Lost in the shuffle of Kevin Durant swapping the Phoenix Suns for the Houston Rockets this summer, is the fact that another former player who called The Valley home joined him there.
Josh Okogie taking the more scenic route of arriving by way of the Charlotte Hornets, but the pair have been reunited in Texas.
Surprisingly given the amount of talent the Rockets possess, Okogie has started 20 of the 26 games he has appeared in this season as well. His 22 minutes each night the most he has managed since the 2019-20 season.
Okogie beginning to get blamed for Rockets' struggles
But with Houston slipping to 17-9, just one spot above the Suns in the Western Conference, some fans have begun pointing to Okogie as the weak link on their team.
Josh Okogie still getting all these moments is just a joke.
— Michael jordon (@GoRockets13) December 22, 2025
The feeling being that if he's having such a large input, particularly offensively, on a roster featuring Durant, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and even Reed Sheppard, that they can only go so far.
This is unfair on the 27-year-old, as he has never shown he can be an elite scorer in this league. What he can do is hound elite scorers all night, but that skill is being overlooked on this roster.
With so many big men, plus Durant turning in elite defensive performances himself routinely (while not being the main man anymore), Okogie has become under-appreciated.
Two things can be true however, and there likely is a ceiling to how far the Rockets can go if he's playing 20 minutes a night as one of their starters. Both the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets have the players to pick on him across a seven game series.
Contrast that to how he would be viewed if he was still in Phoenix. He would have formed an excellent partnership with Dillon Brooks, while he could have been their defensive spark off the bench. Better yet, he could have been there to step in when Brooks inevitably went too far.
Okogie was always valued by Suns fans, it just so happened that they were trying to win a championship for a lot of his time there and their need for a real center meant they had to get rid of him.
That's how he ended up in Charlotte, but let's not pretend he wouldn't have fit brilliantly on this version of the Suns. He is the perfect kind of wing for head coach Jordan Ott.
Instead he looks destined to be the fall guy if the Rockets fail to live up to expectations, despite doing what he always has and doing it well. A tough spot for Josh Okogie to find himself.