Do the Rockets Have Enough Minutes to go Around?

The Rockets could play up to 13 deep in their rotation. Ime Udoka has to figure out how to distribute minutes to all of the players in the "Core 7" so everyone can get enough minutes.

Dec 03, 2021; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28) flexes after scoring in the second half at Toyota Center. /Carmen Mandato/Getty Images /

The Houston Rockets are a developing team full of talent.

Their "Core 7" consists of Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, Cam Whitmore, and Reed Sheppard. This is almost two full rotations already, with all of these players being 23 or younger.

There are only 48 minutes in a game, and all seven of those players could be play 25-plus minutes. This is what makes the Rockets a special team, especially in the future. As some teams continue to get older — such as the Warriors or Lakers — the Rockets should continue an upward trajectory. If the Rockets can keep their core seven players together, they could be a dangerous team in years to come.

One road block potentially keeping the Rockets core together for many years will be the talent level. Current bench players such as Eason, Thompson, Whitmore and Sheppard could all be starters on a lot of different teams. With only so many minutes to go around, at some point, these players will want to see the court more.

There is a possibility that head coach Ime Udoka plays a nine-man rotation this year, which goes pretty far into the bench. The most likely outcome for this year is that all of the players play around the same minutes as last year, and Reed Sheppard takes Aaron Holiday's minutes to be Fred VanVleet's direct back up. At some point throughout the season, minutes will started to be divided differently, with some players getting more playing time.

Udoka and Rafael Stone blowing up this roster seems unlikely. The only potential move that could happen soon would be Jalen Green, if he continues to stay inconsistent and does not have that leap that the Rockets need from him. Owner Tilman Ferttita said yesterday, "There's no deeper team in the NBA than us."

The Rockets have one of the best young cores in the league. This season, they can show the league their potential. Trading pieces of their roster for being too deep is not likely, so seeing how Udoka puts together rotations will be interesting.

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