It won’t be as good as last year - had a debate about this with someone else. While Green was bad on defense and gone, FVF is out… KD hasn’t been a consistently good defender in 3 years…plus it’s human nature. Still, I expect the defense to get better than what we have seen so far. It will be preached more and will be more of an emphasis than it has been so far. I am overall pleased with Reed to start this season - but a high level bench point guard that can defend some and protect the ball would be nice to play with Sheppard.
Which is why it's a crutch and only used in emergency situations in literally every semi-competitive basketball competition from U12 reps on. It defies belief an NBA coach is relying on it so heavily.... even more mystifying when it's a blatant contributor to two of the three losses so far this season.
Only positive from the game was Reed showing up. . . . But Castle out played him by a mile. Mistake Stone!!
Ime called out the teams toughness multiple times last season. Over the course of 82 games you will have games where the other teams brings it harder. The phrase "effort never takes a night off" is just flat out not true when you are dealing with humans. The good teams are just batter at making sure it happens significantly less often.
I agree, but at least on paper, Fox and Wemby seems lethal. It's up to them to figure that out. DFS may give us more depth/options, but hopefully brings defense and proves his 3 pt. shot from last year isn't temporary. I'm not sure how much he'll move the needle - we'll see. The Pistons and the Spurs both beat us at our own games somewhat in terms of hustle/toughness. That has to change - somehow. And we also need to tighten up our defense. I think a week or two from now we have a few tough games against the likes of Cleveland, Denver, GSW (they seem to always beat us, so just throwing them in there... lol), and we have a game against the Bucks coming up. I think those kinds of games tell us more about us than playing against mediocre teams and pounding our chests. Hopefully we win a few of those.
You might be one of 8 people alive that think that. I'm honestly speechless you can watch the first 8 games of this season and come to that conclusion.
im just happy to see Reed not scared of the moment. he knew this was a big game and he showed he belonged in a big game. it's so tough being a Houston fan. it's a humiliation ritual. fans will jinx a game knowing they from houston and our ass sports history.
Jalen had negative value. Brooks was a nice player but they wanted more length anyway. KD isn’t going to carry the Rockets lots of times. He is old. He can still be a big factor on offense though.
If there is one thing I have zero doubt about it will be Ime Udoka making defensive adjustments. The zone has not been good this season, whether Reed Sheppard is playing or not he has used it a lot. It will improve or he will stop using it as frequently. We are still in the trial and error phase of the season. Try hard teams dont compete for titles, talented teams do.
We got out hustled. We were not the aggressors tonight. I think we should go pick up Bol Bol just for the Wemby matchup. KD turned the ball over too much. Reed was aggressive but he was still the “hole” on defense. Jabari wasn’t cooking tonight. As a team we don’t play well against aggressive defense right now. We have only lost to the good teams and that’s not good at all. Coach needs to play at least 10 guys.
I also wonder whether these poor shooting nights from KD will occur sporadically throughout the season, purely because of Ime's insistence on playing him so many more minutes than he should be played each game.
BUT MOST ALL..... Im disappointed in Jabari Smith! Its like Kevin Johnson PUNKS him everytime they play. Every player has that one player they can't matchup with and I guess Johnson is Jabari's. Ime BENCHED him most if not the whole 4th Qtr
Yeah the Pistons game was just like this, it felt like they just wanted it more. Kind of confusing. I think either way the relevant teams in the west this year are OKC, Denver, Rockets, Lakers, and Warriors. The rest of the teams have no shot at getting out of the west. So definitely more curious to see how we play agianst Denver because I think they are the clear 2nd best team in the west, they improved from last year IMO. Lost MPJ but I never was that high on him, he hits his shots I guess... and Lakers have Luka who can carry a team to the Finals as we've seen and Warriors are a team no one wants to draw in a playoff series. They really do need to figure out their defense though. I don't think we have enough right now, we really need Amen, Jabari, and Reed to really improve if we are expecting to make it to the WCF.
