NBA teams are all underarms as long as they have this characteristic, but the Rockets are an exception

After Durant joined the Rockets, we can expect Houston to be the best offensive team in the league, but data analysis experts believe that the Rockets still have a problem that has not been solved. That is that they still have a clear weakness in pick-and-roll offense. The Rockets were one of the weakest pick-and-roll teams in the league in the 24-25 season. Kevin O'Connor of Yahoo Sports said, "Most bad teams in the league will not play pick-and-roll, but the Rockets are the exception."

The implication is that the Rockets are very strange. Last season, the Rockets were undoubtedly one of the best teams in the league, but their pick-and-roll was bad, but bad pick-and-roll is often the standard for bad teams, which is the same as the full and necessary conditions. Generally speaking, teams with bad pick-and-roll must be bad teams. The Rockets became an accident.

He is right, the Rockets ranked 23rd in the NBA in terms of scores per round (PPP) in pick-and-roll tactics, at 0.93 PPP. There is no doubt that introducing Kevin Durant will greatly improve their offense, but there are still problems with the pick-and-roll.

Durant has not liked pick-and-roll very much throughout his career. You will find that as a player who frequently jumps on the perimeter, he does not look for pick-and-roll in the inside like many defenders, but he is more of a jump shot directly. Of course, because the hit rate is high enough, there is no harshness.

Durant will play some pick-and-roll. His pick-and-roll frequency in the 2024-265 season was 15.9%. By comparison, his teammate Devin Booker has a frequency of 30.1%. Durant has never been a major ball handler. He is a major shooting creator, but he is best at singles. Again, he should have greatly improved his offense, but not in this special way (pick and roll).

Meanwhile, when the ball holder completes the pick-and-roll, the Rockets ranked 18th in PPP and 29th in PPP. Overall, it's a pick-and-roll team that lacks vitality, and the offensive stars they've introduced this summer hardly plays the pick-and-roll. So the Rockets will still not use pick-and-roll as their main offensive method next year.

NBA's offense is not static. The Rockets will have other ways to score. Shin Kyung’s hand-hand tactics are one of the most common offenses last season, and Durant can also be found in singles. The team can solve this problem.

In fact, the Rockets' offensive efficiency of offensive teams last year was 114.9, ranking 12th in the league. Many fans may think that the Rockets have poor constipation and offense, but please let the Rockets have only the only bad free throws, and the rest are all fine. The

Rockets' offense is ugly, but effective enough. Team dominance in offensive rebounding is crucial to their overall offensive approach. Next year, with Durant and another man who is at least 2 meters tall, the Rockets should have a greater threat to offensive rebounds.

Back to the beginning of this topic, I believe that the Rockets will still be a pick-and-roll weak team in 2 months, but they will become alternatives, pick-and-roll bad ≠ offensive bad.