I agree with a lot of your points but Tari has earned the starter spot and sets the tone, giving the rox the sense of urgency they are lacking. Yeah Tari makes a lot of mistakes but overall you take the bad the with the good. He was +23 shooting 1/5 from 3 lol. Having 2 elite defenders in Amen and Tari on the court gives a synergistic effect, now doesnt matter how teams switch they will be guarded either by Tari, Amen or KD. If you add Sengun and Jabari who are plus defenders the Rox can go back to the defensive level last year.
Would you have believed when we drafted them that Tari would be competing with Bari in 3PT shooting? I don't buy that Tari is naturally erratic. Like Reed, they make stupid choices sometimes because they have a long history of being energy guys off the bench - so guess what, they play like they were trained. They both have bad habits to overcome if they are to be starters. Talk to me after he's started 10 games. I'm sure his rhythm and risk taking will adjust. Just want him to stay healthy, otherwise if the jumper is now above average his in court impact is going to be extremely high. I think Bari is the better player but Tari a better fit with Durant.
Tari gives better spacing than Okogie in the starting lineup...Reed isn't ready to be a starter and not ready to write him off yet as our future starting point guard. Reed could be a 6th man and its nothing wrong for him to own that role.
Tari will always make bonehead plays. Its something that was noted predraft and will still exist today. But then again if he had high bball IQ he would have been gone before we drafted him so IMO just take the bad with the good. What you like about Tari that separates him from Bari is he is very aggressive and proactive with or without the ball. He has that dawg in him and just goes for it every time. KD needs a guy like that because at his age he shouldnt be the only one trying to make plays all the time.
DFS is not better than Tari. The Rockets know how valuable Tari is to the team (They excluded him, sheppard, and Smith from the Durant trade) but played hardball with the contract offer as Stone always does in terms of guaranteed money. Would be interesting to see if they match offers. Likely they will have to eat that similar contract with guaranteed money to keep him.
DFS was a calculated gamble with the uncertainty of Tari, you know Stone he likes his hedges. With that said I think Stone will def match any offer for Tari. Traditionally 3nDs dont get overpaid and Tari is only scoring 13 ppg.
Highly unlikely he gets over 100 million guaranteed with the injury factor considered. The new CBA is making teams think twice about what kind of contracts they're sending out. The guys already been out more games than he's played, and if he goes down again this season, well you can imagine a lot of teams will simply not even make a bid for him.
It’s a habit of mine. When I say "bring the ball up under pressure," I mean handling the ball under pressure.
That is nonsense. Steve Nash, Stephen Curry, tons of very good PGs were not great at D, and he isn't terrible at D, he is learning...... We need a balanced offense, this starting lineup will work until they pressure the ball and we start turning it over. Reed should be 30 mpg....starter or not. DD
I am pleasantly surprised about his big leap on 3pt shooting. But the sample size is still a bit too small. He shot just below league average in his first three seasons. He is shooting 49% this season so far. 49% is definitely not sustainable. But if he can stay at around 38-40% on fairly high volume, that will be very good.
i don’t think DFS is better than Tari either. Like any business it is supply and demand. The Rockets have no interest in the 2nd apron. If somebody wants to break the bank for him, they won’t match. Stone is going to retain his flexibility. If they get the right offer and we are not looking like we are going to be able to compete this year he is gone.
Tari hasn't earned a damn thing. (including a long term guaranteed contract) Let him play and move him in the right deal before the deadiine.
If Tari can continue to hit threes and stay on the court we need to start him and see if he can defend guards without getting in foul trouble. If so, we have a pretty significant backcourt with Amen, Tari, Reed, Okogie. Small forwards KD, Tari, DFS. PF’s Jabari, KD, DFS. Centers Sengun, Adams, Capella. Capella, Tate, Holiday should never see the floor (maybe Holiday if nobody can hit a three on a given night. Amen and Tari starting together masks KD’s defense. He and Jabari would be interchangeable between SF and PF. The double bigs and double shrimps should never see the floor again, of course Ime’s going to Ime. There is plenty of flexibility for Amen to go to CF’s beloved dunker spot on occasion, but the backcourt initiators should revolve around Amen and Reed. Sengun should be sprinkled in at the low block and in PnR around the top of the key. Durant should be spotting up and closing out possessions iso toward the end of the shot clock. A starting lineup of Amen, Tari, Durant, Jabari, Sengun gives you mulitple offensive sets with either Amen or Sengun initiating the offense, according to matchups. If Sengun would start letting the 3 pointers fly we could even play 4 out. If Tari can’t defend guards it’s probably time to start Amen and Reed and see what they can do, although I think our defense would totally suck with Durant and Reed on the floor at the same time. What I am sure of is that DFS is not a guard, so it’s Tari or Okogie at starting SG, maybe depending on matchups or to hell with defense and Amen and Reed as the starting backcourt.
