Austin Rivers is Shocked by Rockets' 'Roller-Coaster' of Season

It's definitely been a bumpy ride.

Mar 22, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Austin Rivers (25) participates in shoot around before a game against the Atlanta Hawks at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-Imagn Images | Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

The sign of a legitimate contending team is the ability to beat up on bottom-feeding teams. The 2017-18 Houston Rockets used to bully inferior opponents.

The game would essentially be decided by the half.

Teams that aren’t on the same tier shouldn’t be able to hang around with viable contenders.

In the same way that the rebuilding Rockets were essentially getting steam-rolled every night. Their games were also decided by the half, as they oftentimes faced 20-point deficits at the midway point.

The 2025-26 Rockets haven’t quite been able to dismantle non-contending teams. They’ve lost games that they were supposed to win.

Or at least expected to win, heading into the matchup (and even when the schedule was concocted).

They sit 23-14, good for sixth in the Western Conference and lost three of their previous four games, prior to facing off against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

Former Rockets point guard Austin Rivers is in disbelief of how the team has fared thus far.

Rivers said as much on NBA Showtime Presented by State Farm.

“I'm shocked with Houston. That's kind of been the surprise, even with Fred VanVleet going down. I thought this was a team that was going to be a second or third seed kinda locked. Especially after last year, they were one of the top seeds.

They added Kevin Durant. You just figured just doing the simple math there. We're talking about a contending team. They've just been kind of a roller-coaster all year."

Part of Houston’s issue has been their inability to make wide-open shots (which contending teams don’t usually have an issue with).

The Rockets also need a point guard (which I’m sure you’ve heard).

But the path to adding an external one gets tricky and likely won’t happen, outside of tapping into the buyout market.

Which will also have limited options. Not to mention the fact that buyout additions rarely make a significant impact, although the Rockets have seen value in fairly recent years with Josh Smith during the 2014-15 season and Jeff Green during the 2019-20 season.

The good news is that Houston is that the season is only half way over.

And the Rockets have started getting guys back healthy, which they’ll need to continue to do, in order to turn it around. But they don’t find themselves in a dire spot.