The Houston Rockets are having an identity crisis.
Think Fight Club (which, as an aside, I only watched for the first time a few years ago, and if you haven’t seen it, don’t bother; it’s been caricatured to the point that it feels like a parody of itself), in reverse. The Rockets were a rugged, fist-wielding Brad Pitt in 2025-26. Pesky social conventions like “getting good shots” and “running offensive sets” were boring and beneath them. The Rockets were winning fights instead of playing games.
In
2026-27, they’re more like the neutered, emasculated Edward Norton. They’ve mostly been doing all the right things, and it’s mostly been working, but they’re just lacking some kind of cliched, overly white-male-privileged (blue wavy baby, we’re back) existential purpose.
Let’s park the analogy. It’s good that the Rockets’ offense has looked more sophisticated in 2026-27. They shouldn’t abandon that. Instead, they need to synthesize last season’s approach with this one.
In their last contest, the old 2025-26 offense reared its ugly (or maybe ruggedly handsome if we’re Brad Pitt) head. The floor shrank. Instead of zipping high post passes to a cutting Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun settled for a bunch of bad floaters that he’s never been proficient with, in large part because the Thompson cuts weren’t coming. The Rockets’ offense fell apart:
Yet, if they’d just dominated the Suns on the glass, they would have won anyway.
Rockets need to get back to their former selves
Rest assured, this offense will fall apart again.
Ultimately, it’s the same old chestnut: The Rockets don’t have an every-night, carry-the-offense, even if he’s missing, he’s making something happen superstar. Sorry, Sengun fans, and Thompson isn’t even close, and it’s just not how the team is using Kevin Durant this year, which makes sense from a longer-term developmental perspective and a shorter-term, preserve him for the playoffs perspective.
Last year, the Rockets compensated for that lack of top-end talent by dominating physically. They were number one by a long shot in Offensive Rebounding %. This year, they’re fourth (36.0%). They’re fifth in overall Rebounding % (52.5th), which they also led the NBA in last season.
Sure, the Rockets are still a great rebounding team. If they have 2026-27 NBA championship aspirations, great isn’t great enough. They need to be the best rebounding team in the NBA, or else they will lose in the playoffs to a team with better players.
It’s not just rebounding, either. The Rockets’ 109.4 Defensive Rating ranks 10th in the NBA. Last year, they had the league’s sixth-best defense (112.1). This year’s mark is actually better, but that feels like a small-sample quirk. Their placement relative to the league seems more relevant.
Of course, they also have the second-best Offensive Rating in the NBA (118.6). Make no mistake: This year’s team looks better than last year’s team. It would also be wise to avoid overreacting to one game, but against the Suns, it felt like some offensive regression was due. If it is, they need to regress to the mean (a confusing phrase when something is improving; it ought to be progress to the mean, why don’t we say that?) in rebounding and defense.
Some of this is due to Steven Adams’ absence, but let’s not make excuses. If Adams can’t regularly play, the Rockets need a new backup five, and he needs to be the best rebounder they can find. The Rockets need to rediscover their identity:
After all, the things you do own, end up owning you.
