ESPN's Power Rankings Drops Rockets to NBA's 11th-Best Team

The 2025-26 NBA season is one week complete. The Houston Rockets have played three games thus far and have been a competitive group, which was expected.

However, they've gone 1-2, which wasn't as expected. Losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder is unsurprising, although the Rockets could've easily won that game.

Losing to the Detroit Pistons is a bit of a surprise, but they're a good, young team, led by an All-NBA floor general in Cade Cunningham. The Rockets could've easily won that game also, and Kevin Durant did all that he could to try to will and carry the Rockets to victory.

Alperen Sengun didn't have his best game and the Rockets shot stellar from the outside (45.5 percent) but Houston didn't defend well and they were outrebounded, which shouldn't happen to a team playing two centers in the starting lineup, alongside a power forward in Jabari Smith Jr.

Houston bounced back in a big way on Monday, making light work out of the Brooklyn Nets, in a game that was largely decided by the end of the first quarter. The Rockets led 42-25 after the first period and Brooklyn never closed the gap.

The Rockets were lights out from long-range, shooting 50 percent on 32 attempts and they limited their turnovers also. Tari Eason bounced back from his early season struggles and was Houston's top scorer, to the tune of 22 points on just 12 shots (5-of-7 from three).

Eason made all the right reads and found open teammates all night, to the tune of five assists.

After one week, ESPN dropped the Rockets in the power rankings from fifth-best to 11th-best.

"Without Fred VanVleet, Houston continues its by-committee approach to facilitation on offense with mixed results. New addition Kevin Durant mentioned the club's 0-2 start left players and the coaching staff "pissed off," but added he appreciates that energy and urgency so early in the season.

Expect Houston to continue experimenting with different lineups, but it's already clear the Rockets need to tamp down minutes for veteran Steven Adams, 32, who averaged 31 minutes over the first two contests. That many minutes for Adams is unsustainable over the course of a long season."

Regarding the minutes for Steven Adams, Rockets coach Ime Udoka started Josh Okogie against Brooklyn, doling out just 16 minutes to Adams. That was also Houston's calculus when signing Clint Capela in the summer.

The more pressing issue is the Rockets' guard play, or lack thereof, although Reed Sheppard played well against Brooklyn. But again, the game was decided relatively early on.