The Houston Rockets’ double-big lineup was all the craze in 2024-25. Having Steven Adams and Alperen Sengun both in the starting lineup seemed like it may have broke the NBA.
Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration but you get the point.
The Rockets were getting extra possessions on misses on offense, as Adams absolutely feasted on the glass. Adams averaged 2.9 offensive rebounds and 5.6 total rebounds – both numbers that don’t quite do Adams justice, due to the minimal playing time he received early on, as he ramped up to full speed, as he made his first return to playing action in two years.
This season, however, Adams has been an absolute menace on the boards, averaging 9.6 total rebounds and a league-best (and career-best) 5.4 offensive rebounds.
Udoka has turned away from the double-big lineup in the last three games (at least to start the game), putting Josh Okogie as the starting two guard, while pulling Adams, to give him less of a workload and keep him fresh as the season progresses.
Clint Capela has helped with this, as well, averaging 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 offensive rebounds in 10 minutes of action, good for 13 rebounds and 5.8 offensive boards per 36 minutes.
Aside from giving Adams a breather, the Capela signing was viewed as the franchise doubling down on what worked for the franchise previously with the jumbo lineup.
But according to Tom Haberstroh, it may have been more about the Dallas Mavericks’ rotation of big men.
Haberstroh explained, first noting how the Adams and Sengun pairing motivated the Denver Nuggets to acquire Jonas Valančiūnas.
“Despite falling to the lower-seeded Warriors in Round 1 of the Western Conference playoffs, Houston appeared to uncover a cheat code for generating extra possessions by playing bruising 7-footer Steven Adams alongside All-Star center Alperen Şengün. Neither can be classified as the sort of floor-spacing five man that had become so coveted leaguewide in recent years, but the Rockets’ success with those two working in tandem reached the point last spring that new Nuggets head coach David Adelman attributed much of Denver’s desire to add Valančiūnas to watching the Rockets’ success with a two-big lineup.”
Haberstroh continued.
“There have likewise been some rumblings that Houston’s decision to add even more size by bringing back Clint Capela in the summer was at least a partial reaction to Dallas’ monstrous frontcourt … when Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford are healthy.”
The key verbiage here is “when healthy”, as Anthony Davis has justifiably developed a reputation of constantly being out of the lineup due to injury. To date, Davis is out with a calf strain, while Lively is also knicked up. Both players missed Monday’s showdown between the two teams.
