ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Jazz 10/7/2024 (Preseason)

So you can only have 12 dressed each night, correct. Who out of Holiday, old Green, Landale, Tate, and Mcveigh doesn’t dress? Sheppard better show out in pre-season or he might very well get a RGV stint. Hope not, but I know how Ime loves his veterans. I fully expect Dillon to be the starting SF to start the season, which is a travesty if it happens.

 

Just a preseason game.Nice warm up though.

 

Here is my angles for every player after first game:
Amen: Looks explosive and little stronger. Did not shoot much.
Jabari: Good defense in the beginning, but some easy mistakes after that, ok game overall.
Alpie: Seemed very good, fast and strong and form of his shot was maybe little better than last year.
Jalen: Shot is smoother, good confidence, missed some opportunities to pass to open guys, 0 assists
Fred: Same old reliable, missed his shots though
Cam: Seemed to be in good rhythm, good game for him, explosive as always
Steven A: Not in shape yet, very slow and rusty. Could be several months before he gives positive impact.
Reed: Showed ok dribble, only one TO. He found very easily good and open spots for his shot. Did not hit this time, but showed a lot of promise. Defense was not awful.
J Tate: Not very good in this game, probably smaller role this year.
Aaron H: Looked the same as last year, playable guard, but Reed probably takes his role this year.
Nate W: Not very good game, showed some promise last year, but not going to break the rotation this year.
N Dante: Little bit slow moving and seemed little bit awkward. If gets 100% healthy and better explosiveness, could be helpful post defender
J Samuels: Hit his shots, ok game.
Nate H: Missed his shots, only 8 minutes.
Jack McVeigh: Shot looks great and made 2 threes, seems physically weak for SF in NBA standards, could be a keeper.
Markquis Nowell: Did not do much in 5 minutes.

 

I'm pretty sure the Rockets emptied the bench a few times such that Boban was the 14th or 15th Rocket in a game last season. I think he was wearing a Rockets uniform. I think the 12 man thing was a while back, but seen too many G Leaguers play garbage minutes for that still to be a thing the past 3-4 years.

 

this game really showed how much we’re gonna miss Boban. Gonna be a loooong season

 

Im assuming 2 to 4 players will have injuries at all times. Maybe at the beginning of the season Green, Holiday, and Tate don’t dress. Reed in the G-League would make sense because most Rockets rookies go down at least 1/5 of the season.

But I wouldn’t be too worried about it because in pro sports you can always assume 1/4 of your team will have injuries. Some of them worse than others but there will be injuries that’ll have at least 3 guys sitting throughout the season. From the coaches perspective they are surely telling Stone that they need Holiday, Jock, and Tate for insurance, bench depth, competition, and locker room maturity.

I just don’t see a glaring need for a trade unless someone like Hinton explodes on the scene which I doubt based on what I’ve seen. I think the roster is pretty much set for the year and I don’t see any obvious teams looking to trade a star worth trading valuable assets to get and I don’t see any contracts other than FVV being that valuable as big trade pieces.

 

I looked it up the roster size is 15, but you can only have 13 dressed and on the bench each game. I can’t believe that Green, Holiday, or Tate would be excited about not dressing to start the year. We have a huge minutes crunch so I believe Dillon needs to be traded as soon as possible. I never understood the Holiday signing and Tate should have been gone a couple of years ago, but they are not going to be in a hurry. The three guys that are going to get hurt by playing Brooks are Amen, Cam, and Sheppard. All 3 need to be getting significant minutes to inform our off-season moves after this year.

 

It was cool seeing the lineup that everyone sees as the future out there early in the game.

PG - Reed Sheppard
SG - Jalen Green
SF - Amen Thompson
PF - Jabari Smith Jr.
..C - Alperen Sengun

 

How did 14 guys play in this game? https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585320? I'm guessing the rules changed with Covid.

I couldn't find any 15 player games, but quite a few 14 player games.

 

Sengun looks noticeably bigger/stronger out there. He looked the same size/strength as Walker Kessler to my eye. Kessler is listed 10lbs heavier and an inch taller.

 

Yeah I'd prefer Brooks be traded as well, and don't understand the Tate infatuation by Stone, and Ime. However I don't think it has hurt anyone yet. Again I think people are too worried about the minutes crunch. We'll be lucky if this is a problem because it means everyone is healthy.

Just go look up the injury report on NBA.com. Even now early in the preseason half of the teams have 4 to 6 players already injured. Yeah some of it is precautionary because it's early on, but even if it's just 2 players injured at any give point of time, I'm not concerned at all about offending Tate, or Holiday every 4th game taking a seat.

Where I think it'll be a bad sign for the season is if nobody out of Amen, Tari, or Cam beats out Brooks, and makes the decision easy to move him to the bench or trade. I don't think Brooks is bad by any stretch as a NBA rotation player, but he should be beatable for minutes if you have someone with the talent those three guys have. I want someone to make that an easy decision.

 

I do not have the eye for that, all I see is that Alperen is the most skilled by far.

 

I would actually want to see Flagg or Ace Bailey instead of Dracari or Jabari.

 

Amen made that decision within 30 games last season. Unfortunately, some coaches are very old school and Ime is one of them. He is going to defer to veterans especially the first 20 games or so. Dillon will be the starting SF unless traded, which really sucks in my opinion.

 

Can't disagree with that. Unfortunate that the only reason he's starting is because Stone overpaid for him (IMO). I think he's a decent role player, but I didn't quite understand the signing then, and now I would hate for it to be a reason why we have to hold back a young stud, and if not be scared of a lock room issue. Right now... not concerned too much, but the fact is he still has two years after this season on that contract. We'll see how it plays out but I hope we don't end up next Summer having to unload four 2nd round picks or a first round pick in order to move his contract. That's unfortunately what I'd predict happens, and if that does NOT happen than that is even worse because it means Amen, Tari, or Cam didn't have the growth that we expected from all 3.

 

Honestly I'm really worried about minutes distribution now thinking about how Tari and Brooks weren't even in the rotation last night.

Brooks just has to go.

 

Since FVV probably won't play tomorrow night (I think Ime said he was resting the older guys every other game) who is going to be the lead ball handler tomorrow? Reed? Amen? Or are we rolling an Amen/Jalen/Dillon/Jabari/Sengun starting 5? Feeling like this will be the case.

 

He may rest Alpi. He said "rest the older guys and the guys coming back from injury."

 

I hope he throws Amen and Reed into the water and see if they swim or sink. Please don't start Holiday. We already know what he can and can't do.

 

Green.

Lets be honest with ourselves. If FVV isn't doing most of the dribbling on this team it's Jalen. He's the secondary lead ball handler on this team.

You know how I know I'm going to be right? Go one month into the season and see which players lead the team in primary pnr ball handler possessions for this squad.

Amen showed great flashes of semi-transition creation off the dribble with that one dribble drive slam on a defense that wasn't set but he also showed his lack of lead ball handling skills the moment multiple defenders tried to disrupt his handle in a half court set.

I think you have to learn to accept this. Amen will get trial minutes as a lead ball handler but the moment defenses start pressing and blitzing pnr actions, Amen is not going to handle the rock.