Where the Rockets Can Improve Before Their Preseason Finale

The Houston Rockets had the luxury of playing two preseason games in China this past weekend. It was admittedly difficult to have any serious takeaways, but I’m not sure if they made the most of their trip. At least not on the basketball court. 

It was preseason basketball halfway across the globe, and anyone watching could tell it wasn’t peak basketball. The circadian rhythm of every player on the court was probably telling them they should be asleep. 

That could help explain why Houston had 21 turnovers in each of their first two games. However, the Dallas Mavericks had the same excuse at their disposal, and they didn’t struggle nearly as much in that category. 

They ended with 18 turnovers in the first game and only 16 in the second game. That’s more than their 14.5 average from last season, but that’s to be expected in the preseason. That’s a 17.24-percent increase in turnovers, which seems high until you compare it to Houston. 

While it’s an incredibly small sample size of only two games, a 37.25-percent increase in turnovers from last season is not a great sign. If that’s what we can expect from things moving forward, this is going to be a long season. 

The Rockets already had the eighth-most turnovers per game last season, but it was easy to write that off as another ripple effect from Fred VanVleet’s injury. That was an acceptable answer for all of last season, but we still saw the same problem, another one on the horizon. 

Even if the team gets into a solid rhythm with FVV starting and handling the ball, he’s automatically going to miss five games before New Year’s Eve. He won’t be playing in back-to-backs, so will Houston just revert back to their old ways anytime he’s unavailable? 

How will those absences, plus any additional missed time impact this team’s ability to build chemistry? How long will it take to learn each other’s tendencies and preferences? 

Hopefully not long, considering Fred VanVleet has played with most of this team before. A lot of the core is still together from their 2025 playoff run. I do truly believe he’ll help cut down on the turnover when he’s out there in the regular season. 

Unfortunately I’m not sure if we’ll get to see that Thursday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Houston hasn’t seemed to take this preseason very serious thus far, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same kind of lackadaisical play out of them in the finale. 

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