We should be trying to win every game possible. Fred is the most indispensable player on the roster and ideally will get back to 36 mpg as he recovers. Jabari has been the 7th best player on the roster this season. Fred should start if the goal is to win. I think there's still plenty of room to get Jabari 26-30 minutes per game. Jabari coming off the bench as the backup center is our ideal situation against most teams. The little discussed truth is that both our current backup centers- Adams and Longdale have not played well this season. Bringing in Tari and Jabari to run with Jalen and Amen gives us phenomenal quickness and defensive energy and should provide a lot of transition opportunities. That group should blitz other 2nd units. Jabari will likely be more successful against 2nd units. As a starter, Jabari is underqualified currently. Jabari hopefully improves over the rest of this season and this summer and can earn the starting spot next year.
Fred is critical as the play setter and reliable 3 pt shooter. Once he went down our pg lineup became Amen, Holiday and Reed and none of these can hit 3s this season. Before he went down he was hitting 39% on his catch and shoot and thats why the Rox went on a massive winning streak..
No position is safe right now. Amen Thompson will slide right in. That said Amen Thompson was happily coming off the bench until the National media had to come in and hype him up… Which is fine. I feel like Fred should start until he clearly loses the spot. Not due to injury.
Fred will start and he will also be our starting PG next year. Amen either comes off the bench (this year) or someone else sits.
Simple answer is, YES. We are a bottom 6 offense with FVV out of the lineup. His shooting range is something that we are in dire straight for, outside of Jalen when he's hot.
My feeling about Fred is similar to the way I felt about Sam Cassell back in the day: I don't care if he starts, but he'd better be out there in the final five minutes. In Fred's case, you could argue that we would have won at least three of the games we lost during our bad streak, if we'd had him making the decisions at the end. Too many headless possessions.
He can shoot 3% better than Bari but he doesn't guard PF's better than Bari, doesn't rebound better and doesn't block shots at all. He's neither the rebounder nor the runner in transition. I'm not sure what good is toughness at PF if you can't even grab rebounds or stop people from shooting over you. Most importantly, there's no one he guards that one of Jabari/Amen/FVV can't guard better. He can't guard a PF better than Bari, a wing better than Amen or a PG better than FVV. We're good. If we didn't have him right now, never in a million years would we waste money on his salary. He's a perfect case of maybe a better player but a useless fit. Disagree about Bari. Before his injury he had spent a quarter of an entire NBA season on fire from 3. Udoka was praising his toughness and defense during that span. We were WINNING. He'll get back to that easily. It was never fair that he lost his starting spot to Dillon after Amen clearly beat Dillon out at SF. He just got lucky with Bari's injury. It was going to be over pretty soon for him. Dillon is not a better PF than Jabari and that's the only position we need a defender right now.
What?? Fred is much tougher than Brooks. Man please don't tell me you're fooled by dramatic acting. Fred is one of the toughest mf'ers in the league, as far as we can tell we can't even play elite defense without him captaining it. Brooks has not been able to fill that role. So our best unit by wins and historic rebounding team with elite defense is: Sengun Jabari Brooks Green FVV We've not rebounded better than them with Amen at PG. You want to improve the offense AND defense AND rebounding? You replace Brooks with Amen. It's that simple. You don't f*ck with what's working unless there's an obscene difference - as there is between Amen and Brooks. You don't f*ck around and move Brooks to PF and bench Jabari. There was a balance and that balance is gone without FVV and Bari. Those guys guard little fast guys and big tall guys. Brooks doesn't do that, so no he or someone else is trying to overcompensate defensively. The fit is horrible. We want to run more and Brooks can neither rebound nor run in transition. He's not dynamic enough for what we need at PF. We need Jabari's rebounds, shotblocking and slightly lesser defense more than we need Brooks.
No way. Did you watch the fourth quarter of the Bucks game? Both losses to the Nets, etc? The Rockets have one capable NBA point guard on the roster, and that’s VanVleet. He’s the guy that stabilizes things for the Rockets’ young talent offensively, and he helps defensively, too. He’s not the Rockets’ best player, but he is arguably most indispensable. The young Rockets have sorely missed him, and he needs to start.
