I guess the point of the post you reply to is that up to this point FVV is the only player we have who can organize an offense. This is the reason why FVV played so many minutes. But we all know that he is not going to be our future cornerstone when the team enters its prime. With him out on injury, Amen and Reed (and maybe Sengun) are forced to take on that role. It is not so much about whether Fred hinders their improvement but about pushing them to be the team's playmakers. The assumption is that when Fred is on the court, Amen will play the finisher role and Reed will play the spot up role. This assumption can be wrong if the coaching staff has already decided that they would use FVV more off ball and Amen and Reed more on ball in order to develop their playmaking skills. If that is the case, then losing FVV is clearly bad for the team. Even if Amen-Reed is the starting backcourt from now on, Fred is much better than Holiday and Okogie as the back up.
I don't agree with binary assumptions (i.e., FVV either has the ball or he doesn't), and I do not subscribe to the Silas school of developing players. The last half of the year, FVV played off-ball probably more than almost all starting PGs. Amen's offensive rating went from 110.6 without FVV in 23-24 to 115.7 in 24-25. Despite the narrative that one can't push playmakers with FVV on the court, giving Amen more playmaking responsibilities incrementally has worked remarkably well. What has happened just does not support FVV is in the way of pushing the team's young playmakers. As far as getting playmaking opportunities, Durant and Sengun are much more in Reed and Amen's way than FVV ever was.
I agree mostly, but I think Ausar and Amen would be separated only by 5-8 spots and not 20.....in the ranking that is. Amen is the better playmaker and now more of an athlete but I think Ausar was better in some areas....like he was a little longer, and in their childhood he won tons of 1 on 1 battles, that is important if your brother is a future Top 10 player. Note: He is better than his twin but his twin is going to be better than 90% of NBA players.
this will be the first time Amen will not be playing with FVV, JG, and DB So basically Amen will be playing with Alpi and Jabari just like before then add KD and DFS/Reed And I doubt KD/Sengun will be bringing up the ball across the half court line to initiate the offense
I think part of the reasons FVV played off ball that much was Jalen Green's high usage. Amen was mostly used in the forward positions when played with the starters. Together with Sengun taking up some initiation role, that left not much PT for Amen to handle playmaking duties. You are right that Durant will be in the way of Amen's playmaking role. Durant will likely take up most of the usage that was Jalen's. If the coach did not intentionally groom Amen and let the game run naturally, FVV would likely be doing the same things as he played with JG (except that with KD he will feel much less necessity to take over like he did when Jalen was having his off nights). And we still don't know how much more Sengun will play the central role on offense. It is just common sense that with FVV out of the picture, Amen and Reed will get more, probably much more, playmaking opportunities. BTW, while it is not black and white, it does not mean that there is only one shade of gray. The shade will change when someone who has the ball a lot of time is gone.
Amen was injected with the Super Soldier Serum. Both Amen and his twin are insane Freaks of Athleticism.. but I believe Amen's feel for the game and IQ are just 10 steps ahead of most players at his age and even his brother. We got the Captain, Detroit got Bucky Barnes.
In an absolute sense, yes, FVV likely being one of the players better than Reed last season got in the way of Reed playing more. I believe it is up to a player to earn time and FVV was not the first player that Reed would have taken minutes from in a meritocracy. On Amen, if the guard with him sucks, sure he would get more playmaking opportunities than FVV. The FVV argument on stealing playmaking opportunities has been going on for a long time. It seemed like a large vocal part of this board was okay with Amen and Green, but saw FVV as stealing playmaking opportunities, even though it is obvious who was using up possessions. I want Amen to play with a guard that can dribble, pass, shoot, defend, and process. It is hard to get someone who fits all those check boxes, but FVV is kind of on the low end of guys who use up possessions on playmaking that I would want to play with Amen as a guard. So yes, if the goal is to make Amen into a Harden-like offensive weapon instead of a diversified attack, sure, FVV was stealing playmaking from Amen in the absolute sense if getting Amen playmaking opportunities is more important than winning and developing Amen in a diversified system (i.e., not a Silas like development strategy). When Reed is on the court, I expect him to take more playmaking opportunities from Amen than FVV would have. Granted, I expect Reed to play better than he did last season by a lot. Also, I don't see bringing the ball up the court, getting everyone where they are suppose to be, and initiating the first action to be much playmaking as that action rarely leads to a shot or a significant advantage. Most of that is to get the ball to who I would consider the playmaker in the lowest turnover risk possible way. It think that skill is best learned incrementally with a player like FVV than with just getting a ton of runway.
