Rockets' Offensive Attack Draws Rave Reviews

At the start of the 2025-26 season, the Houston Rockets' buzz centered largely around their size.

Understandably so. The Rockets were trotting out a lineup that featured four seven-footers, in Kevin Durant, Steven Adams, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun. 

Okay, Sengun isn't quite seven feet but you get the point. The "shortest" person was Amen Thompson, who stands 6-foot-7. 

Rockets coach Ime Udoka scrapped the double-big lineup, pulling Adams, in favor of Josh Okogie, who has played masterfully. He's been the perfect role player, who hustles and plays within the flow of the offense.

He's on the vet minimum but is having a career year, which is a bit of a rarity. All told, Okogie is averaging 8.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, 48.1 percent from the field, 46.9 percent from long-range, and a staggering 66.9 percent true shooting -- the latter of which is quite literally video game numbers. 

Michael Pina of The Ringer gave the Rockets credit for their offensive brilliance thus far, while also noting that he was personally hoping to see the jumbo lineup continue.

"I was devastated when Ime Udoka scrapped his unprecedentedly massive starting five after an 0-2 start to the season. But given the success they’ve had with their rotation, which hasn’t stopped using plenty of double-big lineups, it’s hard to argue with the outcome. Since October 27, Houston has owned the NBA’s second-best offense—an impressive feat considering Friday’s debacle of a loss against San Antonio, which was so bad Udoka admitted that the Spurs “kind of punked us out there.”

Broadly speaking, I’ve still had fun watching the Rockets inflict punishment with a half-court attack that’s been one of this season’s more pleasant surprises. Yes, they cough the ball up way too often, own the worst 3-point differential in the league, and have converted a highly unsustainable 50 percent of their corner 3s. But there’s also so much more here than just relentless offensive rebounding; the Rockets are creative and selfless, and they do a pretty good job of creating elementary problems that most defenses won’t have an answer for."

Pina described Houston's half-court offensive attack as a "delightful adventure" and that seems like a brilliant way to coin what we've seen from Houston on that end.