No offense but F#@& the Magic, they have been poorly managed since Shaq & Penny left the building. As for the Rockets, I expect more from this franchise - Every owner since 1977 has a winning record. The lowest winning percentage by a GM over the last 32 years is Carroll Dawson at .530. Morey would be second on that list with his .615 behind Bob Weinhauer at .622 - but most of that credit should go to Ray (& Steve) Patterson - without Hakeem none of that happens. The last coach to win less than .500 during his tenure was Del Harris who walked outa the Summit back in 1983 and even he was close at .430. As a franchise they've had a .573 winning percentage since Bill Fitch took over for Harris to start 1984, until Silas. (Fitch won 29 games that first year) Stone & Silas are the first failures we've had since the 29 win season that landed us Hakeem. I've been patient, even supported the tank, but I've had enough of the losing and crappy play. Three years is more than enough to put a competent product on the court. I was looking forward to a competitive team, not another year of watching tankathon and praying to the ping pong ball lottery gods for mercy.
Detroit beat Hornets and Bulls. Rox don't have that luxury lol they face Lakers next. Edit: I'm wrong I guess we face Hornets next? Pretty sure that's a win now lol.
On the positive side, we’ve looked good the last two games. Not sure wth happened in Orlando so we’ll throw that one out. We’re in these last two games. We’re close to our first W
Sadly this is what I am paying more attention to with each day, is the Nets situation. One thing I learned is that even if you want to try not to be an awful team and are incentivized not to be dead last, it is still difficult to win in the NBA without elite management. When the Harden trade w Nets happened and their initial big 3 fell apart, I did not have much hope as I figured the Nets would just add random high dollar free agents and be a mediocre team at worst. I now see that even if you add guys like we did in FVV and DB you can still end up being dead last. This gives me hope for the 2024 and 2026 Nets picks.
Yes, the Rockets lost by 11 today, but three other young teams - Spurs, OKC, and Portland - got blown out by about thirty points in their respective games. This must be what schadenfreude feels like. I'll take it.
The net rating of the starting lineup OP mentioned is still sustaining after 3 games. That’s actually crazy considering Jalen is shooting 40%fg 25%3pt, jabari is shooting 38%fg 22%3pt, and Fvv has only been good 1/3 games. Really shows just how dominant Sengun has been. Ok Dillon is probably not going to keep shooting 50% from 3, but the regression back up for those other 3 starters easily eclipses Dillons eventual regression down. If you want silver linings, once Jalen and Jabari gets used to this new system and become better, the starting lineup has a chance to be damn near dominant (+12 net rating is already really good). Also 99 def rating tells you Sengun is not a problem on defense.
I am super positive in the long run and can't believe the negativity in the forum, saying nothing has changed. It's a whole different world compared to last year. - the starting 5 consistently logs positive ratings. It definitely looks sustainable, none of them is playing out of their usual. You could even argue they will get better. - The team plays much more in control. Does not rush things. Turnovers are down about 10%. - More importantly turnovers that lead to immediate transition points are down much more(eye-test, no actual data). Opponent's transition points are down to 18.3 (middle of the pack in ranking) from 20.6 pts (league worst). I think they will improve further there. I still see a lot of laziness from Bari, Sengun, Green there. They still don't know what to do automatically, they need to think and if you think you already lost it. - Ime is good. And I don't know how much more I can stress this. The change in this team in such a short time (certainly fvv and brooks help a lot) is unbelievable. He is certainly trying to build a team, not to win games right away. I strongly believe this is the right approach. You might ask, why are we losing games then? - Tari is missing - We don't have a back up guard. Back up playmaking goes between green and amen mostly, and maybe a little bit of tate, but i am a strong proponent of tate handling the ball. - Our second unit is not set yet. Although our first unit is set, Ime is experimenting with the second units. And they typically suck. This should get better with Tari and more stability. I am perfectly okay with using amen at pg, although a vet pg could get us more wins. With Green less so, but still okay. The only question I have is why doesn't cam get any minutes? He could contribute in the second unit. But I have unconditional trust in Ime right now, and I am okay with waiting on that.
Yes, I've been following this from the first game. And will keep track a lot stats as we go by. And as I mentioned above, we don't have a structured second unit yet. Tari is out, back-up center is out, back-up pg is 19 year old rookie are other factors hurting the second unit. That's why I don't track the numbers for a second unit yet.
Don't know much about realistic positivity. Don't know much about Biology. Don't know much about rookie team playbooks. Don't know much about the shots they took. But, I do know that I love basketball. And, I know that if you love basketball too What a wonderful world this would be.
Lol I don't think you can attribute impact of someone like Green just by looking at the raw shooting splits. He's the one that defenses load up on the most. https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4865/onoff#tab-team_efficiency https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4879/onoff#tab-team_efficiency So far Green has had a more positive impact on the offense according to Cleaning the glass Alperan I think has been the best offensive player so far but you really want to force the issue that he's the only reason which is absurd.
I'm not sure what people were expecting but building anything solid starts with a solid foundation. Coach Udoka started building that foundation in training camp (really before that when going to visit players during their summer workouts). Instilling a new offensive and defensive system takes time. Tearing down bad habits and building new ones takes time. Our defense being ahead of our offense is to be expected as a lot of defense is effort, with understanding the schemes coming second. Coach Udoka's emphasis on team ball is evident as players (especially the younger ones) are passing on shots they would normally take to get their teammates involved. The offense is generating good looks for the most part, now we just need players to get acclimated and not be too unselfish. Once everyone gets comfortable the offense will come around. I for one trust the process and will enjoy it even more when the systems being instilled start translating to wins.
I'm on the Dynasty train and far from being a negative nelly, but why the BELL is Roosh only using 24 teams to make his point versus the 30 NBA teams that are actually in the league? It comes across as plain jibberish and pushing a narrative... LOL ... Why not 23 teams with who's starters average 23 minutes? Go Rockets!!! ....... ....... .......
Save for the embarrassing last 20 minutes of the Orlando game, I don't think the team has looked bad at all this season. The overall defensive effort and focus is miles better than the last few seasons. They failed to finish a winnable game against SA and last night they just ran into one of Curry's crazy hot spells. It's been said a ton, but Green and Smith have to be better on offense. This team was built with the expectation that a few of the young players would grow into their offensive impact roles by years end. Still a lot of season for that to happen, but Smith being bad on offense, and Green being just a decent scorer has to improve if the team is going to truly start heading in the right direction. Green in particular being further along in his development needs to start showing he's a top flight scorer.
@CXbby Offensive rating is about the same as last year. Turnovers 10% down must be the biggest factor behind the offense. I think Sengun is not particularly more dominant but used more and as a relatively effective option in offense and the standard double team drawer, that is the smart thing to do. His efficiency is down because he is trying new things, taking mid-ranges and 3-points. But the overall offense is not effected negatively by this because he is definitely generating more offense compared to last year. Fully agree with he is not the problem in defense.
