Why the Houston Rockets Are a Surprisingly Great League Pass Team This Season

This post expands on a recent episode of Harrison Talks Pod, where I broke down why the Houston Rockets have quietly become one of the most entertaining League Pass watches of the entire NBA season. If you like chaotic basketball, weird basketball, and basketball that feels like a fistfight and a math puzzle at the same time, this is your team.

Let’s dive into why Houston is one of the most fun and confusing and high-effort squads to watch this year.

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An Elite Offense With the Ugliest Style Possible

Houston has a top ten offense this season, sitting at a wild 122.5 Offensive Rating. The crazy part is how they get there.

They are twenty third in assist rate. They are twenty fifth in assist to turnover ratio. Every ball movement metric puts them toward the bottom of the league. The Rockets are elite without elegance, the complete opposite of teams like Golden State, Oklahoma City, or Boston.

Their offense is built on chaos, physicality, and a constant fight for possession advantages. Watching them is like watching a bar fight that somehow ends with both sides scoring 120 points. It should not work, but it does, and that makes it incredible television.

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A Shot Profile That Should Fail, Yet Dominates

Houston is dead last in three pointers attempted. They are first in three point percentage at 42 percent. They take fewer threes, but they take the right ones. The combination of Durant gravity, Reed Sheppard spacing, and Sengun’s playmaking makes their shot profile bizarre and efficient at the same time.

Their scoring zones look like someone shook a snow globe.

• Sixty five percent at the rim

• Forty percent from the short midrange

• Forty four percent from long midrange

They are not a rim team, not a midrange team, not a three point team. Somehow they score at all three levels anyway.

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The Best Offensive Rebounding Team of the 2000s

The Rockets crash the glass like their lives depend on it. They grab 40.9 percent of their own misses, which is not only the best mark in the league but one of the best of the entire 2000s.

This creates a strange second game inside every game. Missed shots turn into tip ins, scrambles, and putback chaos. Fifteen to twenty offensive rebounds is standard for them.

It feels like watching a basketball version of possession football. A missed shot becomes a self pass. No other team plays like this.

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Every Game Feels Like a Playoff Series

This is one of the things League Pass viewers notice right away. Houston pulls teams into fistfights. They are top five in loose balls recovered and deflections. They are fifth in rebounds per game. They are now one of the biggest and longest teams in basketball. They bump cutters, body drivers, and basically drag every opponent into a trench battle. Even on a random Tuesday night, the game feels high stakes.

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The Defense is Messy and Mean, and Durant Made It Real

Kevin Durant has the best defensive teammates he has had since the Warriors title years. He is surrounded by length, verticality, and athletes who can switch, cover ground, and disrupt actions.

Houston’s defense is not precise. It is disruptive. They are top ten in steals. They are top ten in limiting opponent offensive rebounds. Their forced miss rate is among the league’s best.

They give up transition points because they gamble so much. They give up second chance points because they crash so hard. But the chaos has a purpose, and the ceiling is extremely high.

Durant’s rim contests, Sengun’s defensive leap, and Amen Thompson’s athletic violence give this team a real defensive identity.

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The Young Core Is Taking Giant Leaps in Real Time

Watching Houston’s kids develop is pure League Pass entertainment. They are not improving slowly. They are exploding.

Alperen Sengun looks like a borderline All Star with improved finishing and a short midrange bag. Amen Thompson is finishing sixty five percent at the rim and is top ten in driving frequency among non guards. Reed Sheppard is shooting forty seven percent from three and already has clear chemistry with Durant. Few teams let you watch a developmental leap happen every night, but Houston does.

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They Look Fast, But They Actually Play Slow

They are twenty fifth in pace, which does not match the visual product at all. The illusion of speed comes from the chaos created by deflections, scrambles, and rebounding battles. They pull teams into slow motion street fights where every possession lasts forever and ends in a wrestling match under the rim.

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They Win the Possession Game Better Than Almost Anyone

The Rockets are the best possession winning team in basketball.

• Number one in offensive rebounding

• Top ten in steals

• Top ten in limiting opponent offensive rebounds

• Top five in deflections and loose balls

The math is simple. More possessions means more scoring opportunities. They win the math battle every night and you can see it on the screen.

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A Team With Extreme Swings and High Entertainment Value

Houston plays like two totally different teams depending on the night, which is great for neutral fans. In wins they average a plus sixteen point differential, a forty percent offensive rebounding rate, and a fifty seven percent effective field goal percentage while keeping turnovers low.

In losses they cough up nineteen or more turnovers, let opponents shoot almost fifty percent, and the offense collapses. The volatility makes them must watch television.

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A Team That Does Not Lose Two in a Row

Since opening week, the Rockets have not lost back to back games. Every loss is followed by violence. They responded to losses with 137 against the Nets, 139 against the Raptors, 128 against Boston, and 140 against Portland. They play with emotion, pride, and spite. League Pass gold.

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Durant Raised the Ceiling of the Entire Organization

Even at this stage of his career, Kevin Durant elevates everything around him. He bends defenses to create clean shots for young shooters. He stabilizes late game offense. He is still an elite weak side helper and contest defender. He gives Houston the best defensive ecosystem he has had since the 2018 Warriors. Durant blends perfectly with their smash mouth identity. He is efficient, long, smart, and quietly physical.

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Box Scores That Look Like Glitch Results

Every night you get something absurd.

• 130 point explosions

• 60 rebound games

• 20 offensive rebounds

• Nearly 20 threes in Boston

• 50 to 60 points in the paint

• Double digit steal games

You never know what the box score will look like. That unpredictability is exactly what makes Houston such a great League Pass team.

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Final Thoughts

The Rockets have reinvented themselves from microball to what I called megaball on the show. They are contrarian, chaotic, and loaded with talent. They do not shoot many threes, but they are elite on offense. They are messy but terrifying on defense. They do not lose twice in a row. Their kids are leveling up in front of our eyes.

And Kevin Durant is right in the middle of all of it.

If you want more breakdowns like this, check out the recent episode of Harrison Talks Pod, where I went deeper on why Houston has become one of the most entertaining watches in the NBA this season.