The Return of Steven Adams Can Bring Houston to Contender Status

The Houston Rockets had a very interesting season last year, and with 52 wins under their belt, no one can say they were a bad team. Unfortunately, not many people could say Ime Udoka had a championship-level team on his hands either. This was evident before the season even started, as one thing held them back from the very beginning. 

That, of course, is the old injury bugaboo. They lost their star point guard back on September 22nd, 2025, and never got a replacement. Then, they lost their most important player at the tail end of the season, with Kevin Durant going down in the playoffs. 

Their season was bookended by major players getting hurt, and arguably their most impactful bench player getting ankle surgery midway through the season. Heck, Steven Adams even started in more than one-third of his games last year. He was one of their most impactful players period. 

We’ve all heard and seen the stats, but here’s a reminder of the kind of impact he had: 

With all of the hoopla around what he can do on the court, you might be surprised to see he doesn’t have as huge of an impact on winning. 

In each of the past two seasons, the Rockets won 52 out of 82 games for a 63.4-percent win rate. In Adams’ 32 games played last year, they had a 65.6-percent win rate, putting them on pace for 53 or 54 wins. Not a huge difference, as they finished on a 50 or 51-win pace without him (62-percent win rate).

But he didn’t play in every game before getting injured, so I’d also like to look at the pre-injury and post-injury records. This way we can see how the team performed after knowing that their backup big man would be getting surgery and missing substantial time. Let’s exclude the early-season games when Adams missed time for various reasons before his ankle surgery. 

They were 25-15 before he was ruled out for good, which is only a 62.5-percent win rate. Virtually the exact same as their performance without him on the court. To make things even more strange, Houston had a slightly better record (27-15) after Adams was sidelined, for a 64.3-percent win rate. They had a more successful second half of the season after he was officially ruled out. 

It might seem blasphemous to say, but Steven Adams doesn’t actually have as big of an impact on winning as we’ve been led to believe. I'm certainly not saying the team is better without him, but the numbers don’t lie. 

They may not dominate the glass and have to find different ways to win without their full roster, but Adams isn’t the difference between winning and losing. He just gives them the opportunity to play a different style, and versatility is always good with all of the potential playoff matchups. 

This team will need him healthy if they want to be at their best, but he wasn’t the reason they underperformed last year. He’s an added luxury that raises Houston’s ceiling, but his absence surprisingly didn’t lower their floor.