Shooting has been a huge roster weakness for 5 seasons. Maybe we’ll actually get it right in season 6 lol. But there’s no excuse to be this bad at the foul line. Not acceptable.
Sengun the entire season..and Jalen the last month...have been splitting at the free throw line or worse..and the rest of the team is following their lead. Jalen was shooting 85% for most of the season so his struggles may be due to that hand injury, but I still expect more from him. Sengun's struggles on the other hand is clearly just a lack of focus. You can see it in his body language and demeanor in his first attempt. He doesn't focus unless he misses the first one. He closes his eyes and breaths. But if he happens to make the first, he rushes the 2nd and bricks it. It's like he's satisfied even making one. Just complete lack of mental concentration on the entire trip. Why not change up your routine or try something new? You breathe a sigh of relief if he even makes one these days. It's inexcusable and been killing us in close games the entire season.
Who takes the majority of our FTs? our best FT shooters don’t get to the line often enough and Alpi and Bari seem to have some mental block where Bari should be mid 80s and Alpi high 70s long as Amen and Alpi are going to the line 10+ combined a game… our % will suck … and JG has dropped from 90% to low 80s the past month or so
Ime has to focus on more than just defense. IMHO, the team is operating at about 80% because it is unbalanced.........we need shooters to play, even if they can't play good defense and we need a focus on the little things on OFFENSE and less focus on defense. DD
If we look at assist (catch and shoot) then your chances of getting a assist passing to Amen or Alpi outside the paint is 30% passing to anyone else besides Bari,JG,Dillion,FVV,Holiday…your chances of recording an assist raises to 33% that’s why our assist numbers are so horrid because majority of team horrible catch and shoot players from 3 and from 2
The point DD made was we were bottom of league in assist - assist come from catch and shoot opportunities (unless you in Denver where Jokic can pass and a player takes 4 dribbles and he get the assist) DD also stated that Ime wasn’t playing our best catch and shoot players Great thing is we have the ability to go and see who are the best catch and shoot options on our roster be it from 3 or 2 …. Unfortunately in most cases this team as constructed has a 60%+ chance of not recording a assist in any catch and shoot situation (that’s horrid)
Thankfully the Rockets also lead the NBA in FT defense. Craig Ackerman need a raise based on the extra wins he's bringing to the team with his FT hexes.
Yes, even with the improvement we’ve made as a team, we have some huge glaring weaknesses. Last in FT%, last in assists, 29th in 2P%. I think we could improve in some of these areas as our young players gain experience. Poor ball movement ends up with difficult shot attempts. We need players that can see the entire floor and find the open man. We have a lot of players with tunnel vision and we end up with bad shots. The ball movement by the Pacers was impressive.
