Title Teams can only afford to have 1 Non-Shooter in their Rotation

I am so fkn sick of people declaring that something is the only way to win!

"U have to shoot 30+ 3s to complete in todays NBA..."
"Mid-range shots are ineffective in todays NBA..."
"Defense doesnt matter in todays NBA"
"Oh u have to tank to get a high draft pick to get a superstar..."

Everybody wants to copy the winner, declaring it the only way to succeed - until somebody does something else and is successful."

Well the Knicks arent in the Finals with a roster of high draft picks that they had to tank to acquire...

 

Good. Sengun can easily pivot into the mid post get the small on him and then run something else off that.

He’s a 23 year old going against the largest humans on the planet.

He’s responsible for stopping the other team from all lay ups and dunks.

He’s responsible for any hope of half court advantage creation and flow.

He’s responsible for all ball protection now because he’s the only one on the team that Marcus Smart can’t just walk up to and take the ball from.

Now he’s responsible having Brook Lopez level 3 point shooting % 5 years before Brook Lopez attempted his first 3 when he was 28.

The group thinking on what to be patient with and the traits and skills that improve with time is so ass backwards around here.

 

The roster that they have intentionally built is full of players with a similar skill set, none of which includes shooting. They need to at least diversify the roster, but it feels like Stone and Udoka are willing to die on that hill.

 

Comparing Alex Caruso’s career 3 point percentage after 4 years of college and 9 years in an NBA system to Amen and Alpi’s version of his senior year in college is also somewhat disingenuous

 

Its very different because when there is another non shooter on the court (Sengun) the defense can just hedge/hard show on the PnR while Sengun's defender protects the rim from an Amen roll. Then, Amen's man, can recover to Sengun effectively blowing up the PnR. This has happened many times. You also have the option of just cheating off the "shooters" since they aren't good enough to make it on a hard contest or beat a hard closeout off the dribble.

Beyond Harden's unique skill, the Harden/Capela PnR was lethal because the spacing made it impossible to guard without switching. You over help on Harden and Capela has a dunk because the paint is wide open due to shooters being everywhere else. Or someone comes to help and it's a wide open 3.

While CF is arguing about who to keep amongst Sengun or Amen. The reality is they both need to dramatically improve or we should get rid of them BOTH. They both have deficiencies that make it difficult to keep if they don't make a jump to star players.

I just think Stone/Ime will be fired before we give up on the current "core".

 

Amen has been a professional basketball player for 5 seasons and he still can't shoot the 30% from 3 that Caruso shot in his rookie year. And are we really comparing the 4th pick in his draft to a career bench player who originally went undrafted? The fact that we're even having the conversation proves a point and a sad one at that.

 

I think people on here are too extreme.

Shooting is damn important. Athleticism is damn important. Processing is damn important. Playmaking is damn important.

Boiling it down to one thing is just wrong. That said, it is just easier if a team has a star that the team can lean on for being amazing, 4 guys that can shoot, and 4 guys athletic enough to play defense. Maybe those things aren't exactly perfect, but that is the general goal.

The Rockets' problem (besides not having a star) is having a lot of players with extreme weaknesses such that they have a hard time getting somewhat 4 shooters and 4 somewhat defenders on the floor. I think the Rockets' processing and playmaking talents are being neutered by a lack of shooting. The Rockets with Amen or Sengun or Reed are not going to be easy to build with. This isn't to say they aren't good young players.

Odds are, the Rockets never crack the nut. That said, I don't think it is completely impossible that the Rockets figure out fit with Amen or Sengun or Reed.

 

You gotta understand for them driving with the ball to the rim has been a damn good option for a long time. They’ve gotten good feedback from doing that instead.

There’s an extra element for them and confidence is key. Anyone that tells you for sure that Sengun or Amen will never be able to shoot is just yapping.

 

Amen dare I say might be overrated - only because his lack of shooting is a big deal. He still is gonna be a very good player but if he's serious about realizing his full potential, his shooting has to get to a respectable level

 

Every time I see someone ragging on Amen, I just think "this dude could easily emulate Dennis Rodman PLUS he can finish at the rim!"
but I guess since the Worm wasnt a 3pt shooter, he (nor amen) can thrive in "today's NBA..."

of course, MJ shot below 33% from 3 for his career - so i guess he'd be crap too... in "todays NBA"

Imo its all about molding a gameplan that maximizes the abilities that your players DO have...

