Inside The Rockets

Rockets' Fred VanVleet: 'We Have to Figure It Out'

Fred VanVleet and the Houston Rockets are far from a finished product.

Jeremy Brener

Dec 14, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (5) shoots against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the fourth quarter in a semifinal of the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
Dec 14, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (5) shoots against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the fourth quarter in a semifinal of the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
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The Houston Rockets will be sitting at home on the couch when the Oklahoma City Thunder play the Milwaukee Bucks in tonight's NBA Cup final, and that's a place they don't want to be.

The Rockets were one game away from representing the Western Conference in the final game of the league's new tournament, but they lost to the Thunder in Saturday's semifinal to the Thunder.

Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet took responsibility for the team's loss and vowed to be better in the future.

“What I will say publicly is we have to figure it out. We have to be better offensively,” VanVleet said via NBC News writer Rohan Nadkarni. “Other than that, I’m not really going to talk about what we want to do here. Coach can probably give you a better answer than that. It’s my job as a point guard to figure out how to get this team to perform better."

The NBA Cup can act as a crystal ball for teams for the end of the season, and the tournament showed that the Rockets are falling short of where they want to be, so they need to take measures to fix that before the real games begin to count.

VanVleet and the Rockets are back in action on Thursday against the New Orleans Pelicans.

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Jeremy Brener
JEREMY BRENER

Jeremy Brener is an editor, writer and social media manager for several Fan Nation websites. His work has also been featured in 247 Sports and SB Nation as a writer and podcaster. Brener has been with Fan Nation since 2021. Brener grew up in Houston, going to Astros, Rockets and Texans games as a kid. He moved to Orlando in 2016 to go to college and pursue a degree. He hosts "The Dream Take" podcast covering the Rockets, which has produced over 350 episodes since March 2020. Brener graduated in May 2020 from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism minoring in Sport Business Management. While at UCF, Brener worked for the school's newspaper NSM.today and "Hitting the Field," a student-run sports talk show and network. He was the executive producer for "Hitting the Field" from 2019-20. During his professional career, Brener has covered a number of major sporting events including the Pro Bowl, March Madness and several NBA and NFL games. As a fan, Brener has been to the 2005 World Series, 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 NCAA National Championship between the Villanova Wildcats and North Carolina Tar Heels. Now, Brener still resides in the Central Florida area and enjoys writing, watching TV, hanging out with friends and going to the gym. Brener can be followed on Twitter @JeremyBrener. For more inquiries, please email jeremybrenerchs@gmail.com.

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