...and the offense has been through the roof great. This generally happens when a team plays small. Amen has been on a guard (i.e., the primary perimeter playmaking threat) often with the starters and this forces Green and Brooks both on bigger players typically (basically doubling the effects of going small). While Brooks hasn't been playing well, playing Jabari instead of Brooks likely does not fix Green having trouble on bigger players. Having Jabari would likely help as team is not closing out well right now. Last game, it looked like Udoka was going to have Amen stay guarding forwards to keep Green off of the Cavs bigger players. That lasted 1 minute and 26 seconds with Mitchell scoring 8 points. As dirty as putting Amen on Mitchell was for Mitchell's performance, the overall defense still sucked with the starters in. In somewhat related news, Cam excels in having to switch onto bigger players. The Rockets defense has been great with Amen guarding the best player of the other team while Cam doesn't get pushed around by whoever is left. Maybe Cam reverts back to not paying attention on defense, but he's been okay to good switching onto whoever lately.
He is a versatile defender that can shoot the 3. if he had more lateral quickness he could defend the 3, but as it stands he can't. IDK why people say he's a bad defender, his D-LEBRON and DPM are both positive. He's also young and has improved every season. I think he should come off the bench as part of our big man rotation. He's can be like Robert Horry, which is a perfect championship team piece. If we can get him on a team friendly contract then I love his fit here.
Agreed. When Jabari comes back, he needs to work/compet3 his way back to the starting lineup for Amen can't go back to the bench.
The only way you bench Amen ever again is if he's the backup for literally everyone and still gets 48 minutes a game. No rest. Ever. He's always on the court no matter what.
I love Jabari's game, but the stats above tell the story. Jabari off the bench is going to FEED families.
I agree with hanging onto Jabari for now. Your stats tell the story though. Dillon and Amen bring much more to the table than him, and should continue to start.
The defense is still good, but it’s not elite level anymore. Since Jabari went down, everyone else’s Defensive WS has gone down a few notches. Jabari is almost like the floor anchor for an elite defensive rotation. Yet some folks will hone in on stats like points, rebounds, and assists. But it’s becoming clearer that “The advanced stats” are the ones that show you a winner. Because with those guys a team is calibrated to winning and implementing the coach’s game plan.
Whatever you do, don't look at the stats when Jalen Green. FVV, and Amen are on the court together. Those 3 aren't mixing well. FVV and Amen is amazing. Amen and Green is good. FVV and Green is good. Those 3 on the court at the same time, defense collapses. I suspect it is because Amen naturally picks up the toughest perimeter threat which forces FVV or Green to pick up a bigger player as well as protect the defensive glass. Also, it puts FVV and Green more often as the low man which they just aren't good at and puts them in different positions for rotating. PS, I typically have Reed, Jock, Tate, and Holiday checked as off the floor to make sure mostly good players are on the court.
I think Amen comes off the bench for the playoff push but finishes games over Brooks Amen off the bench hits a lot harder than Brooks or Jabari
I mean - it's regular season stats(and lacks context to who you were playing - starters, backups, etc) - I think we have seen Houston struggle with the zone enough in limited reps to know that Houston's biggest weakness(shooting) will be exploited ruthlessly in the playoffs and it hasn't necessarily happened enough in the regular season to surface in those stats views. In other words, I wouldn't make ANY decision on the team's future without first seeing what weaknesses really get exploited in a playoff series because the regular season data in cleaning the glass doesn't necessarily correlate directly to future playoff success. ...also want to point out that Houston is killing teams with depth so far this year but that isn't necessarily going to be the case in the playoffs when teams run shorter bench units. Houston's rotation of 10 will outmatch most teams in the league in the regular season, on back to backs, etc....the question is - does Houston's rotation of lets say 6-7 still stack up favorably to teams like Boston, OKC, etc tightest 6 or 7 man rotations? Can Houston guard let's say 40 minutes of SGA in a playoff game as effectively as they guard let's say 34-36 minutes in the regular season? That's another reason why having more wing defenders(like Bari) can be helpful that you aren't going to find in your regular season distorted context views.
I'd point out, if something is exploited in the regular season, it will be exploited in the postseason. If the Rockets play their better defenders, they should not have any trouble playing playoff defense. I think the Rockets are going to need some offensive juice which would mean the Rockets need to figure out how to play FVV, Green, and Amen together without the defense falling apart.
Maybe. Trade deadline hasn't passed. Rockets really could have a very hard team to prep against. Add Cam Johnson and the Rockets can toggle between extreme offensive lineups and extreme defensive lineups while having a 7 man rotation. Rockets really need a shooter.
