REACTION: Fred VanVleet Suffers Torn ACL, Out For 2025 Season!

Wex and AC react to the news of Fred Van Vleet suffering a torn ACL during offseason workouts and his departure for the 2025 season. Where do the Rockets go from here after yet another bad week of Houston Sports!?!?!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, it is the three o'clock hour. The simulcast

(00:10):
has begun over on Space City Home Network because apparently
the Houston sports gods needed to see my face when
I informed some of you who aren't aware of the
very rocket season we were just talking about last segment
just took a very very big blow. According to Shams

(00:32):
just in Houston, Rockets Fred van Vliet has suffered a
torn acl sources tele ESPN, a devastating, potentially season ending
loss for the Rockets with their starting point guard and leader.
And I just want to say this very eloquently as
best I can, coming off the weekend the Astros and
the Texans just had can the sports gods just absolutely

(00:54):
bleep all the way off? Like I get it? The
Astros cheated. Everybody's mad at Houston for you know, several
season ago? Have we not paid our pennants here? As
Houston sports fans like, is there was there a reason
for this? With the injuries the Astros have just gone
through and the absolute dog bleep that the Texans have
been through three weeks on offense? Why why God? Why WEX?

(01:17):
What did I do? Did I do something? Is this
because I got somebody been out of shape up there.
Why does Fred van Vliet have to tear his ACL
like a week before media Day? Just explain it to me.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, hard not to feel bad for the player himself.
In addition to that, this is a season for him.
He came to Houston to try to put them in
position to do what he has once already done, that's
win an NBA championship. And I think he knew, like
everybody else in this organization, including the newcomers to the organization,
like Kevin Durant, like Dorian Finney Smith, that they had
a really good chance to put something together immediately this season.

(01:48):
They're not building anymore. They are built, and they wanted
to see what would transpire with this group this season
and now that group again. A torn ACL in late
September suggests that timeline for him to not play any
basketball for the Rockets until twenty twenty six, twenty seven,
should that be the case, And that is really unfortunate.

(02:08):
Really feel bad for him and that this was like
I said, you know, he finished his postseason last year
that the best player on the team just from a
performance standpoint, he was that good to close out the
series against Golden State and this year, was going to
take on a role that probably saw him being leaned
on a little bit less leadership aside, that would be
the same, but maybe not needing him to be a

(02:29):
thirty five six seven minute a night player for them
throughout a season. And now they won't get anything and
he won't be out there for them. Not sure what
this will mean for, you know, how he'll go about
his season, where he will be, how much time he'll
spend around the club, And obviously the team and the
player or his agency hasn't confirmed this, but I don't
doubt it's accuracy, and it is you know, it's kind
of the kind of thing that is a It is

(02:51):
a gut punch to the team, the organization and more
so to the player. But the excitement to a certain
extent obviously gets damp into a little bit. You maybe
have an eight nine player rotation, Well, he's in it.
He is firmly in it as your starting point guard.
No matter how much talent you still have a board,
no matter what you think the future was going to
hold for say Reed Shepherd or Amen Thompson as more

(03:13):
primary ball handlers, this is it's pretty devastating, certainly for
Fred and obviously for the team.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Jimmy Ward has been removed from the commissioner's list. I'd
rather have Fred van Vliet just saying.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
They are separate.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
That's my trade off in Houston sports. I mean, for
the love of god, you have a record amount of
injured list participants for the Astros this year, which we
haven't even pointed. I think we've done a pretty good
job of while talking about the injuries because they're unavoidable,
to not point to them as an excuse for whatever
shortcomings have been the Astros twenty twenty five campaign. But

(03:47):
their main reason for that is because they've been in
first place for much of the year, and so I
just think that that just that narrative goes by the wayside.
Fred van Vliet was going to be a huge saying
in the past ten this is so depressing already was
going to be a huge part of and was a
huge part by the way I think of why Kevin

(04:08):
Durant would have wanted to come here. He's not going
to be part of that now. And this is a
this is a potentially really big problem because I don't
know that you can look at I mean, just look
at the Vegas Odds. Once the news of this trickles down,
I don't know that you can look at the Rockets
the same way. I know they got Kevin Durant, I

(04:28):
know they have him, Men Thompson. I know they've got
a great core. We just had rafel Stone sit in
that chair last week in here to talk about all
the good vibes for the Rockets season. But you saw
it last year. I you and I disagreed on how
effective Fred was on the floor in a variety of
different ways for this Rockets team. Because his shooting last year,

(04:49):
particularly from the three point line at times, was abysmal.
And then like he's practically dragged him to a Game
seven the way he was shooting in the postseason. But
like when he went down with that was I think
it was an ankle injury in February. Basically he missed
all of February. That was I don't think it was

(05:09):
a coincidence. That was the Rockets worst month of the year,
as I recall record wise, that was when they had
their roughest patch. They got swept by the Nets during February.
I mean, things were bad, and you know Jabari Smith
Junior breaking his hand prior to that, about a month earlier,
early days of January. That didn't help. But Fred's such
a steadying force on the floor. Even if his shots

(05:33):
aren't falling, even if this, that, and the other isn't
going his way. This is this is bad, bad news
for the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yep. Like I said, a very key component. It's unfortunate
for him, unfortunate for the team. Obviously, at this point
of an offseason, you're about to start practicing, you're about
to start playing your preseason games, and you know, we're
less than a month away from the season opener on
the twenty first of October for the NBA, So there
isn't much else to go out there and do to
accommodate for that. Maybe opportunities later in the year, and

