Rockets' Injury to Steven Adams Injury Still Deemed NBA's Most Underrated Absence

Steven Adams immersed as one of the most valuable players on the Houston Rockets' roster this season. Zach Lowe was trying to find a way to include him as an All-Star.

Before Adams went down, of course, with a fateful ankle injury that saw his season end. To that note, Sam Amick of The Athletic coined Adams' ankle injury as one of the league's most pivotal, noting the absence of Adams as one of the league's most underrated.

"The loss of big man Steven Adams to a season-ending ankle injury remains one of the most underrated absences in all the NBA. Even with Houston’s comeback win Thursday over Orlando — its sixth in the last eight games — the Rockets are still just ninth in net rating since the big man went down (with a 13-6 record). The offense, which relied so heavily on the second chances that Adams would create, is somehow ranked just 16th in that span."

This has continued to rear it's head. The Rockets' offense has been a work in progress, as it's not the specialty of Rockets coach Ime Udoka. We've mainly seen three offensive philosophies from Houston.

The latest have revolved around pick-and-roll actions, which is also a work in progress due to Houston’s lack of a pick-and-roll maestro at the point guard spot. Kevin Durant can't quite fill that void.

Speaking of Durant, Houston oftentimes resorts to hero ball, hoping Durant can bail them out of offensive possessions. Alot of the times he's able to.

But the isolation heavy attack is rather easy to defend. Charles Barkley says it all the time -- you can't play one-on-five.

If Ime Udoka had it his way, he'd be able to play mob ball, which revolves around getting a litany of offensive rebounds and/or second-chance points. Additional scoring possessions and/or bites at the apple makes it easy to generate high percentage looks.

Whether by kick-out 3-point shots or easy tip-in buckets at or around the rim. That strategy has proven to be essentially impossible to execute without Adams --the league's best offensive rebounder. And certainly one of the best screen-setters, if not the best.

In fact, the Rockets have lost the offensive rebounding battle in each of their last three games. Even against tanking teams like the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings.

That's how much they've missed Adams. It's hard not to agree with Amick on this one.