The Houston Rockets won the Over/Under Total Projects, leaving little room for improvement

The Houston Rockets are an interesting team heading into the 2024-25 NBA season. They have a young, powerful core with an eye on the future, alongside Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks, two players who know how to win now.

In addition to having a strong, young core, the Rockets have yet to find an offensive identity. For now, the offense could count on a few players, including two young stars in Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun.

There’s still a lot to be determined in Houston, though. Will they continue to develop their young core for the long term? If so, who will be the key talent? How will both teams adjust next season? Will the Rockets acquire a star forward to try to build a contender?

As the dog days of the NBA offseason quickly approach, DraftKings has released their over/under win totals for 27 of 30 teams — excluding a few teams that could soon see season-altering trades made.

The Rockets’ over/under win total has been set at 41.5. They went 41-41 last season, and bookmakers don’t see much improvement from Houston.

The Rockets haven’t been as active this offseason, though they did make a key addition in bringing in Reed Sheppard via the NBA draft. He appears to have been selected in two Summer League games, but it’s a tiny sample size and he’ll be on the bench during the regular season, so how much of an impact will he have on the win total?

Aside from that addition, the Rockets are returning with the same core. With plenty of young talent, one would assume they’ll see improvement. Still, questions surrounding fitness and whether or not a big trade is possible make it difficult to interpret a potential win total.

Assuming they retain their current core of players throughout the 82-game season, they will likely be a fringe playoff team, perhaps just outside the Play-In.

READ MORE: Rockets see slight uptick in latest power rankings

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