There’s something to be said for giving the roster time to gel and get better as the players get used to each other. Look at Minnesota this year. Green and Sengun are building chemistry. They’re also very young. Maybe in a year or two they’ll take a leap forward. We’ve quickly gotten spoiled by exceeding expectations and now suddenly everyone wants a contender. It wasn’t that long ago we were Detroit-style bad, the worst of the worst.
To me, letting the current players mature is wise, IF you feels as though you have the right players. I would feel better if Sengun were taller. I know Jabari will feel out, he's 6'10 - 6'11. Tari can be our furniture SF at 6'9, Green our SG at 6'6 and Amen our future PG at 6'7. We either need a really good backup center or a bigger SF, if we're going to keep Sengun at center.
He needs to put the pressure on Landale. He's not fulfilling his contract. It says be a franchise player.
Sengun is going to be bonafide star, probably already is one. Whether he can be the best or only the second-best offensive player on a championship contender remains to be seen, but I'm leaning toward the former. Jabari and Tari are great forwards to have around him. Tari is big for a small forward, and I think he can play that position--I've seen him lock down quick guards on switches. Jabari likewise is tall for a power forward. For me our biggest need is a great floor-spacing perimeter shotmaker/shot creator. A backup center, sure, but that shouldn't be a difficult need to fill, and is kind of interchangeable using the MLE or whatever in future years.
This is the only season of Landale's $32 million dollar 4 year contract that's guaranteed. Landale already has loads of pressure on him to play well.
Landale is a dead Rocket walking. His expiration date here is February 8th. Several teams will want that contract.
These are the 7 guys we need to keep. Add a couple more pieces around them and be patient. 5). Sengun 4). Jabari/Tari 3). Brooks/Tari/Cam 2). Cam 1). FVV/Amen
It is not impatience, I do not think the Rox are as well connected with other teams to do tons of trades either.
Obviously no one reasonable wants to shake up the roster much but we need a backup C. I think that will be our only move, to either acquire or sign a backup C. There's too much internal development possible on this roster for us to mess it up. Amen, Cam, Jalen and Jabari have not had their best stretches yet and we're almost at the halfway point. Arguably Tari could still have his best stretch too. At this moment, all of them are trending upward. Interested in clearing out Landale and Oladipo. That's already like $17m+ and attached to a pick we can definitely get something good. We also have a $4.5m-ish TPE so we can waive one of these guys if there's someone in that range that works for our roster. We won't need Tate later but he can help at so many positions and we can pick up his team option that's super worth it. At this point, I'd rather he's our emergency backup than anyone else. We do not need Bullock, but he's signed for the minimum and again, perfect for emergency depth. If we don't need him nearer the playoff eligible deadline, can waive him no problem. Holiday I think about the same, keep his presence around but it's time to start handing over his minutes to Amen at least for a month or so to see if it's reasonable for Amen to be our backup PG in a playin/playoff series.
We're an elite defensive team, there's no issue whatsoever with Sengun or our SF's size. The defense is so good, several other top coaches this season have noted it. We spent the season between what 17th and 25th offensively and we're in the playoff picture. What do you think is happening? If we do nothing but internally develop our defense (maybe shore up backup C), we will be top 5 or better for Udoka's tenure. You only need to be top 8-10 to win a championship. We're not trying to win the best defensive team of the year award. We're trying to be top 10 offense and top 10 defense - the championship standard. You also left Cam out of our future. This is scientifically false, but even if it were true it wouldn't matter. Jalen would guard the PG and Amen would guard the wing. It's perfectly complimentary. That's one of the reasons we drafted Amen, his positional versatility on defense while remaining a PG on offense. Actually Jalen looked better guarding PG's than SG's last two seasons. Might work very well.
Houston is technically not a young team no more .....middle of the pack 26.5 In comparison Spurs 23.52 OKC 24.12
The core is young I think that's what people mean. We have guys like Jeff Green and Boban pushing up our average, which is fine, the core of this team is sub 24 all of these guys. FVV and Brooks are not the core, just vets to hold a spot and make young guys like Amen and Tari earn their starting spot. I think Dillon would be nice to have as a vet for years to come but FVV is likely a journeyman PG after his stint here.
The Core is not going to sustain IMHO because it does barely cover all the positions......but like with Amen, there is a big question mark if he is a wing or a point guard......or both...players are not going to play each position equally well. The Players' Flaws are really being illuminated these past few games..... Hence Trades are inevitable.....no matter if FVV and Brooks are still here or not.....
I wouldn't mind having those guys either ..... but I do think it would be very cost prohibitive. Caruso in particular could be very expensive as he's the guy multiple contenders are targeting. He's going to fetch a #1 pick and another asset of some sort. I wish they never would have let Olynyk go in the first place but I think some contender lacking a quality 4/5 might offer a #1 for him thinking he gets them over the proverbial hump. None of those players are worth sending out a first round pick and damn sure not the Brooklyn pick which should be at worst a lottery pick. There's 5-6 young big men coming out in the draft that would be a better use of the asset than someone who expires and walks away at seasons end.
Plus the Core really does not stress the importantance of the bench in the regular season.... Good benches win you a large percentage of Regular Season games which you need for Playoff Positioning. Do not underestimate the relevance of 3rd stringers, there is a talent gap between good and bad 3rd stringers as well. OKC is going to get tons of players from their draft picks, making their 3rd stringers the best in the league And then a part of the 3rd stringers turn n upgrade into 2nd stringers and etc.....you get the gist.
i think we'll still want to somehow keep FVV if we can get him on a reasonable contract. he does run the pick and roll nicely with sengun and plays good defense. Will Amen develop his shot soon enough to run pick and roll? i still think FVV will probably get 20 million a year on his next contract.
It is the market, Fred might have just gotten 35 mill or 32 somewhere else this year..... Maybe Fred sees it as lowball but teams have to keep their salaries as low as possible.
well, my point is, i still think we'll try to keep him if at all possible. I'm not so sure Amen thompson will be able to run full-time point in two years. Another option will be to trade jalen green towards the end of his contract or get someone in next years draft. My point is, the FVV sengun pick and roll combo is really important to us. I don't think jalen has the handles to do pick and roll with Sengun. Amen doesn't have the shot. Unless cam whitmore can do it?
He is too small for the Top 3 teams of the league , the Rockets have a shot of keeping him but he has to take a paycut for sure. I do not want Amen to run anything with his handle, I think we get a younger PG and let Amen run secondary actions from the wing...... Amen is just a smarter KPJ without much shooting......it is the same wing player disguised as PG.....situation. Maybe he is even better than KPJ at running things but right now he is very far from being anything but a swingman.
