Rockets head coach Ime Udoka announced Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams will not play in back-to-back games this season, and Marcus Smart will start at point guard when VanVleet is unavailable.

Tuesday’s announcement was not a surprise. VanVleet, 32, missed all of last season with a left leg injury, while Adams, 33, missed the final 42 games of the regular season and the entire postseason after undergoing left ankle surgery in January. Adams has either missed significant time or had his season cut short in three of the last four years.

The Rockets are scheduled to play 13 sets of back-to-back games this season, with the first coming Friday and Saturday of opening week.

Naming Smart the starter over Reed Sheppard when VanVleet is unavailable could be viewed as a minor surprise. Smart, who signed a two-year, $12.4 million contract over the summer, is entering his 13th NBA season. He was a starter for Udoka’s Celtics team that reached the NBA Finals in 2022.

Sheppard appeared in all 82 regular-season games and six postseason games for the Rockets last season, and Udoka reiterated that the third-year guard will have a significant role during his third NBA campaign.

What the role entails

“Come in and be a secondary (ball) handler,” Udoka told reporters Tuesday. “Play on and off ball. Be a spark plug every night. Obviously, (he’s) one of our best shooters and the threat of the shot, the way he’s guarded and who they put on him, that’s huge for them and for us.”

Sheppard started 21 games last season, but Udoka has a specific role in mind for the third pick of the 2024 draft, similar to the one he envisions for free-agent acquisition Bogdan Bogdanovic. Sheppard averaged 13 points per game off the bench last season while shooting 40% from 3-point range.

“Whether it’s that Malik Monk role or whoever it is you have to account for every night, that you know you’re going to get a certain amount of points, shots for. That would be a great role,” Udoka said.

Monk has averaged 11 points per game off the bench during his nine-year NBA career. He finished runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year in 2024 after placing fifth in the voting the previous season.

Bogdanovic finished in the top six in Sixth Man of the Year voting while with the Atlanta Hawks in 2022 and 2024, but he appeared in just 23 games for the Los Angeles Clippers last season.