I personally think that’s exactly what he will be. All he has to do is get buckets for us. Amen will guard the better offensive player between the opposing 2 and 3. DFS can help lock down the perimeter as well and we have plenty of bigs that can anchor the paint and defend. We’ll see but all the moves seem to suggest that.
People I think just see Durant's shooting and think it's all upside. It definitely is on that end! but there's also some costs! 1. Jalen as ballhandler & playmaker - he was not elite at this but he was good enough that defenses had to respect it and try to stop it. 2. Brooks as innings-eater on defense. Again, Brooks was Ime's first choice defender on the other team's best player, if it was Jokic or Wemby or SGA - he was usually the first to get the call (I know they employed Amen on curry vs. GSW but that was a playoffs situational thing IMO, also Amen as weakside help is a big Ime Udoka thing (see Robert Williams III in Boston). Brooks didn't make eyepopping highlight plays liek Thompson, more of a Battier type; but he was able to make the other team work and then on offense, space the floor, shoot 39% on volume, and otherwise conserve energy. Somebody's got to do that in the regular season now. Now if your answer is, Thompson can do 1 and also, Thompson can do 2, OK he probably can! But he's going to wear down in a league that eats Achilles and ACL's for breakfast in April/May.
I think Brooks was the first choice for bigger playmakers, and Amen was the first choice for smaller playmakers (Brunson, Fox, Morant, Mitchell, Kyrie). Amen guarding smaller playmakers was usually a problem as the Rockets had a hard time finding Jalen Green a guy to guard (GSW a notable exception). If DFS starts, I expect he gets the big guys while Amen continues to get the little guys. Not sure who handles the bigger playmakers if DFS doesn't start.
He is a shooting guard based on the role he plays. Take the ball from the PG, create offense for himself, pass to an outlet when needed. That is precisely the role of a 2. Whether he is 6’5” or 7’0” is irrelevant on offense (or, more accurately, it is purely a bonus on offense). Even if you say that pressuring the rim is critical, it doesn’t have to come from the SG … our C is one of the 2 best post players in the league and Amen and Tari can both feast in the dunker spot. The opponent cannot just vacate the paint to double KD. On defense it doesn’t work unless you have people capable of guarding either a forward or a guard … but the Rockets have many of those players, starting with the best switch defender in the league. We really need to move beyond height-based roles.
The irony of the Rockets wanting to go bigger, when I have been saying that for YEARS....that we were too short. I need to be in that office so they don't waste so much time getting to the obvious. DD - always ahead of the pack.
Will just say in relation to this, a big reason for my concern with our rim pressure is Amen. He can get the ball more but I really don't see how when the ball is in his hands (i.e. KD is guarded by a single defender) how he's going to be much better at getting to the rim given the spacing issues we've seen. We are still a rare example of a team that has 2 non-shooters on the floor. Further I'm sure KD will get the ball a lot, I'm sure FVV will get the ball a decent amount and I'm sure we can't go without Sengun's interior points. So I'm not sold that Amen is going to see a big rise given our setup. Especiallly given our first sub is most likely going to be to further reduce our spacing by bringing in another non-shooting big. I'm keeping my eye on that as the one concern after a great summer overall.
You are only "ahead" of the pack only when you are going in the right direction. Some of us doubt how often that is.
Positional roles and require haven’t changed. Players abilities and skillsets have. But overall those that are more “fluid” or versatile are still a minority and few and far in between. Not a lot of centers can handle. Not many SF’s are point forwards etc. one major change I have seen is the point guard position where nearly every pt guard is a combo guard or scoring point. CP3 and fred are the last of their kind
Yeah after reading the last 6 pages this is what I got from it as well. A lot of people in here are arguing semantics and definitions of positions, but it doesn't really matter. Bottom line is that the rockets feel comfortable with a lineup like FVV, KD, Amen, Jabari, Sengun. Or something like that. You can call KD the sg, or Amen the sg, or say it's a lineup without a sg. We can call it whatever we want, doesn't really matter, but that's how they're going to play and they think it's going to work.
