Can The Rockets Make Their Spacing Work With No Changes?

The Houston Rockets seem committed to keeping their core rotation together into next season, meaning they're expecting improvement from the players currently on the roster. This mindset is somewhat of a gamble, as the Rockets saw each of their players' limitations at several different points during the season, especially in the playoffs.

Their biggest challenge was the lack of quality spacing by their nonshooters, like Amen Thompson and Alperen Şengün. The Rockets didn't get enough production from the players they consider to be shooters, like Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard, to mitigate some of the spacing issues created by their top players.

The lack of spacing created many issues for the team's offense. Şengün was often double-teamed because of opposing teams' willingness to leave even Houston's shooters open. Şengün rarely got the opportunity to play against opposing bigs one-on-one, and his teammates couldn't consistently make teams pay for selling out to stop Şengün.

For Thompson, his limitations as an on-ball scorer are even more limited when he and Şengün share the floor. His best pairing with Şengün is when Thompson can wait in the dunker spot while Şengün runs a pick-and-roll set with a ball handler like Sheppard or eventually Fred VanVleet.

When Thompson's defender steps up to stop Şengün's roll to the basket, Thompson is generally wide open to receive a pass towards the basket for a close shot attempt.

However, with no VanVleet and no consistency from Sheppard, Thompson had to play on the ball much more often. While he does have some skill in that regard, he doesn't have enough scoring skills to put up points at an elite rate with such poor spacing around him.

If he were to improve his ball handling and find some sort of mid-range weapon, he could turn his limitations into a potential threat. However, he isn't enough of a threat in the pick-and-roll to truly create an advantage there, despite being too talented to solely live in the dunker spot.

Even Kevin Durant, Houston's deadliest mid-range weapon, can't function well with the poor spacing available. Granted, Durant played much of the iniator role, which is a spot he won't have to take on very often if VanVleet returns and Houston's young players do take a step forward.

However, Durant is best when he can use his natural gifts to create an advantage over an isolated defender. The double teams beyond the three-point line are an easy way to remove Durant from the offense. The Rockets aren't competent enough offensively to utilize the numbers advantage after a Durant double-team, mostly because fo the poor spacing and inability to force defenses to guard away from the paint.

Natural improvement from the young players would also mean improvement for the team's spacing. Even if they don't make changes this offseason, the Rockets could still open the floor a little more with their ball movement and quick decisions.

However, they've seen how bad it can get based on their current limitations. Things will need significant changes if they can't find a way through their limits next season.

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