With the devastating ACL injury that Fred VanVleet sustained this offseason, the Houston Rockets are now stuck in a serious predicament: figuring out how they are going to reconfigure their backcourt around this loss.
However, if The Athletic's positional power rankings, assembled by Law Murray, prove to be any indication of the team's plans, both Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard will start in the backcourt, alleviating many of the issues that would come with starting just one or the other.
Such a move would allow offseason acquisition Kevin Durant to settle into his more natural position at the three-spot, and, although there would be significant risks taken in playing this sort of a backcourt, Houston ultimately has no real path toward playing it safe this season.