I agree with you about valuing possessions - the most effective way to get cleanly into your offense to get shot opportunities is walking up the court and methodically setting up the offense but it's also the hardest way to score. To some extent I think we need to be willing to make mistakes to push for advantages when we have them - after all, Amen is a blur and a real problem in the open court and we have some dogs who can play well with him in transition...but otherwise - you just gotta be very careful in the half court and play the methodical Fred way until you can catch the defense in their rotations and that's when you push the aggression again(cutting to the basket, sliding into open pockets for 3s, etc). The balance is an art but I feel like Amen is smart enough to orchestrate.
It is going to be a tough pill for Ime to swallow, but we need to be getting into our offense much quicker than last year which will probably cause an uptick in turnovers, but will be off-set by better opportunities and higher TS% across the board. Many on the board point to FVV’s stellar assist to to ratio, but when your Pg and orchestrator of your offense is getting 5 apg, that ratio is much less important. FVV and Jalen were putrid at running an efficient offense. Eliminating Green from the picture and moving FVV, now Reed, off the ball will afford us much better spacing and more time on the clock to get the right shot.
Depends on Reed's performance, of course. Also depends on how the coaching staff plan on using Reed. A lot of people on this board advocate for Amen to be the future PG. From what Stone and Udoka said in the summer, it seems that they want Reed to take that job. And I agree. I don't agree with people who think Reed is just an undersized SG. Holiday is an undersized SG. Reed is a PG who can be a shooter off ball. He is similar to FVV in that regard, but with higher ceiling. Besides, Amen is so versatile he doesn't really need to be pigeonholed into any position. He can do pretty much whatever is needed on the court.
Certainly agree with not pigeonholing Amen into a position. Reed has to be able to beat his man one on one or demand double teams to be an effective initiator of this offense. So far he has not demonstrated that skillset. Amen has. If Reed is forcefed into a position that he does not have the acumen for it is akin with the job they gave Jalen last year and we will not be as good as an offense as we should. We will still probably be better, because of the vast improvement of Durant over Jalen. If Reed cannot develop those pg skills, he is the one being pigeonholed not Amen.
While you use words like "so far" "if" to describe Reed, it's clear from your tone that you don't really believe he has what it takes to be a PG. And you seem to believe that Amen already has what it takes to be an NBA level PG. I disagree on both views. First, Reed in limited sample size has shown good playmaking instincts. He has very good awareness on where everybody is and by it to make the right play. It is true that he does not have the ball handling skill to beat his defender one on one. That's what he needs to develop. He can use a screen. If he consistently hit his shots, he will demand double team in PnR situations. Amen's handles have improved in his second season. There is still room for improvement. But I'd say his team offense mindset is actually behind Reed. That may be because he has never been asked to play team offense. That's the difference between playing for a program like Kentucky and playing in OTE. He's relying on his physical ability and processing speed to create. He needs to develop a better understanding of how to operate an offensive set to be a good NBA PG. There's a reason why Udoka relied so much on FVV. Fred was the only guy who could organize a team offense last season. Jalen couldn't. Amen couldn't. In short, both Amen and Reed have something they need to improve on in order to be a viable NBA PG. Amen is ahead of the curve obviously because he has more reps under his belt and better physical tools. Reed needs more time. But to me, the ideal situation is that Reed become the full time PG and Amen become the all-around superstar that can do everything. If both of them live up to their potential, I don't care what you call them. They'll be our backcourt for a long time.
Reed does have a skill that no one other than KD possesses. And that's striking the fear of god into teams with his shooting. Even last year you could see players tripping over themselves to not give him an ounce of space from deep. They would live with that with FVV/JG. Let them shoot and if they start making it then yeah....press. You don't get that with Reed. There is no "let him shoot". That gravity opens up other things. You could see that last year. It's just that he was too green in other areas to really take advantage of it. Agree on the Reed/Amen front as well. Reed is a more natural floor general. Amen is *way* better at it than say....Anthony Edwards or even SGA. But ultimately ended up relying too much on letting his athleticism bail him out of certain situations (get in the air figure it out later). Amen has to figure out when to barrel down hill and when to slow the pace down. But I have no issues with where he's at currently.
You are correct. We just disagree on the potential of Reed and Amen as pg’s. I, too, hope that both excel at whatever role they are best suited for and form an elite backcourt. I do think, that the Rockets will be better served if Reed plays off ball this year. I can’t imagine that in one off-season he has become capable of beating his man off the dribble or having the gravity to run our offense and demand double teams. He was meant to be a backup this year. He is going to have his hands full just getting comfortable with more than 20 minutes on the floor and defensively.
If the Rockets can get transition opportunities, they should take them. FVV being slow to bring the ball up is a weakness of his. I think Reed was going to be a better offensive player than FVV prior to his injury either this year or next (probably better overall next season). I did think the Rockets had a real shot at being the best defense prior to FVV's injury and still could be. I'm just less sure how the Rockets will handle the guard spots (i.e., whether they go offense or defense).
