The 2023-24 season for the Houston Rockets was surprising, frustrating and, ultimately, a season of progress. With a new coach and new additions to the line up, some bumps in the road were to be expected, but to finish the year at .500, a 19-game improvement, coming off three of the worst years in franchise history was worth celebrating.

Now that the Rockets will have to watch the postseason like the other teams that didn't make the NBA postseason, it's a good time to look back and give some grades to this young, talented team.

Part 1: The Starters

The Rockets have had a bunch of rookies over the last few years and most have turned out to be serious young talent on the rise. In 2023, another pair of first rounders were taken and despite some new veteran help and a tough coach in Ime Udoka who only rewards success on the floor, both made significant contributions to the rotation.

Amen Thomson
Grade: B+

Taken with the fourth pick, just one ahead of his twin brother Ausur, Thompson's track record with the NBA's now defunct Overtime Elite squad was one of versatility and size for a potential point guard. With Fred VanVleet brought in to run the team at point, it felt like this could be a season of just learning and growing for Thompson who turned 21 in January. But some early stumbles notwithstanding, injuries gave him opportunities to start and he made the most of them.

Thompson is a very unique player. At 6'7", he has great size for a guard. Defensively, he is already ahead of the curve and his knack for getting to the basket is uncanny. He rebounds about as well as any current Rocket and his ability to see the floor and make good reads offensively was pretty remarkable for a rookie, once he got over his initial baby steps into the NBA and got healthy.

In the offseason, his number one priority will be to work on his shooting. Thompson made some fairly obvious changes to his mechanics and it seemed to help, but his 53 percent field goal percentage is largely indicative of the fact that he got most of his shots in the paint. To be an effective guard in the NBA, he will have to figure out how to hit shots from distance, even at an average clip. He only took 58 threes this season, but he made just 8. That will need to improve dramatically.

Still, he may be the most dynamic and exciting player on a young Rockets team full of them. He has a chance to be very special.

Cam Whitmore
Grade: B+

When Whitmore, a projected top 10 pick, dropped all the way to 20, no one was happier than Rockets GM Rafael Stone. Apparently, word had spread just before the draft that Whitmore had some hidden injury. He didn't. Everyone else's gossip mill failure is the Rockets success.

Whitmore came out of the gate hot early in the season then cooled off after an injury, but his ability to impact the game on offense was immediately noticeable. He averaged 12 points on a 53 percent effective field goal percentage playing just over 18 minutes per game. Per 100 possessions, he averaged a crazy 31 points. He's absolutely instant offense and has the potential to be one of the best scoring sixth men in the league.

He was also solid defensively, particularly when in recovery mode thanks to his ridiculous athleticism. But, he will need some improvement on that end of the floor to garner more minutes in Udoka's system. And the only real knock on Whitmore coming into the league was something that continued even as a rookie in the NBA. He does tend to be a bit bull headed offensively often going to the basket hard despite the defenders or his open teammates.

The fact that he was often able to get up good shots even in those circumstances demonstrated his offensive skills, but he did see improvement in that, we'll call it selfishness for lack of a better word, as the season went on. To get a player of his offensive abilities at 20 is wild and the Rockets are the better for it.