Remember when MDA wanted 50+ 3s a game? we shot .357, .362, .356 .345 - while GSW shot .383 .391 .385 .334 (curry played 5 games and klay 0)... we were never going to outshoot them (sans injuries)... instead of trying to outduel them at their strength, we shoulda tried to do something diff... and that year that GSW was crap due to injuries, LA beat our a**es in the paint to knock us out in the 2nd round...

For example, I know rebounding isnt as sexy as raining 3s... but if u get enough 2nd chance points, it can offset mediocre shooting...

Yeh, I know we need some better shooters... but thats not the only criteria - everybody doesnt have to be a sharpshooter... if Tari hadnt gone from the penthouse to the outhouse and if DFS had been worth a damn and Reed hadnt fallen from 39.4 to 29.6...

 

You just described a two on one, Amen going downhill towards Sengun and one defender.
Now describe the defense if you swap Sengun with Giannis.

“Hedge Hard” on the dribbler, allow Amen to slip and leave Giannis to stop Amen is not a defense.You invented it. You can’t do it with Sengun either.

What you meant to say is defenses can play zone..

Look, I’m not defending Sengun. I want him off the team, with Durant, but I don’t know how that will happen. and I don’t want Giannis either. lulz

You’re also focused too much on PNR. Amen did split-action screening moreso than PNR. That’s further makes it hard to help. And again, that’s why teams learned to play a lot of zone against us.

 

Yes, it's a temporary 2on1, that's the whole point of setting the screen. Amen's man shows on the ball handler. The player defending the big will protect the rim giving enough time for Amen's man or the ballhandlers man to recover. It happened quite often against us and we couldn't capitalize. They don't "leave" Giannis/Sengun, they're standing right next to them and by the time Amen slows down to avoid the rim protector in his way another defender is already back in the play. I didn't invent anything it's just man to man defense and i was explaining how it's easier to help with non shooters. The only one essentially zoning in this scenario is the big protecting the rim. Everyone else is in man.

Another thing that happens quite often is Amen's man just switches if it's another perimeter player. That is also the case for many off ball screens.

In addition to that Reed/FVV aren't very explosive so it doesn't take much to cut off their dribble. They're also not great at shooting off the dribble so pulling up right after the screen is not very effective.

It's just not that difficult to defend a team with 2 non shooters and no dribble penetration (even with a healthy FVV).

When the screener is the ONLY non shooter that equation changes substantially because now the paint is wide open on the roll and someone has to step far away from their man to defend it.

I don't understand why anyone would push back on the fact that it's harder to score in the paint with a rim protector there even if he is the primary defender for another player.

 

This team has no point guard, no center, no shooters

 

A slip by Amen is a lot faster than you’re describing. And if help can get there to prevent Giannis and Amen from destroying the lone defender, that means a corner shooter is wide open.

 

Amen's man isn't frozen forever. By this 3rd pass in the play his man will have recovered to Jabari who is forced to either shoot over the defender, pass out again, or attack a hard closeout which he is terrible at.

 

Sengun

 

For the record, I don't conflate Sengun and Amen. A few years from now I expect Sengun will be a PF and shooting league average from 3. He'd look completely different with a real PG and a rim protector. That's why Ime started experimenting with the double-big to begin with and not just for rebounding.

 

On double bigs, I'm not 100% sure why they started it. It works better than it should. I think Ime wanted to play zone with Sengun more. If playing zone, having 2nd big doesn't hurt the defense too much. On offense, the Rockets scored better than they had any right to score with Sengun and Adams on the court.

 

Robert Horry retired 20 years ago.

 

Stone is getting expired blue cheese and is like - can you believe I got such a good deal on this?

...but in all seriousness, this is why the lack of trades and the FA choices appear to point to a larger lack of awareness that while all of these players are quality players on their own - the job of a GM is to build a cohesive roster where the sum is greater than it's parts and Stone really hasn't done that level of team building yet.

Even the KD for Green/Brooks swap was more about giving those inefficient individual shots to a far more efficient individual shooter. While KD's has performed more efficiently than Green or Brooks ever could - the team won about the same number of games and overall appeared to be a worser version of itself. We can blame injuries but also if you are expecting big minutes from FOUR vets in their 30s with recent injury histories(Adams, FVV, KD, DFS) - you aren't really supplementing team needs to build a stronger overall roster that de-risks some of it's major flaws.

Somehow Stone and Udoka want us to believe that a team with no playmakers, precious few good shooters, and lacking elite rim defense is just a few healthy 'past their prime' vets away from being a serious title contender and we know that isn't true because our young and upcoming core was easily handled by a super thin vet Lakers team suffering through injuries of their two best players.