With three first-round selections, few teams felt a more immediate impact from the 2022 NBA draft than the Houston Rockets. It showed on the court at summer league, and particularly in strong performances by No. 3 overall pick Jabari Smith Jr. and No. 17 choice Tari Eason.
Even so, summer league games aren’t nearly equivalent to what each rookie will see in the 2022-23 regular season. Besides the obvious jump in talent and age, those real games also feature real uniforms, as opposed to the scaled-down versions worn by each team in the summer.
There was pne exception to that general rule, though. As part of an official rookie photo shoot in Las Vegas, the Rockets had each of their three new first-round rookies from the 2022 draft class (Smith, Eason, and TyTy Washington) put on their regular NBA jerseys for the first time as a professional. It was clearly a fun and memorable occasion for Houston’s three prized prospects, who are all 21 years old or younger.
Here’s a look at some of the best photos from that shoot, which was held on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
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