The only thing that his injury has shown me is that Fred is needed so much in those critical minutes. Minus the first Timberwolves game, Fred has done some of the best work in high stress situations and you can see his championship experience on the court.
I know it wouldn’t be popular, but I can see Udoka having Amen Thompson start games on the bench but still getting 30-32 minutes a game and playing closing minutes. If Udoka feels Jabari Smith Jr. is what the Rockets need defensively and length wise next to Sengun, and his floor spacing is also necessary, then he starts at PF. That leaves Thompson and Brooks. While Thompson is the clearly better player, Brooks needs to be playing with people who can create open shots for him. Thompson doesn’t. If you start VanVleet and Thompson, you are going to have to stagger their minutes so the bench guys like Brooks have a playmaker to get them good looks. Plus, Thompson and Tari Eason would be reunited in their “Terror Twins” role in the short term.
The point I'm making is if we stay with a starting 5 of JG, Amen, Brooks, Jabari and Sengun, it's beneficial now and long term. It's beneficial now, because it's better defensively and rebounding wise, which is the Rockets makeup, their persona. And its better long term, because if this is going to be the core moving forward, why not let them start to build cohesion with one another now. Finally, Amen and Jalen are starting to show a better ability of getting to the basket than Fred. I go back to the last game we played against Memphis and Fred couldn't get to the basket and he was forced to take a STEPBACK 3pt shot. I think if the ball was in Jalen or Amen hands, they could've gotten a better look. Not saying there isn't use for Fred, I still think there will be moments where they need him in the 4th Qtr
I agree! And that's what I'm saying, let's have him backup Amen/Jalen and in critical situations if they can't get offense or turning the ball over, let Fred close it out.
I think we have enough with Jalen and Brooks and if Jabari can get back on track, I think we're fine. I think Jabari is more critical to the starting unit than FVV. Amen can cover for Fred, we don't have anybody to replace Jabari's length and rebounding.
VanVleet means far more to the team’s success than Dillon Brooks, and they do not have another point guard on the team besides him. At a minimum, VanVleet starts at point guard with Thompson starting at small forward for Brooks. Also, you are underselling how important it is to have a steady hand like VanVleet running the offense for the majority of the game. He ensures the young Rockets properly run Udoka’s plays and does a good job of minimizing turnovers. He’s the quarterback on the floor. That matters much more than what Dillon Brooks brings to the table.
Hold up. You're basing this decision on a game against the Wenbanyamaless tanking Spurs? Nope. We were way better with Fred out there. I can understand being grateful that Amen and Jalen got this experience, but I want to see them get to the second round of the playoffs and get that experience. I want as high of a seed as possible. Home court is a must..
Luckily with fred's contract there is a lot of options. We can keep him for another season, renegotiate or replace him. I wouldn't be surprised if the Rockets renegotiate his contract for less money.
Dillon is not a useless fit. He's the best 3-point shooter in the starting lineup this season which is critical to us having a decent offense. He can also do a bit with the ball which helps. Jabari is pretty limited offensively. Jabari is clearly the better rebounder and has better potential defensively but Dillon is comparable defensively. Their defensive advanced metrics are similar. Dillon actually has a better DPM this season. We played our best basketball this season in January after Jabari was injured. We had a run where we had 6 wins against the league's best- Denver, Boston and two each against Memphis and Cleveland. Then we fell apart when FVV was injured. We were somehow at our best without Jabari. I like Jabari and I think he is one of our top 7 guys. I think he can thrive in bench lineups playing at the 4 and the 5. I'd like to see him along with Tari as the first substitutions and have them run with Amen, Jalen and Fred as a super athletic lineup who can switch everything defensively and fly in transition. It's cool that you support Jabari. I like his potential. Dillon is having a really good season though and has been instrumental in our success though. They both have a role to play. I think Dillon deserves to start. We'll see what Ime Udoka thinks.
