The starting lineup has one new player. As I said Durant isn’t some imposing defensive force. DFS is roughly the same size as Brooks. Jock was same height as Capella. So where does this narrative that they are retooling for a bigger team coming from? They already had a team with length and defensive stalwarts
You obviously did not listen to the Dubose podcast or did your homework. Willfully ignorant as always. They said Rockets wanted a longer team to defend and jump passing lanes. They already had that. They merely added one player due to his offense over Green. Adding one player known for offense doesn’t fit the analysis that they want to get longer defensively.
Check out the shooting percentages against KD - they are in the Amen Thompson territory, he is a great on ball defender. DD
im not disputing that. Im disputing the comment that Rockets want to have guys that “defend in space jump passing lanes and be more physical”. What is this based on? Their own assessments or what the organization actually told them? They merely mentioned what they “heard” from the “building”. Rockets were already a long team with eason smith and amen. If that’s their own thoughts great. Just Makes little sense to me in light of how we played and our roster last 2 years. Rather they got durant to simply score better than jalen. Anything else is a bonus
Yes. I think the bottom line is they upgraded Jalen with Durant and I prefer DFS to Dillion, but that’s just my preference because I prefer DFS length on defense more than Dillon’s strength and his tendencies to make dumbass mistakes at the most inopportune times. I also think DFS has better IQ on the offensive side of the ball.
Swapping out your worst player for a 6'11 player with a 7'5 wingspan while making your double center lineups more valid by picking up a legitimate backup C to be 3rd string...... how does that not make a team longer defensively? Are you trolling with this? No one is that dumb. I don't believe you.
no. What i can’t believe is your shitty attitude and continued disrespect. I never value your thoughts or respond to your comments yet you continually respond to mine then pick a fight. Actually I can. This is your shitty personality that you have to live with. If you want an answer go read my response to DD. Likely you wont do the work since that’s not your normal shitty operating procedure.
The obsession with 1-5 positionality is an artifact of a low-data era. 1-5 Positional alignment was seen as a shortcut to optimizing on court play when tools to measure and optimize were pretty crude. It did a pretty good job for a long time! But now that we have tools to optimize more directly on the things that 1-5 positionality was a proxy for, there's just no reason to be attached to the latter. Just do whatever mix of folks is likely to produce the best results, according to whatever equilibrium of data and instinct you prefer.
I don’t understand all this hand wringing over guards, so let’s take this step by step. 1. The Rockets drafted Reed Shepard with the 3rd overall pick last year. He’s young and he showed flashes. We are giving him a chance to earn a bigger role as back up PG this year. That’s what you do with young players you invest in. There is a chance it doesn’t work out, but what you don’t do is sign some vet guard and keep Reed glued to the bench. 2. What happens if it doesn’t work out with Reed? The Rockets have a ton of assets and can easily sign a back up guard as the season progresses. Stone knows this. Stone also understands the risks of giving Reed Shepard a chance to earn the back up guard role. 3. The Rockets also see Amen Thompson as having the potential of being a primary point guard and shot creator. He is also going to be given the opportunity to earn that role. What you don’t do when you have a couple of guys you are giving a chance to earn guard roles? Panic sign some vet SG. 4. If neither Reed Sheppard or Amen show that they can grow into the guard roles the Rockets need, what do we do until we can sign somebody? We have Aaron Holiday as a stop gap. He played well last year. He shot the 3 well last year. People overlook him, but he is completely fine as a back up guard, especially as a stop gap in the regular season. So, do we have a depth problem at guard? Not at all. We are making bets on young guys who we like. Stone knows the risks and has assets to address any problems well before the playoffs if the bets don’t hit. Everyone calm down. Time will tell.
Gotcha, so you have nothing intelligent to say, so instead you just throw a tantrum? Pretty much expected. Carry on then.
coming from you this means nothing. As I said you won’t do the work and too willfully ignorant to understand a simple premise.
I don’t think there is a consensus idea of positions any more among intelligent basketball fans. Even the All-Star and All NBA labels don’t include ‘shooting guard’ or ‘point guard’. Most fans would agree there are such things as ‘point forward’, ‘stretch 5’, ‘wing,’ etc. The old idea of a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 that all were more-or-less the same across teams is long gone. Hell, the Rockets had a big part in killing that idea when they replaced their traditional ‘power forward’ with someone assigned to stand on the perimeter and shoot 3s (Horry for Thorpe). Durant does the things on offense that old-fashioned offenses asked of a ‘shooting guard.’ On defense he will move around depending on the other team’s roster - probably taking the weakest perimeter player. You can label it anything you like, but it is hard to argue that Durant won’t play a similar role to Jalen’s, except infinitely better.
We still lack a player that can create a shot for others and finish at the rim outside of Amen.......would be nice to have someone that can do that, maybe it is Reed.....lots of roster hopes. DD
Would you say FVV can defend SGs or not? I'm pretty sure most Rockets fans believe FVV can indeed defend SGs. But putting him on KD is also very laughable.
I think he is going to be asked to be a finisher - more than a pure PG, someone to shoot it.....more than pass it. We will see. DD
There is no obsession. It's just words that people come up with to describe something. A phone today is no longer the phone of 30 years ago, but people still call it a phone. If you want to tell me tablets and computers these days can also take calls and do all the things a phone can, and therefore they can be considered to be phones, I'd agree with you but I still wouldn't call them phones.
Traditional roles arent long gone. PGs are atill still expected to facilitate for others and make plays, set up the halfcourt offense, and direct traffic on offense. Centers are still expected to defend the paint and rebound. 4s are still counted on for rebounds and interior defense. 2s and 3s shoot, rotate the ball, and dribble drive. The All Star game has nothing to do with actual regular season or playoff games. That format was done to put in the most popular stars the fans want to see and mix up the teams so it’s no longer traditional East West with or strict positions. The game last year also had 8 players per team. It’s a separate format for an exhibition game for fans that has nothing to do with the regular season.
Whatever he is, he’s going to get the minutes at guard everyone wants to give to someone like Tim Hardaway or whoever else.
