Sengun 32 Amen 34 Brooks 28 Green 30 FVV 34 Jabari 28 Eason 22 Cam 16 Adams 16 (less in some matchups) There are still plenty of minutes to go around. Play out the season and evaluate where everybody is this summer. Jabari will probably go to the bench when he comes back and that's OK.
You don't manage statlines you manage human beings and locker rooms. No way Udoka is gonna send the veteran Brooks to the bench unless he personally volunteers for it, it just isn't happening. No reason to introduce that potential discord when things are going so well. Do I think it would be the better move, yes, but managing attitudes and egos is part of the job. Moving Brooks in the offseason to clear the way is the more likely move.
Eff that. We know exactly what's going to happen. If Brooks is shooting 38% the rest of the way, he won't sit because that's what we need (high volume, high%). We're talking about if his 3PT%'s normalize. If they normalize I promise you there's no way Ime is not noticing the drop off in our defense and rebounding. The other day when talking about giving up 45 points in a quarter he literally said it hurts his heart lol. We are missing a big stretch PF/C. The ONLY way to internally improve the defense without affecting what the 4 other players can do on offense is to replace Brooks with Jabari. There's no other move. We're not going to slow down the pace again to play better defense when this formula is working better. Jabari's rebounding, shotblocking, wingspan and higher % on catch and shoot is what this team needs. He was on the verge of a breakout. Udoka chickened out of starting Amen, the universe won't do his job for him this time. He has to be honest with Brooks that this is him losing his job to Amen Thompson (not Jabari). If he decides to go the safe route of bringing Jabari off the bench, the +/- numbers will make him look foolish, mark my words. On spot up and catch and shoot shots, Jabari has the superior TS%/PPP. Better shooter. Better rebounder. Better shotblocker. Better at defending 6'10 and taller players. We don't want to stick Amen on PF's all the time. It's obvious.
Really, this is a great problem to have... we knew, minutes would be hard to come by, but at least I didn't know this was because everyone (including Brooks), would be playing so well. Amen seems to be improving faster than I anticipated, Green has taken some nice steps, Sengun is at least adjacent to the MVP discussion, Jabari has taken a couple of steps forward and Cam seems to be getting back to the scoring spark of the bench. Tari looked amazing until his injury, Reed should still be in the g-leage, and FVV continues to be the PG and veteran we need. I don't know how the rotation looks, when Jabari gets back, but I do know, that I look forward to seeing this team perform. A playoff rotation of FVV, Green, Amen, Sengun, Jabari, Brooks, Tari and Cam (with spot minutes for Adams and probably Holiday) is looking pretty good right now...
Jabari helped our rebounding numbers significantly and is top 15 in defensive win shares. I think the team misses him badly especially because he can play the 5 and shoots a decent percantage. I hope Brooks goes to the bench because I think he might just be too slow for players like Green/Amen/Jabari who want to run. FVV Jalen Brooks Amen Jabari This lineup would be a good experiment against bigs that Sengun struggles against.
Jabari will come off the bench until he outperforms DB. Simple as that. He no longer gets the benefit of the doubt. The improvement of the Rockets since Amen replaced him in the starting lineup does not speak well for Jabari at all IMO.
I really don't know if Udoka sees it that way. I think he will see it as: Amen is now a 10-year starter at his preferred position of SF and Jabari has actually never been beaten out of the PF spot head to head. I'm really curious how it all goes down. Eventually though, our thirst for the better jump-shooter and interior player will prevail imo.
Amen and DB are Udoka’s favorite players. Results on the court will decide. If DB falls off and Jabari excels, so be it. Otherwise, Jabari is stuck to coming off the bench to finish the season. Maybe this will bring out a fire in Jabari that makes him play with the same intensity that Amen, DB and Tari play with. He’s been gifted the starting spot from day one.
Another point on Udoka. We have to give him way more credit, he had to come in and literally fix all the mistakes that Silas made before making a new foundation for these players. Under Silas Jalen Green wasn't even close to top 50 in defensive rating and now with Udoka he is a legitimate two way player. Same with Sengun, I am consistently shocked to see Sengun is actually top 30 in defensive rating. The entire 3 years we had Silas, not a single Rocket was top 50 in defense ratings. Now our whole starting lineup is top 50.
Yeah the thing is Jabari was on a strong upward trend so I don't feel like I'm owed anything. I feel like he's delivering man, just got unlucky with the injury. His defense had improved and he was shooting 41% from 3 for the last quarter of a season. Frankly everyone but Sengun was gifted their starting spot from the day they arrived, Jabari has always shown professionalism and hard work. I get the feeling you're implying Jabari hasn't deserved his spot. No one really beat him out and he has been developing at a good pace under Udoka. I'm not worried about him. He deserves that spot imo but he'll win it anyway.
Honestly Jabari getting hurt was probably the best thing to happen to the Rockets this season. Udoka wouldn't have started Amen and we wouldn't be seeing what he could do with that opportunity without that injury.
