Draft guru says the quiet part out loud about Rockets' surprise lineup

The Houston Rockets, with an exceedingly young core poised to compete around superstar acquisition Kevin Durant, have created one of the most versatile rotations in the league this offseason.

Yet, with the injury to Fred VanVleet, the team's entire rotation will now need to get a surprise shakeup, and, according to Sam Vecenie on the latest episode of The Game Theory podcast, their secret weapon, the double-big lineup, and its success could be limited by their lack of a bona-fide floor general, hurting their chances to turn their offense around this season.

In 2024-25, Houston maintained one of the best and scrappiest defense in the league, but their offense, and especially their game in the half-court, hindered them from true championship contention. If they cannot turn that around this season, we could be looking at a team that is severly capped from reaching its true potential.

Turnovers could be a major issue with the new iteration of the Rockets' starting lineup

In part, the news of VanVleet's potentially season-ending ACL injury he suffered in a team mini-camp earlier this week is not necessarily the end of the world. The Rockets have enough positional versatility to account for the loss, and it is likely that Amen Thompson slides full time to the starting point guard spot in order to account for the loss.

The team, now, will need to lean wholeheartedly on both Thompson and Sengun to take over playmaking duties for the offense, and both have proven to be relatively capable ball-handlers throughout their young careers.

Yet, on the other hand, an increase in turnovers could doom this team's chances at rejuvenating their offense and also utilizing their most successful combinations from last season. According to Vecenie, "The whole deal of [the double-big lineup] is that you're trying to win the possession battle... If you're losing the turnover battle because you don't have a lot of spacing out there, guys are driving into nowhere, does it reduce the efficacy of that lineup a little bit?"

Towards the end of last regular season, the double-big lineup, featuring Sengun and Steven Adams on the court at the same time, emerged as a serious threat for Houston, allowing them to dominate the offensive glass and create extra possessions for themselves.

While this lineup inherently sacrificed some spacing due to its construction, having someone like VanVleet on the floor along with the two centers allowed for some semblance of offensive facilitation to help keep the lineup viable.

Yet, among all lineups in the regular season last year, the Rockets were 11th in the league in turnover percentage, and, without a bona-fide facilitator on the court, these numbers could take a dip: a potentially disastrous development not only for the double-big lineup but for the team as a whole.

As the team attempts to reimagine its offense with both a major addition and a major subtraction, head coach Ime Udoka will need every tool at his disposal, and, if the double-big lineup turns out to be less effective this season, he and Houston could be in major trouble as they attempt to build a championship-contending team.