Going from 50 to 60 with FVV getting 40 mins a game and Dillon brooks as your best 3 point shooter will not happen. That’s my point. Dallas is about the only team in the west that will digress in my opinion. Lakers have been gifted relevance and SA will have 2 lottery picks. OKC, Gws, Memphis, Denver, lakers will all be better next year. This is a huge off-season for the rockets.
52 wins, which seems like a realistic outcome, would have been a top 5 record for the last 3 seasons. Just this season everybody was saying 50 wins was overly optimistic, now the goalposts are getting moved.
I predicted 47-50 wins. Nothing wrong with moving the goalposts when you got your superstar and the league has prioritized balanced rosters. 2nd apron rules have elevated the value of having young stars. We just have to make sure we don’t blow it by resigning middle of the road vets to make up for the limitations of our coaching
If FVV is a winning player, then Harden was a super-duper winning player. If Rockets fans can constantly criticize Harden for being a loser after getting the Rockets to WCFs and consistent 50+ wins in the regular season, FVV shouldn't be immune to this kind of criticism just because the Rockets finished .500 one season and probably a borderline 50 win team the next. Udoka has this team as 15th in offense. Kevin McHale has never coached a Rockets team (even the team before they traded Harden) with lower than 12th on offense. You signed up for clutchfans in 2010. You should know how much Rockets fans thought of McHale's coaching ability. Sengun not being a no-doubt all-star doesn't mean he's bad. That's a strawman's argument. In a league with 400+ players, not being top-20 doesn't make you fake. Green is inconsistent. That doesn't mean he's bad. He's not a superstar a lot of his supporters think he is. He's also not Dashean Nix. Jabari is a role player. Teams can win games with some role players on the roster. You seem to forget some other stuff. Dillon Brooks is playing some of the best basketball in his life. Amen is looking to be a future superstar. Tari Eason is awesome, at least when he plays. The Rockets are a good team. But they're not the KD Warriors. 99.9% of NBA teams in NBA history have very discernable flaws. Even those that win championships. Pointing them out don't make people haters.
So what you are saying is that you don't believe in Amen. I believe in Amen. I don't want to the Rockets to tear down a team that is already so good around Amen. You have convinced yourself that FVV and Amen don't work when it is obvious that the better Amen gets, the better FVV feeds off of him and vice versa. The only problems FVV and Amen have is that Ime hasn't figured out how to make a defense work with those 2, Green, Sengun, and anyone else, and FVV/Green/Amen all provide value with the ball creating diminishing returns on offense. I'm fine if Green or someone else forces FVV to the bench by playing better with Amen. Right now, FVV and Amen are by far the best guard combination on the Rockets. The offense has been very good (relative to the Rockets before 1/3/25) with either FVV or Green with Amen. The defense is what separates FVV-Amen lineups from Green-Amen lineups.
Our ORtg improved from #20 last season to #12 this season (so far). Caveat: There's a group of 6 teams bunched up from #11-#16. Rockets could drop from #12 to #16 with just a drop of 0.3 point. It is clear that the singular factor for our ORtg improvement is offensive rebounding. We were #8 last season improved to the best of the league (by far) this season. The reason? We added Adams in the rotation and both Amen's and Tari's PTs have been significantly increased. In other words, we added three elite offensive rebounders to the regular rotation. Our ability to score efficiently has not improved, even got a little worse. A group of young players playing one more season together should be expected to do better, not worse. Honestly, I don't know if it's coaching or personnel. Maybe both. Either way, I agree that there seems to be a hard ceiling on offense that doesn't look very promising.
Wasn't FVV always a culture setting, transitional player...contract to be dealt with assets attached for a star eventually? It might seem like a point of diminishing returns, but we'll see our first playoff experience with him. Then he and contract are adios for a massive upgrade.
His issues are 3 things: 1) Too slow for this team w/Jalen and Amen 2) Size becomes more of an issue at 30+ 3) Too much money for non All Star He has not mentored Reed Sheppard very well either. Positive is that Udoka loves him and team wins more with him than without him. He also does the impossible on this team and actually makes his free throws! With all that being said he isn’t a good fit for this young fast team.
