Rockets’ Dominance on the Glass is Skewing Their Offensive Efficiency

By the numbers, the Houston Rockets’ offense is good. Very good.

Houston ranks third in offensive efficiency and third in scoring (points per game). The Rockets haven’t ranked that high offensively in seven years.

You’d have to go back to the James Harden era to see the last time Houston had a top-three offense.

But this isn’t the James Harden-Mike D’’Antoni-Daryl Morey triumvirate. Far from it.

That trio pioneered the league’s top offense in 2017-18 and second-best offense in both 2018-19 and 2016-17.

The consistency is a sign of a legitimate high-powered offense.

These Rockets aren’t that great offensively. They’re extremely dominant on the offensive glass, which is boosting the metrics and raw data.

NBA.com’s John Schumann explained.

 “The Rockets rank  in turnover rate (16.3 per 100 possessions), but are the best offensive rebounding team in the 30 years of play-by-play data, having retained . Taking away second-chance points and calculating initial offensive efficiency, they’d rank eighth with 102.3 points scored per 100 possessions. But with second-chance points included, they rank  (121.2 per 100).”

The Rockets lead the league with 16.1 offensive rebounds per contest. They’re nearly two rebounds ahead of the second-place team, which is the Portland Trail Blazers, who average 14.4 offensive boards. The Rockets also lead the league in second-chance points, with 18.6 per contest.

Extra possessions equates to more scoring opportunities and potential shots (including foul shots).

Again, this boosts the data. The Rockets lead the league in shot opportunity differential. However, they rank 23rd in passes per game, 20th in potential assists and 17th in assist points created.

Late in games, however, the lack of offensive execution is difficult to look past.

It’s impossible to ignore.

The Rockets heavily spam the pick and roll action between Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun, which isn’t always the most successful approach. And the offensive creativity has been lacking.

The offensive strategy is to get more possessions than the other team. And although that’s simple, that will be effective enough on most nights.

Steven Adams is a beast on the boards. He’s impossible to box out. Just ask LeBron James.

Houston also has three other players in the top-25 in offensive rebounds. Alperen Sengun ranks 14th, Amen Thompson ranks 21st and Clint Capela ranks 25th.

That’s four players in the top 25 in offensive rebounds.

But late in the game when you need a bucket, that won’t help. Neither will “your turn, my turn” offense.

And it’s been known that Rockets coach Ime Udoka isn’t an offensive genius. He’s a defensive expert, which is part of why he was hired in 2023, as the Rockets had ranked in the bottom four in defensive rating in each of the three seasons leading up to his arrival (27th in 2020-21, 29th in 2021-22 and 29th in 2022-23).

But Udoka will have to find an offensive-minded expert or wizard to add to his staff.

Adding a viable point guard will also help, but shouldn’t be in lieu of adding an offensive mind.