Since 2022-2023 FVV and JG are first and second in the league for...

That is what happens when your perimeter players are shooting so poorly and do not create in the lane. The Rockets starting backcourt is shooting 30% on 16 3's a game and only 45% on 2-point attempts. That is absolutely brutal and tells teams they can pack the paint at will. The Rockets lack a single perimeter player getting minutes that is above average at shooting 3's. Jabari and Brooks are as close as it comes.

Considering that Sengun isn't shooting well from 3 himself, and the lack of viable creators around him - it isn't a surprise that he isn't doing as well as expected.

Maybe? No way to tell though because the Rockets are a horrendous offensive team on the perimeter. Green and FVV have been very bad offensively - and the Rockets are getting and missing wide open perimeter shots.

The offense is creating open shots - and they are not being made. That leads me to believe that it is more of a personnel issue on offense. I don't have a problem with the Rockets making offensive changes but I do not expect it to make a big difference.

As for Green - he is a huge part of the problem. FVV is limited athletically but needs to hit open shots. Green has been a disaster to this point. It isn't even the midway point, but he needs to be the engine that runs the offense and he hasn't been.

When a team has 40% of their roster unable to hit open shots at an average rate - especially on the perimeter, the team is going to be easy to defend. If FVV and Green were shooting 37-38% from 3, the lane would be WIDE open.... but at 30%, teams don't even have to guard them.

 

Sengun isn't having a good year - some of it is that he hasn't extended his range to 3 and some of it is that the backcourt has been a joke offensively. There is no reason for teams to worry about spacing with Green and FVV shooting 30% from 3 on 16 attempts a game.

The Rockets need a perimeter player that is a very good offensive player to open up the offense and improve spacing. The Rockets cannot have a backcourt that is shooting so poorly from the perimeter.

 

Spacing is dependent on perception the defensive team has of the players.

Sure for Green in a pnr situation, teams are either going to play drop coverage or blitz hard while completely ignoring one of our poor shooting bigs like Sengun or Adams.


Just don't understand how you can so easily blame the guards and not the inefficient center who doesn't draw any defensive attention once he's outside the paint and causes paint clogging issues.

Do you see our dho and pnr actions and how little defenders care about defending the screener or dho hand off player?

The only guys with somewhat decent efficiency on this team are the guys who don't score against point of attack defenses like Amen and Jabari. Any player on this team which there are three(Green, Sengun, FVV) that have to routinely score against POA set defenses have horrible efficiency on this team.

 

Sengun deserves some blame, but his spacing is going to be dreadful when the perimeter players are so inefficient from outside.

At the end of the day - hitting outside shots is what opens everything up and until the Rockets shoot better as a team from the perimeter, they are going to struggle offensively. Right now teams can give huge cushions to FVV and Green on the perimeter and actually want them to shoot.

It starts to magnify as well - Green is not doing better driving to the basket and scoring and creating, because teams can pack the lane and keep him from getting good shots at the basket. If FVV were shooting 40% on 3's, then Green would have more of a lane to move in - if Green were shooting 40% from 3, then teams would be sticking to him like white on rice on the perimeter - but neither is happening so everything is bottle necking.

Green also - at times feel the pressure of not scoring or creating as much - so he will sometimes take poor shots, which just magnifies the problem.

Short of the Rockets shooting better from the perimeter, I don't really see a lot of improvement offensively - the Rockets can try to do certain things to increase fastbreak points for example, but teams usually slow that down in the playoffs.

FVV will get more of a pass from a lot of fans because he is a better defender, and he was never expected to create offense - but he is a big part of the problem. At some point the Rockets perimeter players will have to start shooting better OR a trade or trades will be made to break up FVV and Green.

 

Spacing is going to be more dreadful when a high usage offensive big man has the same scoring efficiency as the alleged shot chucking scoring guard.

If Sengun wasn't a center that demands such high usage on offense his poor efficiency would not be that much of a factor but we use him almost every half court set in some dho or pnr action and that is where a lot of the spacing issues arise from.

 

@RB713

 

Sengun isn't as big a problem as the Rockets backcourt.

The Rockets backcourt is dreadful offensively.

The spacing problems start with having a backcourt shooting 30% from 3 on 15-16 attempts a game.

That is the biggest issue for the Rockets offensively.

 

Sengun is a big problem now. The offensive center who is supposed to be significantly more efficient than a scoring guard has the same scoring efficiency as our young struggling scoring guard. That is a bigger problem right now than Green.

Again, spacing has nothing to do with percentages. They have to do with defensive team's perception of a player. If they see Sengun still hesitating on open shots, they are someone lacking confidence in the shot and see no reason to close out at all.

People understand that Green and Fred have no fear hosting up threes and are very capable of getting hot where it can end a game. That fear doesn't exist with Sengun.

