We drafted Smith knowing he needs a play maker to set him up easier baskets due to his weaker offense game. But instead of having any plays designed for him, we have a dumba$$ coach who outright admits to running no play for him and has a guard learning pg to set him up shots. We made him a scarecrow at the 3pt line like his first few months. Set the man up for failure and of course he will struggle But its easier for booby and friends to just say Smith sucks b/c he can't make baskets at will, what astute observation. If we are doing due diligence on assessing talent, the least we could do is wait until smith gets a real pg and coach before knee jerking that he blows.
There is no structure, no real long-term vision, no culture and no accountability. The Rockets lack any real detail to anything they do. They don't even consider scarcity or how players fit together when they draft them. The Rockets need an organization where the front office and coaching staff share a common philosophy and do everything, including details, that will make that happen. As it currently is, you have a GM that essentially plays his cards close to the vest with his subordinates. The GM meets with players and coaches away from the head coach. The head coach is in way over his head and there is no real structure. The assistants essentially do their own thing, and the players do their own thing, knowing that any punishment will depend on whether the front office likes you. Players will be integrated into the offense, depending not on results but if the coach likes you. This all can happen because there is ZERO accountability. This is all happening with a bunch of 18-20 year olds competing against other, in most cases older players with more experience and better coaching. It isn't a mystery why the Rockets are bad........ and we are seeing the head coach start to make excuses and pass blame to others.
U figured the owner would have emphasize the importance of having a hierarchy or chain of command with defined roles.
That's mind boggling. Talk about a figure head HC with zero power. No wonder it feels like the players don't respect him. Everyone on the entire staff is playing ISO.
He has always been a little chaotic and after being really involved early on, he has taken a step back. He is busy with his other businesses at this point. The Rockets are an ego and legacy thing to him. He wanted to buy the Rockets back in the early 90's and missed out, so he bought them when they became available. While Fertitta has a lot of experience in business, owning a sports franchise is a little different. Our best hope is that he stumbles upon a general manager that is very good, and can make the type of changes necessary. Ultimately Fertitta wants to win, he just doesn't know how to.
Liking a coach and respecting him are two different things. I don't doubt that most of the Rockets players like Stephen Silas. I do highly doubt they respect him, because he gives them no reason to.
Jabari 3P stats 30.1% Overall 29.4% Catch & Shoot 32.7% Pull Ups 37.0% Corners 28.4% Above The Break 28.0% Tight 28.7% Open 33.7% Wide Open 39.7% Wins 27.4% Losses 33% October 35% November 32% December 17% January 30% February
This is like a CEO telling his VPs one thing and then the line managers/supervisors another. On any given day, LinkedIn has 3-5 new articles on toxic workplaces and it sounds like the Rockets are practically a template for those articles. I wonder how much of this is a result of Ferntits. Does he allow similar dynamics in the Landry’s company? If he does, I guess all we can hope for is (a) luck in the form of a generationally talented coach and generationally talented 2023 draft pick or (b) he gets busted for racial or sexual harrasssment and is forced to sell (just being a shitty owner isn’t enough these days). I should add that B has human costs and nobody should have to endure mistreatment just for us to get a better owner. All this being said, I’m not totally convinced Jabari’s shooting woes are 100% caused by the bad team dynamics and his lack of talent in other facets of the game certainly aren’t. And no matter how toxic the culture is, he should never yell at the coach to pull our best player out of the game, especially when there is constantly so much ambiguity on the proximate cause of any given defensive breakdown. It’s been rough to watch regardless.
You don't even need to run plays for him which is even more frustrating with Silas. Just coach him on where he should be on the court to be the most effective. 3 man game/triangle with KPJ/JG/Sengun. KMJ and Smith either in corner or baseline either waiting for corner 3's or cutting to basket. It really really isn't that hard.
The situation in an NBA front office is a little different, it is more like a very small business that specializes in a particular field. In good front offices, the player side is largely insulated from the business side. It is very important that everyone on the player side of the business is on the same page, even when they have differences. Running a large restaurant chain is very different than running the player side of an NBA team. Having said that, of course the fault ultimately lies with the owner. The owner has decided to let his son have a lot of control. The owner hired the GM, has let Silas be the head coach. The owner has largely not held anyone accountable and he has largely been hands off the last few years. Jabari's struggles are NOT all because of Silas or the quality of teammates he has. He is 19 years old, and has struggled.... but the dysfunction is certainly part of it. As far as Jabari yelling, well that is a fine line to walk and it isn't always clear. I will say though, that it shows that Jabari is well aware that no one is held accountable.
at the end of the day, if Jabari becomes a good 3 point shooter on volume, solid rebounder, and a good defender, then I’m good that will be a very useful big that helps any team win not everyone can be a star…u still need the Bridges and Ayton’s on your squad as well Green is the one who must become a star level player because there’s a fine line between star scorer and talented chucker…it’s not like he’s gonna give u elite defense or elite playmaking to compensate
He needs to be in the G-League hoisting up 30 shots per game. It's not surprising he doesn't get plays run for him on the ROCKETS. Neither did Marion, or Miami Allen, or any other role player. We don't even run enough for Sengun. We need to make him the focus of the offense in the G-League and see what we have on our hands. With the Rockets he is doomed to be Ariza IF lucky.
Ray Allen in Miami definitely got plays called for him…all those screens he ran around weren’t random Jabari does need plays ran for him, or at least a concerted effort to get him shot attempts from areas that he currently shoots well in which is not happening he has several spots in the midrange and behind the 3 point line where he shoots it well, but the vast majority of his shots don’t come from those areas he is just out there randomly chucking up shots
To be fair, Jalen did great after he was embarrassed in the dunk contest. Hope Jabari will do the same.
I thought his shooting in college seemed a bit fluky. Good form on the jumper, but not one of those superb feathery "swoosh" touches. Was never convinced in the "great shooter" narrative. It was a very smart call on my part. I also thought we were getting someone a lot more springy and athletic. At the college level he seemed imposing, tall, fast and bouncy. Not so among NBA players. That was a very stupid call on my part. Seems like we got a very pedestrian tall guy with an OK-ish jumper. But hey, he’s pretty young. Rashard barely played when he was 19, and was shooting 17% from 3. He still can get up to a Rashard Lewis level..
He selected #1 because he thought he should be selected with #1 pick. So I think he doesn't care about that now.
