“Amen is the one bright spot” … then you mention Sengun, who is on pace the be All NBA this season. Not to mention Bari would start for the vast majority of teams in the league, Reed is shooting .44 from 3 on 6 attempts per game, Tari is absolutely a player every team would want, AND we’ll likely have two high draft picks in 2027. Your schtick is getting old.
Locked On Rockets made a good point - the zone defense we implemented with the double big lineup put a ton of pressure on Amen to lock down the perimeter, which took its toll on him. Having another perimeter defender in Okogie (and eventually DFS) allows us to play man and alleviates a ton of pressure on Amen, allowing him to get in a better offensive groove.
I think Nook is underrating the Rockets core. It is also a reasonable take that the Spurs are going to be really good as well. I don’t think the rest of their core outside of Wemby stacks up that great to the Rockets, but Wemby is absolutely a GOAT candidate with long-term health. I just doubt that is in the cards for him. Depending on Atlanta they have pretty good draft assets, but not as good as ours. The Spurs will go as far as Wemby takes them. Not sold on Harper yet and I think Castle is a long term bench player.
I don’t mind that aspect of his post. I think it’s a fair take. What isn’t fair is to say that Amen was the “one bright spot” from the rebuild. That’s an absurd take - Bari, Reed, and Tari are fantastic “bright spots” who would fetch a ton in a trade, and Sengun is a budding franchise player now that he has seemingly developed an outside shot. Also, saying we’d be “SOL” without Amen and Sengun is ridiculous. Well, duh. The Spurs would be SOL without Wemby and Castle, OKC without Chet and JDub, the Magic without Paolo and Franz, etc. I think OKC, the Spurs, and the Rockets have the best young core (including future draft capital) in the West by a mile. How you rank them is interesting. OKC has the best top three but is about to be crushed by the second apron, not to mention their future draft capital is somewhat overrated. The Spurs have the best prospect, but their upside is entirely dependent on Wemby’s health. We arguably have the best balance of cap flexibility, trade optionality, depth, and solid future draft capital.
I meant to say as a high lottery pick from the rebuild. The Rockets had the #2 pick, #3 pick, #4 pick and the #3 pick again and out of that group only Amen has shown a real upside. It is very fair game to question the outcome from the top of the draft. Yes, Sengun is very good as well. He has a shot at being all NBA. He is hard to build a roster around, but he is also very good in a number of ways. I don't think Jabari Smith, Tari Eason or Reed Sheppard would get a King's ransom in trade. Role players....... My "schtick is getting old"?
OKC has already won a title with their rebuild - and they are well positioned going forward as well. The SPURS IMO clearly have the second best situation going forward - they have it all. Their biggest red flag is the injury potential of Wemby.
Mine is a much better analogy as SS's can typically play other defensive positions like Amen. If Amen played baseball, he would be a SS. C and DH analogy is the worst positional flexibility out there which does not fit Amen at all. The only reason you like it is that only one catcher can be in the game at one time without severely losing value while Correa and Pena showed two SSs can play at a time even if rest of the team sucked. I don't want the Rockets to be too heliocentric. I would prefer the Rockets have another ballhandler out there with Sengun, Amen, and Durant. I still hope Reed can take that role at some point this year.
OKC is the best right now because they have top-end stars and lots and lots of role players. Spurs to me have one MVP candidate, and lots of role players, with Harper possibly becoming a star too. I much prefer the Rockets roster 2-15 (or 14) and draft capital going forward. I'd probably pick the Spurs long term with Wemby, but have the Rockets as a close third. Next couple of seasons, I still favor the Rockets.
Comparing us to OKC isn’t really fair considering they started their rebuild two years before us with a prospect that’s four to five years older than any of ours. How will Amen and Sengun look at 26/27? Shai didn’t really come into his own until 24 - Amen is 22 and Sengun is 23. And, again, the second apron is going to hit them hard next season. Regarding the Spurs, we’ll see. Their future draft capital is meh and they are incredibly guard heavy. Basically they are building their team around Wemby, which makes perfect sense, but I wouldn’t say they have it “all.” Without Wemby, they are likely a lottery team. We’d still win a ton of games if Amen or Sengun was out for a while.
I definitely think it would be stupid to even entertain the notion of trading Amen.... but I also am not sure about his defense being very good if they keep making him pretend to be a PG. I've seen him get straight up cooked a ton of times already this season.... something that didn't happen when he was in his natural role and position. I think the energy he wastes pretending to be a PG hurts his defense and scoring efficiency. These a real chance we'll have to pick between a superstar wing or a wing pretending to be a mediocre PG.
Whether fair or not, OKC looks to be good for the next few years, overlapping with a significant portion of the time period when the Rockets should also be good.
Sure, but again, I think this is the last time they will be able to be truly deep. They are projected to be 23.5m mil over the second apron next year. They are going to have to do some serious salary slashing.
I thought he looked much better last night, primarily because we started a 3&D guard next to him. I think Amen isn’t a great fit as a PG in the two big lineup as it destroys spacing for him and puts too much pressure on him to patrol the perimeter in zone. It doesn’t help that Amen still can’t shoot 3s, worsening the spacing problem. However, using Amen as combo guard with a 3&D guard next to him? That seems to be far more effective, both on offense and defense.
They unfortunately can just trade someone like Dort or Caruso along with a deep bench guy to get their payroll in order. Alternatively, they could just trade away Hartenstein and be done.
He was definitely better than he was in the first two, the one guard lineup with Okogie is much better than the no guard lineup they went with in there first two but his defense still wasn't what we'd expect from him... and on offense his best moments came cutting off ball. I just think to optimize his performance, he should be off ball most of the time.
The 2 picks the rockets have next year are for teams that are currently a combined 1-7. Probably 2 more top 10 picks. Will be interesting to see what happens with that.
