The Houston Rockets are having a difficult battle to climb during the 2025-26 NBA season.
Despite being the second seed at last season’s Western Conference and adding Kevin Durant to the offseason roster, the Houston Rocket was founded for a tough campaign.
The biggest reason is Fred Van Beat’s ACL tear injury, who is likely to defend the veteran point guard for the season.
But let’s put it on the backburner for a second and focus on what Rockets forward Tali Eason wrote on his official X account.
ESPN recently released the full top 100 NBA players for the 2025-26 season. There were some surprising picks on the list.
The list ranks Anthony Edwards with winner Wenbañayama, but another amazing pick was Eason’s snub.
Due to context, Eason wasn’t even ranked among the top 100 players this season. This rudeness led to Eason bursting with X’s rage.
“If you played 24 minutes and an average of 12, I think it must have been just luck,” tweeted Eason.
However, the Rockets didn’t finish forward, as he wrote in another tweet: “If you get off the bench and get the most average in the playoffs, it must have been just lucky, top 10 stock.
As the Rockets mentioned earlier, Eason took 8th place with 2.53 as the leader of the 2024-25 stock (Steals + Block).
During the 2024-25 season, Eason was featured in 57 Rocket games, but he started with just 16 games.
The main reason behind this is head coach Imeudoka, who prefers Jabari Smith Jr. as Eason’s advancement force.
| 2024-25 NBA season statistics | Tali Eason | Jabari Smith Jr. |
| point | 12.0 ppg | 12.2 ppg |
| rebound | 6.4 RPG | 7.0 rpg |
| assist | 1.5 APG | 1.1 APG |
The two stars averaged the same number last season, but the key difference was minutes per game. Eason averaged 24.9 mpg and Smith Jr. played at 30.1 mpg.
With that in mind, it’s shocking that Eason has been snubled from ESPN’s top 100. Additionally, the Rockets coaching staff will likely need to rethink the starting spot for Smith Jr.’s roster.