{"id":151737,"date":"2025-07-23T13:09:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T17:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=151737"},"modified":"2025-07-23T13:09:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T17:09:27","slug":"rockets-josh-okogie-lockdown-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/23\/rockets-josh-okogie-lockdown-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets&#8217; Final Roster Spot Doubles Down on Lockdown Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Rockets have filled their final roster spot. To some fans&#8217; dismay, they declined to use the spot on guard depth, instead doubling down on lockdown defense. The Rockets&#8217; plan in 2025-26 is simple: they plan to guard players, not to play guards.<\/p>\n<h2>Rockets&#8217; Final Roster Spot Doubles Down on Lockdown Defense<\/h2>\n<p>The Rockets have added the 26-year-old defensive wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okogijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Okogie<\/a> on a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1947711253574480105\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$3.1 million, one-year deal<\/a>. In his career as a defensive role-player, he has played 416 regular-season games, at 19.1 minutes per game, and 15 playoff games, at 13.7 minutes per game. Okogie has always been listed as a shooting guard, but really plays more like a defensive forward. Last year was his best-ever shooting season. He achieved an overall three-point percentage of 34.8% on 2.3 attempts per game between the Suns and Hornets. For his career, it sits at 29.9%.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Josh Okogie: DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST | Phoenix Suns\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QfpAIpmLI88?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Despite those limitations, the Rockets&#8217; major offseason acquisition presumably thought highly of him. Before the Rockets, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Durant<\/a> and Okogie were teammates for a season and a half with the Phoenix Suns. Durant must have certainly been consulted on the signing to some degree.<\/p>\n<p>The fans, who wanted to use the roster spot on guard or shooting depth, were not. It&#8217;s very possible the Rockets wind up playing a rotation in which the only guards receiving regular minutes are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vanvlfr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fred VanVleet<\/a> and the 6&#8217;7&#8243; wing\/guard hybrid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompam01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amen Thompson<\/a>. Granted, the 15th man wasn&#8217;t likely to change that. They will certainly experiment with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/12\/rockets-summer-league-reed-sheppard-role\/\" target=\"_self\">readiness<\/a> of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sheppre01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reed Sheppard<\/a>, but the funding for such experiments could be cut at any moment. Depending on the matchups, they will inevitably chuck some minutes the way of returning veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holidaa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Holiday<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n<h3>The Rockets&#8217; Ball Handlers<\/h3>\n<p>The principal offensive backcourt responsibilities will be divided among just three players: VanVleet, Thompson, and Durant. Durant certainly has the ball-handling acumen to get into his own offense. That&#8217;s easy enough when his own offense is a couple of dribbles into a heavily contested, but very high percentage <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/03\/what-kds-mind-the-game-comments-mean-for-rockets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">pull-up midranger<\/a>. Creating for others is something Durant does less of now that he&#8217;s lost some of his athleticism. He no longer blows by people enough to facilitate much of a drive and kick game. But opponents may send doubles just to get him off the ball.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson will be the Rockets&#8217; primary source of on-ball blow-bys this season, now that they&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/20\/rockets-did-jalen-green-trade-once-before\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">moved on from<\/a> the jet-fueled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Green<\/a>. But, Thompson&#8217;s handle and outside shooting will have to have improved significantly over the offseason for that to be a meaningful source of offense. Last season, he was at his most effective either on off-ball cuts or in transition. Half-court isolation or pick-and-roll attempts simply invite the defense to sag too far off him. His handle isn&#8217;t tight enough to make it through the crowd of defenders waiting for him in the paint.<\/p>\n<p>Only VanVleet is anything resembling a real point guard. That&#8217;s true even if Holiday and Sheppard are included. While serviceable shooters, they are both much more suited to off-ball roles, posing little to no pressure as threats to drive.<\/p>\n<h3>A Playmaking Frontcourt?<\/h3>\n<p>The Rockets do have some other skilled front-court players who will help out with their lack of playmaking. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/easonta01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tari Eason<\/a> is one. He&#8217;s not a sensational ball-handler, by any means, but he can chip in with some drive-and-kick tenacity here and there. The more prominent example is the Rockets&#8217; All-Star center, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sengual01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alperen Sengun<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The problem for the Rockets is that Sengun&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a> comparisons are overblown. From an overall talent perspective, that&#8217;s inevitable when comparing anyone to a three-time MVP. However, Sengun&#8217;s playmaking instincts aren&#8217;t really very reminiscent of Jokic&#8217;s at all. Sengun definitely likes to pass, and the flashier the better. Unfortunately, if his preferred no-look, behind-the-back bounce pass is cut off, he&#8217;s actually surprisingly uncreative in how he connects with the open man. It&#8217;s possible that some of that creativity has been deliberately suppressed by a coaching staff that favors a low-risk offensive style.<\/p>\n<p>A Sengun-led offense might look better with more spacing than the Rockets had last season. Just adding Durant doesn&#8217;t do enough to fix that, though. The Rockets signing Josh Okogie does absolutely nothing to fix that. A swap of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brookdi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dillon Brooks<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/finnedo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a> is a wash at best as well.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>The Rockets&#8217; offense can get by with a similar make-up to last season. The upgrade from Green to Durant is that significant. But if the team is forced to play without VanVleet for a large chunk of time, they are going to face serious difficulties. That&#8217;s where some backcourt depth would have certainly come in handy. Of course, if the Rockets did make a play for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/07\/should-chris-paul-do-retirement-tour-with-the-rockets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">retiring &#8220;Point God&#8221;<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a>, then they were shown up by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/21\/chris-paul-clippers-reunion-official\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2021 All-Star after-party<\/a> Los Angeles Clippers. With Okogie, the Rockets certainly stay true to their identity. The 2025-26 Houston Rockets are gearing up to lock down the league.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rockets have filled their final roster spot. To some fans&#8217; dismay, they declined to use the spot on guard depth, instead doubling down on lockdown defense. The Rockets&#8217; plan in 2025-26 is simple: they plan to guard players, not to play guards. Rockets&#8217; Final Roster Spot Doubles Down on Lockdown Defense The Rockets have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5223,"featured_media":151755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,31,62],"tags":[4703,1244,2236,69],"class_list":["post-151737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-amen-thompson","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-josh-okogie","tag-kevin-durant"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151737"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151757,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151737\/revisions\/151757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}