The Houston Rockets’ preseason will resume on October 14th against the New Orleans Pelicans. So far, in only two games, fans have seen plenty to get excited over. Reed Sheppard has avoided disaster in his tryout as the injury replacement for Fred VanVleet. JD Davison has shown enough to constitute unexpected guard depth. Superstar league-trotter Kevin Durant has finally debuted in Rocketeer red. Most importantly, the Rockets are conducting experiments around their offensive nucleus, Alperen Sengun.
Rockets Preseason Showcasing New Offensive Potential
So far in preseason, the Rockets have the second-highest offensive rating in the NBA. With only a two-game sample size, there obviously isn’t a lot to be drawn from that long term. Still, the Rockets had Durant in only one game, and an established starting point guard in neither. Unsurprisingly for the jumbo Rockets, the sheen on their offense comes partially from their ability to clean the glass. They are second in the preseason in offensive rebounding percentage. But there has been a little more nuance to proceedings than simply nudging smaller players out from under the rim.
The Rockets have clearly made a conscious effort to feature a varied offense over their two preseason games. There have been post-ups, hand-offs, and even pick-and-rolls for the likes of Jabari Smith Jr. It’s easy to assume that Houston’s defense will remain elite in year three under coach Ime Udoka‘s tutelage. The question marks pertain mostly to their offense. The Rockets are using these games for much-needed experimentation. Creative playcalling was not exactly a strength of the club last season.
The Rockets’ 2024-25 Offense
The Houston Rockets were ninth in isolation possessions with 9.9 per game in 2024-25. That put them at eleventh in frequency. That doesn’t seem very remarkable until you consider that the Rockets didn’t really have any prototypical isolation scorers. In fact, their best “isolation scorer” largely didn’t even count.
The Rockets were fourth in post-ups per game in 2024-25. That makes plenty of sense, considering they had one of the league’s premier low-block craftsmen in Sengun. You might think it would explain their isolation frequency as well. After all, post-ups might seem like just a variety of isolation.
However, the point of the post-up is often to create a passing hub that can enable high percentage cuts to the rim. The actual isolation stage of the post-up is more like a failsafe. For example, the Denver Nuggets had only 5.7 “isolation” possessions per game in 2024-25. Yet they had 8.1 “post up” possessions per game in the same season. Like the Nuggets, the Rockets have a big man capable of finding good shots when they’re out there. Sengun put as much on full display in Wednesday’s game against the Jazz, tallying 13 assists.
Isolating The Key Personnel
Sengun’s offensive gifts have not been put to best use in his Houston tenure so far. Last year, he led the Rockets in pure isolation possessions with 2.8 per game. In such possessions, he had an effective field goal percentage of just 44.5%. It’s not that Sengun can’t score in isolation necessarily, but the Rockets too often asked him to bail them out of bad possessions when he was already the target of the opponent’s defensive game plan. Still, his isolation percentages were a lot better than the Rockets’ second-leading iso-man.
Jalen Green had 2.5 isolations per game for the Rockets last season, with an effective field goal percentage of just 35.2%. The man the Rockets traded Green for this offseason did a little better – the ice-in-his-veins, isolation immolator, Kevin Durant.
The New Guy
Durant was tenth in the league last season in isolation possessions with 4.5 per game. He had an effective field goal percentage of 57.5%, higher than anybody above him in volume. Durant can create something from nothing better than just about anybody in the league. But just because Durant can score efficiently in isolation doesn’t mean the Rockets should go all in on it. He’s Kevin Durant. He can score in just about any way you can imagine.
Indeed, an overreliance on isolation from a team poorly equipped to score that way is rarely by design. The Rockets resorted to iso because the plays they wanted to run weren’t especially effective either.
The Rockets’ bread and butter play type was unsurprisingly the pick-and-roll. They used it with a 17.1% frequency, good for ninth in the league. However, the Rockets clearly got butter-fingers on such plays, with a bottom-ten effective field goal percentage. Green and VanVleet were by far the Rockets’ most frequent pick-and-roll ball handlers. They combined for 14.8 possessions per game. With both players absent in 2025-26, the Rockets’ offense will be in need of an overhaul anyway. Enter Durant.
To the surprise of no one, Durant put up numbers in his preseason debut. He scored 20 points on 10 shots from the field. It will be interesting to keep tabs on his current 24.2% usage rate, the highest among the starters. Even with that high number, though, the Rockets never looked like they were forcing Durant iso-ball. Better teams will subject the Rockets’ offensive harmony to more rigorous testing, though, and so, the experimentation will continue.
The Last Word
The season-long loss of VanVleet will be a blow for the team, no matter how you look at it. However, the Rockets have two very useful armaments in their apparent predicament. They have one surefire offensive superweapon in Durant, and one highly encouraging prototype in Sengun. Durant is the kind of all-purpose, scoring machine that can elevate just about anything. In Sengun, the team has a legitimate offensive centrepiece who has been in dire need of elevation. The team has plenty of other young players eager for experience and opportunities in 2025-26. In Durant and Sengun, though, the Rockets have the potential for one of the league’s best offensive duos.
© Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
The post Rockets Preseason Showcasing New Offensive Potential appeared first on Last Word On Basketball.