The Houston Rockets are going big — literally — to start the 2025-26 NBA season.
Coach Ime Udoka revealed on Monday that the Rockets will use a starting lineup of Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Şengün and Steven Adams in Tuesday’s season opener at the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder typically also start two centers, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.
“This is personnel driven and opponent driven as well,” Udoka said. “So not just about what they did, although they were good in their minutes, but it’s obviously a lot to do with OKC as well.”
The Thompson-Durant-Smith-Şengün-Adams lineup outscored the Pelicans 39-23 in 12:05 minutes together. When Şengün and Adams shared the court, regardless of the other players around them, the Rockets outscored the Pelicans 71-47 in 21:58.
“Felt pretty natural,” Adams said. “We just had a few different pieces, but still building what we had last year. So really, still felt quite familiar.”
The Rockets successfully utilized the Adams-Şengün pairing during last season’s playoff series against the Warriors to dominate the glass and protect the paint with zone defense. The addition of Durant this season gives Houston even more size and allows him and Şengün to play off one another and facilitate offense.
“I can play any position,” Şengün said. “I was bringing the ball (up) sometimes last year, too, but now, I have more responsibility. I can do that and help my teammates more. You know, just set them up and find the right guy and find the easy shot, too.”
Şengün is a primary offensive hub for the Rockets, who are sharing playmaking duties among multiple players while point guard Fred VanVleet is out with a torn ACL. Udoka said playing Şengün at the four rather than the five helps unlock the All-Star center’s strengths.
“I think he’s a little more aggressive on the perimeter,” Udoka said. “Offensively, I think he’s a really good passer that works well with the other big in the dunker. You’ve seen that with Amen in the past, and obviously Steven. And then he’s all over the court anyway, so we move around a lot, so he’s not traditionally playing like a five when he’s at the five, so he can still do the same thing.”
In addition to the game against the Pelicans, the Rockets spent a lot of time playing with the lineup in preseason practices. Durant said the Rockets are still figuring out each player’s role within the offense, a process that will continue as the regular season gets underway.
“It’s an ongoing process, I think, and guys will get more comfortable once they understand truly how they’re supposed to approach a game every night,” Durant said. “So that might take a couple weeks, a couple of months, for each one of us to understand our place, but in the meantime, we play together and we just communicate, lean on each other.”
