Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet ‘looks like a rookie once more’ in return from knee setback
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LAS VEGAS – The Houston Rockets have the Fifteenth-best odds to conquer the 2027 NBA title, in response to Las Vegas oddsmakers. While these odds are lengthy, veteran Rockets guard Fred VanVleet believes his squad can defy them subsequent year when he returns to motion.
“We can win a championship next year,” the NBA Players Association president instructed Andscape on July 10 from the Las Vegas resort the place he was conducting enterprise. “But that’s internal.”
There have been title aspirations for the Rockets a yr in the past after buying 16-time NBA All-Star ahead Kevin Durant. On paper, the mix of Durant, VanVleet, two-time All-Star middle Alperen Sengun and defensive specialist ahead Amen Thompson gave the Rockets one of many league’s most feared rosters.
However, these title goals shifted when VanVleet tore his proper ACL and meniscus throughout an unofficial squad exercise within the Bahamas in September 2025.
VanVleet later revealed on his podcast that the injury to his proper knee required surgical procedure. The 2022 NBA All-Star has handled accidents all through his profession, however nothing as important as his setback final year. It sidelined him for all 82 regular-season video games and the playoffs.
“I didn’t know it was that bad [initially],” VanVleet stated. “I by no means had an actual setback earlier than. But I positively felt the ache and the severity of the second. The remainder of the room form of knew earlier than I did. I used to be in denial. I didn’t need to imagine it. I’ve acquired a excessive ache tolerance, so I didn’t assume it was that dangerous till I acquired my MRI. When I acquired the information, it was loopy. Looking again now, it was a kind of actual life-changing moments.
“What helped me [mentally] was my family, being surrounded by love, family and my kids. And just being patient. We all have these ideas of who we are. Then you get put in a situation where you actually have to be that. So, I pride myself on mental toughness, patience, working hard and determination. But that was tested in a situation like this. I’ve been tested for the last nine or 10 months.”
Without VanVleet, Houston had a 17-9 report to begin the year. However, VanVleet stated the Rockets began “going downhill” after middle Steven Adams was misplaced for the year with a Grade 3 left ankle sprain on Jan. 28. The Rockets completed with a 52-30 report and the fifth seed within the Western Conference playoffs.
Hopes of VanVleet returning for the playoffs for a squad in determined want of some extent guard by no means materialized. The Rockets misplaced to the Los Angeles Lakers 4-2 within the first spherical of the playoffs. A helpless VanVleet stated he put his “assistant coach hat on” however was annoyed watching his Rockets get eradicated from the postseason.
“The playoffs was pretty hard,” VanVleet stated. “I was about six months into that [rehab] time. I remember they told me I could come back in six months. I was feeling good some days. And then Game 1 or Game 2 [of the playoffs] and I was like, ‘Damn, I’m going to miss the whole [season]. I’m not coming back.’ That was a tough time.”
Fred VanVleet (left) and Kevin Durant (proper) didn’t get to sequence collectively in 2025-26 for the Rockets after VanVleet’s knee setback in preseason.Adam Pantozzi/NBAE by way of Getty Images
VanVleet exercised his $25 million competitor choice for subsequent year, which can also be the ultimate yr of his two-year contract. The Rockets additionally signed veteran guards Marcus Smart and Bojan Bogdanovic for insurance coverage and depth. Those three guards will enable Thompson and sharpshooter Reed Sheppard to sequence off the ball extra.
VanVleet has been figuring out day by day and is near being on “the court full time, ramping up, feeling good.” He additionally instructed Andscape he’s assured he can be able to sequence within the Rockets’ first preseason contest subsequent year, and he “feels like a rookie again.”
The Rockets will sequence preseason video games towards the Dallas Mavericks in Macao, China, on Oct. 9 and 11.
“I’ll be very disappointed if I’m not playing in the preseason,” VanVleet stated. “What I missed essentially the most was the outlet, the exertion, the escape of no matter our lives are in our worlds. I took as a right a number of issues of what I do as a result of I simply have been doing it each day for my entire life.
“But the mental escape and the physical exertion of getting that energy out and wanting to bump people and cuss at referees, to have the highs and the lows and the failure and the success, I really just love every aspect of the game. So, to have that taken away from me was very humbling and eye-opening.”
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VanVleet stated he’s utilizing his 2019 NBA title with the Raptors and the New York Knicks’ 2026 NBA title as motivation for his Rockets subsequent year.
“We kind of got pushed out [last season],” Van Vleet stated. “We went from a enjoyable AAU squad to including Kevin to just a little favourite. The solely dangerous factor about being a favourite is you get the entire flack — the entire criticism first. So, my expertise is successful a title in Toronto when no one cared. Nobody paid us any consideration. And they disrespected us the entire [season], after which we gained. And that erased all the pieces that occurred beforehand.
“The lead up to the moment doesn’t matter. We just watched the [New York] Knicks do it. Nobody thought they would win. Then they got there, dominated, and they were the best team ever. It’s just how the outside narrative works. But we got a lot of work to do.”
VanVleet was elected to a four-year time period as president of the NBPA in 2025. NBPA government director David Kelly stated in a information convention final Friday that the NBA’s “second apron” penalties and restrictions on the league’s highest-spending groups have to be “softened” or eliminated as a result of they “decimate teams.”
The second apron performed a task within the Boston Celtics buying and selling 2024 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Jaylen Brown and the Knicks dropping middle Mitchell Robinson in free company.
Kelly and VanVleet imagine {that a} “consensus” towards the second apron guidelines is rising in recognition amongst gamers, followers, brokers and squad executives. VanVleet additionally instructed Andscape about considerations amongst NBA followers being priced out of attending video games.
“Being a president is something I’m very proud of,” VanVleet stated. “It’s a service job at the start. Just defending and serving the gamers. It’s one thing I take a number of delight in, getting into that function. And as we form of embark on a brand new model of NBA competitor now, the panorama has modified a lot within the final 10 years that I’ve been a professional.
“But the future is very bright. We’re getting a more conscious athlete. The brotherhood is growing stronger and coming together. And we got some very exciting things on the way.”
Undrafted out of Wichita State in 2016, VanVleet signed with the Raptors. He spent a lot of his rookie year with Toronto taking part in within the G League for Raptors 905.
But VanVleet developed right into a key member of the Raptors’ 2019 NBA title squad, a place to begin guard and an All-Star in 2022. He was rewarded with a two-year, $50 million deal by the Rockets in 2025.
When requested what might be discovered from his journey, VanVleet stated: “To not let different folks’s expectations dictate your life good or dangerous. If they count on all good from you, you continue to must be your self. If they count on nothing from you, you continue to must be your self. My life and my profession has been certainly one of someone who has needed to make his personal approach.
“Good, bad or ugly, I’ve failed, I’ve succeeded. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do already in a short amount of time. I never want to let anybody tell me what I can or can’t do. I know what I am capable of. I put the work in. I keep my face card clean and move with respect, honor and love. And I’ve made myself a nice little living by doing that.”
