I'd like to see a true SG on the roster that is not G-League material. That's not much to ask. With that in mind, if we changed Thompson's official position to SG, then we are good to go. (Except for the shooting thing.)
No we do not, we have plenty of playmakers. We have Fred, Amen, and Reed to bring up the ball and make plays. Senhub is another PG. Holiday is still on the roster, he can definitely bring the ball up and dump it to the Senhub if concerned about ballhandling. Once Sengun has the ball at the top of the 3 point line he will make the right call. This whole thing that we need another PG is unnecessary, there won't be time for them to play, not unless Amen and Fred both get injured.
Hard to say what we "NEED" at this stage - replacing Green and Brooks with Kevin Freaking Durant, DFS, and Okogie (and less impactful but welcome back Capela!) is a pretty big change to our roster. It would be FAR smarter to get a good sample of what this team looks like in reality before making any big decisions. DFS looked stiff last year - is he cooked or was that part of his recovery? Is KD's declining ability to get to the rim going to be problematic for us? What does our offense look like with KD as a playmaker? Is Alpi or Amen primed for another leap? I think the only thing we can say with any degree of certainty is that KD will miss at least 20-25 games this season due to conservation/age related recovery and the question that comes to my mind is who are the guys getting points on the board in those games when Green is not around? You don't get to be a top 3 seed letting those games slip away - guys like Alpi, Amen, Jabari, Tari, and even Reed are going to have to step up their aggression and scoring in those moments. I would argue Alpi is the only one who has proven he can score 30+ when the team needs him - but he is going to have to do it more than 6 times all year now that Green isn't around to trade shots against bad defenses. I would feel a bit better if this roster had a Jordan Crawford/Lou Williams/Malik Monk type of spark plug bench scorer with range but I wouldn't file this under "need" at this point - we need our young guys to continue to improve....and to @DrNuegebauer point - given our current roster construction, the only way we get anyone of real impact on this roster at this point is going to come with minuses trading one of our existing players which is a whole other conversation.
I think Amen's performance in game 7 bodes well for someone to take over in crunch time if Durant is out for some reason. His confidence at the end of the year was substantial, even though the first few games of the playoffs he let nerves get to him. I doubt that will be the case this year.
I'm also expecting an Amen breakout season but I'm a bit torn on what that looks like on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively I think he starts to lay the claim to one of the best individual defenders of all time - I think he is THAT good. Offensively I had hoped he would find a way to channel the spirit of guys like Westbrook and Giannis and relentlessly go to the rim and force defenses to adjust opening up Amen's excellent passing acumen but I think Amen's handles were still lagging a bit behind to be a primary creator (although greatly improved) so I'm curious to see how he handles increased usage this year. He's such a smart and capable player I'm not ruling anything out but you certainly want to see him take over for longer periods than a game here and there. I mean we just kicked Green to the curb for only being able to do it for a month at a time and that guy is a born shot taker - Amen has so far proven he is much more a team centric player so how will that change when the team needs him to step up offensively.....and this is not to say he needs to compare to Green as a primary creator - his defensive presence has already guaranteed his future on this team...but it's to say we are still in need of a consistent younger scorer on this roster and if Amen can help do that, it greatly changes the priorities of this team because Durant is a temporary solution at best.
Does this team need another guard - I that's an easy question to answer. You only have 3 true guards on the roster and only one of those is proven, one of them is a career backup and the other a complete unknown. (Okogie is more of a wing). They do have a lot of wing depth and there is a lot of overlap at the 2-3 spots where Amen will likely get a large chunk of the minutes and probably some at the PG spot. FVV isn't getting any younger and you really can't expect that guy to play 36+ a night. There's no telling what Shepard will contribute and even if he breaks out, you probably still need another quality body at the PG spot - the NBA season is a marathon and it's tough to go a whole season with only 3 guards on the roster. If any of the projected rotation misses any time, that just exacerbates the situation - yeah, they need another ball handler on the bench. Someone who can actually run the offense should FVV miss a few games. Problem is they don't have enough to sign a player to a veteran minimum under the 1A. They have to play 37 games before they can sign a player to a minimum for the rest of the season. (and that's assuming they don't spend any of that on 10 day contracts or other stop game measures). I think ideally, you'd like to sign Melton but it's likely that even with his injury, he'd prefer to be on someone's roster for the full season just to cash checks instead of waiting for the Rockets until mid January.
We need a true 2 guard off of the bench IMO, and I do feel that’s an hole and our biggest flaw on the team. After KD it’s a bit off a drop off for us in terms of perimeter scorers, unless one of Amen of Reed really steps it up this year. Even then it’s still a hole at the backup 2, I was hoping we could get someone like a Malik Beasley but he got in trouble early with the gambling situation and we don’t have the money or the spot for him.
I don't think the team has had a true 2 guard since Kevin Martin..... and those weren't very good teams.
On needs, I doubt a 4th PG (or 5th if one considers Amen a PG) will be the difference maker between winning a playoff series or not. I think Amen will be an upgrade over Jalen Green, though someone may argue semantics that Durant is the Green replacement (either way, big improvement). I think Okogie will be an upgrade over Nate. If the Rockets have a weakness other than at having a Top 5 player (or lack thereof), it might be that the guys who will play the 3 and 4 are better at being 4s.
You don't think they could use some insurance in case FVV misses games or Shepard doesn't perform? What's behind them at the PG spot is Holiday and nothing and Holiday is pretty much nothing as a point guard, he can't really run the offense. He's more of a small 2. It's really not about "making a difference in a playoff series" - 82 games is a long season. I do agree most of the dudes expected to play the 3 spot (other than Amen, and he's going to play 1-2-3 & 4) are probably better suited to the 4 spot, Durant, Tari, Jabari and even Tate. What sucks is, whatever position you might want to add, they don't have the space under the 1A to do anything before mid January, unless it's a 10 day which would eat into that space, pushing the date back further.
Given that the Rockets purposely let go of 2 players who can play guard (Jalen and Brooks) and replaced them with forwards/center (KD/DFS/Capela), they better not need more guards or they have really messed up their offseason. Cause right now their proximity to the hard cap makes it really hard to pivot if they need to add a playoff-rotation caliber guard at the deadline.
Apparently Pat Bev was almost signed here but because of the 1st apron, they chose not to pick him up. So the front office clearly knows we could use another guard. I still have a lot of doubts about Reed. I subscribe to his socials and unlike Amen and Sengun who are always working in the off-season, Reed seems to be rarely working on his game in the off-season. I just don't know if he has what it takes to be good player. He has talent for sure, but he hasn't shown to have the work ethic like our other young guys.
