The Houston Rockets have a solid roster, but if young stud Amen Thompson can improve in three key areas on offense, he should be able to significantly elevate his game.
The Houston Rockets enter 2026 with the hope of taking a step forward from the 2025 season, when they fell short and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. However, in order to take that next step, the progression of the young players on this team is critical, with one of the most important being defensive phenom Amen Thompson.
So, heading into the 2026 season, here are three key areas that Thompson could improve in to help the Rockets raise the ceiling and compete at a high level in the Western Conference.
1. 3 Point Shooting
Following the 2025 season, it is pretty clear that Thompson's three point shooting is one of the main things that has to get better as he shot 21.6 from beyond the arc last season. In terms of attempts, Thompson went 25/116 from three which showed that as a shooter Thompson has a lot of work to do.
In the postseason, Thompson was a little better as he shot 25 percent from three on 2-for-8 shooting. Even though Thompson's percentage was better in the playoffs, his inability to consistently convert from the outside really hurt the Rockets on offense, as they were also without Kevin Durant and his offense for a major portion of the series, while also still dealing with not having Fred VanVleet for the entirety of last season.
As a result of Thompson being very ineffective from the outside, opposing defenses have the ability to pay more attention to the paint and mid range areas which limits the ability of Durant and Alperen Sengun to play to their strengths as the top scorers.
So, if Thompson can progress his outside scoring even 5-10 percent, that could be enough to become more of a threat from the perimeter and put Rockets in a position to have much better spacing and take a step forward as an overall offense.
2. Become a Consistent 20 PPG Scorer
Also on the offensive side, Thompson needs to prove the ability to consistently score at least 20 points per game to give the Rockets more juice on offense, but also so he can make a claim to be one of the best two-way players in the entire NBA.
In 2025, Thompson averaged 18.3 points per game on shooting splits of 53.4 percent from the field, 21.6 percent from three, and 77.9 percent from the free-throw line. As previously mentioned, the three-point shooting has to get better, and if it does, that alone will help Thompson's scoring.
Aside from the perimeter scoring, Thompson needs to continue to get more aggressive in driving to the rim and use his 6-7 frame to finish through contact to draw fouls and get easy buckets in the paint. With that, Thompson does need to progress at the free-throw line as well, but from 2024 to 2025 he made a 9.5 percent jump, so he does seem to be trending in the right direction.
Heading into 2026, if Thompson can be more consistent as an overall shooter and get more aggressive driving to the rim, that should help him to get to that 20 points per game mark and quite possibly make his claim as one of the best two-way players in the entire league.
3. Develop the Ability to Initiate the Offense
The final thing on this list for Thompson is developing the ability to become an initiator for this offense. In last year's playoffs, the Rockets clearly missed VanVleet as they did not have a clear offensive initiator which is why the offense started to stall and had scoring droughts at times.
So as the Rockets head into 2026, Thompson finding a way to develop as an offensive creator and initiator could be very helpful as it would allow players like VanVleet and Durant to work off ball and give Thompson the opportunity to also work on his ball handling in the half-court.
With Thompson's speed and athleticism, he definitely has the ability to blow past defenders which is why he is so dangerous with the ball in his hands as he has the capability to drive and force the defense to collapse which then gives him the ability to kick out to shooters on the perimeter.
As Thompson prepares for the 2026 season, if he can develop the ability to initiate the offense and continue working on his ball-handling as well as making plays for others, he may have all the tools he needs to become one of the most complete players in the NBA.
