Game one of the Rockets’ preseason is now a tiny part of history. So, what did we learn from it for the real season ahead? Of course, it’s hard to take too much away from a single preseason game. That is, it would probably be more sensible not to. But fans across the league have waited the whole offseason to see their teams play some semblance of organized, competitive basketball (besides briefly exchanging cities for countries during the Olympics). The urge to overreact to every insignificant detail is therefore strong. And why is that urge so strong? Because it’s fun. So why not momentarily dispense with what’s sensible and indulge in an overreaction bonanza?
Rockets Preseason Game 1 Overreactions
Sengun Discovers a Shooter’s Mentality
Rockets star center Alperen Sengun took his threes without waiting to try to analyze the entire court first. Sengun’s instinct to read the floor and make the optimal play is admirable. It’s part of what gives him his appeal as a possible build-around star. When it comes to catching the ball wide-open on the perimeter, though, it tends to make him a little too predictable. That’s the old Sengun though. The new, one-game-of-preseason Sengun is clearly a different animal.
The second attempt did result in an airball. However, if Sengun were to keep shooting like that, ideally while keeping future airballs to a minimum, defenders might even start going for his pump fakes out there again one day. Sengun has a good touch and it’s not too hard to imagine him being a Brook Lopez style of shooter from distance. Lopez first picked up his “splash mountain” nickname shooting 36.5% in 2018-19 on mostly wide-open attempts. Crucially though, they were generally from the top of the arc rather than the corners (which helped him to get back on defense sooner), and, for a big man, he took a lot of them at 6.3 attempts per game.
Will It Stick?
The question is, having air-balled his second attempt with this newfound let-it-fly philosophy, will Sengun be able to stick to it? Sengun has experimented with various whimsical approaches to shooting in his young career. That’s from everywhere from the three-point line to the charity stripe. Who can forget him whispering to the ball on every free throw attempt? Then there’s his flamingo-style, one-legged midranger. Then there’s his set-shot, one-handed midranger. The only move that never really seemed to have any promise at all was pump-faking with nobody near him, staring at the nearest defender until it was clear they definitely weren’t closing out, and then bricking a three.
It will be interesting to see how long Sengun is willing to stick with this latest approach. There are going to be misses, there are going to be airballs, but if he can forget about all that and have confidence in his shot, even post-preseason, then it could do wonders for the Rockets’ spacing.
The Green Rollercoaster Continues
The other young star the Rockets are hoping for a leap from this season is Jalen Green. The main thing that Green has to resolve is his inconsistency. Game one of the preseason wasn’t necessarily very encouraging in that regard, but there are two ways to look at it. Green did finish with a commendable stat line in limited minutes—21 points on 14 shot attempts. It’s just that all of the good stats came from the second quarter after he flubbed the first. He outscored himself 14 points to 5 and had 0 turnovers in the second period compared with an alarming 4 in the first.
But even when allowing oneself to overreact to a single game, overreacting to a single quarter is going a little overboard. If anything, Green starting the game poorly and quickly improving could even be a positive development. There were games last season when Green didn’t have it going early and he seemed to allow it to affect him for the rest of the game. Of course, head coach Ime Udoka‘s willingness to consign him to the bench during poor performances is probably related to that, though the exact relationship between cause and effect is hard to be sure of. Perhaps this season Green will have more success with in-game adjustments and those late-game benchings will be just another tiny part of history.
The New Rockets’ Preseason Debut
The most tempting overreaction naturally concerns the Rockets’ new arrivals. After all, Steven Adams and Reed Sheppard played their entire Rockets career so far last night (not counting Sheppard’s Summer League experience). They were part of bench units that lost the lead, and neither looked especially comfortable. The overreactions would be that Sheppard won’t be ready for meaningful contributions this year and that Adams’ already lumbering style has been slowed even further by injury to the point of ineffectiveness.
Both overreactions stray into the distinctly “not fun anymore” category though. They’re also completely discounting predictable adjustment periods. Adams hasn’t played an NBA game since January 2023 and Sheppard, a rookie, hasn’t played one ever. Adams didn’t even look especially slowed. He was out there doing all of his usual things that don’t show up in the box score. In his quintessential, unselfish style, he was ready to give Green a late screen assist on Green’s highlight dunk, but Utah Jazz big man John Collins made a pre-season business decision to get out of the way on his own. Meanwhile, Sheppard’s shot will probably start falling before the team finishes pre-season.
The Last Word
The most fun from overreactions comes from seeing how they blow up in your face. How many threes will Sengun take in the Rockets’ next game against the Oklahoma City Thunder? Will Green go a whole game without a questionable shot or turnover? Will Adams lead the team in plus-minus through only the power of bone-crushing screens? Can Sheppard scorch the net? Will the Rockets show the league they’re ready to take on the loaded Western Conference? One thing is certain. Fans will overreact again, and they’ll have fun doing it.
