”

The Rockets are going to keep it pretty vanilla in preseason. A lot of teams like to use the preseason for heavy experimentation. It sounds Houston already has their lineups, rotations, and schemes already settled and will make minor tweaks if needed.

“We probably won't experiment too much going in.” said Silas. “We only have four preseason games. So I'll do more of my experimentation in practice.”

The rotation is expected to be at least 11 players deep, but could extend out to 15.