It’s decided! The Rockets laid off 4 people in a row in one day, the 17-man lineup was released, and 3 people with two-way contracts successfully stayed on the team.

On October 19th, three days later, the Rockets' first regular season game will come. The Rockets' first opponent is last season's defending champion, the Thunder with MVP Alexander. The Thunder defeated the Pacers 4:3 in the finals last season and won the NBA championship. The rebuilding of this team has been very successful, but do the Rockets have a chance to become the next Thunder and win the NBA championship in the next few years? Totally possible.

After all, the current Rockets have both young players, superstars like Durant, and some veterans and role players. If they can perform normally, they will definitely be the Thunder's biggest competitor in the Western Conference in the new season. The Rockets must start from every regular season game, strive for victory in every game, strive to enter the playoffs with a good ranking, and gain home court advantage. In this way, the Rockets can exert their strong strength.

Now that the Rockets are about to usher in the regular season, in order to streamline their lineup, the Rockets had to lay off four fringe players in one day. These four players are forward Cameron Matthews who holds a training camp contract, as well as Cornhill, Vernon Carey Jr. and Tyrese Hunter signed by the Rockets the day before. These players are likely to join the Vipers, a Development League team affiliated with the Rockets. If the Rockets need it in the future, they may promote talents from the Vipers to the first team.

However, the Rockets are now strong. Even if their veteran point guard VanVleet is reimbursed for the season due to injury, the Rockets currently have 17 players on the roster. We can see that after cutting off 4 fringe players, the Rockets now have 14 players with standard NBA contracts, and three players with two-way contracts. I believe everyone is very familiar with it. Among the players with standard contracts, the point guards include VanVleet, Amen Thompson, and Aaron Holiday; the shooting guards include Shepard and Okogie; the small forward positions include Durant, Eason, and Tate; the power forward positions include Jabari Smith Jr., Finney Smith, and Jeff Green; and the center positions include Shen Jing, Adams, and Capela.

Due to the good performance of the three players with two-way contracts, they were not laid off in the end and successfully stayed on the team. Especially in the previous game when the Rockets defeated the Hawks, two-way contract players Crawford, Davidson and Harris all performed well. All three of them scored in double figures and made achievements in defense, rebounding and passing. Therefore, the Rockets kept them as a reward. These three players will also enter the new regular season on two-way contracts and play for the Rockets.

As for the several fringe players who were laid off, the most famous is of course Cameron Matthews. Although Matthews has been playing for the Rockets in the summer league, whether it is the summer league or the preseason, Matthews basically has zero offensive role. He is not a forward who can shoot and has the ability to attack independently. Although Matthews' defensive ability is not bad, and his height and weight are athletic, a forward who can't shoot or score is completely useless to the Rockets. As for several other players, such as Hunter, Kyrie and Cornhill are basically dispensable for the Rockets.

Therefore, the Rockets unsurprisingly retained the 17-man roster, and now the Rockets still have one official contract spot. Once the Rockets want to add players, they can use this quota to sign new players. Of course, the Rockets must first free up salary space. The above are the changes in the Rockets lineup today. They have determined the 17-man roster for the regular season and are looking forward to their regular season opener against the Thunder.