How Steven Adams Injury News Impacts OKC Thunder

Houston has been through the wringer this season. The Rockets, during the NBA Finals, made a blockbuster trade to acquire all time great forward Kevin Durant and give Houston hope of competing back in June.

With vibes at an all time high, things quickly crashed down on Houston when the Rockets saw point guard Fred VanVleet suffer a torn ACL just before the regular season began in an offseason workout. Houston in their season opener took the OKC Thunder to double overtime and constantly flirted with taking the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, since then they have fallen as low as the play in tournament before now settling in with a 29-17 record, in possession of the final home court advantage seed in the West.

However, the feeling around this team's contention status have never fully returned from that offseason blow to VanVleet. During the Houston Rockets season, there has been times where you can't help but be frustrated with the lack of consistency, especially on offense, with Durant being the only player who can pull them out of a dark place on that end of the floor.

Then, this past week, the Rockets were dealt with a potential knockout blow to their ability to compete for a title this season. It was announced that key big man Steven Adams will be out for the season due to an ankle injury.

Adams is a key part of this team's identity, a monster on the glass to help them control games especially in the second chance points category and making life easier on youngster Alperen Sengun.

Now, the closest thing the Rockets have to replicating Adams is Clint Capela who just falls shy of duplicating the success on the floor for Houston that the former Thunder center brings.

This impacts the OKC Thunder in two major ways: The first being, the Rockets are likely not a true title threat anymore this season. Without some impressive trade deadline work by this front office, this roster is just too flawed to give teams such as Oklahoma City, Denver or San Antonio fits in the postseason.

Though, that brings us to the second way this impacts the Thunder. The same names that Houston may be monitoring for an insurance policy big man to make up for this loss to Adams are the exact targets Oklahoma City likely has in mind. That might drive the price up on the market to leverage the Rockets potential desperation against them.

Barring Houston improving its front court and point guard position, it seems unlikely they make any sort of deep playoff push this season.