VanVleet's 523-Day Return Is the Only Rockets Preseason Result That Matters

The Houston Rockets split their two-game preseason series in Macao, beating the Dallas Mavericks 135-117 on Friday before falling 132-115 on Sunday. The scorelines are close to meaningless in October. What wasn't meaningless was seeing Fred VanVleet on the floor for the first time in 523 days.

VanVleet tore his ACL just before the start of the 2025-26 season, wiping out his entire year and leaving Houston to run its offense without a true point guard. In his first action back, the 32-year-old knocked down back-to-back three-pointers in the opening minutes, exactly the kind of quick, decisive shooting the Rockets lacked all last season. Alperen Şengün, meanwhile, posted a triple-double in that same game — a reminder that Houston's two-man offensive engine is finally intact at the same time.

Why This Return Carries Real Weight

The raw numbers from VanVleet's last healthy season (2024-25) weren't gaudy: 14.1 points, 5.6 assists and a 37.8% field-goal rate across 60 games. But look at his final five games before the injury — a playoff stretch in which he averaged 22.8 points on 57.1% shooting from deep over nearly 40 minutes a night. That's the version Houston was building around when it signed him.

The Rockets' season ended in a six-game first-round loss to the Lakers, a series so injury-ravaged that VanVleet and Steven Adams logged zero minutes while Kevin Durant appeared in just one game. Houston's 52-30 record and plus-5.2 point differential (115.2 points scored, 110.0 allowed) were built largely without its starting backcourt. Getting VanVleet and Adams back is functionally a mid-roster infusion without a trade.

Sunday's loss underscored the point. With Durant, Adams and Şengün all sitting, the Rockets had no offensive anchor against a Dallas team welcoming Kyrie Irving back from his own long layoff. That's not a red flag — it's a demonstration of how thin Houston looks when the top of the rotation is unavailable.

The Cautions Are Real, Too

VanVleet has been cleared for full contact but won't play back-to-backs early in the season, per Yahoo Sports, a sensible load-management approach for a 32-year-old coming off a major knee injury. The bigger structural question is Durant, who turned 38 in September and publicly pushed back on any plan to reduce his minutes in his 20th season. He averaged 36.4 minutes and 26.0 points across 78 games last year — a workload that becomes riskier the deeper Houston goes.

Then there's Şengün, who averaged 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists last season on a five-year, $185 million extension. His rim protection remains the swing skill for an elite Houston defense, and there's already noise that his future could hinge on how quickly this team contends.

What It Means Going Forward

Houston opens the regular season October 21 at home against Dallas, then gets a brutal early stretch: at San Antonio, at Atlanta, home to Atlanta, at Milwaukee, at Dallas, home to Oklahoma City by Halloween. The Rockets' posted win total sits at 48.5, and their championship futures are priced long — a reminder that the market sees a good team, not yet a great one.

The preseason split in China won't decide anything. But the sight of VanVleet running the offense, Reed Sheppard (13.5 points per game, 39.4% from three last year) getting a real point guard to play off, and Marcus Smart adding perimeter defense gives Houston something it never had last season: a complete roster. Whether that's enough to clear the first round is the question this season will answer.