Oh I did.... that's why it's absurd that you are already complaining about something that hasn't happened
Team 3 Pt Percentage 1. Cleveland..38.4% 2. Phoenix.....38.4% 3. Bucks........38.2% 4. Denver......38.1% 5. Minnesota..38.0% 6. Boston.......37.0% 7. OKC...........37.0% 8. Pacers.......36.8% 9. Knicks........36.8% 10. Dallas......36.7% 11. Memphis..36.6% 12. Chicago...36.6% 13. Clippers...36.4% 14. Warriors...36.3% 15. Detroit......36.2% ---Median----(The median s the middle number in a sorted ascending or descending list) 16. Lakers.....36.0% 17. Miami......35.9% 18. Spurs.......35.6% 19. Atlanta.....35.6% 20. Utah.........35.4% 21. Kings........35.3% Jalen Green...35.1% 22. Pelicans...35.0% FVV................34.9% 23. Houston...34.8% 24. Portland....34.8% 25. Toronto......34.7% 26. Philly..........34.6% 27. Brooklyn....34.5% 28. Hornets.....34.2% 29. Wash.........33.6% 30. Orlando......31.1% Tankathon 1. Washington 2. Utah 3. Charlotte 4. New Orleans 5. Philadelphia ....Brooklyn 7. Toronto 8. Miami 9. Chicago 10. Spurs 11. Portland 12. Dallas .....Phoenix 14. Sacrament0 15. Orlando 16. Atlanta Combining some of the above. ......................3 Pt %........Tankathon 17. Miami......35.9%..............#8....... 18. Spurs.......35.6%...........#10....... 19. Atlanta.....35.6%............#16...... 20. Utah.........35.4%.............#2...... 21. Kings........35.3%...........#14...... 22. Pelicans...35.0%..............#4..... 23. Houston...34.8%....................... 24. Portland....34.8%...........#11........ 25. Toronto......34.7%..........#7......... 26. Philly..........34.6%..........#5 (Tied) 27. Brooklyn....34.5%..........#5 (Tied) 28. Hornets.....34.2%..........#3.......... 29. Wash.........33.6%..........#1......... 30. Orlando......31.1%..........#15...... _______________ In Game Threads, the J Green supporters cite the paint being packed as making life difficult for him when he drives to the basket.. If the Other Starting Guard (Fred) was a better three point shooter, then it would help a bit on making teams pay when they pack the paint. Whether it is defined as a Fred problem or a problem with the Starting Guards, at least one of the two (Green & Fred) needs to substantially improve with their three point shooting or they need to be separated because teams will continue to pack the paint as long as both of the Houston Starting Guards are blah three point shooters.
They do love moving the goal posts.... despite being wrong about why we got to 52 wins. Classic CF-ism. We are winning despite Ime.... despite FVV....
Something that has been promoted by the organization publicly, currently. Complaining about something proposed. Keep going...
Oh now it's been "promoted" by the organization? Well the organization would never make rosy statements about a player in public or be in any way not stating true intentions. I'm sure that makes FVV and his expiring contract untradeable for the Rockets and you may as well start complaining that FVV will retire a Rocket....
I hope that’s right, but my understanding is that Ime just signed adoption papers and Fred is moving in with him.
How does Fred get destroyed by other guards? He's one of the best defensive point guards in the NBA. His DPM is +1.7. Only Jalen Suggs is better. He is a terrific defensive player which is why he plays more minutes per game than any other Rocket. I hope you can acknowledge that Ime is a good defensive coach. Ime trusts Fred. We're simply better this season with Fred than without him. We're 10-9 this season without Fred. 10-10 if you include the Brooklyn game when he was injured. With Fred available all game, we're 36-16. That's a huge difference. We have literally been much more likely to win when he plays. That's a winning player. It would be great if Fred would shoot better. We're still more competent offensively when he plays. We turn the ball over less and we are more coordinated on offense. FVV will sign a reasonable deal this off-season because the Rockets value the player even if you don't.
That's pretty damning. I suppose it means that Ime is not a very good offensive coach. Hopefully, he'll bring in an assistant who has a record of contributing to successful NBA offenses. We also need to add another shooter. It's hard to make it work when so much of our rotation is not a threat to shoot from distance.
