Houston Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet says he “feels like a rookie again” ahead of his return to the NBA this fall.
VanVleet missed the entire 2025-26 NBA season after a serious injury to his right knee before the season began. The Rockets were then forced to play the whole year without their star point guard, which hurt them during the season and especially in the playoffs, where they suffered without having VanVleet’s veteran presence at the point.
However, VanVleet is finally healthy, and he will now be back for the Rockets this coming season. He can’t wait to get back onto the court, and the team is also excited to have him back.
Fred VanVleet Excited for NBA Comeback
Speaking to Andscape this summer ahead of his NBA comeback, VanVleet confirmed that he is on “the court full time, ramping up, feeling good” and that he “feels like a rookie again” after a lost season.
He is confident that he will be able to play with the Rockets when they play in the preseason in October, and he can’t wait to get back to doing what he loves to do.
“I’ll be very disappointed if I’m not playing in the preseason. What I missed the most was the outlet, the exertion, the escape of whatever our lives are in our worlds. I took for granted a lot of things of what I do because I just have been doing it every day for my whole life,” VanVleet said.
“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.”
Fred VanVleet Confident Rockets Can Win the NBA Title
According to VanVleet, he and his teammates are confident that they can win the NBA Championship next season. They are not one of the betting favorites to win, given how many other stacked teams there are in the NBA.
But with VanVleet back, the Rockets certainly look a lot stronger right now than they were last season, and they have most of their same players returning, plus a few key additions, so they should be a playoff team once again.
“We can win a championship next year. But that’s internal,” VanVleet said.
With VanVleet, Kevin Durant, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard, Tari Eason, Clint Capela, and Steven Adams all returning to the Rockets, plus key offseason additions of Marcus Smart and Bogdan Bogdanovic, this looks like a solid Rockets team, so it’s easy to see why VanVleet and the gang are confident about their chances next season.
That being said, there are a lot of really good teams in the Western Conference, so it’s going to be an arms race this season. But with VanVleet back, the Rockets are looking much stronger.
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