ClutchFans Game Thread: Nuggets @ Rockets 11/12/2023

Bari's getting benched not cuz of how he is playing in my opinion. He was fine yesterday. Fought for an offensive boards played solid d, His problem is he is only in his second year and he still isn't strong enough. So he gets bullied by Aaron Gordon to force Ime to go to uncle Jeff.

 

I dont understand both of these things being in the same post just a sentence away from each other. Btw, if hes getting "bullied" by Gordon you can still keep him in the game by putting him on MPJ.

Jabari played 20 mins last night. Its not just Jeff eating into his minutes. And its not just because he needs to get stronger.

Hey, Jabari has a ways to go. Its ok. Hopefully he takes a leap this season. There's still plenty of time and im sure Ime is pointing out areas where he needs to improve.

 

like... hey... everyone dies eventually, right?

 

Jabari is finally being brought along the right way. The kid is basically a rookie still. Ime understands his limitations and is actually developing him. Tari doesn't look good either right now. Look at the Pistons. Worst team in the league starting inexperienced players and asking Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser to contribute. I get that rookies and young players are exciting but they don't win you games. How's Wemby, Miller and Scoot doing? The Rockets started winning more when Amen stopped playing meaningful minutes. These players are talented but they're just not experienced.

Not lost on me that Jalen is usually a net positive even when he's not scoring. His close outs and fights through screens are much improved and teams sell out to take him away. Opens up the FVV/Sengun two headed monster of destruction.

 

Early in the video he highlights a play that Sengun called out which made Jalen look great. Sengun is definitely our best player and that distance appears to be growing.

Also good stuff in there about Jabari as well.

 

Amen will immediately go back in the rotation. He is too good at defense and rebounding and the game was already slowing down for him when he got hurt. They’ll bring him around slowly, but he will get minutes other than garbage time.

 

My bad Jamal.

 

Lucky we are winning because not sure how long the people here would put up with a 38 percent shooter like Fred

 

The pieces fit as a whole that’s all that matters. It wouldnt work even if your idea of weakest link was not involved. Let’s have some fun again this is not an outlier. No more square pegs being rammed into round holes we should all be celebrating we very well could have caught lightning in a bottle!

 

The starting 5 of denver prior to yesterday's game had a +45.5 net rating in 76 minutes:

R. Jackson - K. Caldwell-Pope - A. Gordon - N. Jokic - M. Porter Jr. DEN 9 76 128.3 82.8 45.5

Last night:

R. Jackson - K. Caldwell-Pope - A. Gordon - N. Jokic - M. Porter Jr. DEN 1 21 110.9 104.5 6.3

A net rating of 6.3.

The +/- or net ratings are misleading in this context. The starters did an incredible job of holding the first unit of Denver.

 

Observations after watching the game.......

Alpren Sengun is a big man, but he is dwarfed by Jokic. The difference in size is really telling when you watch them play next to each other. Jokic is a freaking ox, pushing around Sengun, who is a massive man in his own right. Having said that, Sengun made him work and other than a few put backs, where Jokic pushed Sengun and others out of the way, Jokic worked for everything he got, he hit tough shots. Sengun for his part also proved effective finding ways to score against Jokic and the Nuggets. I still think Sengun at this point is a power forward against the best teams - but he has improved his conditioning, and he is so crafty, he finds a way to make an impact.

The Nuggets defense improved last year, but Jokic isn't good at keeping the middle clogged, the Rockets didn't use angles as well as they could and left points on the floor - but overall the defense and effort was excellent.

Jabari Smith is getting pointed out by the local media and fans, but last night he really wasn't bad - Jeff Green was just really good, and when surrounded by the right players, Green has always been very good.

Udoka has his personal issues with his wife and kid, and he apparently caused a lot of dysfunction in Boston because of his relationships with women in the organization and some of the comments he made - but with the Rockets thus far, he has been an exceptional coach. He is very smart, some of the changes he made down the stretch against the Nuggets really impressed. There are only a handful of coaches that make those types of changes.

 

Rockets have the 6th best record in the league right now.

 

Nuts @Killatron 2000

 

I saw him play some really good perimeter defense, but Gordon was just too strong for him. One thing, I really like about Ime is how he manages the rotation to adjust to what's happening on the court. Some guys are going to cause Jabari issues in the post, because of his not being very strong. He also ball watches a little much, but not because he's lazy, but still adjusting to the NBA game. He just turned 21 and had the worst coach in NBA history his rookie year. Some of the older members may recall how much Hakeem struggled against Tony Eason.

 

Frank Chop is always there for you.

 

Jabari is quite comfortable on offense around the basket. This is a pleasant surprise for me.
He is behind on defense, which is quite concerning to me. I know he can overcome this in time.