50 Years of NBA WAR — Day 7: Houston Rockets Top 50
Continuing the 21-day series of ranking the Top 50 players by WAR for every franchise that has played in all 50 seasons covered by my dataset (1976-77 through 2025-26), coming in at #7 are the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets have accumulated 1,607.3 total WAR over the last 50 seasons, 1,504.1 in the regular season and 103.2 in the playoffs. They’re separated from #6 Utah by just 6.1 WAR, but unlike Phoenix and Utah, Houston converted some of that sustained success into championships, winning back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995.
For the full explanation of the methodology and Estimated RAPTOR/LAKER, see Day 1: San Antonio Spurs.
For a quick refresher: these rankings use total WAR = regular-season WAR + playoff WAR, and only WAR accumulated with that franchise counts. Since WAR is cumulative, longevity and playing time are naturally part of the metric — this is intended to measure total value accumulated for a franchise, rather than peak ability.
Here’s the Houston Rockets Top 50:
Rank
Player
Seasons
RS WAR
Playoff WAR
Total WAR
1
Hakeem Olajuwon
17
206.0
26.3
232.3
2
James Harden
9
108.0
12.2
120.2
3
Moses Malone
6
57.3
5.2
62.5
4
Yao Ming
8
48.1
0.9
49.0
5
Otis Thorpe
7
38.0
2.8
40.8
6
Tracy McGrady
6
36.9
2.3
39.2
7
Steve Francis
6
35.9
0.5
36.4
8
Clyde Drexler
4
30.6
5.3
35.9
9
Trevor Ariza
5
31.9
1.8
33.7
10
Robert Reid
10
29.6
3.9
33.5
11
Rodney McCray
5
27.4
2.5
29.9
12
Cuttino Mobley
6
29.5
-0.1
29.4
13
Calvin Murphy
7
26.6
2.2
28.8
14
Shane Battier
5
25.0
1.6
26.6
15
Robert Horry
4
19.7
6.9
26.6
16
Allen Leavell
10
25.8
0.6
26.4
17
Clint Capela
7
23.6
2.5
26.1
18
Charles Barkley
4
23.1
2.3
25.4
19
Amen Thompson
3
22.5
1.7
24.2
20
Chuck Hayes
7
22.0
1.0
23.0
21
Kenny Smith
6
20.2
2.3
22.5
22
Ralph Sampson
5
19.3
2.7
22.0
23
John Lucas
5
19.9
1.5
21.4
24
Mario Elie
5
19.1
1.8
20.9
25
Chris Paul
2
17.3
3.1
20.4
26
Rafer Alston
4
19.4
0.9
20.3
27
Luis Scola
5
18.9
0.6
19.5
28
Chandler Parsons
3
17.9
0.4
18.3
29
Patrick Beverley
5
16.6
1.0
17.6
30
Alperen Şengün
4
14.8
1.2
16.0
31
Vernon Maxwell
6
16.2
-0.3
15.9
32
Kyle Lowry
4
15.8
0.1
15.9
33
Eric Gordon
7
14.7
1.2
15.9
34
Dwight Howard
3
12.7
2.0
14.7
35
Lewis Lloyd
5
13.6
1.0
14.6
36
Kelvin Cato
5
14.0
0.3
14.3
37
Tari Eason
4
13.1
0.9
14.0
38
Fred VanVleet
2
13.2
0.6
13.8
39
Rudy Tomjanovich
5
13.2
-0.2
13.0
40
P.J. Tucker
4
9.3
2.8
12.1
41
Kevin Martin
3
10.8
0.0
10.8
42
Buck Johnson
6
9.8
-0.3
9.5
43
Carl Landry
3
8.1
0.7
8.8
44
Kevin Durant
1
8.8
-0.1
8.7
45
Dikembe Mutombo
5
7.9
0.6
8.5
46
Metta World Peace
1
7.7
0.5
8.2
47
Sleepy Floyd
6
8.0
-0.1
7.9
48
Jim Jackson
2
7.5
0.3
7.8
49
Jalen Green
4
7.7
0.1
7.8
50
Mitchell Wiggins
4
7.7
0.0
7.7