Fred coming back next game is great news. The schedule remaining is still somewhat unfriendly, not much rest in between games, couple of back of backs, and then have look at the last few games in April. But for now just 2 games away for from 2nd seed.
37-22 with 23 games left. 12 home games remaining; 11 on the road. The next 10 include a six-game home stand. They should be strongly favored to win 8 of them; one is at OKC and one is at the Pacers. FVV will return soon. IMO, it's realistic to think they could be 45-24 three weeks from now. But this is the Rockets, whose franchise DNA includes making everything as difficult as possible. As some of us said earlier in the season, the focus post-ASB will be less on experimentation and development, less slack for non-performing players and more on tightening the rotation in preparation for the playoffs. Both Cam and Reed will almost certainly finish the season completely out of the rotation. It seems they are determined to prep Steven Adams for playoff mins. I believe it is clear Jabari, not DB, will come off the bench when FVV returns. He is also the one exception who will be given plenty of minutes to work out the kinks over the final 24 games. For the playoff roster, they have 7.5 guys locked in, with Steven Adams being the .5. That's one player short of ideal. It's too bad Cam has fallen off a cliff because they really need one more player. They must stay healthy.
Tired of hearing "young" as an excuse, is he? How about adding "effort" and "toughness" into the list? Putting all the blame on the players and not taking any never gets tiring though, does it?
Jalen too low on this list. But Tari on this list is more support that he needs to be one of Rockets core.
Some of the teams we're facing will have given up in a week or 10 days. Our schedule is pretty even on road and home and schedule is not difficult but not super easy. One major factor I believe I heard that we have the fewest back to backs in the NBA moving forward which does not seem to be factored into strength of schedule. I'd say overall we have one of the ten easiest schedules. I think after finding out what it feels like to work like a dog and miss the playings, this team is not going to let up. I think due to the weird nature of our schedule - back to backs before and after the break - our true mental reset was after the Spurs game. I assume we've made an example out of Cam because Udoka has put his foot down: this time it's serious. If we miss the playoffs you're affecting my career and yours. If this goes poorly, there will be major changes probably. It's time to put in your best couple of months whatever you've got, let's leave it on the floor. I love love love that Amen and Jalen have gotten a ton of reps running the offense now. With FVV back - and if we're being real no one believes FVV won't start the rest of the season - what I see is that Sengun, Amen and Green can keep the easiest 70% of possessions they were getting with FVV out. FVV will come in and handle the 20-30% that's tricky, difficult or requires navigating slow halfcourt plays. This is an amazing situation for Amen and Green where we have the freedom to let them cook but also bring it back to safety so that we don't take big risks. In a more off ball role, FVV was playing his best basketball of the season. Teams couldn't afford to ignore him or guard him too closely, it was perfect. My only concern actually is for Sengun who is still shooting 53% TS% with almost 3/4ths of the season done. Maybe we need to slightly reduce his shot attempts to easier ones and play more through FVV/Amen/Green. I need him to be less like a Sabonis and a little more like a Draymond for the remainder of the season. We can live with 15 efficient points from him if it comes with good defense, 10 rebounds and 5+ assists. My feeling is our ceiling hinges on Jalen right now. I can't see anyone else putting up the type of volumes that will shift things. If somehow he's able to come up with a 4th big post ASB run in a row, we will snatch the 2nd seed. If not we go in as the 4th seed and HCA. Just like the Jaters with their cop-out conditions, I'm not betting against Jalen. I'm feeling very confident and it doesn't feel right to be cautious about it. I think we're about to see the product we've been waiting 5 years for.
I find it crazy that Jalen is ranked below Dillon and this low overall. He really does impact winning quite a bit, but I get that his lows can be real lows, but this season he has been mostly consistent. If he could stop losing the ball at the end of games, that would really really help, but he has improved a lot this season.
You have recency bias. Jalen has not been consistent this season. He was very disappointing to begin with but turned a corner in the new year. If he continues the efficiency the entire season and playoffs, his disappointing start becomes irrelevant and will be forgotten. He will have taken a step this season. If he can improve closing games (particularly in the playoffs), Jalen will have redefined himself in my book. 23+ games to gather more evidence.
I'm gonna stick with the 50 games after January 1st and forget the 2024 part of the season. Jan & Feb have been encouraging, but we know they aren't enough evidence. The two most important months are in front of us.
I meant if he gets hot in the Playoffs, he has to repeat it for me two yrs in a row.....that is what I meant or I go by the Month system.
I mean, having 6 players on this list is definitely a good sign. I think all of our guys listed are indeed top 100 players; like that they included Tari. I think if Bari hadn’t missed the last 6 weeks and kept playing like he was, he might have made a good case for himself rounding out the list. I’m excited to see if we can create some momentum heading into the playoffs.
This makes the Rockets look good, but it's really useless because the Rockets are a completely different team (in a bad way) than earlier. Same principle for the Lakers but unfortunately in the opposite way.
