Just something I've been thinking about today. Not being able to go small I think really hurts this team in today's league. There are opposing lineups that become difficult to match up with when you can't truly go small, and probably more importantly, it gets a lot harder to fight back from a deficit when most of your shots are two pointers. Running and gunning is harder when your only option is to play big, which hurts players like Amen and Jalen. Yes, we can technically run some lineups out there where you have Holiday, Reed, and/or Cam Whitmore on the court, but the problem is that those guys just aren't good enough. Or you could kinda-sorta go small by just taking the centers off the court and running Amen, Tari, and Jabari out there, but basically you have a bunch of big bad-to-decent shooting forwards out there with varying levels of quickness and athleticism. You're not really playing small, you're playing "mid". What we really need is, again, a decent-sized combo guard who's a really good shooter. Also wouldn't hurt to get better shooting from the 1 spot, whether that's in the form of an upgrade from FVV or just FVV himself bouncing back and getting his shot going again. Imagine if we could run a lineup out there where Fred is replaced with a guy like, I don't know, Jose Alvarado or Davion Mitchell--somebody younger and more intense on both ends--then you've got Jalen out there, somebody like Coby White, Amen, and Tari or Jabari. That's a look we just can't put on the court right now--a group that can get up and down the court fast, knock down three pointers up and down the lineup (except for Amen who creates half the turnovers). I want to see how Amen and Jalen would look in run-and-gun offense like that. And I'm not even saying that the team should play like that all the time, I just think the Rockets need to have that as an option they can bring out, just like they can bring out double bigs right now against certain lineups. And unless we're getting rid of Jalen, we could really use an extra guard we can bring in when JG is having a bad night, because he has them often.
That's about the closest we can do without Cam or Reed being in there, but that lineup still has some real problems. It's tiny in the backcourt and not that good at shooting (FVV has not been good unless/until he bounces back, Tari is very medicore, and Jabari is just decent).
We had a ton of success the last month or so last season playing small ball when Sengun was out. Bari at the 5. Not sure why we don’t use that lineup more often.
Wtf would we do that when we killed 'em with the big lineup with Jabari, Adams and Sengun on the floor. They couldn't compete with that/had no answer If anything we should start the lineup": FVV Brooks (or Amen) Jabari Sengun Adams We would be up by 20 by the end of the first quarter
He used a small ball lineup in the 3rd q yesterday and the Warriors had a 7-0 run in like 20 seconds.
Whilst I like the sentiment, small ball was the solution to the previous Warriors team, we seem to do better when we go big rather than small. We absolutely "can" run a small ball lineup, I'm just not sure it's the best way to maximise our talents. Who's our star on the small ball lineup to carry the offense? Amen who can't shoot, Jalen who can't do anything right or are we just hoping Jabari is actually low-key a 1st option level scorer? It plays against our strengths, not to them.
Udoka absolutely must expand his rotation. I don't know how much more obvious it needs to be at this point for him to figure it out.
Our vaunted depth, though, only runs about 8 players deep. After that, we've got serviceable guys like Uncle Jeff, Holiday, Tate, and... ?? Our only real threats off the bench are Tari and Jabari. And Adams, of course, for rebounding and paint-clogging duties. But nobody is expecting Holiday, Tate, Whitmore, Sheppard to come in during the playoffs and change the flow of a game. Whitmore and/or Sheppard might provide a bit of offensive spark IF they're having a good game (no guarantee), but the Warriors would simply carve them up on defense. So while I hate to see Udoka running our top 8 to death out there, I'm not sure brining in those 9-15 guys is any real solution, either.
IMO it would be Amen within the next couple of years as he continues to improve. Or Jalen, 1 night out of every 4
Small ball is even more reliant on shooters given that you're sacrificing size and toughness to do so. Not exactly the Rockets strength.
This is the core issue. Warriors are better at exploiting our small lineup so it is not an advantage. Instead, it is the big line up that is giving us the edge.
I'm out on Jalen, and pessimistic about Amen if I'm honest. I think Sengun's the best we've got and he wouldn't be in the small ball lineup so I dunno. I actually don't think we should tool up around the athletic kids any more tbh, "world beating athleticism" hasn't done **** for us so far.
I mean I haven't been in on Jalen as a #1 option all season, he is what he is. If we're going to keep starting him, it's time to accept that he's only going to actually play like a star for some fraction of the team's games. That's one of the reasons I'd like to add a "sixth man" guard--makes it easier to move on, or even if Jalen remains and continues as a starter, at least he can be benched in favor of somebody else when he's having one of his many rough games. I don't see any reason to be pessimistic about Amen at this point. I feel like he's right on track, if not ahead of schedule. We knew from the beginning that for him to become a top offensive option it would be a process that would take at least a few years. If he becomes a "top dog", it's going to be a Jimmy Butler/Kawhi Leonard kind of trajectory where he grows into it gradually. I can understand preferring Sengun though, he's already much closer to "getting there", but he benefits too if we get better shooting in the backcourt.
I guess it just seems to me like Amen's not the best Batman to Sengun's Robin even if he does emerge, and probably the best non-Sengun trade chip we have. If we're not moving Sengun then I'd seriously be looking at seeing what we could get packaging Amen's talent with Jalen's contract to find the Batman who would work great with Sengun. Ironically, that player might look something like a conistent 80-90% of Jalen's peak performance where he looked like a superstar (Ant is probably the best option out there but unlikely. Maxey maybe?)
Oh, I agree that the fit between Amen and Sengun is rough right now. I think if it were up to me I would move on from Sengun before Amen--I'm just concerned Sengun is already very close to his peak and isn't going to quite get there, although he may. I think Amen has a lot more room to grow and it's a lot harder to determine what his ultimate outcome is going to be. Also like you said it's hard to see a good trade out there right now. Maxey, sure, I guess I can see that--I would hate to give up Amen for that level of player, but it's a defensible trade. Maybe if Ant Edwards becomes available as you said? Not looking likely this offseason though. I don't know, it's a timeline thing and matter of who's available. I fear the Rockets are going to feel forced to run it back by the lack of good trade opportunities that make sense this offseason. Maybe they should have traded for Fox. (Fit issues, again, though.) That's why I'm pushing for us to focus on upgrading the backcourt, I think that's going to be the easiest way for us to at least take this offense up a notch, even if it doesn't solve the core "best player on a championship team" problem.
Not sure what Ime's doing but surprised Jeff Green hasn't played. His purpose on the team is a veteran presence that's a small ball big. Why hasn't he played? Holiday can play defense and shoot 3s yet nothing. Cmon Ime
