{"id":575336,"date":"2026-02-01T15:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/575336\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T15:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:52:23","slug":"why-the-houston-rockets-deserve-more-than-1-all-star-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/575336\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Houston Rockets Deserve More Than 1 All-Star Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like every year, competition for the Western Conference All-Star spots is fierce. Five deserving starters \u2013Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry<\/a>, Los Angeles Lakers point guard Luka Doncic<\/a>, Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic<\/a> and San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama<\/a> \u2013were already announced. The seven reserves will be revealed on Sunday at 6 p.m. EST<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 30-17, the Houston Rockets are fourth in the Western Conference standings. Do they really deserve two out of the seven All-Star reserve spots?<\/p>\n

The Houston Rockets Deserve 2 All-Star Reserves In 2025-26<\/p>\n

Saturday night\u2019s game certainly wasn\u2019t the best showcase for the Rockets\u2019 potential All-Star reserves. Houston did defeat the Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, 111-107, but the standout performance was by future All-Star Cooper Flagg<\/a>. Still, Houston\u2019s prospective All-Stars \u201315-time All-Star Kevin Durant<\/a> and last year\u2019s debutante, Alperen Sengun<\/a> \u2013made themselves felt late to seal the win.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite decent offensive numbers (18.2 points, 7.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists) and two-of-a-kind defensive impact<\/a>, starting point guard Amen Thompson<\/a> won\u2019t even be eligible for the snub category<\/a>\u00a0this season.<\/p>\n

Rockets All-Star Reserve #1: Kevin Durant<\/p>\n

Durant is averaging 26.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game this season. Over 45 games, he\u2019s shooting 51.0% from the field, 40.5% from 3, and 88.6% from the free-throw line. The 19-year veteran\u2019s scoring is at its lowest mark since leaving the Golden State Warriors in 2019. His raw points total is nonetheless good for third<\/a> in the entire Western Conference. When teams gameplan against the Rockets, their goal is to keep the ball out of Durant\u2019s hands and double-team his isolations. Keeping that in mind, NBA coaches make the gameplans, and NBA coaches select the reserves.<\/p>\n

Rockets All-Star Reserve #2: Alperen Sengun<\/p>\n

The opposing team\u2019s gameplans also mention Sengun. The big man is currently on an abysmal run, shooting 16-54 (29.6%) from the field over his last three games<\/a>. Right before that, though, he had 33 points on 15-17 shooting against the Memphis Grizzlies. The reason? Memphis\u2019 game plan was to \u201cguard\u201d him with spot-starter Santi Aldama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overall, Sengun is averaging 21.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 6.4 assists on 50.0% from the field, 30.0% from 3, and 68.4% from the free throw-line. He\u2019s played in 40 of Houston\u2019s 47 games. Numbers aside, Sengun makes Houston\u2019s whole offense hum. Sometimes the result is a little off-key (something that acquiring an \u201cMVP\u201d point guard<\/a> might even out). But it\u2019s better than the dull, incessant beat of isolation dribbling that Houston defaults to without him.<\/p>\n

KD & Alpi\u2019s Competition<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to name seven players who should get in besides Houston\u2019s duo.<\/p>\n

However, the only strict locks this year are probably Minnesota Timberwolves wing Anthony Edwards<\/a> and Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker<\/a>. Lakers forward\u00a0LeBron James<\/a>, Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray<\/a>, and Chet Holmgren<\/a> all have strong cases to be their team\u2019s second All-Star. Deni Avdija<\/a> is also putting together a strong season for the Portland Trail Blazers. An argument can easily be made for the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 star duo Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and James Harden<\/a> as well. Even counting just one Clipper, that\u2019s seven guys right there.<\/p>\n

For KD and Alpi to both make it, it\u2019s likely that someone from that list would have to be excluded.<\/p>\n

Funnily enough, the most obvious All-Star exclusion would be the player on the team with the best record in the league. Holmgren is averaging 17.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 2.0 blocks per game. The strength of his candidacy comes from his defense and OKC\u2019s impressive record. But, as of late, the Thunder\u2019s record has been getting progressively less impressive<\/a>. Though 38-11 overall, they are just 6-4 in their last 10.<\/p>\n

In order to accommodate two Rockets All-Star reserves, one of the All-Star hopefuls on the sub-.500 Clippers or Blazers would probably have to miss out as well. Avdji is averaging 25.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.7 assists. Even so, the Blazers are just 23-26. Harden averages 25.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 8.1 assists, while Leonard averages 27.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. But the Clippers, even after turning their season around<\/a>, are still 22-25.<\/p>\n

NBA fans don\u2019t have long to wait for the big reveal. How long they\u2019d have to wait for Rockets fans to stop bringing up the snub, if there is one, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Erik Williams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like every year, competition for the Western Conference All-Star spots is fierce. Five deserving starters \u2013Golden State Warriors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,883,7,292,194,4066,938,6,7218,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-575336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-houstonrockets","14":"tag-kevin-durant","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-all-star-game","17":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115996180190061048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}