The main thing Green's inconsistent shooting results in is more drop coverage in pnr possessions because they fear his rim attack more but that doesn't really effect Sengun's offensive game. Look at almost any pnr possession where Sengun is the screener and doesn't immediately start rolling to the rim. The opposing team just pretends Sengun doesn't exist when he isn't rolling to the rim.

 

Very good analysis. I might add that FVV should also focus more on setting up his teammates in the offense rather than taking so many shots. His main responsibility is to run the offense and distribute the ball. Instead, he chucks up so many shots for himself.

 

We will just have to agree to disagree.

The lack of efficient perimeter shooting from the backcourt is the Rockets biggest problem.

At this point I don't see teams at all concerned about Green or FVV shooting 3's.

 

From watching the games, teams are still concerned with FVV and Green's threes. Again, percentages aren't what dictate spacing. Defensive tema perceptions do. Do opposing teams understand that Green and FVV have a chance of breaking the game wide open from a hot streak in a quarter? Yes. Do they fear that with Sengun? No

The only aspect of Green's inconsistent shooting effecting defensive coverage is really the drop coverage on pnr possessions. Teams still close out aggressively towards Green.

Also notice something about opposing defense tendencies especially in the second half and how often they purposely try to deny Green from being the ball handler like inbound passes right after a opposing team scores see which player the opposing team is most concerned with denying the pass to being the ball up. Its very often Green.

Look at how often opposing teams try to deny Green possession of the ball in dho hand offs to where another player like Eason or Amen gets the hand off pass as the second or third option because opposing teams aren't trying to deny hand offs as much with those guys.

 

I could not disagree more with this sentiment. There's a reason why every single offensive cumulative stat favors Sengun over Green—the big difference between these guys is that Sengun can impact the offensive side of the ball even when he's not hitting shots.

Sengun's AST% is at an all-time high, and his TO% is at an all-time low, contributing to a better than 2-1 assist-turnover ratio. I love Jalen when his shot is falling. When it's not, he completely disappears on offense for huge chunks of the time and has zero impact on that side of the ball. And he's not a competent playmaker—his AST% is an all-time low and his TO% is an all-time high—he's literally turning the ball over more than he's assisting his teammates right now. So much of the Rockets' offense runs through Sengun for a reason, but I sometime forget Jalen's even on the floor.

And on top of that, Sengun also has a huge impact on the offensive glass. He's fifth in the league in offensive rebounds, and he's grabbing more than four per game right now. And despite your criticisms of his scoring efficiency, he's still more efficient than Green, and I have actual optimism that he can be efficient, because we've seen it. If Green ever has an efficient scoring season, it will be the first time.

I'm not trying to feed into the Sengun vs. Green debate, because it's completely absurd, but it's hard to stay quiet when I see takes like this.

 

Really thought the shooting would improve with the new practice facility.

 

You want to use impact numbers then you have to acknowledge that last season Green was more impactful on offense than Sengun using a Cleaning The Glass on/off impact.

Sengun is absolutely a better player than Green. He is less turnover prone and passed out of pressured defenses better.

But he's a bigger problem now because this offense is Senhub not Green spam dribbling. That was the offense for the first five games of the season but since then Green has been significantly reduced in his on ball reps as a primary ball handler which is going to effect his assist numbers. He's at his lowest assist number average since his rookie year and that is a product of the offensive scheme rather than Green regressing.

Green is a smaller part of the offense than Sengun and Green is a scoring guard who is supposed to have a worse scoring efficiency than a scoring big. The fact that Sengun has the same scoring efficiency as Green is a bigger indictment of Sengun.

 

Ime needs to have a competition let Cam and Reed compete...

DD

 

I'm also sure replacing Sengun withba stretch four would help Green's and FVV numbers.

I'm quite confident whoever would be replaced here would drop their efficiency also from what they were before traded here if they replaced Green or Fred because the offensive spacing and system is just horrendous. If Devin Booker the previous season was scoring at like a 62% ts on the Suns he probably would be around 56% ts on this team especially when you consider Ime's philosophy that just because you are a high sugar offensive player doesn't mean you take defensive possessions off which means Booker would have more tired legs on the offensive end in a worse spaced offensive system

One of the most blatant hypocritical aspects going on the GARM now is people absolutely yelling at people previously who were merely providing context to Green's scoring efficiency and yelling "GOFs have no personal responsibility placed on Green. It's all everyone else's fault!" are now defending Alperan Sengun, a big man, having the same scoring efficiency as our supposed chucking scoring guard.

 

green for bogdanovich.

 

Are the Rockets a contender? Of course not… They lack shooting but even more glaring is the lack of a closer. That alpha player that can get buckets consistently….


That said, a lot of fans on this board are being ridiculous. Rockets have a good team that will win a lot of games this season.

They also have a solid core of young talent and assets that can be used to acquire what is missing.

So chill and enjoy how far the team has come.
3rd in the west a quarter into the season is not too shabby for a team that wasn’t expected to contend this season.

 

I’m ready to move on from Green. It sucks Rockets gave him that contract. He can’t be traded this season, if I’m not mistaken….