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Between Two Beers Podcast: Steven Adams shares his incredible journaling technique to help quieten self doubt. "I write down exactly how I feel. Raw emotions. Whatever it is, the word, I'm just writing it down." "I imagine that as like a 10-year-old Steven. And then my response is an adult Steven."
Varun Shankar: Stone: "The offseason plan isn't, '[FVV/Adams are] coming back, it's fine.' "I think it's much more looking at our young guys and saying, 'You guys need to improve.'" Stone noted that the young guys showed improvement throughout the 25-26 season.
They've probably heard worse in their own locker room, the source said. Between Adams' off-color humor and Udoka's tough-love coaching, Houston's young core has developed relatively thick skin. Not to mention, the source explained, younger players are used to the pitfalls and perils of social media. "Good things came out of both those discussions," the source said. "They got s--- off their chest."
Interviews with team sources and those with knowledge of the team's operations reveal that the VanVleet injury, and the season-ending ankle injury to Steven Adams later on, impacted the team in ways that extended off the floor. Beyond the team's glaring lack of playmaking, their absences created a massive leadership void that Durant and the team struggled to fill.
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Durant was predictably brilliant on the court throughout the 2025-26 season, averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists while playing in 78 games, but team sources said his "moodiness" took some getting used to and wore on the team's young players throughout the campaign, a dynamic that was exacerbated without VanVleet and Adams as buffers.
Steven Adams: “As of right now, yeah, just got three years, and then I’m just keeping my options open. So, obviously, all my family is in New Zealand and whatnot, and that’s where a lot of my farm is and stuff like that, so I’ve got a lot of ties back here. But then, yeah, there’s a few in America as well. So, yeah, we’ll see, bro.”
Do you have to be really careful on your chats and threads, what you’re saying? You have to, regardless of who you are. You’ve got to be careful. Yeah. But with your profile, right? Someone else can see it and take a screenshot of messages and get you in trouble. Is that a factor?” Steven Adams: “I think it’s a factor. There’s evidence of that, I think, but if you do some digging, it just really depends on who you look at. But yeah, typically, you’d want to be pretty careful. But, you know, depends on what you say, I guess.”
You played with and against some of the very best to ever play the sport, and it’s cool to hear stories about them. But I’m also keen to hear about some of the guys like Nick Collison, who barely averaged double figures his whole career, and yet OKC retired his number. What does it mean to be a player like that? What can you tell us about Nick?” Steven Adams: “Nick’s just an amazing human. He helped me out tremendously, especially with the X’s and O’s, the basketball side of it, but also the approach on how to think about the game. He kind of organized my thinking, just to be a bit more realistic and not too emotional. It’s an emotional game, but you have to be rational through it, and he was a very rational player. He helped me a lot with that stuff. He’s been consistent throughout his whole career, and his impact was crazy. The team would just do well when he was on the floor. Good things happened when Nick was on the floor. That’s basically how it works. Even though he’s not scoring or doing this and that, there are all these things where a breakdown will happen, and he’s always in the right position to help out. That’s what I’ve always admired about him. He’s always ready for the worst. It might happen once out of a hundred times, but he won’t let that fall. He’s the one who patches it.”
Steven Adams: “I think it speaks more to the Thunder, what they value. Retiring Nick Collison’s jersey, as you said, a lot of it is like, ‘Oh, they scored this much,’ or whatnot. But really, the Thunder highlighting Nick as a retired jersey speaks more to that they value a player who’s going to come in and really do what impacts winning the most. Not about if you score a lot, nothing about this. Do you impact winning? Are you helping your teammates? Are you helping the organization? When you’re outside of the court, are you making sure the organization that you’re representing, are you representing them well? I think he encompassed all of that. That’s what I think he set the standard for every other Thunder player. Especially when they did that, they immortalized those values.”
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Dane Moore: Chris Finch, when asked about the Wolves' playoff rotation and potentially removing guys from the normal rotation, cited the example of Steven Adams from the Wolves-Grizzlies series in 2022. "The playoffs are about having your players buy in to the mentality that we need to go wherever we need to go with the roster."
Marc Stein: “It was one thing when they lost Fred VanVleet before the season started, but then they lost Steven Adams on top of it. Steven Adams and the offensive rebound rate they managed when Adams was playing seemingly offset the fact that they lost VanVleet and didn’t have a true, proven point guard to replace him. But they haven’t been able to now that—without Adams and VanVleet. Yeah, I mean, you’re right. I don’t hear executives, I don’t hear scouts, I don’t hear anybody really giving the Rockets a chance to make playoff noise. That’s their reality right now.”
Fred VanVleet: “And without me and without Steven (Adams) our margin for error is just so much smaller. So when we don't and that's that's a tough way to live for young guys that's trying to figure out because all of them guys is you know 23 24 and under. Um, so they figuring it out. But I don't think it's like doom and gloom like, ‘Oh my god, the sky is falling. You got to over because when you in these positions, you have to have a big picture mindset even when it feel and nobody's feeling worse than the players, the coaches. ‘The fans don't give a [ __ ] what y'all going through or what how much money you spent on a ticket. Like people dedicate their lives to this [ __ ] So I'll be hating to see that from my seat like like it's doom and gloom. Like, “Oh my god, the sky is falling. We We don't have no hope.” Well, how the [ __ ] was y'all just so optimistic a couple months ago? You can't have both.’
Ira Winderman: Rockets listing forward Jabari Smith Jr. out for Saturday at Heat due to ankle sprain sustained Thursday at Orlando. Also out for Rockets: Jae'Sean Tate (knee), Steven Adams (ankle), Fred VanVleet (knee) and Tristen Newton (G League). No other players listed on their report.
