The Rockets need to live up to their Space City moniker

Spacing.

So much discussion around spacing. It’s rudimentary. It’s intuitively easy to understand. More shooters = more shots. More shots = more points. Three is, by now, infamously more than two.

The Houston Rockets have bad spacing by modern NBA standards. It’s undeniably true. Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson are both poor shooters. They’re also the two best non-Kevin Durant players on the Rockets’ roster. It’s a conundrum.

I’m veering dangerously close to the “Can Sengun and Thompson co-exist?” piece I recently did. That’s fine. Think of me as Virginia Woolf writing another stream-of-consciousness novel, only a man in 2026 writing about the Houston Rockets with about one millionth the talent.

That piece was making the case that Sengun is close enough to being a shooter that he’s likely to reach the level he’d need to reach for the duo to co-exist. This one is more about what happens if he doesn’t reach that level.

Do the Rockets need four-out spacing?

Yes. Case closed.

Although the statistical analysis is somewhat complicated here. The Rockets hung 112 points on the Thunder with Amen Thompson on the sidelines. That’s the impetus for this article. It’s a huge number - in 1999. In 2026, it’s fine.

Factoring in that the Thunder are the best defensive team in the NBA, it looks pretty impressive. Factoring in that they were missing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams (two positive defenders), it gets downright aggravating. Was this game evidence of a revamped Rockets offense or not?

I say yes. The Rockets attempted 43 threes in this contest. The Warriors lead the league in attempts per game at 45.1, and the Celtics are second at 42.4. The Rockets?

Well, they’re not dead last - but they’re just 0.1 away. Houston’s 30.2 threes per game rank 29th in the NBA. That puts them in company with the Kings, Pistons, Mavericks, and Pelicans.

It seems that there’s room for one homecourt advantage seed that doesn’t shoot enough threes in each conference. Yet, three-point volume alone does not spacing make. Some Rockets fans will cringe reading this, but Jalen Duren is a - wait for it - vertical spacer. His pick-and-rollability (new word) with Cade Cunningham mitigates the non-shooting of the other Thompson. Not for nothing, Ausar also plays largely off-ball, similarly to how his brother played last season.

The Rockets’ spacing is worse. Sengun is best optimized when he’s camped in the paint. Thompson, if he has the ball, needs to get there. So, we’re back where we started:

Can they co-exist?

Not if neither of them can reliably shoot!

It’s a bitter pill - oh wait, we already did the pill metaphor. Am I, as the kids say, washed?

As constructed, the Rockets are too easy to plan for. Put the opposing center on Thompson. Have him sag off and pack the paint. Now, he can effectively guard Sengun and Thompson at the same time. The paint is closed off, so unless Durant can make lemonade, the offense looks like a firm, yellow, bitter fruit that nobody eats without sugar unless they’ve just done a tequila shot.

Yes, some actions can mitigate the problem. Put Sengun in the high post, have Thompson cut. That’s a good action. You can’t run it for every play. This is a fundamental problem that can’t be fundamentally solved unless one of these guys is a shooter.

What’s the solution?

There’s no reason to rush. There’s still enough reason to hope that one or the other can get their shooting up to snuff. If Rafael Stone wants to see how it looks with VanVleet and Adams back, that’s justifiable, even if it won’t appease the dopamine-chasing masses in need of instant results.

If the need to choose arises, it won’t be easy. Some will disagree. Sengun is the better player, so you choose him. Right?

Arguably. Sengun’s abilities were on full display against the Thunder. He finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. Surrounded by four shooters, Sengun reminded the world why he’s evoked Jokic comparisons. He’s a dynamic passer when it isn’t far too easy for rival defenses to crowd him.

Yet, from the point of view of market scarcity, there’s a case for Thompson. As talented as Sengun is, Thompson is arguably the best wing defender in the NBA. Simply put, it would be easier to trade Sengun and picks for a better Sengun than it would be to trade Thompson and picks for a better Thompson. There is no better Thompson (besides, possibly, Thompson).

Ultimately, it may depend on who’s available. If the Rockets want to go the Antetokounmpo route, I think Thompson is the better fit. Antetokounmpo approximates Sengun’s offensive role more closely. Thompson can move off the ball full-time, feast on cuts, and the Rockets can overwhelm opponents with dunk and layup efficiency to offset the low three-point volume. The 81.1% Antetokounmpo is shooting between 0-3 feet would revolutionize this offense if it replaced the 69.1% Sengun is shooting from the same range.

Alternatively, suppose Ant Edwards requested a trade (I loathe the homophobia, but let’s otherwise talk basketball). You keep Sengun. The inside/outside combination would stretch the floor as far as it can be stretched. The Rockets would put opponents in an impossible bind. Edwards (again, minus personal foibles) is the dream target, but this applies to any potential star acquisition who’s an elite three-point shooter.

By now, some readers are sick. Listen - preferably, you can keep both. Ideally, one or the other (again, likely Sengun) develops a reliable enough three to make this viable. If, in a couple of years or so, that hasn’t happened, this could get messy. The Rockets may need to move one or the other.

In this NBA, they’ll need the spacing.