The Rockets will hit the halfway point of the 2023-24 season when they host the Utah Jazz on Saturday and then start the second half the next night when the Boston Celtics visit Toyota Center.
After winning 17, 20, and 22 games the last three seasons, the Rockets sit at 19-21 after a rough road trip through the Eastern Conference, but still find themselves in the thick of the play-in race. Here are the biggest questions they will have to answer over their final 42 games.
During media day before Green's rookie season, two high-ranking Rockets officials were chatting with a reporter in a public area of the Post Oak Hotel when Green approached.
"Superstar," one of the execs called Green as the two embraced.
That's what the Rockets thought they were getting when they drafted Green second overall in 2021, and while he's flashed that potential at times, the 21-year-old has seemingly regressed in certain aspects of his game in the first half of his third NBA campaign.
It shouldn't be a surprise Green's scoring numbers are down this season. The Rockets are a better team, so he hasn't been asked to do as much, which has led to fewer touches and shots.
But Green is having the worst shooting season of his NBA career.
Through 40 games, Green is shooting 40.1 percent from the field and 33.1 percent from behind the 3-point line this season, down from 41.6 percent and 33.8 percent last season, which came on higher volume, and he's dropped from 6.1 free throw attempts per game last season to 4.6 attempts this season.
Over the last 24 games, Green is shooting just 38 percent from the field, 31 percent from three-point range, and his free throw attempts have dropped to 4 per game.
Green showed how good he can be when he scored 16 points in the second quarter of the Rockets' 112-110 win in Detroit last week. But after an 8-point third quarter, he went scoreless in the fourth, and followed it up with three very average games in Boston, Philly and New York.
While his scoring has been down, Green has shown improvement with his playmaking and his defense and has earned praise from Fred VanVleet.
"I'm so proud of the kid," VanVleet told SportsRadio 610 last week in Detroit. "I love the way he's been playing for our group. I love his demeanor. He's been able to get through the ups and the downs outside of whatever slander is on Twitter and all of that bullshit, outside of that, he's been great.
"You want to see him play on a good team and a winning environment with good, competitive winning basketball. He's done that, and of course the numbers are gonna take a dip. But it he'll pick back up and he's making reads, he's defending, he's making it personal, he's making winning plays. So I'm just loving watching him grow."
The Rockets are 21st in offensive efficiency this season, and getting better play from Green is their easiest route to increasing that number. And since he'll be extension eligible this summer, no player has more at stake over the final 42 games of the season.
Eason has missed the last nine games due to the leg issue that forced him to miss the first six games of the season, which is why he's only played in 22-of-40 games, and he's pretty much been on a minutes restriction in all those games.
Eason has eclipsed the 30-minute mark once this season and has played more than 25 minutes seven times. The individual numbers don't show it, but the Rockets are a completely different team when he's out there.
They are 12-10 in games Eason plays, 7-11 in games he sits, and are outscoring opponents by 9.4 points per 100 possessions when he's on the floor, which is by far the highest number for any rotation player. Jae'Sean Tate is next at +3.7, while Fred VanVleet's +3.3 is the highest for any starter.
When Eason is off the floor, the Rockets are being outscored by 2.5 points per 100 possessions, with their defensive rating going from 103.1 when he's on the court to 114.6 when he's off, which explains why they've fallen from second to eighth in defensive efficiency over the last nine games.
Rockets head coach Ime Udoka indicated Eason was in more pain than he was letting on while he was playing, so the hope is that this recent shutdown can help get him back to as close to 100 percent as possible. The Rockets need him on the floor, and they need him on the floor without any restrictions if they want to make some sort of second half run.
The Rockets have been sellers at the deadline for all of Stone's tenure as general manager, but this season should be different. The team's first-round pick will go to Oklahoma City unless it falls in the top four, and as of right now, the chances they keep the pick are barely above 7 percent. So there is no point in losing.
Using Victor Oladipo's $9.4 million expiring contract and Jock Landale's $8 million contract that isn't guaranteed past this season, the Rockets have the ability to take on a player making as much as $23 million. And while they can only trade their own first-round picks in 2028 and 2030, they have Brooklyn's 2024 and 2026 first rounders, plus their own picks swaps in 2027 and 2029, along with a host of second-round picks.
Stone could look to make upgrades around the margins of the roster before the Feb. 8 deadline, or he could look to go big game hunting by using one of his highly touted young players to help reel in an All-Star caliber player.
