Houston vs. OKC: How Two Rebuilds Led to the NBA Cup Semis

The Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder took different paths through their respective rebuild projects. They now find each other matched up for the NBA Cup Semifinals.

December 13, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (5) addresses the media in a press conference during practice prior to the Emirates NBA Cup semi-finals at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder are two peas in a pod. They're the top defensive teams in the league at this point, as well as the top seeds in the Western Conference. So much of their respective rebuilds felt intertwined with each other too, despite each team taking different paths to improvement.

Both teams now get to meet in Las Vegas as the culmination of both teams' ideologies will face off in the NBA Cup. The connections run deep between both teams, but the history of their respective rebuild processes tell the story.

Oklahoma City started its rebuild in 2019, trading Russell Westbrook to Houston for Chris Paul and a haul of assets. Sam Presti, the Thunder GM, placed a lot of value on acquiring draft capital. Westbrook got to play with one of his best friends in James Harden for a season, and the Thunder made some significant draft additions along with picking up an all-time point guard to help teach their young players how to be professionals.

Speaking of young players, Presti added another important piece to the team in 2019: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The Thunder chose to take the 'Harden method.' They identified a young star with high potential, traded for them, focused in on how they could help that player improve, and they built a team that maximized their strengths. That player then leads the team to winning seasons and top seeds, while also being a consistent MVP candidate.

Gilgeous-Alexander fits the bill exactly. Ironically, Gilgeous-Alexander's ability to get to the free-throw line is reminiscent of Houston-era Harden.

His success is reminiscent as well. Led by Chris Paul and Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder reached the playoffs during the Covid shortened 2019-2020 season. Their first-round matchup: none other than the Houston Rockets with the high-volume duo of Harden and a freshly traded Westbrook.

Houston eventually took the series after a seven-game battle, but it took Harden getting a block in the clutch on a rookie who was another huge piece of the Thunder's rebuild: Lugentz Dort.

Dort has been a culture-setting player in terms of his defensive ability and physicality. He made life difficult for Harden in the 2020 playoff series, and he's done the same thing to every other player he's matched up against during his over five-year career. With the addition of Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren in 2022, the Thunder were ready to compete. The Harden-led Rockets filled their most competitive teams with free agents; Oklahoma City had done it through homegrown talent.

The Rockets took a different route to relevancy that started not long after the trade to bring Russ to town. However, both teams need an influx of draft capital to get things started.

After another postseason failure, the Rockets traded Westbrook for John Wall and draft capital. After a few games, Harden requested out of Houston as well. This sent the Rockets into a spiral for the next several seasons. But it also sent some of the Nets' premium draft stock into Houston's possession. Harden just finished a season averaging over 34 points per game, so his trade value was at a near peak. Trading the superstar guard gave the Rockets more than enough to start their rebuild.

Just a thought: by trading Harden to Houston in 2012, the Oklahoma City Thunder indirectly led to the current iteration of the Rockets over a decade later.

A large difference between the Rockets' rebuild and OKC's is how low the quality of basketball was for the Rockets during the tanking exhibition, which didn't truly start until John Wall's departure from the team.

Houston withstood some terrible seasons. As a result however, the front office had several opportunities to take high draft picks and fill their team.

The Rockets tried to use their newfound draft capital wisely. With four consecutive top-five draft picks and several other lottery selections, Houston built a large part of their current rotation with homegrown talent. Oklahoma City fashioned its team the same way, but the team learned how to win quickly with a quality vet like Chris Paul to help establish an identity and impart knowledge on the young players.

The Rockets seemed to play without supervision in the rebuild's early stages, and there were growing pains for some of their top players as they've tried to work out some bad habits from that period.

Now, the players have taken on the identity of their head coach Ime Udoka. The Rockets have attitude, play hard and take things personally on defense. They hang their hat on the defensive side of the ball. Amen. Thompson and Tari Eason are high-tier defenders who clearly display Houston's philosophy. However, unlike OKC, the Rockets don't have a single player that could be considered MVP-caliber at this point.

However, they have star-level talent, with Alperen Şengün leading the team's offense and playing improved defense. Jalen Green is another player who has moments of impressive play, but he hasn't fully put his game together just yet. The offense is led by Şengün and then supported by a committee of players. Whoever is hot gets to take over. Sometimes, it's the veterans like Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks who take over, but every player is contributing on the defensive end regardless.

So far, it's worked the Rockets to become a top seed in the West and have a semifinal appearance in the NBA Cup against the Thunder. Neither team took a straight path to Vegas, but they'll both use what they learned along the way to try to push to the championship game.

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