The Houston Rockets look set for a big 2025-26 season, which will start Oct. 21 when they take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, newcomer Kevin Durant‘s former team and the reigning NBA champions.
In late August, ESPN projected the Rockets to win 54 games. That’s just two more victories than they secured in 2024-25 but would still leave them second in the Western Conference standings, just as they were last season. With that team success will come individual recognition. However, there will also be the expectation of recognition.
Enter the ‘All-Star snub’ phenomenon.
2025-26 Houston Rockets Predictions: Amen Thompson An All-Star Snub
Barring a calamitous season, the Rockets will definitely be represented at the 2026 All-Star Game (which will have a new look). Nevertheless, there will probably be a Rockets player left watching the All-Star Game from home or the sidelines, with he or the fans believing he should be on the court.
Durant is a lock to get in as a starter every year. Even if his regular-season production dips, the fan vote will easily carry him alone as All-Star voting is partially a popularity contest. After his Euro-thrashing offseason campaign, evolving big man Alperen Sengun looks set for his best season yet. With that in mind, Sengun earned his first All-Star selection in 2024-25.
Houston’s Huge Hurdle
All in all, Durant and Sengun are all but All-Star shoo-ins.
However, the Rockets may have something of a Big Three blasting off in Space City. Unfortunately for them, playing well enough to warrant three All-Star spots is an awfully big hurdle. Even the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder only got two All-Star spots for their efforts last season, though Chet Holmgren‘s early season-injury was undoubtedly a major factor.
In that context, the chances of the Rockets fielding three All-Stars are pretty slim.
That third player being lean, mean defensive machine Amen Thompson is comparatively chunky. Last season, Thompson averaged 14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game. Those are tantalizing numbers for a second-year player who came off the bench to start the season.
Typical All-Star numbers, they are certainly not.
What Amen Thompson’s All-Star Case Could Look Like
Without significant offensive growth, Thompson’s best bet at an All-Star spot would be as a defensive wunderkind.
To that point, the 22-year-old was First Team All-Defense selection and ranked fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Keeping this in perspective, defensive specialist Draymond Green made the All-Star team in 2021-22 though averaging just 7.5 points per game. That was also despite the Warriors having two other All-Stars that season in Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins (the latter’s selection was controversial prior to Green’s inclusion).
That being said, Thompson’s offensive output should improve from last season.
The Rockets have lost a primary albeit precarious ball-handler in Jalen Green. Meanwhile, the superstar they traded him for is asking to play a relatively understated regular-season role. Therefore, Thompson will be expected to fill the playmaking void, increasing his usage and opportunity to impact the game. An extraordinary athlete who’s at his best attacking the rim, he should also benefit from improved spacing.
In fact, Thompson’s skill development could be the biggest difference-maker of all. His floater game and ball-handling have already shown promising signs of growth. After another full offseason, his trajectory could spike.
Here’s The Snub Rub
Even with another Defensive Player of the Year campaign and improved offensive numbers, Thompson’s All-Star case will probably be a hard sell. The depth of talent in the league is simply too profound. The result of that is the remarkable parity that the league currently has, with different champions every year since 2018.
Few teams are truly wretched enough not to warrant some form of All-Star representation.
Indeed, half the league seems to be considered All-Star snubs nowadays. Miami Heat wing Norman Powell was the poster boy for it last season while he played for the Los Angeles Clippers. He had the best year of his career, averaging 21.8 points per game, shooting 48.4 percent from the field and 41.8 percent from 3. He was vital to a Clippers team that aspired to do great things in the postseason. However, Powell was far from the only snub.
An oft-posited solution would be for the NBA to expand the teams. Each All-Star team could comprise 15 of the league’s finest instead of 12. So far, the league is more interested in tinkering with the format of the game itself.
A congested field is good for the league as it creates more engagement in the voting process. The debate about who’s selected drags that out even further; the so-called snub season. So, though seen through a more romantic lens, there is a certain appeal to safeguarding the exclusivity of the All-Star status. Of course, that lens is somewhat smudged by the perpetual East/West imbalance.
The Last Word
It won’t be easy, but Thompson will have the chance to play his way out of the snub category. Rockets fans certainly hope that’ll be to play alongside Sengun rather than at his expense. However, for that to be possible, the Rockets would have to be an undeniably dominant regular-season force.
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