By minutes played, Houston’s top seven rotation players all have net ratings of better than +9 for the 2025-26 season. As a team, the Rockets rank No. 1 in the NBA in offense.
After losing a pair of close games in the first week of the 2025-26 regular season, the Houston Rockets (2-2) still don’t have a winning record.
But they do have the NBA’s best offensive rating and its fourth-best overall net rating. And it’s worth emphasizing that those two losses were by a combined five points to a pair of playoff teams from last season, the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons.
So, on the balance, Houston’s resume is strong. And that extends to individual players, as Houston’s top seven players in minutes all have an individual net rating of better than +9 (via NBA.com):
1.) Alperen Sengun, +18.72.) Amen Thompson, +13.53.) Steven Adams, +12.64.) Josh Okogie, +12.25.) Jabari Smith Jr., +10.56.) Tari Eason, +9.27.) Kevin Durant, +9.18.) Clint Capela, +2.19.) Reed Sheppard, -7.0
Among the nine consistent rotation players, the only one with a negative rating is Sheppard — and that’s somewhat to be expected, as a 21-year-old beginning only his second NBA season.
The team’s hope is that with time and more experience, those shortcomings will improve. After all, there’s a reason Sheppard was drafted at No. 3 overall in the 2024 first round as an elite shooting prospect out of Kentucky.
And if Sheppard improves, there are no other clear weaknesses at the moment, at least among Houston’s consistent rotation players.
Furthermore, the Rockets should soon be adding a good rotation player when Dorian Finney-Smith returns from injury. The veteran forward was a net-rating wonder last season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
As for results, the Rockets are hoping to win a third straight game when they resume play Saturday in Boston, where tipoff versus the Celtics (2-3) is at 7:00 p.m. Central. The game will be televised regionally on Space City Home Network and nationally via NBA League Pass.