Houston Rockets: Key takeaways from the 2020-21 season

Houston Rockets takeaways: Maximizing draft capital

Entering the season, Houston essentially had valuable no draft picks and very few picks as a whole due to the many picks the franchise traded away over the past few years to try to bring in the perfect running mate for James Harden.

The Rockets have three first-round picks in the upcoming draft: their own, which has 52.1 percent chance to be a top-four pick (if it falls outside the top-four then the OKC Thunder will receive the pick and send Miami’s first-round pick to Houston) and the maximum 14 percent chance of being No. 1 overall , as well as Portland and Milwaukee’s first-round pick, both of which should end up falling in somewhere in the mid-20s.

And having an abundance of picks could not have come at a better time for the Rockets, considering how loaded the 2021 NBA Draft class is highlighted by Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs.

If the Rockets own pick does indeed end up as a top-four pick then Houston will most likely select one of the four players listed above (Cunningham, Mobley, Green or Suggs), each of who has the potential to be superstars and even franchise cornerstones in just a matter of years.

If the pick falls outside the top four, Houston still has plenty of options on the table. Given how loaded and deep the draft class is, the Rockets could still add three quality players, although the likelihood of any one of them emerging as a superstar is not very high, to help fill the new-look roster with guys with more young faces full of potential to be key role players.

Another option the Rockets would have is trading up by using the boatload of draft capital they have acquired both for the 2021 draft and many future drafts. In his first season as general manager, Rafael Stone has shown that he is not afraid to make big moves so trading up to acquire one of the faces of the draft class is a real possibility.

Overall, while the Rockets season was tough to watch at most times, Houston is in a great position to go through an accelerated rebuild given the young talent already on the roster and the immense supply of draft picks and swaps Stone has at his fingertips.