The coaching staff needs to be aggressive on getting ball to move this year. A lot of these guys need to be trained into fulfilling a role. Some need to be humbled and let known your not the second coming of Michael Jordan.
If the basic offensive set is a guy on the wing, drive the basket, playing OKC will be a long, long game.
As someone who doesn't watch college basketball or youtube highlights I'm disappointed in how useless Jabari looks on offense. I know, I get it, nobody was passing to him and our guards were ignoring him, but like, there are players that can create for themselves or others, and I guess he's not one of them. He also can't dribble, every time he put the ball on the court it felt like something bad was going to happen, it reminded me of Trevor Ariza. And last his defense wasn't great, which was supposed to be his strong suit from what I read. Oh well, it's only one game, not trying to overreact, but that's my takeaway from just this one game.
I said it after we drafted him. “ I hope we don’t regret passing on jaden Ivey” sadly I think we will.
I see bright spots from Jabari but the problem is that our guards are trash and the offense had zero passing. Jabari was never going to be a guy who should be creating his own offense but he showed some good slashing and finishing at the rim. He looked good on defense, under control and in position unlike most of the team. You guys can panic over the negatives but I liked what I saw overall from him and I’m excited to see him in game 2.
he really did a lot to take all that endearment he earned last season and try and flush it down the toilet in one game. There’s a plethora of players on this summer league squad and sometimes on the main squad that just force it and make shot too complicated. KPJ and CWood did this a ton in the regular season last year. Josh did it tonight. we all wanted Bari to do it… but he’s not going to. Which is kind of nice. JG doesn’t really force it either. It’s quick hit action or move on. Even Sengun… it’s not forcing it’s creating quick angles and edge and taking advantage of it at his speed (like Luka does at his speed). forcing = Jaygup, Nix… definitely Tari tonight. not forcing = Bari and TyTy basically doesn’t have to be GSW awesomeness but geez…
I come away feeling fine with Bari. Excited about TyTy. And unclear on Tari. Tari forced way too much. But everyone who has the ball and dribbled except Bari and TyTy forced way too much. as for Bari…. It was an eerily similar game to Mobleys summer league debut. The plus - his shot does look legit even if he was just 4-10. Almost nothing was in rythm. His handle isn’t amazing…. YET he still has multiples drives. He had at least 3 layup attempts … making 2… which looked like 3 more attempts than Paolo had. Even though Paolo has a much better handle. his one on one defense on Paolo was great imo. His perimeter defense… apparently his strength was “ok”. Year 1 he will clearly be that complimentary player. If he ever wants to get better than that depends on how much bulk he adds and slight handle improvements.
We got torched by Caleb Houstan. I was so disappointed that our coach didn't seem to make any adjustments on him. That kid looked good. Oh, and that Paolo dude did ok as well. Nix: Dude sucked. Wasn't anything close to a floor general, forced shots and wasn't close on most of his FTA. JC: Started well and then seemed to think he became Jordan incarnate. Jabari: Needs a structured offensive scheme and he could be lethal. Love his shot, he needs more... we need to run plays for him. Nice to see a talented kid that plays good defense and blocks out. The jumpers he made looked pure, he just needs some screens, decent passes in the low post, etc. Tari: He's a bit rawer than I hoped. Made a couple of nice plays, but his bully ball move to the right is going to be charge draw city. TyTy: Hit one nice 3 and did ok on defense. Olman: Had a few nice moments. Want to see him more. 2way dude, can't his name (Hudgens?) didn't look terrible running the point.
Biggest takeaway from the first game, as silly as it is to have takeaways from single summer league games Rockets need to sign a vet PG and C. If we want guys like Smith, Eason, Garuba to develop, if we want to make things easier on Green/KPJ/Sengun we will need a vet who legitimately knows how to run a NBA offense, and a center who knows how to play defense.
