The Rockets headed into this season with high expectations. It would take a lot to get past the defending champion Thunder and the rising Spurs, but Houston’s young core and trade for Kevin Durant gave it as good a shot as any other team in the stacked Western Conference. Durant is certainly an aging superstar, but he remains one of the NBA’s best bucket getters and greatest scorers of all time. He inked a two-year contract extension upon his arrival in Houston as the Rockets hoped to make a title push around Durant and the organization’s exciting young core of Alperen Şengün, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard. Sheppard broke out as a top-tier shooter after an up-and-down rookie season, while Durant’s gravity gave the rest of Houston’s youngsters more room to thrive. Durant, at 37 years old, averaged 26.0 points per game and coach Ime Udoka got 20.4 more points a night from Şengün, 18.3 from Thompson and 15.8 from Smith.…