The Houston Rockets have a quarter of the season behind them and the NBA Cup quarterfinals ahead of them. They’re in that position despite sporting one of the lowest effective field goal percentages in the league. The team’s tenacious defensive identity is well-known at this point. But defense alone can’t carry an offense with no shooting and no superstars. The Rockets’ offense also has persistence on its side.
The Saving Grace Of The Houston Rockets Offense
Making Getting Blocked An Art Form
Last season, the Rockets were one of the most blocked teams in the NBA. A quarter of the way through the season, they are once again. The Rockets see 6.4 of their shots swatted per game, fourth-most in the league. The only other team with a positive record in the top seven most are their arch-rivals, the Golden State Warriors. The offensive ratings of those most blocked teams are an eclectic mix though.
The Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz are the two most blocked teams and their offensive ratings are both in the bottom six. But Golden State and Houston are both middle-of-the-pack in offensive rating. Houston manages that despite having the fourth-lowest effective field goal percentage in the NBA.
Houston Can’t Shoot a Lick
The fact is that Houston can’t shoot well. Fourth-year stars Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun both started the season on a bright note from three but have gone dark since. Amen Thompson just recently bludgeoned his way up to 30% from three. Jabari Smith Jr. has looked more confident in his shot recently but isn’t lighting the world on fire. And promising rookie and theoretical sharpshooter, Reed Sheppard, looks like someone lit him on fire every time he touches the ball.
The season has seen a gradual expansion of operations into the midrange for Houston’s most promising prospects, Thompson and Sengun. Sengun in particular is shooting 52.1% on 2.0 shots from 10-14 feet per game. In Thompson’s case, any make outside five feet is a celebrated development. The team overall still struggles from that area though, and does so taking the fifth-most attempts in the league.
Houston’s Saving Grace
But there is an offensive category that Houston ranks highly on. It’s one which, in a way, getting blocked a lot even helps out with. Houston leads the league in offensive rebounds per game and is second in offensive rebounding percentage. Houston’s ability to crash the boards is by far the most significant saving grace of their offense. It serves as an active form of repentance for their many offensive sins. Without it, the team would linger in play-in race purgatory forever.
One contributor to the Rockets’ offensive rebounding rate is the volume of shots they take at point-blank range. The Rockets attempt the fifth-most shots within five feet in the NBA. Unfortunately, another contributor is the volume of those shots that they miss. Houston’s field goal percentage within those five feet ranks in the bottom eight.
Closer-range shots lead to shorter-distance rebounds. They often lead to especially short-distance rebounds when the initial shot is a stuffed layup attempt. The Rockets get around their shooting limitations with an attack, attack, attack mentality.
The Rockets Offense Has A Steadying Influence
Another boon to Houston’s offensive rating is how little they turn it over, having the third-lowest turnover rate in the league. Naturally, none of these tendencies exist in a vacuum. Fewer turnovers mean more shots, more shots mean more opportunities to get blocked, and more shots blocked and misses in general mean more offensive rebounds.
Houston has the stewardship of Fred VanVleet to thank for their low turnovers. A VanVleet-centric offense limits Houston’s ceiling, but while the Rockets lack reliable shooters or superstar creators, it’s the floor they really need to be more worried about anyway. VanVleet raises that floor and has done so since he arrived. Meanwhile, the other Rockets skying for rebounds around him have nudged the ceiling a little higher than expected.
The Last Word
Houston’s offense will have its biggest test of the season on Wednesday night in a fight for NBA Cup survival against the Golden State Warriors. The chance to end their fifteen-game losing streak in the most dramatic way possible will be dangling right in front of them. They only have to reach out and grab it. Easy. Just imagine it’s another offensive rebound.
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