Either outscore other team or start better defensive players. The best Rockets 5 man lineup (both offense AND defense) entails replacing EGo and Bari with KJ and Tari.
I’d personally love to see that lineup more. I still have faith in Jabari, but his defensive prowess and potential isn’t what he is currently. He will get there.
Eh…. Not to say I strongly disagree but Smith needs to start. We do need to commit to either Eason or KMJ at SF. Eason and is better at D and has (IMO)more long term star potential. KMJ gives better spacing, finishing and is always a threat as a shot blocker coming to help.
why am I not surprised that the OP's shared tweet owner does not mention the best 5 line-up? bored of these agendas... and why does "Smith need to start", while he's the worst starter in NBA at this (st)age of his youth. all these KPJ SOF JG starting discussions are because nobody wants to open the pandora's box. i am not saying he will be a bust, but giving the keys of the team and the starting point for a 9 PER is too early for a teen.
Bari has shown drastic improvement in last few games. I'm tempted to start Bari and have KPJ come off the bench as 6th man. It couldn't hurt to shake things up and see different rotations.
NBA.com has one https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/a...610612745&dir=D&slug=advanced&sort=NET_RATING Can play around with filters with at least minutes played or game played to make the more meaningful combination to show up. Some of it is context. Bad defensive lineup, is the offensive lineup offsetting in which case the net rating tells more. Other thing is a mix of 1 or 2 starters and the bench; if that lineup is better... likely that's facing opposing team's mix of bench guys too. With more than 15 minutes played; this one had the highest net rating. K. Porter Jr. - J. Green - K. Martin Jr. - A. Sengun - T. Eason This is not me saying don't start Jabari, as we know he had issues at the beginning; but things are turning around for Smith. These data are good keep progress of to see if things improve; but would just be careful on making absolute statements.
Sengun crazy offensive advantage offsets the marginally better defense of Bruno. Garuba at 5 is the much better defender comparatively.
Thanks - looks like we never meaningfully tried Green, KMJ, Tari, Bari, Alpi. I'd love to see that being tried.
https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/a...UP_NAME*E*por&TeamID=1610612745&slug=advanced These are the 5s that has Green-kpj-Gordon together. The first 3 all have Jabari in them and right now Jabari is not giving much on defense or offense, combine this with the defensive weakness of the guards, you have something hard to offset. Depending on who the 5th man is you get better offense or defense but not both. Assuming that Bari should get his minutes, which I agree, he should not be paired with this green-kpj-gordon trio. This trio on offense does not have a strength that comes from playing together collectively and are not good defensively. Replace one(gordon in my opinion) with KMJ and pair Jabari with Alperen for offensive upside. Green-KPJ-KMJ-Jabari-Sengun When Sengun is on the floor, you can further replace KPJ or Green with Tari: Green-Tari-KMJ-Jabari-Sengun or Tari-KPJ-KMJ-Jabari-Sengun With Sengun off: Green-KPJ-KMJ-Jabari-Garuba or Green-KPJ-KMJ-Jabari-Bruno I think the main problem is playing Gordon-KPJ-Green. We simply don't have the bigs to offset their defensive weakness and on offense there is not much upside playing them together.
