The Houston Rockets officially announced that they had entered the rebuilding phase after being eliminated by the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2020. This is a slightly difficult process for the majority of Rockets fans. The road to reconstruction is bound to be accompanied by constant losses and perennial poor records. The Rockets have never missed the playoffs since getting Harden, they have always been a very competitive team, and even reached the Western Conference Finals twice, just one step away from success. Now on the road to reconstruction, the gap is obviously very large.
In the past two seasons, the Rockets have ranked last in the league and become a complete fish belly team in the NBA league. Fortunately, although there are painful periods in the process of reconstruction, there will also be good returns. The Biggest reward the Rockets have received on the road to rebuilding has been a lot of draft picks and a growing number of outstanding young players. After running a number of trades, including Harden, the Rockets once had the second-largest number of first-round draft picks in the league after the Thunder, and through these draft picks, the Rockets began to get back on track.
In last year's draft, the Rockets suddenly used up four first-round picks, bringing back jaylen Green, No. 16 ShenJing, No. 23 Garuba and No. 24 Christopher. On this year's draft night, the Rockets used up three more first-round picks, selecting Jabari Smith, Tarry Ethan and Tate Washington. At this point, the rocket is a big harvest. The first is two potential newcomers, Green and Smith, both inside and out, with amazing talents at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and they both have the potential to become all-stars or even superstars.
Several other newcomers are also worth looking forward to. Christopher has made it to the rotation, Ethan has been able to play amazing performances this summer, and as for the young interior shin from Turkey, the young man has thrived, giving rocket fans unlimited expectations. In the past 2021-22 season, Shen Jing, as the Rockets' backup center, played a total of 72 games for the team, including 13 starts, averaged 20.7 points per game, 9.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
Recently, Shin Kyung is representing the Turkish men's basketball team in the European Championships. The Turkish men's basketball team has passed the hurdles all the way and is currently ranked first in the group. This result is inseparable from Shen Jing's outstanding performance, so far, Shen Jing has played 20+ performances in 3 consecutive games. In the last three games, Shen Jing has bombed 20 points and 9 rebounds against Bulgaria, 21 points and 9 rebounds against Georgia, and in the last game against Belgium, Shen Jing has 24 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. In 3 games, Shen Jing delivered a total of 65 points and 26 rebounds, which was dazzling.
Shen Jing was exchanged by the Rockets from the Thunder with 2 first-round draft picks at last year's draft, and 2 first-rounders were exchanged for 1 first-round, which is a big gamble. Looking back at the deal now, the Rockets are undoubtedly making a lot of money. If Shen Jing can play steadily in the new season and show this dominance at the European Championship, he will be another internal cornerstone of the Rockets' harvest since Yao Ming. His combination of jabbarius Smith's interior line, coupled with young people such as Green, this youth army will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in the future league!