Both offense and defense! The Rockets have five players in the second team? Waiting for the return of the 32-year-old veteran, Davidson becomes a surprise player

On October 9, the Rockets defeated the Jazz and ushered in two consecutive preseason victories. Durant of the Rockets officially played in this game. This was also his first appearance on behalf of the Rockets, and it was also the first time that the Rockets' three giants Durant, Shen Jing and Amen Thompson were combined. The Rockets' current starting lineup has basically been determined. In addition to Durant, Shen Jing, and Amen Thompson, there are also Shepard and Jabari Smith Jr. These five people form the Rockets' strongest starting lineup now. Shepard does seem relatively immature, but after two preseason games, we have seen Shepard's progress, especially his performance in terms of statistics.

There is no suspense about the Rockets' starting lineup, so what is their main rotation lineup, that is, the second lineup? In fact, we can feel it very well from the two preseason games. Now, in addition to the Rockets' veteran VanVleet being reimbursed for the season due to injury, their backup forward Finney Smith is still recovering from surgery and is currently unable to play, which may even affect some games in the opening stages of the regular season. In other words, if Finney Smith, the core of the original second team, cannot play, then some other players will get opportunities.

Judging from these two preseason games, the point guard of the Rockets' second team is naturally the 29-year-old shooter Aaron Holiday. In the game against the Jazz, Holiday played 18 minutes and made 4 of 8 shots and 3 of 6 three-pointers. He swept away the slump of 2 of 12 shots in the previous game. In this game, he scored a bench-high 11 points and 2 rebounds.

The shooting guard of the second team should be Okogie. In the previous game, he scored 8 points and made 8 of 10 free throws. In this game, Okogie made 3 of 3 shots and also hit a three-pointer. He scored 7 points and 4 rebounds in the game, and all 4 rebounds were offensive rebounds. The forward should be Ethan. Although he lost his main position in this game, in the second team, Ethan made 2 of 7 shots and scored 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. He was very comprehensive.

The two insiders are Capela and Adams. Although Adams took one game off against the Jazz, he is still Shen Jing's best partner in the inside and is also the core of the Rockets' twin-tower lineup. Capela has performed very well in the past two games. In the first game, he scored 8 points and 5 rebounds. In the Rockets' victory over the Jazz today, Capela made 3 of 8 shots in 18 minutes and scored 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists without making a single mistake. He also received a pass from Davidson and completed a beautiful alley-oop, scoring two points for the Rockets.

So, these five players will form the Rockets' second lineup that is both offensive and defensive. After Finney Smith returns, the Rockets' second lineup should still change. For the Rockets, their fourth point guard Davison actually has a chance to enter the second team. He scored 17 points and 4 assists in the first game; in today's Rockets victory over the Jazz, Davison, as a perimeter player, played 17 minutes, making 3 of 7 shots and 1 of 4 three-pointers. He contributed 8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block without a single mistake. His plus-minus value reached +17, the highest in the Rockets.

Therefore, we can see that the above five players form the Rockets' second team, and if Finney Smith returns to the team, he will definitely be a core member of the second team; Davidson also has the opportunity to enter the Rockets' second team, but he still needs more performance. The remaining players, such as Tate, Jeff Green and Harris, should be the core of the third team, and they can also fill in for the second team if necessary.

The Rockets have a strong team, which shows that even without VanVleet, they are still one of the teams with the deepest lineup in the Western Conference.