The Houston Rockets have started operating under a new philosophy on offense. How far could this new look take them? Apparently not to a win over the Milwaukee Bucks on the second night of a back-to-back. Nonetheless, the team has been playing terrific basketball and its trajectory looks terrifying for the league.
This Change Has Rocket-Boosted Houston’s Offense
How The Udoka Era Began
The Rockets under head coach Ime Udoka have had a distinctly defense-first identity. His arrival coincided with those of defensively-minded veterans such as Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks. The team’s only major trade acquisition was the universally inoffensive Steven Adams. The overhaul from the Stephen Silas coaching era brought a 19-win improvement. They narrowly missed out on the play-ins in 2023-24. Unfortunately, the team’s allergy to letting the ball through the hoop affected them on both ends of the court.
The 2023-24 Houston Rockets offense was something to sneeze at. They had an offensive rating ranking 20th out of 30 teams. They were 18th in made threes and 23rd in their percentage at 35.2%. Their overreliance on VanVleet’s stewardship of a pick-and-roll offense assured them the fourth-lowest turnover rate in the association but also contributed to having the fifth-lowest effective field goal percentage.
A major accelerant for this allergy was the questionable utilization of the teams’ most talented offensive creators, Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green. Both players were frequently overloaded by opposing defenses. Udoka’s typical adjustment to resultantly poor performances was consigning either or both players to the bench.
Season 2 of “The Offense” (Houston Edition)
The Rockets started out this season exhibiting much the same symptoms. When teams doubled Sengun in the low-post or the pick-and-roll, the offense floundered. So, what was the remedy? They stopped putting Sengun in the low-post or the pick-and-roll… or at least stopped doing it so much. The Rockets have finally started running hand-offs. They act the same as a pick-and-roll but give the guard the advantage of not having to maintain a live dribble during navigation and allow the big to act as a driving threat if the defenders overplay the action.
As a result, Sengun recorded successive triple-doubles, including in the Rockets’ NBA Cup victory over the Clippers. To do it, he and the Rockets took a page from the Sacramento Kings’ playbook. Since his arrival in Sacramento, Lithuanian big man Domantas Sabonis has been the offensive hub for the Kings’ offense while his teammates buzz around him as shooting threats.
The Rockets can replicate that even lacking the Kings’ level of marksmanship across the roster. The Rockets scored 143 points against the Chicago Bulls despite making only 10 three-pointers. Besides relying on the athleticism of the Rockets’ wings, Sengun has a trick of his own.
Sengun’s Neat Trick
A major part of what enables this new offensive philosophy for the Rockets is Sengun’s increased aggression from the midrange. His shots from 10-14 feet are up to 2.8 per game over the last five games compared with 2.1 for the season overall. Likewise, part of what enables Sengun’s aggression is the new philosophy. His catches are coming at the elbow where he can face up and threaten to drive, his preference is for a stand-still floating push-shot but he’s also deployed fadeaways and even conventional jump shots. Sengun is becoming a versatile threat to score from over 10 feet out.
Even if his percentage on such shots has dropped in these games, Sengun sticking with this newfound midrange aggression has huge implications for his long-term potential as a primary offensive creator. With his footwork and passing ability, any time Sengun can get his defender to bite on a pump-fake from midrange is a fist-pump-worthy win for the Rockets. He can use the opportunity to make progress toward the rim or draw additional defenders.
Against the Bucks, Sengun had even premium defensive bigs like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez going for his midrange pump-fakes. Unfortunately, so much so that Giannis didn’t hesitate to swat Sengun’s attempted game-winner in crunch time (before possibly stepping out of bounds with it, pending the verdict of the last two minute report).
The final result was still a lackluster offensive outing for the Rockets against the Bucks. The good news is most teams don’t start two seven-footers, including a former Defensive Player of the Year. Considering this and that the Rocket’s defense is still elite enough to nearly carry them in games when the offense isn’t delivering. Whenever an adversary of the Rockets thinks he has his defender beat, either Amen Thompson is there to make amends or Tari Eason to take revenge. Every time there’s a block or a key deflection from one of those defensive bench pairings it’s another easy Amen to an opponent’s chance to score.
The Last Word
The Rockets’ defensive identity is well-established. The team’s offensive identity is still a work in progress. This stage feels like filling out the forms to get the ID card. Athletic cutters zooming around Sengun operating at the top of the key or the elbow is a look that could get the Rockets into an exclusive club of elite teams. The standings this early in the season can be deceptive. Right now, though, the Rockets aren’t just competing for a play-in spot, they’re trying to establish themselves as one of the best teams in the league.
