HOUSTON -- For all the preseason grandeur displayed in weeks prior, it would have been unreasonable to assume that the Rockets' plans of increasing their pace this year would hit the ground running from the opening tip.
Still, head coach Ime Udoka couldn't hide his surprise as he glanced at the final box score. But his concern was less about the season-opening 110-105 loss to the Charlotte Hornets and more about the overall lack of running his team displayed -- because of what it signified.
Wednesday night at the Toyota Center was a unique style fight, a Rockets team hell-bent on speeding things up and a Hornets team quite comfortable playing at the patient tempo of LaMelo Ball, it's centripetal force.
Udoka had driven the point home over the course of training camp and preseason that for the Rockets to become the best version of themselves, they had to play to their strengths. A team possessing athleticism in spades -- Jalen Green, Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore in particular -- could do a great deal of damage in the open court. Fred VanVleet and Alperen Şengün, eager to join the movement, had spent the greater part of their offseason trimming down, in preparation for months of sprints.
Last season, Houston was seventh in pace following the All-Star break and ended the year winning 17 out of their final 28 games, including an impressive 13-2 March. But it wasn't simply the young Rockets running up and down the floor that gave them an advantage over opponents. They were particularly effective on the boards, having been the third-best rebounding team in the league. The equation was simple: Houston, an aggressive defensive unit often sealed stops with a rebound, kickstarting their transition attack. That the Rockets were a top-10 team in transition opportunities (20.9) and points (23.1) was a surprise to no one.
So when they allowed Charlotte to outrebound them 56 to 43, the snowball effect spilled over to their defense -- surrendering 61 second-half points, 15 3s and 42 points in the paint. The antithesis of Udoka ball.
"We didn't get stops," Udoka said. "We didn't get out and run. Just as poorly as we played in transition, offensive rebounding was the same thing. Nineteen in the first half and only 2 second-chance points in the second. Dominated us on the glass there."
Before the game, Udoka stressed that Houston's pace wouldn't be an immediate mindset shift.
"It'll be gradual as far as having to have reminders, and certain guys do it naturally," Udoka said. "But we want to encourage everybody to rebound, push, run and fill in the lanes. You can see it as an equal opportunity, and guys will get out and take advantage of our speed and athleticism. When we did it in certain games during the preseason, it looked good. You have to reiterate getting the pace up, kick-aheads and getting our spacing correct. With that and rebounding, some of the things we're trying to stress will be constant reminders until it becomes second nature."
The Rockets registered a measly 96.0 pace (possessions per 48 minutes) against the Hornets in addition to scoring just 13 fast-break points, 3 of which came after the intermission. Considerably less than desirable (for context, the Portland Trail Blazers, the league's worst transition unit last season, scored 17.5 points per possession) but not a cause for alarm bells, considering so much of their DNA is rooted in speed.
Earlier this week, I wrote about Udoka's overreliance on his starting lineup, which can be a gift and a curse at times. Udoka rolled with VanVleet, Green, Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr. and Şengün for 22 minutes against Charlotte, with that group actually finishing as a plus-25, albeit a pedestrian 93.51 pace. (The Hornets are not exactly a great defensive team, meaning Udoka placed just as much importance on the pace as the overall production.)
Houston's next most-used lineup, featuring Green and Thompson, is what drew more intrigue. Last season as a two-headed monster, the Rockets had a pace of 102.67 when Green and Thompson shared the floor. In actuality, in six of Houston's fastest two-man combinations, Thompson appears in five of them, which speaks to his unique versatility, awareness and why his minutes need a spike if the Rockets truly want to be among the fastest teams in the NBA.
Thompson is a true Swiss Army knife. It's difficult to pigeonhole him into a specific position, simply because he's asked to do a number of things on different possessions. One of the quieter-kept X's and O's secrets is Thompson's screening ability, combined with Udoka's experimentation of using Şengün and Jock Landale as floor spacers. The shot clock is barely seven seconds old when Green walks into this look.
But Thompson's bread and butter is getting out in the open court and flying. It's a skill set best used in conjunction with a solid defensive stop, a rebound and a quick outlet. There are very few players in the NBA that even want to attempt to stop Thompson's downhill momentum, and he has a slithery mid-air motion to his game. I can't even count how many dunks or layups I've seen him finish with defenders within striking distance and Thompson acting like they don't even exist.
His simple approach to half-court offense makes the game easy. From a defensive standpoint, this particular lineup (Sheppard, Green, Eason, Thompson and Landale) still needs fine-tuning, but Thompson has found ways to create advantages out of situations where defenders either sag off or ignore him completely on the perimeter (actually went 1-for-2 from the 3-point line). He's an underrated cutter who sharpened his skills last season when he was plugged in as the de facto center following Şengün's absence.
It's a gradual process. The Rockets had moments against the Hornets where misses (or even makes) would lead to quick shot attempts down at the other end. But regardless of Houston's process and/or result, Thompson's presence was critical. Udoka, similar to last season, experimented with three pairings of his top-tier athletes, searching for consistency, but liked what the second-year player brought, actually inserting him in Houston's closing lineup in the first half over Brooks.
In the fourth quarter with the Rockets desperate to get back into the game, Udoka signaled a "1" and a "4" to Green, who communicated the instructions to VanVleet and Thompson before inbounding the ball. It was a play designed to generate a quick open look for VanVleet, who struggled Wednesday, missing 14 of his 18 shots. But he didn't get a better look than this all evening, thanks to Thompson creating an acre of space.
Thompson finished the game with 13 points and four rebounds on 5-for-11 shooting in just 22 minutes off the bench. If the Rockets truly have plans of pushing the pace consistently, they should start and end with Thompson.
"It's only the first game," Green said. "We were getting up and down the floor pretty fast. I think we did a good job of that. At halftime, we could've been a lot better in transition, but like you said, it's going to be a season-long process."