Rockets record in 2025 with/without VanVleet
With VanVleet = 41 wins and 19 losses (56 win pace)
Without VanVleet = 11 wins 11 losses
Overall = 52 wins 30 losses
Rockets record in 2026 without VanVleet
Without VanVleet = 52 wins 30 losses
Houston finished with the same mark in 2026 as they did in 2025 with 52 wins and 30 losses. However, they did so with VanVleet missing the entire year and were a much worse team without VanVleet the previous year. That is mainly because of Durant. Durant also replaced the contributions of Jalen Green & Dillon Brooks. And Steven Adams missed more than half the season as well.
Houston did well this season to finish with 52 wins. Ime is getting far too much criticism for how Houston have played this season. The expectations for this group have exceeded the talent of this group. They have missed VanVleet. They did not replace him. They left the team with no organizer on offense who can run the offense. They left the group with a deficient level of both ball-handling and passing. They left the group with a deficient level of three point shooting. As I pointed out in a previous post, the three perimeter players missing from last year's team (VanVleet, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks) accounted for 60% of their three point shooting last season. So they are deficient in ball-handling, passing & outside shooting. Yet this is somehow all the fault of the coach. It is not.
Ime is being made into a scapegoat for problems that were not of his making. Houston's problems are injuries and roster construction. They will be better next year, much better, when VanVleet & S Adams returns. They will be the team people expected them to be this year after they acquired Durant.
I think that's a bit too generous to Ime. The reason they struggle offensively is that Ime is a terrible offensive coach. A good, ball dominant PG like VanVleet helped cover for that, but he's consistently shown that his half-court offenses are terrible.
He had similar struggles in his one season with us. Incredible defense, god-awful offense. Joe came in the next season and put together a good offense with the same personnel (plus Brodgon off the bench), so it can't just be blamed on the roster. I don't know if it's a lack off focus on offense or what, either, because he clearly had an assistant coach capable of running a good offense, but the offense was terrible. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, figuring that he chose to get the defense under control in year 1 then was gonna expand the offense in year two, but he's shown nothing in Houston that would seem to indicate that that's true.
If Ime returns next year, having VanVleet back will no doubt improve their offense. But I don't think it will improve enough, and I think it will end up being their downfall in the playoffs once again. And I don't see any way to fix that other than changing HCs.
