Last Updated on May 29, 2026 11:36 am by Mike Passador | Published: May 29, 2026

The Rockets were a team on the rise with some young talent ready to assume All-Star form. They kicked off the win-now window with a huge trade for future Hall-of-Famer Kevin Durant and it was go time in Houston. Unfortunately, the Rockets limped through a rough season of bad vibes, frustrating on-court play and only fleeting moments where the team looked as good as its collective talent level.

How’d It Go?

The Rockets kick-started the 2026 off-season with a blockbuster trade for Kevin Durant. With that trade came some euphoric expectations that they could be a championship contender. Instead the Rockets were hit with a dose of sobering reality. From a simple viewpoint, winning 52 games and getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs yet again has to been as a disappointment. Teams don’t usually make trades for aging superstars and are then satisfied to finish the season exactly the same.

We’ll get into some of the specific offensive and defensive numbers in the coaching section (because oh boy does this Rockets fan have some CHOICE words). From a pure player and team cohesion perspective, nothing seemed to click. Key core players Alperen Şengün and Amen Thompson stagnated. Reed Sheppard had flashes but lacked consistency. Kevin Durant may or may not have gone back to the Twitter burner well and put his teammates on blast. Tari Eason regressed in his finishing and event-creation on defense. Depth off-season additions Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela failed to step up when called upon.

Rockets optimists (and the front office) would point to the preseason injury to Fred VanVleet and the mid-season injury to Steven Adams as reasonable explanations for the failure to meet expectations. This analyst and Rockets fan would say that statement masks over some core issues for the team, namely a stale offense and lack of shooting. Arguably the Rockets should be at a crossroads. Do they move on from Kevin Durant now and re-tool around the younger players? Do they make an additional all-in move by trading away Şengün, Thompson, and/or others? I expect the Rockets to run it back and hope for better results. Sounds like insanity to me!

Coaching

At the very least, Ime Udoka has succeeded in bringing a tough, “world is against us” mentality to the Rockets. It’s evident in the way they play defense and almost look to want to attack offensive players (no, not literally, although it may feel that way at times). It’s clear in the way the Rockets blitz the offensive glass, once again leading the league in offensive rebounding rate. However, this energy may be wearing out on the Rockets.

Kevin Durant was thought to be a quick-fix solution to the Rockets offense. While Durant himself was good at “Durant things,” it didn’t actually led to much success for the offense. The offense looks rosy at first with the Rockets having the seventh-best offensive rating. However, that was all due to the strength of their offensive rebounding. The Rockets sat a middling 17th in effective field-goal percentage and a ghastly 28th in turnover rate. The team attempted the fifth-fewest threes per 100 possessions, indicating a lack of ball movement and breaking open opposing defenses. Additionally, the Rockets had the second-worst transition rate in the league as the team was content to lazily move into slow-acting offensive sets.

You can put some of the blame on the roster, but a majority of the above should be place on Udoka’s shoulders. Udoka seemed satisfied to let the Rockets bumble into isolation possession after isolation possession with little off-ball motion or desire to put their offensive players into the best positions to succeed. I wouldn’t go so far to call Udoka a one-trick pony, but I do question if he can craft a versatile offense. Hurting his case is the difference in the Rockets’ strengths once Steven Adams went down for the season on January 18th. Without Steven Adams, the Rockets’ offensive rebounding percentage sat at 35.1%. That was still good for second in the league from January 19th onward, but it was a far cry from their previous rate with Steven Adams healthy of 39.7% (which led the league by a healthy margin).

Not playing Reed Sheppard more was another frustration point with Udoka. Sheppard did play the fifth-most minutes per game on the team at 26.2 a night, so perhaps these complaints are a little overblown. That said, Udoka was hesitant to give Sheppard a long leash and frequently started others ahead of him, including Josh Okogie (32 games started) and Tari Eason (34 games). Sheppard himself only started 21 games on the season. On a team that was bereft of perimeter shooting talent and any semblance of ball-handling, surely Sheppard could have helped alleviate some of those issues.

Udoka deserves a lot of credit for shifting this team’s mentality after the rebuilding years and the seasons under Stephen Silas. At this point, it’s fair to question if he is the best coach for the future.

