The Houston Rockets started the 2025-26 NBA season with high hopes. After proving their worth as a top-seeded Playoff team last season, the Rockets acquired Kevin Durant in the summer to start contending for NBA Championship wins. Despite an injury to Fred VanVleet, ruling him out for the year before the season started, the Rockets put together a strong 52-30 record in the West.
Houston is the best rebounding team in the NBA (48.1 RPG, 15.0 ORPG) and will be the road team in their first-round matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers will start the postseason without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. There’s a real opportunity for the Rockets to succeed here and beyond, given their interesting roster makeup with high-utility wings that provide strong defensive versatility.
Despite an underwhelming regular-season record, the Rockets are one of the most dangerous teams in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Let’s take a deeper look at their roster and rotations before a Playoff run where the franchise is hoping to make a deep run with their 38-year-old superstar.
Starters
Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Sengun
The biggest question in the Rockets’ starting lineup will be the place of second-year guard Reed Sheppard. Sheppard has averaged 13.5 points and 3.4 assists this season, with coach Ime Udoka being forced to rely on him due to their limited guard options after Fred VanVleet’s season-ending ACL tear last offseason. Udoka does tend to rotate Sheppard to the bench for certain matchups, as he’s the clear defensive weak link in their starting five and potentially, the whole roster.
Amen Thompson will find himself as one of the two starting guards, with the 23-year-old having the versatility to play across all positions on the court outside center. Thompson averaged 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in another great season where he played at an All-Defense level while taking a huge step up in scoring. He still isn’t a reliable outside shooter, so that will be a key area for the Rockets to try to cover up.
The forward duo will most likely be Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr. Durant is still one of the best scorers in the NBA, averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in his first season with the Rockets. Smith Jr. might not provide Durant’s offensive production, but the former No. 3 overall pick has the two-way ability to be a game-changer. He’s averaged 15.8 points and 6.9 rebounds this season, making his presence felt across all areas of the court.
Alperen Sengun will man the middle, with the Turkish center having a strong season with 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game. Sengun is the clear No. 2 option on offense behind Durant and might be the best playmaker on their roster, so Houston will rely on him heavily to be the star who can lead them to a deep run.
There are issues in this five, primarily created by both Sheppard and Thompson being specialists in one area of the court. There will be schemes used by other teams to try to limit their production over a seven-game series. Thompson’s defense makes him undroppable, but it won’t be surprising to see coach Udoka shy away from using Sheppard heavily in the 2026 Playoffs.
Bench
Aaron Holiday, Josh Okogie, Tari Eason, Jae’Sean Tate, Clint Capela, Dorian Finney-Smith, JD Davison, Jeff Green
Two names on the roster who will be missing from the Playoff rotation are guard Fred VanVleet and center Steven Adams, with both recovering from season-ending injuries.
Aaron Holiday is the first rotational guard off the bench, with Holiday averaging 5.5 points and 1.1 assists this season. He’s an unspectacular option, but he follows his coach’s orders to the best of his ability and can meld into a five-man unit as the only guard. He is a stable ball-handler, active defender, and capable shooter. He won’t win games by himself, but his production will be crucial in ensuring the Rockets have options off their bench.
The Rockets’ forward core is one of the best aspects of this roster, which is highlighted on their bench. Tari Eason is averaging 10.5 points and 6.3 rebounds and hopes to turn his late-season shooting slump around in the postseason. Josh Okogie is averaging 4.5 points and 2.6 rebounds this season as a swingman. Dorian Finney-Smith has had a tough season but is averaging 3.3 points and 2.5 rebounds, and might be a useful 3-and-D option for the Playoffs. The team can also rely on longtime Rocket Jae’Sean Tate as a bench forward option, averaging 2.8 points and 1.6 rebounds this season. 39-year-old Jeff Green is unlikely to get minutes but is an option nonetheless.
The only backup for Sengun on this roster is Clint Capela, who originally spent six seasons with the franchise from 2014 to 2020 before rejoining them last summer. He averaged 3.8 points and 4.6 rebounds this season and has allowed the Rockets to keep their incredible rebounding ability alive in lineups without Sengun. He doesn’t have the offensive creativity that Sengun does, but he is a better defender and more aggressive on the glass.
JD Davison is another backup guard option, but is unlikely to be used outside garbage time.
Closing Lineup
Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Sengun
The closing lineup will likely depend on the in-game situation for the Rockets, but they’ve defaulted to this five-man unit in most clutch games. This creates offensive shortcomings and increases the playmaking load on Thompson, but keeps them defensively intact with three reliable shooting options in Durant, Smith Jr., and Eason to compensate for Thompson and Sengun’s limitations from outside.
Sheppard might get the nod over Eason if he is having a good game or if the Rockets need to chase a score down. With Eason’s poor shooting over the last two months, it’s likely his defensive ability is substituted for Sheppard’s on-ball scoring if the matchup demands it.
Road To The NBA Finals
The Rockets’ first-round opponent will be the Lakers in the 4-5 matchup, with LA having home-court advantage. They’ll be favored to win this series since the Lakers’ star backcourt of Doncic and Reaves is expected to miss most of the series, if not the entirety of it. The Rockets’ wing-heavy roster should be able to stop LeBron James from turning back the clock and singlehandedly leading the Lakers to a surprise win over the Rockets.
A series win over the Lakers will book a second-round date with either the No. 1 seed OKC Thunder or No. 8 seed Phoenix Suns. The Thunder will be their likely opponents, and it’s hard to see how the Rockets can unseat the reigning NBA Champions with the best record in the league.
If they upset the Thunder, the Rockets will likely face one of the No. 2 seed San Antonio Spurs, No. 3 seed Denver Nuggets, potentially No. 5 seed Minnesota Timberwolves, or No. 7 seed Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals.
The Rockets will be considered as underdogs against the Spurs and Nuggets, but might create a competitive series against the Timberwolves. The inexperienced Blazers will likely have a mountain to climb if they beat the Rockets, but if they make it to the WCF after beating the Spurs and Nuggets/Timberwolves, they can’t be counted out against Houston.
