Which Starters from 2022-23 would have the hardest time coming off the bench?

Meritocracy? Ime be like "F them kids". Earn thy minutes.

 

I hope your feeling is wrong and jalen and Jabari have to earn mins like everyone else

 

Sengun and Porter will be traded from the starters ! As well as Tate, Nix, Garuba.

4 other players will no longer have a contract with the Rockets/
Kaminsky, Days, Hudgins, Bogan.

 

I think everyone will have to earn those minutes. Agree that it's Jabari's and Jalen's spot to lose(they start on the starters and have to lose to someone else) but for everyone else, they gotta win the spot against whomever is on this roster later this year. That means if we draft Scoot, it's going to be a battle of the Scoots but if we don't draft/sign a PG, then there is less of a fight for KPJ.

Personally, I think there will be a fair amount of roster changes this offseason - I wouldn't be too shocked to see one or more of our young guys traded this offseason. Who will depend on who we are in talks to acquire but I'm sure guys like KMJ, KPJ, Sengun, Christopher, Garuba, TyTy, and potentially even one of Eason or Tate will be "possibilities". There is too much talent to develop and not enough time left to develop all of them(because we largely punted the last year away just letting Silas babysit) so the smartest move will be to try to find more roster appropriate pieces to bring in and use these young guys to trade for. Houston having a TON of cap space to absorb contracts this offseason and a slew of young guys to trade in exchange for is likely setting us up to be major trade market players this summer assuming we aren't interested in the FAs available(who are mostly not on our team's timeline).

 

Bruno

 

I don't think jabari and Jalen could take their places as granted. If there will be a competent pg via draft or fa, Jalen have to defend his starting position against kpj as well. If kpj can bond with ime's philosophy better and give 100% of his body and soul while Jalen continues to lose his assignment and fail to play team defense, there is no reason for not to prove him a point which Silas never did no matter what.

Same applies to jabari as well. If he is facing a shooting slump, not boxing out well or too soft for strong pf 's, then Tari or kmj can take a bite of his minutes or start instead of him.

Its not like those two are Kobe and Shaq while the others are scrubs. Their current talent levels are not too different and some other guys can prove more useful at times.

 

Sengun: didn't like move down for Bruno briefly.....I don't think he sits for
Wembanyama and/or Jabari Smith. Ime likes a defensive presence
like a mobile Robert Williams who doesn't mind setting screens all
over the place on offense. Horford is a 3 point shooting threat
that helps spread the floor......Sengun does not give you a fraction
of that element.

Post Ups of approximately 6 times by the best leagues best can be
from Sengun off the bench.
-----
Kenyon going back to the bench brings back those, "Trade Me Vibes"
------
Jabari & Green are safe
-------
KPj : I have Harden coming back (90% sure).....KPj modelled his
game after Harden.....doesn't mind bowing out from PG to
Harden.

Harden teaches KPj to bring his facilitator skills to another level.

I actually have Harden-Green-KPj-starting; but KPj comes out after
5 minutes much like our CP3/Westbrook high dollar players did.
Then KPj backs up both Harden and Green at the 1 & 2 from that point.

If it works well, possibilities of ending the game with those 3 facilitators
is there. Defense often depends on that back tier of defenders.
Maybe it's Bari-Wembanyama. They will erase a lot of errors.

 

Sengun: didn't like move down for Bruno briefly.....I think he grumbles over
Wembanyama and/or Jabari Smith. Ime likes a defensive presence
like a mobile Robert Williams who doesn't mind setting screens all
over the place on offense. Horford is a 3 point shooting threat
that helps spread the floor......Sengun does not give you a fraction
of that element.

Best Post Up players post up approximately 6 times a game.
Sengun can come off the bench for that contribution.
-----
Kenyon going back to the bench brings back those, "Trade Me Vibes"
This is why I have us going after Torrey Craig and bringing in
Cameron Johnson
------
Jabari & Green are safe
-------
KPj : I have Harden coming back (90% sure).....KPj modelled his
game after Harden.....doesn't mind bowing out from PG to
Harden.

Harden teaches KPj to bring his facilitator skills to another level.
Harden has Achilles tendon questions.....give him 24 minutes a game.
Plenty of minutes for Green-KPj.

I actually have Harden-Green-KPj-starting; but KPj comes out after
5 minutes much like our CP3/Westbrook high dollar players did.
Then KPj backs up both Harden and Green at the 1 & 2 from that point.

If it works well, possibilities of ending the game with those 3 facilitators
is there. Defense often depends on that back tier of defenders.
Maybe it's Bari-Wembanyama? They will erase a lot of errors.

 

I think Green will adjust to his bench role just fine.

 

Alpi sat down for a far less talented guy whos ceiling is below his floor due to bad coaching decisions. And it was not a competing but tanking and developing time.

Not just alpi, but any random fan who has average IQ was disappointed on that poor decision. I believe he will respect ime's decision if there will be a more productive guy and ime decides to run with it.

 

The Robert Williams, Looney, Theis, Bruno are all inferior to Bruno offensively.....
But their job is screen setter/lob threat. Much like Capela.....Sengun doesn't
really fit that mold.

That's what Silas desperately wanted to recoup from his Dallas days.
We (Rockets) never gave him that aspect. For a coach that runs
PnR a tremendous amount.....and you give him a poor version
of Roll Man; that coach stands little chance.

Could a coach move on from that (PnR).....yes....but a clogged paint
effects almost everything dealing near the rim or paint.

 

All jokes aside, I don't think any starters that started more than 10 games for the Rockets last season and are still with the franchise will come off the bench next season.

That said, I see KJ Martin and Sengun being traded somewhere else. I don't think Udoka comes in and benches Sengun due to Sengun not being the kind of big man he wants to play, he'll just move him elsewhere and try to pick up the kind of big man he wants.

 

All of ‘em.

Kevin “I’m the head honcho” Porter Jr.
Jalen “Do you know where I was drafted?” Green
KJ “Let me call daddy” Martin

Şengün wouldn’t be happy but would take it in stride. (I mean, he was benched for Bruno Fernando)

“The **** y’all getting away with over there… If you go to any other teams you’d be out the f*cking league, you wouldn’t play.” — Rockets legend™ John Wall on Jalen Green/Kevin Porter Jr.

Daishen Nix and maybe Garuba.
Christopher was already in the doghouse.
TyTy was already in the doghouse (err “developing in RGV”)

 

KJ is gonna ask for a trade again next season when Tari takes his minutes lol.

 

KJ and Sengun needs to go to the bench. If they don’t like it, bye!

 

Let's see how the roster shapes up after this summer...then I will answer based upon whom is left.

DD

 

This is the correct answer - thanks, DD.

All you guys are acting like who we draft and who we sign/trade for aren't going to hugely impact answering that question. If we start next year with roughly the same roster we ended last year with, something has went horribly wrong. My opinion of KPJ as next year's PG hinges largely on the fact of whether we have an opportunity to draft Scoot. Same with Tari - he's a lot more valuable to us if we don't have a chance to grab a better wing 2 way player but his long term use on this team changes if we end up with a Victor.