The Houston Rockets have come out of a rebuild and become one of the league’s best teams, but one of their early 2020s moves might have made their contender status more difficult to achieve.
Last season, the Rockets earned their first playoff appearance for the first time since 2020 and lost in the first round to the Golden State Warriors. Although Houston’s arrival back in the postseason was exciting for fans, it was especially interesting how it found success.
Under Ime Udoka, the Rockets have a defense-first mindset, and they’ve also been incredibly successful using double-big lineups. With Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams on the floor together, the team has simply found a way to make the game ugly for opponents.
While the Rockets are happy with Adams, they could have already had a perfect big man to slot in next to Sengun if not for a poor decision years earlier. Back in 2020, when Daryl Morey was still in charge, he opted to try a no-center approach, and that resulted in him waiving second-year center Isaiah Hartenstein.
With Hartenstein fresh off winning an NBA title in Oklahoma City as a starter, that move by the Rockets has only aged poorly. With Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale tabbing Hartenstein as one of the league’s most underrated players of the 2020s, it’s clear that Houston could be a big reason why Hartenstein didn’t get the love he deserved throughout the past few years.
With Favale raving about Hartenstein’s rebounding and passing abilities, it’s interesting to imagine what the German center could have become in Houston if the team gave him a chance to develop. In any case, the Rockets have their big man situation figured out, and Hartenstein is clearly happy in Oklahoma City, but it’s still fun to think about what could have been.
