The Houston Rockets’ brand new superstar, Kevin Durant, recently joined LeBron James for some wine and a chat about basketball. On LeBron’s Mind the Game podcast, KD, LeBron, and KD’s own former coach, Steve Nash, discussed the midranger’s place in the modern NBA. Their conclusions have important implications for Houston.
What KD’s Mind The Game Comments Mean For Rockets
“I love Georges [Niang], but he talks a lot of […] I hit a couple midrangers in a row, we’re down like 15. He’s like, ‘You need to shoot more threes.’ I said, ‘No. These dudes around me need to shoot more threes. I need to play my game.’” – Kevin Durant on Mind the Game
Durant’s point was one that has been well recognized at this point. The midrange isn’t dead, it’s just been gentrified. The role players have been evicted to beyond the three-point line. The midrange belongs to the league’s elite. It’s a point that’s been compounded most recently by the Oklahoma City Thunder’s championship run. Their best player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, won MVP, Finals MVP, and the scoring championship as primarily a midrange (and free-throw) specialist. It’s inevitable for the offense to get bogged down by more organized defenses in the playoffs. They prioritize taking the high-quality threes and layups away. That’s when the stars can bail their teams out with the old faithful, the one shot teams are coached to give up – the midranger.
Houston’s War With the Midrange
The discussion has particular relevance for the Rockets. They’ve come a long way from the James Harden Morey-ball days of eschewing midrangers altogether. Houston was fourth in the league in shots from 16-24 feet in 2024-25. The number still only came to 5.9 per game, but the number itself was by no means the principal reason for their offensive struggles anyway. The Denver Nuggets were just ahead of them at 6.0, and the Indiana Pacers were just behind at 5.6. Those were two strong offensive teams last season, ranking fourth and ninth in offensive rating, respectively.
What was an issue for Houston was that they took the fourth most of those shots while converting on only 36.4% of them. The next team to shoot a lower percentage was the Golden State Warriors, who were 18th in volume. Houston only scraped its way to 12th in offensive rating with its elite offensive rebounding numbers (padded in part by all their terrible misses from the midrange).
Houston was also ninth in attempts from 8-16 feet at 13.0 per game. Similarly, their percentage was poor from there as well, only 41.7%, well below every other team that took as many. In the playoffs, they even jumped to second in volume from this range. They took 17.9 a game, and still only made 42.4%.
Durant’s Love Affair With the Midrange
But, with KD’s comments about the game in mind, things start to get interesting. From this exact same range, 8-16 feet, the player who led the league in attempts in the regular season was none other than Durant himself. He made 54.2% of 6.8 his attempts from 8-16 feet per game. He also made 53.0% of his 1.6 shots per game from 16-24 feet.
It comes as news to no one that Durant is an elite midrange shooter. He’s a two-time member of the elusive 50-40-90 club. His midrange jump shot is one of the most effective offensive weapons in the history of the sport.
What might come as a surprise to some people is that Houston was already a midrange jump shooting team. They were just taking them with the kind of riff-raff that the league’s coaches normally don’t tolerate anymore. Now they have someone who the league’s coaches are terrified of seeing take them for the other team.
Addition by Subtraction?
Two of Houston’s biggest contributors to their questionable shot selection were actually included in the trade to acquire Durant. Jalen Green led the team in shots from 16-24 feet with 2.0 per game at 37.2%. Dillon Brooks was second on the team in shots from 8-16 feet at 2.2 per game on 39.9%. A potential concern for Houston may be that All-Star Alperen Sengun, and KD’s new running mate, didn’t shoot much better from there at 42.9% on 3.4 attempts per game. But at least Sengun took 10.0 shots per game inside eight feet. He needs to at least occasionally take shots further out to prevent opponents from sagging too far off him.
Houston should obviously overhaul their offense to take full advantage of having a top-20 all-time great on the roster. However, even those who are skeptical of the offensive creativity of Houston’s head coach, Ime Udoka, needn’t worry too much. Even generating the exact same types of shots as before, Durant plugs in as an enormous upgrade for Houston’s midrange-heavy offense.
The Last Word
Durant craves midrange real estate, and the Rockets have a lot of it going spare. Whether Durant will love the spacing his role players/dudes create for him from their new homes on the three-point line will be another matter. The upside is undeniable, though – Houston’s ungainly offense is about to get a whole lot classier.
Photo credit: © Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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