It was pretty bad. However, when Sheppard was starting, he seemed to get a lot of minutes with Durant and Capela, and those lineups killed provided the 4th and 5th players were good. When he's a backup, he gets more mutt lineups, especially without Durant. Mostly, having Reed in the starting lineup means there is one more good player on the bench at the start when Reed starts such that without Sengun, Reed is playing with better players after the first 6 minutes of each half. There is a reason that Adams's and Capela's Net Ratings have been great this year. The Rockets defense is great with them, Reed, and Rockets rotation players. With Sengun, the defense is 10 points worse over a 48 minute basis with Reed over the other two centers. I get some of that is Reed is played when it is harder to target him, but 10 points is huge. With the starting lineup, it is 17-18 points worse. The fit issues the Rockets have had this year have been huge. A lot of that is because of FVV being hurt, and the rarity of finding a 3 and D PG that can slide to SG. Doubt FVV solves the Reed and Sengun conundrum, though. If FVV comes back healthy, I think Ime will surprise a lot of people with how much Reed and FVV play together provided the Sengun thing gets worked out.
Reed was 6th in steals during the regular season, the same as kawhi and more than amen and 9th in 3s totalshooting 39.4 percent from the arc which was even a better percentage from 3 than steph (39.3%, semantics)
The real crime will be during the playoffs. Ime will keep Reed under 20 minutes a game to increase our odds of winning 2 games against OKC instead of just 1. He already red-shirted Reed last year, now he'll give Reed's playoff minutes to journeyman Josh Okogie to accomplish absolutely nothing at all. I have no idea if Reed can become a star, but we all know that Josh will not.
It's clear that Reed plays better with Adams or Capela than with Sengun. Aside from the defensive fit, I think Adams and Capela are in the mode of the traditional rebound-screen-defense type of center which play well with a small shooting PG.
And there's really no excuse for that. Given the roster, the Rockets should be contenders, but when you have one of the worst coaches in basketball, you're ****ed.
Luckily feelings can be fact checked. We are massive favorites in every sports book. So it is your feelings that suck, not the actual team (relative to these Lakers).
Reed could play fine with Sengun if Alpi would do his role properly - he slips the screen almost 100% of the time - and that hurts - if he stood strong and then went it would clear the pass to him - Alpi and Durant don't quite fit either, as they both occupy tehe same space. DD
Can't win with Sengun/Reed/KD playing together. Gotta pick two. This trio are not contenders too many defensive shortcomings from all 3 dudes. And thats with an all world defender covering a lot of **** up. Without Amen this is a .500 team. Essentially it becomes last years Suns with 3 ball dominant players who cant defend.
The entire season disagrees. Without Reed there is no spacing and the offense grinds to a halt. You can't win if you cant score... and it's not like they have any genuinely good defenders to replace Reed with.
If the games are close in the fourth quarter we will lose with Ime's defensive focused lineups that will not be able to put points on the board. Our offense will grind to a halt and will get outscored as we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Ime will Ime.
Issue is they cant defend. The stats kinda show how bad that trio is. But yeah ultimately if one of Reed or Sengun isnt in, the offense looks bad. If they are both in, the defense is hilariously bad (if Durant is also there). There's been a million posts showing the on/off stats showcasing the hilarity that is that trio defensively. KD alone is an atrocity on defense and is a wide open 3 waiting to happen. Prime Red Auerbach isnt making these players work together as a functional defensive unit and all of them are questionable ball handlers at best as well. So again, pick two of them. There's no way Ime is going to play all 3 together much this post season and as bad as he's been this year, any coach would make the same decision because they are crap together defensively. Sengun and Reed will get staggered the most if I had to guess.
The Rockets are 9-1 in their last 10 games and the Lakers two best players are injured, or at least two of the top three including their MVP caliber star. It is a testament to how ugly our team has played that our fans can't even be confident in the matchup.
That's certainly the narrative that 65 IQ Ime would have people believe, but the numbers disagree. A lot of the problem is that Ime is a terrible coach...always has been. He's the guy that had the Celtics running drop coverage on Steph Curry in the playoffs...then blaming his players for Steph torching them. I get that defensive metrics are nowhere near perfect, but neither Sengun or Sheppard are anywhere near the defensive liability according to literally any defensive metric...KD is, but they aren't. On top of that, they show that the guys you'd replace them with are worse. I know, I know, those metrics work for everyone else, but don't count for the Rockets....because narratives. 5 of the 10 most positive lineups the Rockets have thrown on the court have Reed in them. If a coach can't find a way to play 3 of their 4 best players on the entire roster together, the coach needs to go.
