They have done way better than I expected. The opening night loss was heart breaking but overall this first half has been a ton of fun. The highlights so far have been Jalen, Amen and Tari, even Bari has improved. Although Sengun has taken leaps and bounds on the defensive end, his regression on offense has a bit disappointing.
I thought our pace has gone down? Plus jabari is out so of course our defense is worse. Even though amen is our best defender, jabari is our most important/irreplaceable one
I also thought we have been playing at a faster pace recently, but... Pace: Overall: 18th (99.26) Last 10 games: 20th (98) -- Defensive rating: Overall: 4th (107.8) Last 10 games: 14th (113.8) Udoka said in his interviews that the defense has been loosening up and needs to improve.
I'm surprised by the mid-season record because the last 2 seasons have been filled with meltdowns. How often would the Rockets burst out to a lead only to be caught or run out of gas in the 4th? But things are different now. I would attribute that to the following: Our rebounding. It's been a strength in the past, but now it's a weapon. More than half of the teams we play struggle to block us out. Even without FVV, our turnovers are down. Our D gives us winning chances every night since we contest shots at every position and eliminate easy transition baskets. Jalen's inspired, consistent play (his D, making 3s, getting to the rim, drawing fouls) Amen's growing confidence. He's our X-factor, whether grabbing a board and creating chaos on the break or shutting down an elite scorer. Sengun's overall play. He must keep adding to his game because he's a unique threat. The standards for big men in Houston are huge--and some people are unrealistic--but he's a winner and a key part of the reason we're winning. Once the Rockets reach a double-digit lead, it is much harder for other teams to claw their way back and steal a win. If Udoka can guide the group on the offensive end and get average NBA-level shooting, we'll keep winning. I wish they could add one more veteran shooter at any position before the trade deadline. I have a hard time thinking that our best move is to add another young player with whatever pick we can get from Phoenix's '25 (#14 with a 4.8% chance at #1). The other place the coaches can make a difference is in our transition game. We still have bad habits where we don't get good spacing on the break. That all seems fixable.
I think Jabari going down when Tari was already out was a breaking point. In other words, it magnified how tough it is to be without both guys. Now that Tari is back in the lineup, they won't miss Jabari nearly as much IMO. Jabari is only "irreplaceable" when either Tari or Amen is also out because both of them defend and rebound better than he does.
Jabari and Tari complement each other. I miss Jabari's rim protection and ability to guard bigs. Perhaps one reason behind our recent slump on defense is Udoka assigning Dillon to guard bigs so much of the time. With Jabari, Dillon can play his natural position on both ends more often. His calling card on defense is his ability to hold his own against strong guards/forwards, but when he has to guard true bigs... For example, I am thinking about Jaren Jackson feasting on Dillon recently.
I think just the increased load has tired Dillon out. He is best on a minutes restriction so he can go all out. If he knows he will play 36 mins he starts pacing himself. Ideally him, Cam and Tari can share the SF minutes and then Jabari and Tari can share PF minutes and Sengun, Adams and Jabari can share center minutes.
Need to go 12-7 to hit 40 before 20 and with tough upcoming schedule gonna be close. That means we're contenders!
Here's the thing... A lot of people have been going with this narrative since Amen became a starter, but it's just not the case. We're 20th in pace this month... January: 20th in pace: 98 November: 7th in pace: 101.4 Our fastest pace was the month of November and it was our least efficient month as a team and the worst month for Jalen Green by far outside that game in Philly. We've had a relatively slow pace for the month of January... We've just been significantly more efficient.
It's already been discussed why pace stats are not reflecting accurate pace on the floor (for all teams not just us). That's a combination of our team, which won't change much. What has changed is our starters are way faster. The backups are probably slower than ever. Both of those will reflect in the pace stats but that's not what we're discussing. What we're discussing is the starting lineup. I do not believe any of those stats to be honest. There were 2 months last season where it was obvious our pace was way up and Udoka believed that too and these stats showed the opposite.
He can pass if he sees the possibility in front of him. The problem is the opportunities on the periphery and behind, he never sees or passes in such cases.
ORtg and DRtg are per/100 stats, which are designed to eliminate Pace as a difference maker. but yeah, I agree, if the game is more opened up, you’d think both teams can get more efficient shots…like the GLeague
I think you are right. Our pace is about the same, but Amen is getting more confident at going coast-to-coast. When he catches a long rebound, you can almost chalk it up that the other team's D won't get reset in time. He's at the rim in a blur. These plays remind me of Drexler and Magic, who used to be able to torture teams by just running guys over on the way to the rim. They lived at the line. Amen isn't quite strong enough with the ball to run the break that way, but it's in his future. Look out if the Rockets ever unlock the break and are more efficient at running as a team. We'll know we have this when the Rockets are working the ball into the corner on the break for uncontested 3s (assuming we can hit boring, uncontested shots) and swinging the ball back to Sengun in the post or at the top of the key. I don't think we should run every play, but there are some boards we can secure and punish teams.
The only guys who get to nitpick are the guys who voted in our preseason wins poll that we would land at 50 wins. We all laughed at them and now look. Rest of us should just be skipping through the prairie happy to be where we are. This team has blown away any and all expectations halfway through the season. It feels sustainable AND scalable. Team is extremely well leveraged moving forward.
All credit should go to Ime Udoka for this historic turnaround. 2 years ago this team won 20 games the entire season. I can’t even imagine our players playing like they are under Silas. Udoka has changed the culture of this team. Even Jalen Green is in the top 25 for efficiency on defense. Once our young players develop consistent shooting this is a contender for the next 10 years.
I think the transition game has improved some. Seems like the team is actively looking to find instant offense on change of possessions since Jabari went down.
