I was specifically referring to getting it past the half court line. Except for everybody running off and leaving the inbound passer that has not been a problem. The fact of the matter is that we are going to have more turnovers without FVV, but we are going to be so more efficient. It is a nit stat. The best PG’s in the league turn the ball over at a pretty good clip. FVV averaged 5 assists a game last year with some of the worst efficiency for a guard in the league. Sengun and Amen are both going to average 7 or more this year. Amen is obviously pressing in his new role. It won’t last long before this offense is in hire gear. We do need either Sheppard to step up or get a better backup guard at the deadline. I do think we should use November and December to give Reed a shot to become a good backup rotation piece and make sure Okogie can handle the starting SG role. It will be interesting to see how patient Ime will be with the rotations. I hope DFS plays well in his return. We need to give Durant more rest during the regular season. Adams isn’t going to hold up either with big minutes. He needs to be averaging between 15-20, not 25. Amen and Jabari should get 35+ a game. All the whining for a team replacing 3 of its starters from last year is really ridiculous. There roles will evolve depending on who steps up or due to injuries. Amen only started half the year and even less on the ball. His development with the ball is key to our future. Calls for him to be in the dunker spot are idiotic. Especially with Jabari emerging as a force.
We also have the 4th best point differential in the league, behind only Spurs, Nuggets and Heat -- none of whom have lost more than once. Our 2 losses have been close and our 2 wins were blowouts. (Also, the two close games were with Adams as a starter.)
the only real bad game we played was against the Pistons. Amen getting in early foul trouble was a huge issue. He ended up with 1 assist. In the other games he has had 7,8, and 5. Boston is a legitimate test. They are playing really good defense.
Amen taking an elbow to the head was also problematic. Didn't really play the same after getting his bell rung like that.
Getting the ball past half court is a low bar for guys bringing the ball up. Most of the pressure before the half court is just to slow the offense down and wear down the person bringing the ball up. I consider making that 1st pass/initial action to be an integral part of being the guy that brings up the ball. Yes, Sengun, Amen, Adams, Tari, and JSJ are better than they were last year. Durant is efficient AF. The Rockets offense was likely going to jump 5 spots just based on Durant being better than Green without counting internal improvement. I don't think FVV would have been that big a factor in the offense, other than Reed would not be playing critical minutes. FVV's assist-to-turnover was among the most efficient in the game. If looking at TS% and Assist to turnover at the same time, one should conclude he was a decently efficient offensive player. His TS% efficiency was trash because he was taking too many hero three attempts because the team had Green instead of Durant. The low assist number (though better than this year's PG) was indicative of him letting others playmake.
My wife started watching games with me this year and so far the Rockets are leading the league in fans she thought ran out of the stands and onto the court by a wide margin. She was convinced Reed was a Rockets streaker and the players were just feeling sorry for him and letting him run with them. Even now that she knows Reed is on the team - she keeps saying things like "I mean look at him out there - they can't be serious with how absurd this is", or "you realize how ridiculous that kid looks right?", and "He looks like a 2k gamer's online created player persona". She has upgraded his status to "scrapper" so there is that but I don't think she is buying the hype yet.
Alpi leads the rockets in Net Rating with 18.7 Amen is second with 13.5 Reed is like -7 Trio of K. Durant - A. Sengun - A. Thompson has 21.9 net rating Trio of K. Durant - A. Sengun - J. Smith Jr. has 17.6 net rating That shows how impactful and effective Amen is considering he was thrown into FVVs shoes
It doesn't. The offense is ugly as ****, it's just also effective. We've done that brand before in a different way, but this time we've got much more reliable defense I think.
I understand we had that double OT game in OKC, but we have 3 players in the top 10 minutes played. It's too much.
Kevin Durant is having the effect the Rockets hoped he would have, and Alperen Sengun has elevated his offensive game, especially from the three-point line. A big key to getting the defense back to last season’s standard is rehabbing from offseason ankle surgery. Dorian Finney-Smith will add another really good point-of-attack defender to go along with Thompson, Eason and Okogie.
Not all on him. We played different sets last year. He also does not turn the ball over and provides calmness to the offense
Not only that, but the Rockets did not have the personnel to have an elite offensive rating last year. Durant and his efficient scoring wasn’t here, nor was Sengun taking and making threes. Plus, Durant’s presence takes a lot of defensive attention away from the other starters because teams go into games trying to take him away as much as they can.
We're obviously not the best offense, just have a look at the offensive rebounding numbers. It's again artificially propping us up. We know how little that ends up mattering in the playoffs when everyone's clawing for rebounds. We'll be better than this in terms of actual offense (TS% and asst/to) but it will take some time. Maybe another 5-10 games. Sengun and Durant will probably be the highest scoring PF/C in the NBA and both can shoot. Udoka doesn't need to bother coaching offense, they're both perfectly capable of getting points for themselves and others.
