Five seconds left in Austin, the Houston Rockets up 112-110, and the ball going to the reigning Defensive Player of the Year on the block. Wembanyama won the 2025-26 award unanimously, per NBA.com. On Oct. 23 at Moody Center, Victor Wembanyama caught the entry pass in the post against Amen Thompson, spun and reached toward the rim. The 6-foot-7 Thompson, giving up nine inches to the 7-foot-4 Spurs center, “leapt up and met Wembanyama’s sweeping layup attempt and swatted away the ball to preserve the Houston Rockets lead,” as USA TODAY described it. Fred VanVleet made two free throws, and Houston won 114-110 to move to 2-0.
“I jump pretty high,” Thompson said afterward, per For The Win. “I wouldn’t try to keep dunking on me. But if they want to, they can.” Kevin Durant’s reaction to Wembanyama’s decision, as reported by Bleacher Report, was not printable. The NBA’s clip is linked in our game recap.
That play is the Amen Thompson pitch in one possession: an athlete who can erase a 7-foot-4 star at the rim. The question that follows him into his fourth season is what happens on the other end, where his jump shot and half-court game still decide how high his ceiling goes.
The Defensive Résumé Is Already Real
The Wembanyama stop was not a one-off. Thompson made the NBA All-Defensive First Team in 2024-25 and finished fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting that season, then finished eighth in 2025-26, per Basketball Reference. As a second-year player in 2024-25, he averaged 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game.
Against San Antonio, he finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks. That is the full version of Thompson: guarding the other team’s best option, running the floor and finishing plays.
The early numbers this season are quieter. Through nine games, he is averaging 1.2 steals and 0.2 blocks, per Basketball Reference. The Dream Shake pointed out on Nov. 6 that both are on pace for career lows. Nine games is a small sample, but the block total has dropped sharply from his sophomore year.
The Shooting Numbers
The jump shot is where the debate starts. These are Thompson’s 3-point percentages by season, per Basketball Reference:
- 2023-24: 13.8% on 0.9 attempts per game
- 2024-25: 27.5% on 1.3 attempts
- 2025-26: 21.6% on 1.5 attempts
- 2026-27 (through nine games): 22.2% on 1.0 attempt
The problem is not only the 3-pointer. Basketball Reference’s shot-location data shows how his efficiency falls off once he moves away from the basket:
- 0 to 3 feet: 76.0% last season and 73.3% this season. This range accounts for 43.3% of his shots in 2026-27.
- 3 to 10 feet: 48.6% last season and 43.2% this season, on 35.6% of his attempts.
- 10 to 16 feet: 32.5% last season and 20.0% this season.
- 16 feet to the 3-point line: 33.3% last season, and he has not made one this season on a handful of tries.
The free-throw line is a better sign. Thompson shot 68.4% from the line in each of his first two seasons, then jumped to 77.9% in 2025-26. He is at 77.5% this season. That is an encouraging improvement in free-throw accuracy, though it is not proof that his jumper or his shooting technique has changed.
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Why It Matters in the Half Court
In transition, Thompson is a problem for any defense. In a set half-court possession, defenders can play off him and dare him to shoot. In a Rockets On SI roundtable published early this season, with Houston at 7-1, Matt Hanifan wrote that Thompson “has essentially made no improvements as a jump shooter beyond 10-15 feet, and his handle has regressed in tight spaces,” and that “his ceiling as a playmaker is limited if he can’t be a viable shooter.” Ethan J. Skolnick argued in the same piece that it “isn’t an acute problem…. now,” but that playoff opponents “will send help to others and leave Thompson with looks that aren’t ideal.”
The shot chart supports that read. When a defender sags off, the driving lane Thompson is trying to use is already crowded. The Dream Shake described the same pattern this season, writing that he “sets out to drive to the hoop, only to be stymied by the defense.” His shots between 3 and 10 feet have gone in 43.2% of the time this season, while shots right at the rim still go in at a high rate. Shot distance alone does not show how each attempt was created, but one possible explanation is that crowded lanes stop some drives short of the rim and leave him with tougher looks.
The Dream Shake, citing DataBallr, also reported that Houston has played better with Thompson off the floor than on it through the first nine games, and that the Rockets have shot better from 3 with him off. On/off figures like these do not isolate his offense or his effect on spacing. They also reflect his teammates, opponents and shooting variance, and the piece itself called part of the split noise. Nine games is too small a sample to draw a conclusion.
The Playmaking Swing
Thompson’s role has already moved once. Basketball Reference lists him primarily at point guard in 2025-26, when he started all 79 games he played and averaged 18.3 points, 5.3 assists and 7.8 rebounds in 37.4 minutes. Those are career highs in points and assists. With Durant, Alperen Sengun and VanVleet sharing the ball this season, his numbers have come down to 15.4 points, 3.3 assists and 6.3 rebounds in 32.7 minutes, and he is listed at small forward.
That shift makes the shooting question more pressing. An off-ball wing who is not a threat from outside has to make his impact by cutting, crashing the glass, handling the ball in transition and defending. Thompson does all four. To make the jump from elite role player to superstar, he would need to bend a set defense without a running start.
The Case for the Breakthrough
This is where the excitement comes back. Thompson is 23, he has improved his scoring in each of his first three seasons, from 9.5 to 14.1 to 18.3 points per game, and his free-throw accuracy has gone up. Austin Dobbins wrote in the Rockets On SI roundtable that Houston is winning with Thompson “playing to his strengths, attacking the rim with high volume and succeeding with high efficiency.” He still makes 51.0% of his shots overall this season.
The Rockets do not need Thompson to become a high-volume 3-point shooter. They need defenders to respect him enough to stay home, whether that comes from the corner 3, a reliable short jumper or a pull-up. If that happens, everything else gets easier: the drives, the passing reads and the spacing around Sengun and Durant. The defensive star who blocked Wembanyama would be the kind of two-way player teams build around.
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Season and shot-location stats via Basketball Reference through Nov. 6, 2026.
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