D'Angelo Russell #0 of the Minnesota Timberwolves (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
When the Houston Rockets ushered out their best player in recent history in James Harden, it was clear that they were going to have their work cut out as it pertained to replacing him. For starters, star players win games (as Harden proved year in and year out), but they also can help lure other star-level players simply by recruiting them, which Harden was also successful at doing.
As it stands now, the Rockets have one borderline star player in Christian Wood, although there’s been much too small of a sample size to know either way, as he missed roughly half of the 2020-21 season.