Are the Rockets better when Reed starts?

I still maintain Reed shouldve been being developed as the pg all along.



Theres no one else on the team with the gravity, ball handling and high level passing ability. Theyve spent a bulk of the season putting the ball in other guys' hands and it hasnt gotten better.

Wouldve had to deal with some bad young player stuff, defensive issues... But I think the ceiling is higher.

That pnr skip pass with him and Sengun got a wide open corner 3 for the best shooter in basketball. We need much more of that kind of stuff.

Reed is only behind KD as a pnr ball handler and hes one of the top guys in gravity in the league. The only player higher than him on Rockets is KD as well. When he's on the floor he should absolutely be handling the ball and making reads to hone those skills.

 

It's not got much to do with Reed as much as who's the PnR partner. Reed can shoot so he can PnR with Adams/Sengun/Capela. Two non-shooters can never run a successful pnr to their true ceiling ability. Sengun is the dominant force in this PnR.

You would get the same good PnR (I'd say a far better one) if you paired Amen with Myles Turner for example. In this PnR, Turner pops out for the 3 and Amens defender is left hopeless to stop his explosion to the rim (and we've pulled the opponent rim protector out of the paint). Unstoppable. Amen is the dominant force here.

This was obvious from the beginning of last season but the team opted to go with 2 different backup C's neither of which can shoot. Giannis can't operate optimally without a stretch 5 but we're criticizing Amen for it.

So now people think it's an Amen thing but it's mostly a team construction issue where Reed has that advantage. That means we made assists much harder and rougher to generate for Amen.

If we add the PnR option to Amens repertoire, paired with his drive and dish game we would all be praising Amen right now for his PG skills.

 

I love Reed, but his D was atrocious against OKC...he gets bailed out by picking up a couple of steals but man, he just needs to do a bit more on D and he'll be good. He is just not putting enough effort in keeping his man infront of him

 

Yes but having Amen/Sengun on the floor together makes everything else moot.

 

but who sits then?

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/t...U&StarterBench=Starters&dir=A&sort=PLUS_MINUS
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/a...U&StarterBench=Starters&dir=A&sort=NET_RATING

 

I'm not arguing between Reed / Jabari.

I am arguing the effectiveness of an offense with two non shooters (Amen & Sengun). The spacing is dead when you have both of them on the floor.
You can only put one of them in the paint and no matter where you put the other, his defender can cheat off of him.

 

Fair, I'm just saying if we can improve the spacing by even 5% right now we're beggars rather than choosers. We should take it.

That's why I've been saying since last season just let them shoot, results be damned. We will inevitably have to go through that either fast or slow. Might as well get it out of the way.

Sengun especially is almost there. Every season he hits a bad stretch and then he totally ditches it. I can see his form is good but he's treating the shot like an afterthought.

I get the feeling Udoka is horrible at understanding the psychology behind shooting. He just doesn't understand the rhythm and ebbs and flows of it. Probably why he never learned to shoot.

 

I'd say you can only put one of them in an action instead of paint.

Spacing, it would be better if the Rockets had more options. DFS, if he was like in LA or his last couple years in Dallas, would have given the Rockets options for small ball or have defenders that can shoot with Reed. DFS has been a flop regarding performance, but Rockets needed a guy that can shoot and defend.

 

So much to unwrap here ....

Didn't replace Jalen and I think we all know I'm not a big fan of Jalen.

Durant 's obviously the better shooter but you didn't replace the ball handling or breaking down the defense off the dribble.
Okogie is a shooter / defender who lacks ball skills.
Amen can't do that in the half court because defenders back off and dare him to shoot. He gets a lot of easy buckets in transition and before the defense is set but the majority of the game is played in the half court.
Someone has to be able to attack defenders one on one.

Durant didn't replace Jalen at all, he replaced Brooks.

They had the chance to do that in free agency and chose to double down on forwards with DFS. Terrible roster construction.


As for moving Amen to the dunkers spot, that just crowds the lane for Alpi and others trying to drive. It doesn't solve the spacing issues caused by Amen shooting so poorly.

I posted this elsewhere over the past few days without much response:

I'm wondering if he can play as a smallball 5 when Alpi is on the bench, making it easier to hide his shooting issues and making it easier to stagger their minutes.

You really can't play two non shooters together and expect to have a good offense in todays NBA. Spacing is just too important with the defensive rules.

 

He offers something different to the starting line up with his shooting and passing. KD is more dangerous when he can just shoot off a pass instead of having to create his own shot all the time.

 

Something is really off with Reed. Yes, he increases our 3PA when he is on the court. He's also hit just 11 of his last 54 three point shots (20.4% of them). Until he starts making threes at a high rate again we can't even think about putting him out there as a starter.

I agree with all of the discussion about how you can't field a great offense with two non-shooters on the court, but this is what we've got to work with right now. I'd stagger Sengun's and Amen's minutes as much as possible. Amen as a small ball five for 15 minutes a game could work in some matchups as @Corrosion suggested (not all of them I don't think).

 

I'm pretty sure part of the reason the Rockets acquired DFS was for DFS to be the small-ball center defensively to allow the Rockets to have Amen out there with 4 shooters.

 

THIS IS why REED, Tari, and KD all need to be starting......and Bari too......Amen to the bench.

DD

 

Yeah at first I said Sengun to the bench but you and others are right. For this team I think Amen to the bench or sub him out really early so they can stagger him and Sengun more. Let Bari or Amen get some small ball 5 mins.

I think Sengun could get moved in the off season though and they prioritize more shooting at the 5 to build around Amen.

 

“I told him, “Be a bench warmer for us.” So he’ll stay on the bench. And when my sexting buddy Fred returns, he won’t play at all. We also want to play 90s ball, with no shooting where we just rebound all our misses. Rebounding, physicality and toughness. That’s our m.o. and I think that’s a good formula for us. So overall, I like where we’re at right now.”



Yup, he definitely following Jalen & Cam out the door.

 

Yeah that was pretty brutal. FVV or bust it seems...

 

Lol imagine someone expecting Ime to make an adjustment to make the team better.

He'd rather lose every game than fix the offense.

 

It’s difficult to give it your all for a piece of **** like this


I wouldn’t move Reed to start over amen either the problem with this is that the coach wouldn’t start Reed if hypothetically he averaged 40ppg, because he has no regard for offense. Idk why he had to respond and belittle his own team


Offense is how you score and win games dumbass

 

There is a legitimate concern of starting Reed. Who will provide firepower from the bench when you have DFS, CC and Okogie on the floor? Definitely not Amen