Fans had high expectations for the Houston Rockets coming into this season. Already a defensive behemoth, the addition of all-time scorer/Twitter troll Kevin Durant promised to modernize their offense. Few probably expected them to lead the NBA in 3-point percentage, though. Yet, through five games, that is exactly what the Houston Rockets are doing.
After shooting 35.3% last year, the Rockets are converting at a red-hot 45.4% so far in 2025-26. Is it sustainable? Absolutely not. But the latest 3-point revolution in Houston might not be a total flash in the pan.
The Houston Rockets Lead The NBA In 3-Point Percentage
The Surprise Hot Hands
The Rockets are only five games into the season. They’ve got three players shooting outlandish percentages in Josh Okogie, Tari Eason, and Alperen Sengun. Okogie is at 63.6% over 15 attempts, Eason at 57.1% over 21, and Sengun at 52.9% over 17. Those conversion rates are not only outliers within the players’ careers, but over NBA history. That is, if they spanned an entire 82-game season, which of course they will not.
Sengun’s jump shot has looked improved right from the jump in 2025-26, even despite a 0-2 start. While the improvement seems very real, defenses will adjust to his new abilities, and normal variance will begin to take hold. His midrange percentages already took a hit in an otherwise excellent performance over the Boston Celtics. His threes will surely follow suit before long. Okogie’s hot start to the season has been a particularly welcome surprise for Houston, considering he wasn’t even projected to play rotation minutes. But even shooting some of the most open looks of his career, nobody’s holding their breath on 63.6% holding up.
Houston’s 45.4% from three will inevitably drop. There’s also some important nuance to their status as NBA 3-point leaders anyway. Their 30.4 attempts per game are the second lowest in the league. But Houston’s identity as a low-volume, high-accuracy three-point shooting club may be sustainable.
The Thoroughbred Shooters
The three-point numbers that actually mean something for Houston belong to three different players. Those are Durant, Reed Sheppard, and Jabari Smith Jr. Durant’s 40.9% is like any other year for him. Sheppard’s 44.4% would certainly be a marked increase on his rookie-season 33.8%. But it would be roughly in line with pre-draft expectations for him. Finally, Smith’s 36.7% is a relatively pedestrian number that would still constitute a career high, and it comes with a career-high in attempts at 6.0 per game.
Despite Durant’s percentage being the most expected, however, he is the key to the whole unexpected phenomenon. Defenses just don’t know what to do with him. One could argue that’s been the case for Durant his whole career. His perennial near-50-40-90 splits certainly indicate as much. However, the truth is, an edge-of-your-seat page turner though it is, the book has been out on KD for quite some time. You double him. He’s very possibly the single greatest isolation scorer in NBA history. Of course you double him. But how do you double him if he doesn’t have the ball?
KD’s usage so far in 2025-26 is the lowest of his career. He’s operating alongside the best passing and scoring big he’s ever played with in Sengun. It’s not as if he’s being used as a decoy exactly. He’s still scoring 27.2 points per game. His gravity is being used to its full effect, though. As a result, guys like Eason and Smith are getting the best looks they’ve seen in their careers. Who knows? Maybe even Amen Thompson will join the party after making his first three of the season against the Celtics after 11 attempts.
The Last Word
The Rockets’ next game will be against the lumbering (and limping) Dallas Mavericks on November 3rd. There should be plenty more open perimeter looks for Houston in that one. Will the hot hands stay toasty? How long can Houston stay top of the leaderboard in the one thing they were expected to be worst at? It’s pointless to guess.
The 3-point rollercoaster ride is a familiar sensation for fans across the league. When your team is knocking them down, there’s no greater rush in the sport. But every zenith leads to a nadir. Still, leading the league is as high as you can hope to get.
© John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
The post The Houston Rockets Lead The NBA In 3-Point Percentage appeared first on Last Word On Basketball.