The 2025-26 regular season is almost at an end. The recent model for revealing end-of-season awards, however, has been a steady drip-feed during the playoffs. Fans and players alike have a while longer to wait, then. Houston Rockets fans and players will be awards-watching among them. After a somewhat disappointing campaign, what will they likely receive?
The Houston Rockets’ 2025-26 End Of Season Awards Chances
First of all, it’s worth examining how the Rockets fared in end-of-season awards last year. The Rockets finished 52-30 and were second in the Western Conference. That record put Houston’s lone All-Star, Alperen Sengun, firmly in the running for All-NBA. However, against the best of the best, his case ran out of steam.
Sengun received six Second Team votes and 40 Third Team votes. His overall score of 58 was just 10 points shy of James Harden, who ultimately received the final spot in the these-days positionless voting.
In the end, the Rockets’ only award was a First Team All-Defense spot for Amen Thompson. It wasn’t contentious either. Thompson was the lowest-scoring recipient of the First Team with 171 points, but significantly cleared the next highest in Ivica Zubac with 114.
The Rockets’ All-NBA Chances in 2025-26
Sengun’s numbers have mostly improved this season compared with last. He’s gone from 19.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 4.9 assists on 49.6% shooting to 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 6.2 assists on 51.9% shooting. Even so, his All-NBA chances are probably worse.
That’s partially because the Rockets now have Kevin Durant. Durant missed the threshold of 65 games played in 2024-25, only managing 62 with his former team, the Phoenix Suns. If not for that, his 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists on 52.7% shooting and 43.0% three-point shooting would have likely made the cut. That’s even with the Suns’ unappealing record of 36-46.
Now, Durant is back to winning ways, helping the Rockets to a 51-30 record ahead of Sunday’s regular season finale. This season, he is averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists on 52.0% from the field and 41.3% from three. That’s tenth in scoring among eligible players. Meanwhile, his true shooting is fifth among players with a 20% usage rate or higher. Crucially, he will have played 78 games. Durant’s All-NBA status is virtually guaranteed.
As for which team, First seems out of the question. Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, and the probably eligible Luka Doncic should be locks. The likes of Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell should be ahead of Durant as well. Second Team is realistic for the Slim Reaper, though.
The chances of Houston being awarded two All-NBA spots are not realistic. They are the fifth seed and have generally underwhelmed in 2025-26. Sengun has been occasionally sensational as the team’s de facto starting point guard. Unfortunately, his woes with efficiency, turnovers, and defense will undermine his case.
Can Amen Thompson Defend His Spot?
As for Thompson, while he won’t have actually peaked in 2024-25, his All-Defense chances look peaky in 2025-26. His own twin brother, Ausar Thompson, is one of several players with much more defensive hype this season. That’s because of the Detroit Pistons’ Eastern Conference-topping record, earned mostly via their number two-rated defense. Speaking of which, the Rockets’ defense is down in seventh.
Individually, Thompson is averaging 1.5 steals and 0.6 blocks. The blocks are down from 1.3 per game last season, partly due to a positional change. Thompson has spent more time on the perimeter this season. Players tend to average fewer blocks as they mature and stop selling out for highlights at the expense of fundamentals. Finally, Thompson’s increased offensive load (18.3 points compared with 14.1 last season) is probably wearing him down.
Thompson finished fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting last year. That doesn’t look set to improve this time around. Admittedly, the awards odds are something of a joke at this point, given that Wembanyama was guaranteed to win the second he logged his 20th minute in his 65th game. Even so, they’re telling of Amen’s predicament. Besides Wemby and Ausar, Chet Holmgren, Rudy Gobert, and Scottie Barnes have all recently had better odds.
Amen Thompson still has a good chance at a Second Team All-Defense spot. The competition will be fierce, though. Derrick White, Dyson Daniels, Evan Mobley, Stephon Castle, and Cason Wallace all have strong cases on winning teams. Kris Dunn and Bam Adebayo are also candidates under consideration.
Houston Rockets’ One Shot at the Individual Awards
Last, but not least, and in fact very specifically sixth, there’s Reed Sheppard. Sheppard is Houston’s best chance at any of the individual awards, but it’s a long shot. He is a dark horse with the third-best odds at winning Sixth Man of the Year. Unfortunately, it’s a two-horse race. The award will almost certainly go to either Jaime Jaquez Jr or Keldon Johnson.
Johnson has 81 games off the bench and zero starts for the 62-win San Antonio Spurs, with an average of 13.1 points per game. Meanwhile, Jaquez is averaging 15.2 points per game with 73 games off the bench and only one start. In comparison, Sheppard’s 13.5 points with 61 bench games and 20 starts don’t quite measure up.
Still, third in Sixth Man of the Year voting would be a nice boon to the resume of a gifted young player after a challenging first season. Of course, given that the award winners are announced during the playoffs, hopefully, the Rockets will be too busy to notice. The regular season is (basically) over. The postseason is almost upon us. Whether the Rockets face the Lakers or the Nuggets, they’ll have to stop thinking about awards and focus instead on being at war.
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