1. KD is a better playmaker than you think, even at 37. It might surprise you. Also, unlike with Jalen, the Rockets won't need to completely toss any semblance of an offensive set just to give KD a chance to isolate. IMO, this was a big part of why the efficiency of other players dropped when Jalen was on the floor. KD is an easy target and can receive the ball in actual scoring position a good amount of the time whereas Jalen would often get the ball far from the basket and take 10+ seconds trying to dribble himself open. KD is also a savvier passer than Jalen. 2. DFS and Tari should be more than adequate to eat innings on defense. DB is better than both guarding big bulky guys, no doubt. The Rockets will definitely miss that. On the other hand, both Tari and DFS are better at using their hands to attack dribbles and disrupt passing lanes. Another aspect of DFS is I expect him to guard the opponents best offensive player much of the time and give relief to Amen. Tari can help out too.
I mean by this definition Larry Bird would be a shooting guard. As would Giannis. Which is fine if that's truly what you believe. But if you are talking to an audience of basketball fans, using your own interpretation rather than the consensus idea is kind of stupid, no?
People that see the "Field" before everyone else are always doubted, but having conviction in what you see, is part of the beauty of it. It just takes others a long time to catch up....some lead, most follow. DD
This is the issue. Too much Fred and Sengun means stalled offense. We saw this the last 2 years. I have my doubts about this offense but we shall see.
what getting bigger did they do? They simply got durant who isn’t some big imposing defensive juggernaut but a slight 7 ft guy with awesome offense. I don’t understand this discussion of getting “bigger”.
Hmm, other than replacing a 6'4 player with a 7 footer and adding a legitimate 3rd center option, I guess they didn't get any bigger. You know, just because the likely starting lineup has 3 players who are 6'11 or taller and will only have one player under 6'7 on the court at any given moment, I guess they aren't really that big. We have smart fans.
Empowered? If the staff and organization hasn’t empowered him to play his game and maximize his skills and talent then they haven’t done their job. Coaches at any level try to empower their players to be comfortable and confident to play the game on both ends. Udoka has said this numerous times last year and the staff publicly acknowledged they wanted Reed to shoot more. Where is this narrative they haven’t empowered him come from? Every player on that roster should have already been empowered every day and every game. I would imagine this coach and his staff who are coaching at a high level have already empowered players.
Are you serious? Their starting lineup is: PG - FVV - the only shorty and I have been consistently saying get someone bigger and better SG - Amen - 6'7" SF - Durant - 6'11" PF - Bari - 6'11" C - Sengun 6'11" Off the bench DFS - 6'7" Tari - 6'7" Reed - 6'2" (hopefully he finds his shot consistenty) Adams - 7'0" Capela - 6'11" We are very tall. DD
Have to disagree with you here regarding positions. Luka and Harden are only considered to be PG's by some because they take on the entirety of the role of a PG. They are the floor general, the whole team flows through them and only them. However in KD's case he's not going to be attacking the rim like a SG getting the defense to collapse. He's playing more like a Carmelo Anthony where his game is primarily based on midrange jumpers and a barely above average number of 3PA for a SG. Further, KD is not going to be hidden on PF's (since he's not a bad defender) whereas guys like Luka and Harden were hidden on whoever they're defending because they are just negatives otherwise. On rim pressure, yes I guess I should have been more specific. What we're lacking is the rim pressure that comes from driving from the perimeter to the rim. The kind of rim pressure you're describing with the second unit and Sengun never really gave us an advantage and our offensive numbers show it. Sengun did worse than Randle against Draymond - fewer assists, fewer points, lower efficiency. I think his current ceiling is higher than that. It's probably why we were pretty bad IIRC at creating corner 3's - there's no reason to leave that player open in this set up. We had the 4x4 or 4x3 advantage against the Warriors and it didn't cause their defense to collapse. It just opened up midrange jumpers for everyone or 3pt shots for Amen. That's not the advantage we're looking for (hopefully). Certainly Durant and Jabari will outshoot Brooks and Green but the defense is still only going to leave our non-shooters open for jumpers. My problem was with the statement that the team doesn't find rim pressure in general to be that important (which I think you're agreeing with here, it is important). I don't think we have that type of elite rim pressure and that's ok. We might do it by committee and through Sengun/Adams as you described, but we're going to have to do it somehow. I think ultimately we are going to get forced to put more shooters on the floor to make drives easier on Amen and Durant in the starting lineup. AFAIC the double big lineup worked against an easy schedule in the regular season and we lost against a lower ranked mediocre opponent in the playoffs.
