The Houston Rockets Will Have A Potent Offense This Season

The Houston Rockets played two of their preseason games in China this year, meaning they were limited to only three total games. Despite not having a ton of time on the court to prepare for the regular season, this team still managed to put in some serious work. 

After scoring 366 points through three games, they officially surpassed last season’s league leaders in that category. The Denver Nuggets averaged 121.1 last year, led by the first center ever to average a triple-double. That's right, Houston was scoring more points. 

You might think that every team is scoring more points in the preseason, and while there’s some truth to that, Houston’s 122 points still puts them at fourth in the league right now. They were the 23rd-ranked team last season, scoring 114.1 points per game. 

Much of this increase in scoring can be attributed to their improved three-point volume, as covered on Roundtable. They upped their attempts in every game, going from 36, to 47, and ending with 53. While the most made threes came when they attempted the fewest (18/36), even that was a higher volume than their 31.6 attempts per game last season.

Making 49 out of 136 attempts in the preseason is good enough for 36-percent, which is exactly where they finished last season. However, the fact that they took 45.33 threes per game in the preseason means that they made 16.33 long-balls per game, compared to 11.4 last season. 

That’s equal to the Charlotte Hornets’ league leading 16.3 makes last year, and higher than the Golden State Warriors’ 43.9 attempts per game. The Rockets preseason shooting would’ve been the best in the league last year. Hopefully that translates to this upcoming season. 

There’s great reason to believe that this increased attempts from deep will continue to be a theme for Houston, as covered on Roundtable. Fred VanVleet took more than 10 threes per game, with Marcus Smart and Bogdan Bogdanović combining for another 10. 

Even with Amen Thompson only taking a handful of threes across three games, and Alperen Şengün attempting two per game, there’s still 20 threes per game being added to the rotation. There’s willing and capable shooters in any lineup that Ime Udoka can throw out there. 

While I don’t expect us to be reverting back to the days of James Harden isolating and stepping back all year long, there should still be an increase in threes attempted and made in Houston. After winning 52 games in each of the past two seasons, this may be all it takes to push this team over the hump. 

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