Though the rebuilding Houston Rockets finished with the league’s worst record in the 2021-22 NBA season, it was in many ways a very successful year for second-year general manager Rafael Stone.
For starters, that 20-62 record guarantees the Rockets another top-five draft pick in 2022 to add to their stockpile of young talent. In many ways, that lowly record was by design to help achieve a longer-term goal.
But in terms of Houston’s roster today, there are already promising signs of development. All four of the first-round rookies acquired by Stone in the first round of the 2021 draft (Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Josh Christopher, and Usman Garuba) improved as last season went along, and Green finished with a historic scoring burst in becoming the easy choice for Western Conference Rookie of the Month in March/April games.