The Players

Kevin Durant

PF, Houston Rockets

ADP: 17.1 / 24.7 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 5/8 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 11/15 (8/9-cat)

It’s always going to feel risky drafting a 37-year-old player highly and expecting them to provide stellar totals value, which reflects in Kevin Durant’s late-second round ADP. Durant managed to conquer Father Time for one more season at least. Aside from the basic 9-category stats, Durant played the second-most minutes of anyone in the league, right behind a player that will come up shortly. Whenever that happens, you’ll see an immediate boost to your fantasy production in both totals (due to sheer volume of stats) and per-game (high minutes per game).

Statistically, Durant was everything the Rockets hoped for. His impressive scoring efficiency was maintained, even on a highly self-created diet en route to 26.0 points on a night on 52.0% from the field. He chipped in nicely across the board with 2.4 triples, 5.5 boards, 4.8 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.9 blocks in a gaudy 36.4 minutes a contest. The only quibble you can have is the 3.2 turnovers, but that comes with the territory.

Durant was brought in to fulfill the “tough shot-maker” role better than previous incumbent Jalen Green. In that regard, Durant was a massive success. The only question is if he can repeat it in his age-39 season.

Alperen Sengün

C, Houston Rockets

ADP: 19.6 / 24.8 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 22/40 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 34/53 (8/9-cat)

If you strictly look off ADP, Alperen Şengün disappointed. He only made mild improvements to his finishing, improving his FG% from 49.6% to 51.9%. Correspondingly, his points per game improved slightly from 19.1 to 20.4. This isn’t bad at all, but it was not the leap that fantasy managers penciled in for an ascending star.

That said, if you were punting FTs, Şengün ranked 22nd in 9-cat per-game value, a spot that more closely aligns with his ADP. How did he still get there even with the lesser scoring appeal? Şengün averaged the most assists of his career at 6.2 which shifted him into impactful territory. His defensive stats held with 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks a night. Şengün may have his on-court foibles, but it is obvious he is a fantasy star, especially in the right builds. It will be another season of hoping that Sengun can spend the summer improving his free throw stroke.

Amen Thompson

SG, Houston Rockets

ADP: 21.3 / 16.4 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 14/14 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 32/31 (8/9-cat)

Similar to Şengün, Amen Thompson didn’t necessarily take that next step forward. That said, statistically he did make some strides. His points increased from 14.1 to 18.3 as Thompson added a bit more of a consistent driving game. Thompson became a real weapon in the short roll, upping his assists from 3.8 to 5.3 per game.

All of the above requires the caveat that Thompson played the most minutes in the league while increasing his minutes played per game from 32.2 to 37.4. More minutes almost always leads to more production. Given that, the increase in minutes isn’t the sole explanation for the modest increase in production. Being able to play at a high level at that large a minutes load is a skill in and of itself. In addition, Thompson’s stats per possession all either stayed relatively the same or increased, signifying a slight increase in skill.

Thompson may not have made progress as a shooter nor taken the leap to high-usage on-ball creator. That doesn’t mean he can’t be an impactful fantasy producer. With everything else that Thompson provides such as 1.5 steals, 0.6 blocks, acceptable FT% and 7.8 boards, there is plenty to love from Thompson from a fantasy standpoint. Draft Thompson for what he is, and any additional development is additional benefit.

Jabari Smith Jr.

PF, Houston Rockets

ADP: 121.2 / 136.3 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 57/49 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 99/86 (8/9-cat)

This is just a sneak peek of the Season Wrap. The entire roster is covered, as well as the Fantasy Star, Letdown, One to Watch and One Burning Question for this team. You’ll need to have an Ethos 360, All-Sport or NBA FantasyPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required

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• About the Author
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Mark C

After years of playing redraft fantasy basketball leagues with my friends, I branched out to dynasty leagues. As my hunger for competitive leagues grew, I found myself having lengthy conversations in various forums and developing my own thoughts on rookies and veteran players alike. Among the dynasty community, I found a gap in understanding on-court play and valuing transactions properly and thought to myself “I have a lot to say that could help dynasty managers!” I eventually came onto Sports Ethos as the Dynasty Lead, producing Dynasty Fantasy Basketball content such as rankings, rookie profiles, and other sorts of articles to enable managers to make informed decisions on their own squads. I pride myself in marrying on-court NBA and fantasy basketball analysis, giving readers and listeners of my content a holistic knowledge base of not only dynasty basketball projects but also the NBA itself.

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