NBA Analysts View Rockets Highly in Terms of Production, Watchability

Success can come in many different forms. NBA history will tell you that it's hard to pinpoint one specific blueprint to create a championship team, as eras and player makeups change.

Sometimes, the road to a ring can look boring, i.e., the San Antonio Spurs. Other times it's fun and will have you on the edge of your seat waiting for another highlight, i.e., the 'Showtime' Lakers. Whether or not a team looks fun, the end result is what matters the most, but it can't hurt to have a little bit of flair in your team's game.

13 games into the 2025-26 season, the Houston Rockets are playing wildly entertaining basketball, and it's working to their advantage at 10-3 heading into Friday's matchup against the Denver Nuggets. Third in the Western Conference, they own the league's top offensive rating (123) and are on track to break the league's all-time offensive rebounding percentage.

The addition of Kevin Durant has done wonders for Ime Udoka and his team thus far, but Houston has so many other pieces in a young core. Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson are two rising stars who captivate fans with very different play styles: Sengun is slower but unorthodox for a center, while Thompson is uber-athletic and fiery on both ends of the floor.

Then, there's Durant, the leader of the group and the veteran star to keep things in check. Houston acquired him to provide a championship pedigree and take the load off the inexperienced players late in games.

With such an interesting makeup of talent, it's no surprise that the Rockets landed second on The Ringer's NBA League Pass rankings from Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe. The list was based on how watchable each team has been through the early portion of the season, and Houston was only behind the Nuggets.

"[This is the] most fun I've had watching Kevin Durant play basketball since 2017," Simmons said. "Year one [with the] Warriors, when I think he was really happy and invested in the team and didn't really care about stats, the ball. He was just so happy to be in the framework of all of it."

"I'm enthralled by this team," Lowe said. "They have the number one offense in the league. They have a 41% rebounding rate, which is just unheard of. It's unheard of. They're absolutely gigantic."

The two note that while the offense isn't the most aesthetically pleasing, Houston simply has a bunch of promising and productive players. There hasn't been a fantastic flow without Fred VanVleet, who is out for the season with an ACL tear, but the Rockets have continuously found a way to get points in every which way.

Is this success sustainable? Maybe not statistically, but Houston is certainly a title contender purely on paper. When it comes to on-court production, the Rockets are backing that up in a fun way.