Fred VanVleet suffers torn ACL at Rockets mini-camp; scheduled for surgery and expected to miss most or all of 2025-26
VanVleet had signed a two-year, $50M deal with Houston after averaging 14.1 points and 5.6 assists in 2024-25
Rockets’ backcourt to lean on Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson with VanVleet sidelined
Fred VanVleet's 2025-26 season appears to be over before it even began.
Van Vleet has suffered a torn ACL during a Houston Rockets mini-camp in the Bahamas, according to Shams Charania of ESPN on Monday.
He is scheduled to undergo surgery this week, and is expected to miss most, if not, all of the 2025-26 NBA season.
It's a huge loss for a Rockets team that finished with the Western Conference's second-best record in 2024-25 at 52-30 and had big expectations for this upcoming season after acquiring future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant this off-season.
VanVleet, 31, agreed to a two-year, $50 million contract to stay with Houston in June after starting all 60 games he played for the Rockets last season.
In 2024-25, the nine-year veteran averaged 14.1 points and a team-high 5.6 assists while shooting 37.8 per cent from the field – his lowest since his rookie season for the Toronto Raptors in 2016-17 – after averaging 17.4 points and a career-high 8.1 assists in his first season in Houston in 2023-24.
He stepped up in the Rockets' first-round play-off loss to the Golden State Warriors, averaging 18.7 points while shooting 43.5 per cent from 3-point range with 27 made 3-pointers in the seven-game series.
Considered one of the better long-range shooters in the NBA, VanVleet's 1,386 made 3-pointers since his 2016-17 rookie season rank 13th in the NBA.
With VanVleet sidelined, Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson will likely be tasked with shouldering a larger workload in Houston's backcourt.
