Yeah i'd agree that Reed looks the better fit, the offense starts to flow and just looks much less clunky when he's in. I still think we need another PG though, even if Reed starts we can't have 1 player alone who can keep things steady, even if it's just somebody who plays 15-20 mins whilst Reed sits who can get the ball to Alpi in his spots to actually create. We just will not be a successful playoff team with 1 PG.
A lot of it is coaching. Why only go with an 8-man rotation on a B2B, especially when Tari is on a severe minutes restriction? Why not have Aaron Holiday play 10-15 minutes? KD wound up out there for 48 minutes which is inexcusable. Why not call a timeout in the final 90 seconds when it became clear after their 2nd or 3rd offensive board that they had no clue what play they wanted to run? Why just keep ISOing KD 40 feet from the basket and allowing him to get double teamed? If Ime had used one of his two remaining timeouts to draw up a play, even if the Rockets don't score, at least the Kings wouldn't get a breakaway dunk off a turnover. Why sub in Tari at the end of OT when he hasn't played in a while and is known for boneheaded mistakes late in games at the defensive end? Obviously the players need to execute at both ends and not have careless turnovers or bricked free throws, but at some point when the same mistakes keep happening, you have to point the finger at the coach.
I'm watching video of the Kings game right now, and what I'm seeing is us getting plain outworked by a hungrier team. Reminds me of our performance against the Pistons and some others. I think we played hungrier last year. More like Brooks. Now our guys play a little more like KD. Not badly, just with more confidence and less intensity. It works if you're KD. But the rest of our guys aren't KD.
They simply can't hedge against all injuries while also trying to developing a young core; the talk is mostly about Reed and how is being developed but Sengun, Amen, Bari, and Tari are still developing too. FVV missing a third of the season is a lot different than FVV missing the entire season.
We do miss him. He brings sanity to the offense when things start to go crazy. Our turnovers this year are frustrating.
Our PG problem is solved… So, I tuned into League Pass to watch the Rio Grande Vipers, and lo and behold, who do I see playing point? Daishen Nix… The legend.
It’s not the coaches missing free throws. Every game we lost would have been won by simply making free throws down the stretch. This has been our omen for years and zero has changed.
Disagreeing with the definition of "guard" or "perimeter ball handler" or "three level playmaker" etc. etc. is fine, sure whatever works. Doesn't change the point at all. No other competitive team plays close to as many minutes with two non-spacers on the floor, and we've played the majority of our minutes with three. No other team is built less for OTD 3's, or has taken so few of them for many years. No other team has so filled the roster with 4's and 5's. We are trying something materially contrary to some typical 2025 NBA principles this year, and that's in pursuit of winning games rather than pure development. I don't understand how this is even a controversial point? Like, I think the FO would say yeah, that's what we're doing and we think it's gonna work. I'm just saying I don't think this particular strategy will. Not that being contrarian is bad. I think it's smart actually, in our situation. IMO, the meaningful conversation is about which modern NBA principles it's smartest to be contrarian on. And before someone chimes in with "But the FO sees KD as a '2' and Amen as a '1' ". Well yeah... that's contrarian.
“The rockets play the tallest / biggest starting lineup in NBA history” those were the headline. Again like you said it’s not in secret they are doing something way on the other side of the bell curve we moved away from moreys philosophy too much
It seems like you are arguing the FO and coaching staff want this team to play with non shooters because they believe that is a winning formula. You keep saying the Rockets are being contrarian while I think they are trying to adapt to the situation more so. I definitely think the Rockets FO and coaching staff wish Amen and Sengun were shooting better.... Who are these three non shooters that play a majority of the minutes you claim? Amen, Sengun, and?
So.... it would be impossible to have both tall and shoot well? Yall are acting like the Rockets are just choosing "offensive rebounds" over "shooting." Pretty sure they want both.... Nice to have Tari back after like 15 games since he is shooting well. Hopefully get DFS and his corner 3 point shooting sooner than later too.
Ok, I don’t get your angle here. You know very well there is a very strong correlation between the 2. Yes I wish we had all Wemby type players but length has historically come at the cost of shooting
Not going to continue this thread too much, I think there's a little intentional obtuseness happening here - happy to be wrong on that, but otherwise it's not my preferred form of online discussion. 1,281 of the Rockets 2,484 competitive minutes have been played with at least three of Amen, Sengun, Adams, Capela, Okogie, and Tate on the floor at the same time. I honestly can't think of another real team that plays any real minutes with a lineup of three guys not respected at the three point line / <=30% career 3FG% shooters together, and we do it more than half the time. Anyway, that's just one data point among many - the point has been made already, Ime and the FO are not dumb, this is a strategic choice. Maybe it'll work. No need to belabor it. Come on.
It is not really the shooting which is not that great either by Alpe and Amen...but the loose ball handling of those so called tall ish players...... Ime lets Alpe, Amen, Durant handle the ball like they are guards......during clutch play.
Likewise..... You are aware the Rockets were hoping for the young core to develop more shooting..... You are aware the Rockets didn't want FVV to be out for the year or have Tari and DFS out for so long? DFS is a career 36% 3 point shooter on 4.3 attempts.... I think your cause and effect is backwards.
And likewise.... your cause and effect is backwards. You seem to be suggesting the Rockets are being contrarian and not wanting a strong shooting team and/or more playmaking when there's is absolutely nothing to suggest this. Tate has played a total of 112 minutes this season and isn't really even in the rotation... Holiday is a shooter and he's played about 3 times as much but you didn't even mention him because it's not convenient.... Their lineup is lacking shooting because FVV is out and Amen/Sengun have not developed their shooting well enough. Tari has been shooting well and he's been out..... DFS is a career 36% 3PT on decent volume.... Our lineup is built to with stand injuries but missing FVV for an entire season is way different than missing him for 1/3 of the season. So yea.... your cause and effect is backwards.
