Shoutout to VBG!
This is the second in a series of pieces you guys suggested in the comments section of my Baba Oladotun article.
It’s fitting, actually. If the Houston Rockets do draft Oladotun, they’ll be trying to plug him into Kevin Durant’s spot. Obviously, it won’t be a one-for-one swap – this would be the “strategic stepback” that Rafael Stone referred to – but the idea would be to groom Oladotun to take Durant’s role.
Perhaps that’s not a great idea, because VBG’s suggestion for this article
was “why were Durant, Alperen Sengun and Reed Sheppard so bad together in 2025-26”.
Rockets trio struggled when they shared the floor
Per DataBallr, that trio was -4.7 when they were all on the floor at the same time.
The data is unambiguous. The group was fine offensively with a 119.6 Offensive Rating (3.5 better than the team’s overall rating). It’s the defense that they tank, with a 124.4 Defensive Rating (8.2 worse). It’s rumored that every time Ime Udoka put all three on the floor at the same time, he went home and wept.
It’s no surprise to anyone that Sengun and Sheppard struggled together defensively. Remove Durant, and the remaining duo were still -0.9, with defense again being the culprit. Durant and Sengun without Sheppard were fine (+2.0), as were Durant and Sheppard without Sengun (+5.5).
Yet, it’s still notable that the most negative combination of the three is when they’re all together. The dirty secret here is that, in 2025-26, Durant was closer to a neutral defender than the positive one he’s been for most of his career. At 37, to paraphrase Lethal Weapon, it’s possible that Durant is getting too old for this (defense).
Don’t waste time on CleaningTheGlass trying to find a single positive lineup featuring all three – such a lineup does not exist. So, this is clearly a problem:
What’s the solution?
Can Ime Udoka scheme around limitations?
Ime Udoka’s solution was mostly to not put Reed Sheppard on the floor.
That’s not a tenable solution. It may be that Sheppard is a bona fide draft bust, but we are not close to being sure of that yet. The Rockets must explore as much of his potential as possible before making any rash decisions.
Hopefully, Marcus Smart helps here. Sheppard, Smart, Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Sengun could be a functional lineup, although that could be partly contingent on whether Smart has a season where he’s hitting threes, or one where he isn’t.
I don’t have the solutions – if you haven’t noticed, I am not the head coach of the Houston Rockets. It has been argued in the past that if Udoka is a defensive mastermind, he has to be able to design defensive schemes that insulate Sengun and Sheppard while also putting a neutral defender like Durant on the floor.
Is that asking him to draw blood from a stone? Can Smart, Thompson, Smith Jr., and Tari Eason make up that much ground if Durant isn’t contributing?
Sheppard is looking a bit bulkier this summer. Could he make defensive strides? Could Sengun find his 2024-25 form on that end without compromising his offensive efficiency?
Questions without clear answers. For now, we can only hope that Sengun, Sheppard, and Durant are a more viable trio in 2026-27.
If anyone has any better suggestions, I’m all ears.