(06:01):
teams obviously elsewhere will be in different positions and maybe
you'll see something that it could augment the ass or
excuse me, the Rockets roster in this very particular area.
But it's it's amazing how things will change. And it
was never the intention. When the Rockets left the court,
leaving their Game seven loss and wondering what their future

(06:23):
held and players that you know, may have been a
bigger part of it, and may have been a lesser
part of it. But the guys that helped you in
a number of different ways, specifically in the back court.
Cam Whitmore's obviously not here, wasn't a part of their
postseason roster for all intents and purposes, Jalen Green not here,
and now Fred van Vliet not able to participate with

(06:45):
a torn acl and you know, obviously that's straight out
that's your starting backcourt. Jalen started every game in the backcourt.
I am aware you've replaced him with Kevin Durant, but
in instead of making the Kevin Durant deal, specifically with
the other signings in mind, Dylan Brooks is going out,
Jalen Green is going out, so we're bringing in Dorian

(07:06):
Finney Smith. We've got this for Brooks and we've got
that for Jalen. They had a starting back court that
led them to fifty two wins last year, and neither
of them will play for the Rockets next years. Obviously,
Jalen is in Phoenix and now Fred is unavailable.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's just coming on the heels of the type of
weekend Houston sports fans just went through. I mean, we
all remember what happened with Deshaun Watson his rookie year,
and then the Astros promptly went to win the World
Series a few weeks later, and we all joked about
it being a sacrificial ACL at the time. I don't
know what this would be a sacrifice for. Whether the

(07:41):
Texan's gonna win their first game next.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Week, Well, think about the other main difference that I
would say, so Fred van Vliet out for the year
with a torn ACL for a fifty plus win team,
they were gonna win fifty plus. I think that's pretty
easy to say. They'll probably still win fifty plus. They'll
they'll be in the mix. They'll be I think, just
very pop team and a very likely team that is
tough to eliminate. But they clearly got worse. This is

(08:05):
a really, really good team. This is a team with legitimate,
believable championship aspirations. Deshaun Watson was playing like somebody you
were pretty excited about in the future. But he was
playing for a bad football team. He was playing for
a team that was not ready to go anywhere that year.
And obviously they absolutely went in the tank after that.
That was not you weren't losing it. I mean, all

(08:27):
the excitement about how he played was great and warranted.
They didn't even win half the games he played. He's
putting up unbelievable numbers. They couldn't stop anybody. They were
in all these shootouts, and it was the first year
of his career. It was just getting started, and you
hope that it wouldn't impact it moving far forward. And
that's not what impacted it far moving forward. He still
reached a Pro Bowl level and still what was the

(08:49):
caliber of a franchise caliber quarterback. This to me is just,
you know, this is a championship team. This is a
team that should be playing in the last series in
the Western Conference, potentially certainly the last eight teams, the
last four teams standing in the West, no question about that. Absolutely.
Prior to the season beginning, no doubt that would have
been my prediction, at the very very least, they would

(09:10):
have been one of the final four Western Conference teams standing.
I'm not sure what I would have thought after seeing
a little bit of everybody else. Maybe I'd have projected
them to make it to the conference finals, or beat
Oklahoma City or reach the finals. It's gonna be tough
to look at them in the same way. I just
don't think it's possible. Even though he's not their most
important player, probably not their second most important player. He

(09:31):
might not be their third or fourth most important player,
but he's pretty important.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
He's the ball handler. And if you're wondering some more
details trickling out, Kelly Eco reporting that he suffered the
injury during a team mini camp in the Bahamas and
is scheduled for surgery this week. I had forgotten they
were going to do that, but I just and Kelly

(09:56):
lists his age right there at thirty one. I kept
coming back to this last season because he just seems
like he's older than he is. Not because he looks
older or he's slow or anything like that, just I
think he's He had such a run in Toronto, you know,
kind of spearheading along with Kawhi Leonard, that championship run,

(10:17):
and he was that guy. He was the captain, He
was the hard and soul of that team that pushed
and won that NBA championship. And he immediately was that
guy here in Houston for a team that needed, alongside
Dylan Brooks, veterans that have at least had some sort
of high level winning to influence this young core, and man,

(10:40):
I just I can't feel It's like you said, I
can't feel the same way about this upcoming season if
he's not a part of it. Even with Kevin Durant.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, there was no doubt that the Rockets had high
hopes for year two of Reed. Shepherd that definitely this
changes a lot about what they might be considering what else. Again,
I'm not saying they can't make a move and they
can't find a player and they can't do something for
this spot on their roster, but they clearly will be
starting something very very unlike they had intended when they

(11:09):
send out their first five on opening night. And we'll
have it here for you of course on Sports Talk
seven ninety and very much looking forward to it. Still,
it also brings a little bit different tone to a
week from Monday when we ask everybody, unfortunately about this
very unfortunate news that Fred van Vliet towards ACL working
out with the team just before they get ready to
start practicing for the upcoming season. So a very big

(11:32):
negative unfortunately for us to discuss here, along with the
other two very big on field negatives from both the
Texans and the Rockets continue with that here on The
A Team

Speaker 1 (11:42):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven, ninety ninety four.