ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 2/6/2025

Another inexcusable loss and a lot of thoughts:

• I don’t like our strategy and the players executing double teams and helping off of 3pt shooters. Often you see 2 guys collapsing on Edwards and at least 1 on Gobert and then we scrap to get to their 3pt shooters. It’s not like you can stop Gobert with a double team anyway and with Edwards, maybe just don’t allow him to turn a corner as easily. We are terrible at stopping guys from attacking the basket.
• I could do without the bullshit with Brooks and Tate towards Edwards as it cost us, got Brooks committing stupid fouls and Tate just doing weird ****.
  
• We close out way too hard on 3pt shooters and jumping whenever we think a shooter is about to shoot.
• We pass up way too many good looks from 3.
• We are terrible at throwing lobs.
• We had way too many possessions on defense where we just relaxed as we figured the ball would go out of bounds, that someone else would secure the rebound or stop their fast break. Was pathetic to see only Tari hustling down while the rest would just jog or not even try to get back.
• Cam gave us some nice baskets, but just as easily he gives them up on the other end. He lost his man, a big, literally on a possession following his 3pt shot and gave it right back.
• Green’s handles, random falling down and not recognizing when to attack and when to pull back needs to improve. Definitely did not appreciate him quitting with 4 seconds left and just throwing it to Sengun and then did not get back in time.
• Amen getting better at attacking.
• Sengun got better at attacking as the game progressed, though I get his frustration. Gobert could do whatever to stop him from scoring.
• Edwards gets a lot of star calls, my god.
• The referees made some bullshit calls for sure.
• They were on a back-to-back, no excuse to be outhustled and to have less energy than them.
• Ime is trying different rotations, which is fine and it’s natural for us not to be in tune, but frustrations are setting in. Every defensive mistake is met with a reaction from the coaching staff on the side. Maybe try switching it up when clearly our strategy is not working…cannot just blame individuals!
• Ime throwing that Edwards being a guy who can get you buckets at the end there felt very passive aggressive dig at not having a true superstar and or a shot at Sengun & Green, but could be us reading into it with the trade deadline being what it was.
• We started out the gate really good, ran different plays and got easy scores. Got away from that as the game went on.
• We are missing FVV like crazy, if anyone still doesn’t believe in his value, then they don’t understand basketball.

 

Rockets have dropped to 4th seed.

 

Will we ever win another game without FVV on the court?

 

Funny enough that Edwards was a a +9 and Nazr Reid was a +25. Shame Randle didn't play it would've been easier. Definitely a hangover and our injuries catching up to us. Tari straight up hasn't looked himself in a long while. Dillon had also been atrocious and he was borderline annoying yesterday. Amen looks reluctant to shoot again. Sengun still just looks weird this year.

Our luck was eventually going to run out. And it has. Fully healthy we can punch with anyone but we have issues in the 4th regardless of that.

 

Hated on so much, Passion of the Christ gettin' a sequel.

 

Jabari took a leap defensively

Can't argue with this.

 

This will be unpopular but the Rockets should start Reed in these games FVV is out. Keep Tari on the bench to be fresh in the 2nd half. Then, we need Cam to be in the game more in the 4th quarter.

We may lose some games down the stretch but we'll know more of what kind of team we have. Cam is a closer and Reed may very well be our future PG starting next year.

 

Such an easy escape, calling your team soft.

 

Yeah, I'm getting tired of him tooting the same thing over and over as if physicality is the only thing that matters. Maybe there's some reason that we'd been super tenacious the whole time since the beginning of the season and now fell off a cliff. Maybe it's not that the players don't want to be physical but the physicality is just not realistically be sustained, especially on this brutal road trip.

 

We should be starting Jock at the PF he has a good 3pt shot and he can help in other ways.

Starting Tate or other non-shooters makes us a non-threat.

DD

 

I could argue with some of it, especially the FVV part. FVV was a key cog once he was taken off the ball, because it allowed Amen to stay involved in the interior defense and he could calm the youngsters down when they are not playing with patience with the lead. If he comes back and dominates the ball our defense will improve and our offense will regress.

When FVV is back, Ime should bench Dillon and start Tari. At least, we would get our rebounding Mojo back with Tari, Amen, and Sengun crashing the boards. I said all year that Jabari was being underated by this board. His defense and rebounding is key to our defense. His wingspan and ability to discourage penetration was key to our team defense. Without him Amen has to take up slack on the interior and Dillon is being exposed on the outside. With Jalen coming back to the norm, we are not only bad at offense we are bad at defense.

There is no doubt that this team is exhausted from the brutal schedule and because we can only win with intense defense which is wearing everybody out and contributing to injuries. Unless we get some help through the buyout process and/or injuries to our competitors we could drop further than 6.

Part of this is on Ime's rotations and lack of offensive coaching skills, part is on Stone, but the biggest issue was Jabari going down during this brutal part of the schedule. This is the off-season we need to make a splash. I could get behind FVV being re-upped if he will accept a bench role and 20-25m a year, but if Jalen can't do it, we have to have a stud SG or combo guard. I don't care if Amen is a point forward or point guard, but he needs to be the main facilitator next year with a either a backcourt that can shoot or one guard and one SF that can shoot.

 

Our defense would totally suck. Landale is a third string center on a competitive team. Ridiculous take.

 

Reed is shooting like 25% from 3 or whatever and still attracts way more attention than Tari, Jaesean Tate or Jalen Green at the 3 point line. The kid knows how to PG. He did fine on defense yesterday. Missed his shots. Don't care. He comes up with turnovers and creates space with his gravity. People rail on his field goal percentages but teams would much rather leave literally anyone else on the team open.

 

It’s a really super young team that’s still needing the reminders to do the little things. We’re getting trucked by the schedule and injuries right now for sure, and it seems maybe a bit of tension over the trade deadline? They seem a bit out of sorts. This team goes as the young guys grow, that seems stalled for the moment too. They need this allstar break pretty badly.

 

Be prepared for tomorrow...we may get blown out. NBA league office knows how upset the Dallas fanbase is and will do what they can to make Anthony Davis debut at home go as smoothly as possible. They probably will feel like they owe it to them so be prepared for some one-sided officiating. Also we're terrible at day games.

 

Our defense already sucks....look at our PPG - playing hard isn't going to work if you can't score the damned ball.

DD

 

That’ll be worse than the Dwight/Asik twin tower failure

 

Naz Reid would be amazing on Rockets as stretch 4 and smallball 5. He can also play with Stevo. Naz is the FA/trade target that I most covet next season.

 

My knee jerk reaction is to disagree because Landale is poor switch defender in Ime system, not great rim protector or rebounder. Further, his 50% 3P is due to small sample size as his attempts are low. More importantly Jock is not offensively efficient with 49 TS%.

However, Ime needs to shake up this team especially in 2nd half. He also has evidenced some strange 2nd half lineups and minutes allocations during this prolonged losing streak too ...so who knows - I'm game to try anything right now.