Its an adjustment for Rockets fans who have grown accustomed to one or two guys doing most of the work. A bit like the late 80's Pistons teams? Rodman = Brooks? Thomas = FVV? Dumars = Green?
My biggest surprise is Boban leads the team at 100% TS%. I expected him to hover around 80% or so. Udoka should play him more.
It was not Sengun he called out, listen to whom Udoka was criticizing after the game to figure it out.
I haven't been all that high (or terribly low either) on Sengun but damn, he's been impressive defensively, is hitting the 3 ball at a respectable clip and doing his normal thing in the paint. To clarify, I was thinking he was closer to average than the fantastic he's been .... If Jalen or Jabari can make the same kinda improvement, that'll go a long way towards the ultimate goal.. FVV, Tate, Sengun and Landale (in that order) all in the top 50 league wide in assist to turnover ratio. Not Rockets related but interesting - Anthony Black is in the top 10 in assist to turnover ratio, has an Efg rate of 91.7% and a TS% of 88.0% (shooting numbers are a small sample size). I know a lot of us liked him in the draft ....
I think our standards are generally low when it comes to bench players. In the 90s bench players just had to try hard and be energy guys who could kinda shoot every now and then. Now the league is so deep that you have really skilled players that can pass dribble and shoot along with hustle and energy off the bench. Those pure energy guys won't cut it anymore.
I wanted Black to be in Houston. I like taller backcourt players such as Magic, Josh Giddey even when Hedo Turkoglu played at that position when he was in Kings/Magic. Giddey towered Draymond Green at Thunder-warriors game. Anthony Black is going to have a long NBA career. Good luck to him.
You have a good eye for talent, Ankara breh.....Bleck is a very good defender already. A good teenager. Blocking shots, deflections, facilitation. Can hit the Corner trey.
After a lifetime of fandom through the highest highs and the lowest lows, being in my forties and not knowing the name of a single Rockets player or staff member is pretty surprising.
Black is good - was hoping Houston could grab him too BUT I think you overrate his offensive skills - he's largely a minus there. Not a reliable shooter, not able to create space for himself, and too slow to force help defenders to commit negating the good things he can bring with his passing skills. He is going to have to work on better skills with the ball to unlock some of the gifts he has as a facilitator because he wasn't born with the type of athleticism that guys like Amen have to help unlock those passing gifts even without the specialized skills. I'm sure he will get much better but I think he is more of a project than people realize....BUT totally agree that defensively he is a handful right now.
See my post from the previous page - it's possible we aren't the 80s Pistons teams but rather the early 2000s Pistons team. Jalen = Rip Hamilton - a chucker at times but you always have to know where he is and thus scheme for him FVV = Chauncy - steady vet Jabari = Tayshaun - long switchable 3 and d guy Brooks = Ben Wallace - all NBA heart of the defense Sengun = a nicer version of Rasheed who was one of the smartest craftiest players of all time ...none of them were MVP candidates and they didn't have as many perennial all star game appearances as you would think but they were the 2nd best team in the East for 6-8 years and would likely have more titles if Lebron hadn't taken his talents to South Beach to form a super team. You could argue they WERE the reason Lebron felt it necessary to form a super team because they made it very difficult for Lebron to win in his first stint in Cleveland.
The biggest positive is that this team is actually watchable for the first time in 3 seasons. Other than Orlando, they have competed in every game and there is structure in place with Udoka and the vets.
If Ben Simmons could not pass, that is the closest to Ben Wallace in modern day I can think of (and Simmons is nowhere near Wallace on Defense)
Not much has surprised me other than how quickly Amen fixed multiple issues with his shooting form (still a ways to go) and how quickly people are willing to give up on a 20 year old 6'11" player who still projects to be a switch defender, shoot over the top of most players, stretch the floor player.
biggest surprise so far is the uncertainty about Sengun's height . . . he's either under 7 foot or over 7 foot, but no one seems to know for sure.
