The Houston Rockets were the number two seed in the NBA last year, a tremendous feat given they were just a couple years removed from a losing record for three years in a row. Their defense and some of the best offensive rebounding the league has seen in a long time catapulted them onto a list of contenders in the 2024-25 season.
Those defensive attributes and the offensive rebounding hasn’t changed, but what has not only makes them contenders again, but arguably one of the real threats to dethrone the Thunder in the Western Conference.
**1\. Field Goal Percentage
**_Rank Last Year: 21st (45.5)
Rank This Year: 7th (49.4)_
You might be tempted to pin this almost entirely on Kevin Durant and, well, you’d probably be right. Durant is shooting just under 50 percent from the floor for the season. He is a career 50 percent shooter from the field. The math isn’t complicated. Jalen Green shot just 42 percent from the floor last year. Durant from 15-17 feet is like someone else shooting a layup. Other Rockets are at or just below their career shooting from the field. Add a great shooter to a team of so-so shooters and suddenly your offensive net rating goes from 110.3 (12th) to 121.7 (1st), a massive jump for a team that already dominates on the other end of the floor.
**2\. Three Point Percentage
**_Rank Last Year: 21st (35.8)
Rank This Year: 1st (42.8)_
Look, this number is not going to stay here. Expect the Rockets to come somewhat down to earth as they go through the season. But, anything above 36 percent would be a huge leap. If they shoot over 37 percent, they will likely be in the top 10 in the league. Considering they’ve gone from close to the top in attempts to literally the bottom of the NBA, Coach Ime Udoka will probably look to increase those numbers, which will push that percentage down. But, even marginal improvement is going to make them insanely tough to guard every night. Most teams in the league are average or below average on defense. The Rockets are going to steamroll a bunch of them if they keep shooting like this. And if Alperen Sengun goes from a career 28 percent from three to a very robust 39 percent (what he is shooting currently), he becomes practically unguardable.
**3\. Free Throw Percentage**
_Rank Last Year: 30th (73.8)
Rank This Year: 15th (78.8)_
Credit everyone here for really working on their game. Steven Adams alone has jumped almost 40 percentage points, Sengun 11. There was a particular emphasis on freebies coming into this season, particularly with a career 90 percent shooter in Durant joining the team. They missed way too many last year. Even climbing to mediocre is a big improvement that will result in better success on the offensive end this year.
This article appears in [Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025](https://www.houstonpress.com/?post_type=newspack_collection&p=390334).