We need to stop drafting players from OTE and the G-League. They are just supped up versions of AAU ball. Either take the Euros or college players.
Scottie Barnes had terrible fundamentals when drafted, still has shotty fundamentals. But he's pretty imposing physically and is slowly improving
I actually think Cam has a terrible feel for the game, most of the time he's not even playing a game, he just shoots the ball whenever he touches it. I have high hopes about Amen though
I definitely noticed that from his time in college, but I thought he greatly improved in those areas even by the end of summer league, and that we saw that improvement carry over to his time in the preseason. I haven't watched the g league games, but saw a couple nice passing highlights from there at least.
The problem is not who we drafted, it is the combination of who you drafted and who you assigned to develop them.
"The Rockets are developing players that lack fundamentals of basketball, dribbling, shooting, passing, bball IQ. DD"
This is a pretty stupid thread. Cade, Mobley, Murray, and even Barnes haven’t been any better than our guys and that is with competent coaching. In the case of Cade, we couldn’t draft him anyway. Your boy KPJ made Mobley unavailable to us and I’m glad he did, because Mobley is a lazy one-dimensional player that has already reached his peak. Just really another old-man impatient take that thinks he knows basketball because he coached 7th graders once upon a time. Green, Amen, Jabari, and Sengun willl all develop rapidly now that they have a coaching staff that cares. All the guys that were potentially better (Banchero, Chet, Wemby) were not available to us and all could very easily crash and burn.
Agree - but a lot of that is because the Rockets culture and player development was horrendous. You have to get a franchise player. Jalen Green hasn't had much structure until literally months ago. He was surprisingly raw when the Rockets drafted him. He doesn't seem to really be eating and sleeping basketball anymore. The Rockets and the whole league knew Jabari couldn't put the ball on the floor and score - its why he went 3rd in the draft. He needs to shoot from the perimeter and rebound and defend - which is a reasonable request and I think he will do. He is 20 years old, and has confidence issues - it will come. I wanted Mobley, and yes I think he is better than Green at winning basketball games. I'll take Jabari over Murray every day of the week. Thompson was best of the rest when we took him. Giannis .... Shaq..... Drexler... T-Mac .... those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head as lacking core fundamentals..... Leonard too. I love Tari but he lacks fundamentals. He really struggles to understand plays and mostly relies on instincts. Cam doesn't know how to play in a team set. I don't think Stone is all that great - he deserves credit for listening to his assistant GM and taking Sengun... he also deserves credit for Eason. As for Green - most people had him as the 2nd best player.... and Thompson and Jabari were the consensus best players available, Green has the rest of the year to prove he isn't DeAngelo Russell.
And they argued his 5.6 assists per game was proof of good playmaking when he couldn't see the open man, did not see the basic open pass lanes, couldn't even adjust the speed or placement of the ball even in easy lay-ups.
There aren't 2 or 3 stars in every draft so those expectations are too high. Ideally, picking #2 you'd get the 2nd best player in the draft in a perfect world, but right now Green looks like the 4th or 5th best player, so that's not great but not terrible. You should go look up recent #2 picks, it could be way worse.
I agree with your premise but you built your premise with bad takes imo. Amen's "good handle?" Nope. Tari "fundamentals?" Nope. Cam, is passing fundamental or not because you've stated both? IMO we have exactly (1) player who is both fundamentally sound and athletic, Dillon the Villain. Here is my crude, unscientific attempt to support your post. Exact positions on the scale probably off but it makes my point. Not enough Best Best imo. You could describe the Rockets as "decent athletes who are bad at basketball" at the moment. I hope that Tari, Bari, and Jalen, learn how to play basketball.
Well I guess we need to only draft foreign players then. Club/AAU ball is killing player fundamentals. You see these so called trainers having players doing ridiculously difficult drills because they look cool, but the players cant preform basic fundamental skills without thinking. Everyone is chasing the sizzle and not putting in the work to be fundamentally sound. These guys are playing multiple games in a week and only practicing 1 or 2 times a week. When do you think they work on fundamentals? Our system is broken and there is a reason that a large chunk of the best players in the league are foreign. To expect a player to fix this in a season or two is stupid. Can it be fixed, yes. Does it take time, also yes. Think the 10,000 hour principal. However, this board is not into taking the time necessary to get things right. Look at all the off the wall knee jerk analysis from non contributing zeros as to who is a "franchise/max player" People complain about our players ad nauseum and praise their favorites ad nauseum. To me its so weird to supposedly love a team but hate everyone on that team except a chosen few. We were trash last year. HOT GARBAGE. We are now competing at a much higher level and its not enough for people. How quickly some people are owed the world. Probably the same people who think that a player should just automatically "get it" because they have had 2 months with a good coach. Rant over, I am out, takes on this board make me question why I even come here. Its not for great analysis that's for sure.
I just think Jalen needs to be benched, he clearly has no clue how to play off the ball, and could use some time figuring it out - I would like to see some competition for his spot....from Cam or Reggie or heck move Eason to the starting SF role and move Brooks to SG.....and hit go. Pressure makes diamonds....and I like how Ime has found that benching Bari for Green is better for the team - the same needs to happen to Jalen. DD
1. Cleverly disguised Get All Euros thread 2. You rather LOSE playing the Right (read the DaDakota way) than win any other way 3. Eventually those "non fundamental" players with TALENT catch up and surpass those with just Fundamentals Rocket River To paraphrase Fundamentals beats Talent . . .until Talent learns Fundamentals
Are you kidding me? I don't care about Euros, I just want ball players.....guys who know and live and die the game. Not soft AAU players who get out of the way to avoid being on a poster..... DD