I agree, he absolutely turned around the team culture and defense. My jury's just still out on whether he's a good enough offensive coach to win us a championship. I think there are some valid criticisms of him in that department, but I also think it's still too early to draw any firm conclusions. He's also a relatively inexperienced head coach for whatever that means. He may improve upon his weaknesses over time.
I forgot Sengun was out as well for some of those games during the losing streak...also, the hate on Udoka is outrageous! Dude took this roster to the #2 seed in the West! He's not a perfect coach, but he's definitely top 5 coach in the league right now. He's a defensive guy so our roster is going to match his coaching philosophy. We just need a 2-way go to guy in clutch moments. Don't know if Sengun will be that guy or if Jalen Green can bounce back from his disappointing performance. However, we're in a great place to pick and choose where in our roster we prefer to upgrade.
Rockets Receive: Giannis Antetekounmpo Cam Johnson Bucks Receive: Alperen Sengun Tari Eason Cam Whitmore Aaron Holiday #10 Pick 2027 PHX 1st 2029 PHX 1st 2031 HOU 1st Nets Receive: Dillon Brooks Jock Landale 2027 BKN 1st Round Swap 2026 2nd Round Pick (via HOU) Rockets Rotation: FVV/Reed Jalen Amen/Cam Jabari/Cam Giannis/Adams The Rockets FO would have to go find a bench swing 2/3, but that above is 95% of a Title Contending Roster with 2-4 years of runway
It’s pretty obvious he’s a good coach. Get him the things he needs. The simplest thing to do is get a PF that shoots 40% from 3. Jabari should be doing that by now, but here we are stuck on 35% going into year 4. Make a trade for Cam Johnson or Rui and see what the team does before you make a massive overhaul giving up a lot future picks and assets.
Some consistent guard play would help, too. Coach’s biggest concern is his unwavering commitment to veteran and starting players on rebuilding team. My biggest disconnect is literally overplaying FVV till he gets injured (that was Reed’s chance (thumb)). Jabari’s injury was the only way Amen broke into the starting lineup to increase his playing time. Sometimes things that make one successful in the short term hurt others in long term. If Jabari’s shoot around injury doesn’t happen would Amen even be talked about?
I agree, but the team and he both seem committed to them. And it’s going to be expensive to upgrade either position. Try something smaller first and preserve some of the assets. A Rui or John Collins for relatively cheap would give us some more info to work with before we make a panic move.
People here complaining that players like Cam Sheppard and Amen were not used enough and/or were forced to use them. At the same time some posters want to trade them all away. Some of these trade proposals are trade 5 of the 7 young guys along with almost every pick. Comedy all around.
Would love to use draft assets and filler for Camara on the Blazers. Less exciting, but still would do filler and this years pick for Kessler. Would move Jalen Green and the two phx picks for Dyson Daniels or Ausar. Would trade Jalen straight up for Gobert, and I'd add the 10th for Zion.
You know our issue is on the offensive side of the ball? You're trying to build a team that would average 80 points a game. I want Jalen gone above all else, but Gobert? No offense - This is worse than the trades Iko proposes.
I don't think Jabari's shooting is the problem. The league average for the PF position was .359 Jabari shot .354. He shot .363 last season. Teams aren't playing off of him or giving him open looks .... The problem is the rest of the starters are below average. Fred was shooting .270 up until the final quarter of the season. Jalen was at .308 until his hot streak Sengun shot .233. Then Amen .... who improved to .275 ^^^ This is what broke the spacing ....^^^ Brooks (.397) & Jabari were more than satisfactory. Hell, I don't think plugging a 40% shooter in place of Jabari changes a damn thing with the rest of the team shooting so poorly.
We plant Amen at the two, and improve around him. I have Amen as a two because that is where his handles are.
The core 7 is still growing with plenty of room left in that department (barring maybe Jalen), has already become a Top 4 team in the league and everyone wants to burn that down. Shame on y'all. Let's make it a core 8 with that #10 pick and keep over achieving. Next year, WCF here we come.
We did not draft him 3rd overall to be “league average”, a line which you admit he is actually below. He was drafted for his shooting and he has not performed as expected. I agree that Jalen is probably the biggest problem, but Jabari is not pulling his weight and the team would benefit from an upgrade.
Exactly Jabari is not the problem. FVV is our biggest problem and Sengun’s regression on the offensive side of the ball. Sengun will bounce back and I’m sure he will develop some kind of outside shot even if it’s just a middie. FVV is what he has always been a really good backup PG. It is Ime’s Achille’s heel.
What if the Rockets stayed the course and brought back FVV and Adams and then made FA signings? I think the Rockets could make big improvements by making a change or two at the margins. I’d like them to sign Kennard and Monte Morris to round out the bench. Kennard is probably MLE money but Morris could probably be had for vet min salary. FVV/Reed/Morris Jalen/Kennard/Holiday Brooks/Tari/Cam Amen/Bari Sengun/Adams/Jock
FVV shot 36.4% since 11/22/24 after his horrible slump to start the season through the playoffs. (this is a tit for tat cherry picking) FVV shot 38.7% since his role was reduced (1/3/25) through the playoffs. I think this is enough of a sample as a bounce-back that his recent career shooting numbers are valid. Throughout the entire season and the playoffs, FVV shot 35.6%. This is not great, but the portrayal of FVV being horrible at shooting most of the year just isn't the case. I will say this is a lot better than Denim and Jakucionis. More importantly, FVV shot 38.9% as a catch-and-shoot threat throughout the season and the playoffs. You can't not guard a person that is that good at catch and shoot threes. FVV had an incredibly bad shooting slump in early November (7 games) and another one in early-Mid December (6 games). If one cherry picks games with these two streaks to get as large a sample as one can get with it still looking bad, yep, FVV looks bad. If one cherry picks games to avoid those games, FVV looks great. If one looks at larger samples, FVV still looks like a good shooter that had two bad slumps close together, but more or less played like himself outside those streaks. If one was calling for FVV's head for bad shooting after 30 games, say in mid-December, one should think it was just a weird shooting slump, as he was 38.7% over the last 35 while playing a reduced role (i.e., if one thinks they need to full 65 game sample, they should have been using 65 games to start with). FVV was generally guarded, such that he wasn't a spacing concern even in his slumps. When he did get better looks with others taking on more on-ball possessions or teams tried to play off him, he predicably regressed to the mean. I will say that FVV looks worse inside the arc. Ime already appears to have fixed this mostly by taking away a lot of these shots. This fix has also reduced FVV's pullup threes.
I could absolutely see this happening, or something similar. I couldn’t hate it, basically deferring any big decision until the next deadline. We’d have another few months of analysis, and we’d keep the #10 pick.
