Porter’s return to team in doubt
Guard told to stay away after incident of alleged violence
Kevin Porter Jr., the Rockets guard facing assault and strangulation charges in New York, will not return to the team this preseason with his potential to ever rejoin the team increasingly in doubt.
On Monday, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone used the start of the 2023-24 season, the NBA’s annual media day reporting date, to address the allegations for the first time and Porter’s chances to return to the team.
“The allegations against him are deeply troubling,” Stone said in a prepared statement. “Going back a few weeks, as soon as I heard the allegations, I informed his representatives that he could not be part of the Houston Rockets. He has not been with the team or around the team since that time.
“What’s left for the team to do is to evaluate the best steps for our organization that remain in compliance with the league domestic violence policy.”
Stone would not say if Porter could be with the Rockets this season, citing league policies.
“I can’t answer that and stay in compliance with the policy,” Stone said. “So, I think that’s again, this is now a legal matter and that’s where it’s happening.”
The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Players Association does not permit the Rockets to discipline a player solely because of an arrest or while the subject of an NBA investigation. The Rockets can, however, waive Porter before the start of the season and have looked to use his contract to work a trade.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver can put a player on paid administrative leave while the league investigates. Though Sil
competitiveness and eventual contention, there was an urgency different from past seasons and from more accomplished teams.
“This is a whole new team, a new era of Rockets basketball,” Tate said. “I think hunger is the right word to prove ourselves right.”
The word “hunger” was repeated often. It was cited not just by returning players but as the first impression of veterans who have joined them in part with a leap of faith that better times are ahead.
“We have some young guys who are tired of losing,” said Jeff Green, a 37-year-old veteran of 15 NBA seasons. “They’re tired of how things have been. Jalen … wants to change the headlines about who they are. They want to change the headlines about who they are. They want to win games. So I see the hunger of wanting to be better. They’re hungry to win and win now.”
There was some of the familiar October happy talk, but generally there was more seriousness about the goals, ambiguous as they are.
Ime Udoka would not place specific goals on his first season as Rockets coach, saying he wanted the team to look “visually different” than in past seasons, though he described a determination to make significant strides defensively, where Houston ranked 29th in the NBA last season.
Veterans Dillon Brooks, Fred VanVleet, Jock Landale and Green should help immediately with that. But as much as their proven abilities should raise the Rockets’ floor, the ceiling remains heavily tied to the development of the players drafted during the rebuild: Green, Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore.
“Internal growth is going to be the biggest step for us,” Udoka said. “The guys that have been here and have gone through the rough times, we need to see growth and improvement from them.
“Guys being held to a different standard, to play a certain way, you’ll see that rapid improvement. When you add certain guys to the roster, things can change quickly. And so for us, it’s about being ultra-competitive, playing a different way, and making some noise every night.”
General manager Rafael Stone said he has seen signs of growth through summer workouts. He said that was to be expected after drafting players who are so young, with Sengun, Smith, 20, and Whitmore, 19, each among the youngest players of his draft class. But after accepting losses as an inevitable part of compiling a rotation entirely filled with inexperienced players, Stone said it is time to grow up.
“I do think we’re in a different phase, and the expectations we have for this group are markedly different than the expectations of the past couple of years,” he said. “I think we should be more organized and more competitive. And I think all summer, the indications are we will be.”
Reaching the playoffs, or even the play-in tournament, would require a significant leap for a team that won 22 games last season. Jeff Green, coming off a championship season with the Nuggets, said he thinks the Rockets “have what it takes to be in the playoffs with the young guys that we have.” VanVleet would not specify the expectations he has discussed with his new teammates, though he said he will always “aim high.”
“The goal is to get this franchise back to where it’s supposed to be and where it has been,” VanVleet said. “There’s a rich tradition here. Felt like (the Rockets) were supposed to be in the Finals and win a championship a couple years ago. Ultimately, the goal is to get us back to the playoffs and competitive, building toward winning the championship.”
That sort of optimism is a media day tradition and to be expected from a free agent with a new max contract. Brooks, who signed a four-year, $86 million contract with the Rockets, added, “I love the crew. I think the desire is there from one through the whole organization.”
Still, it was telling that the impact of “rough times” was most often cited not by the players who went through them, but by the new players seeing the determination in the young players they have joined.
“My first two years didn’t go well,” Sengun said, “but this year we’re hungry to win.”
Said Jalen Green, “This year is the year to turn it around.”