It’s possible, but not likely. I’m usually right. You have blinders on with Reed. Your previous post making excuses for Reed’s defensive SHORTcomings is proof enough to most people. By the way, moving Amen exclusively to the dunker spot and starting Reed, would bench Jabari so we go from 1 average to poor defender in Durant to 2 and bench one of our main outside threats and rebounders. I agree the poor zone is contributing to Reed’s poor defense, but it is not a panacea, however if we stop playing 2 bigs, we could stomach one bad defender with all the really good defenders we could surround him with. He needs to get lots of minutes coming off the bench and show that he can hold his own by December to hold his position in the rotation and I hope it happens. If it doesn’t they will make a trade, because they are not going to waste a year of Durant.
Wrong.....he is on his way to being a very good to great starting PG in this league even with mediocre defense. His D is different he is going for steals too much that can be coached out of him....he can stay in front - and learn to force offensive fouls...he will get there. But at 45% 3pt shooting ,he should be shooting a lot. People b****ing about Reed at his point are the same type of people that b****ed about Nash in Dallas......patience isn't their thing. DD
Well you disagreeing seals the deal. So long Reed. So long Cam. So long KPJ. I’m not really as down on Reed as people believe and am rooting for him. His shooting is elite and I hope his defense gets adequate enough soon enough to stay a Rocket. Right now he is showing improvement on offense, but hasn’t shown any improvement on defense. Until he can play decent defense, he won’t sniff a starting role and may be replaced in the rotation by someone not on the team currently. I hope he isn’t in the trade package, but he likely will be because of his 10m of cap space.
Defense doesn't win ****, offense and balance does....plenty of poor defenders are NBA champions. People that think I am wrong all the time are just impatient fools, or they are just b****es. DD
I think it's obvious what is going on here, you want to keep your fantasy alive of Amen being a PG at all costs. It's just your latest hot take after you finally bailed on the Jalen Green BS. Eventually you'll move on from this hot take and pretend you never supported it. Sorry but I'm going to go with what the evidence supports over your fantasy.
We are chasing championships and contending .....leave that beef over players for after the parade or after the run.....
BALANCE wins, not DEFENSE, not OFFENSE....balance. The Rox were number 1 in offense and 5 in defense the last time I looked, that is balance. DD
Funny how the Rockets FO and coach goes along with my insistence that Amen will be an elite PG. Steve Nash agrees as do most former players. It’s not a fantasy and you are having a real hard time excepting even while watching Amen being the only Rocket successfully getting to the lane with consistency. He just needs to work out when to pass and when to shoot. By next year, he’ll be running the offense virtually every trip down the floor. You will see. Amen so far this year: 18.9 pts 6.5 rebounds 5.4 assists 48.3% fg 2 to 1 assists/to%, elite defense in a new role that he hasn’t adjusted to in 8 games. Last years superstar pg FVV 14.1 points 3.7 rebound 5.6 assists 37.8% fg 3.5 to 1 assist to TO % better than average defense Reed in limited playing time because of his poor defense. 10.6 pts 2.4 rebounds 3.4 assists 44.3 fg% 1 to 1 assist to TO% poor defense When Amen has a bad game the Rockets lose. When Reed has a bad game nobody cares. Amen is progressing to superstar status, Reed is fighting to be in the rotation consistently.
Again, I can't argue with your point ... Just feel that the timeline was accelerated and the pressure on Amen / Sengun / Reed was turned up with the loss of FVV (who I wanted replaced anyway, there just wasn't really a way to do that financially). With a competent point guard, their margin for error was greater .... They could grow thru the season without being concerned with their mistakes being amplified, particularly in crunch time, now every mistake is critical. They are under the microscope .... every turnover, every mistake magnified. No fall back plan. As things stand right now, I think this is a top 4-5 team in the league (good grief the east is bad) but the better teams are going to exploit their inability to get into the offense when pressured and the fact that they are turnover prone. These problems are all kinda masked when they can get a rebound and run, but when the opponent puts the ball in the basket and gets to set their defense .... they can struggle. Hopefully one of Reed / Amen puts it together on the fly and solves this problem but I do kinda feel like it's something that is going to take some offseason work to solve. Believe it or not, I think Reed is closer to that goal than Amen. (that's not saying that Reed is the better player by any stretch of the imagination). Reed just needs to tighten the handles a little and be more aggressive in attacking. Amen definitely has physical advantages but he's a bit more raw as a point guard. Ime could sure help them out by having a PF / C run interference more when guards are bringing the ball up the court instead of leaving them on an island. Part of that is Sengun being so impactful offensively that you want him getting down the court and to his spots to set up the offense. Both of them could stand some work in pick and roll actions, especially with Sengun. Developing some chemistry there would give a new dimension to the offense making Durant and Jabari even more lethal off the ball, (you just can't double off of guys shooting 40%+).
Was it necessary to lie about statistics to try to make your point look better? Reed's assist to turnover is a very good 2.61 to 1. 3.4 assists a game 1.3 turnovers. https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/4711272/reed-sheppard And you left out his STELLAR 45% 3pt shooting. Reed is doing great in only 20 minutes a game, Ime doesn't like him because Ime is a poor offensive coach, which is why Boston won after he left, Pritchard got to play....and they finally leaned into 3pt shooting. We are one of the best in the league at 3s yet take the least, how ****ing dumb does our coach have to be, not to take advantage of that as a primary source? Sure looks like with you lying about Reed that you are just a hater. DD
I don't think that's necessarily true, it's highly likely that Okogie would be the guy getting benched in that scenario, not Jabari. Reed Amen KD Jabari Sengun With Okogie, Tari and Adams being your main bench players.
You'd have to go all the way back to 2023 when the Denver Nuggets won the title with the #15 defense.
I wasn’t a huge Jalen fan or detractor. I said he would do better in a wide open offense with Amen. I stated I would prefer FVV be sent in the Phoenix trade and see if Jalen could improve without a ball dominant PG. If he didn’t, I said we could trade him to another team for a first round pick. I stick by that. The fact that you insist I was some kind of Jalen only fan, is just part of your attacks on anybody that disagrees with you even once. You take great comfort in Jalen being traded, because you believe it gives you some kind of self ratification. More than half this board wanted Jalen traded. Your rants were just annoying to most of us, not just Jalen only fans. Whenever Jalen stringed together several good games, you went silent. When Reed has a bad game you post less prolifically. When he has a good game you are back in force. You’re not really a Rocket fan you are mostly just a BTG fan and just pull for players to succeed or fail to prove you were right. If Reed fails to meet your expectation you will just move on to the next guy to hate or love. I am unabashedly an Amen fan. I’m convinced he will be a superstar and a great PG. It’s ok for you to have a different opinion, but not ok to be such an ass about it like you were to the Jalen fans.
Name some others. With most everything in sports there is an outlier or two. DD backtracked with his “balance” statement. I was responding to his defense doesn’t matter, offense wins championships. I don’t know how to easily look up how many championships were won in the last couple of decades without a top 10 defense, but pretty sure it wasn’t very many,
No I didn't it takes balance, way more important than your D only. And what about you flat out LYING about Reed's assist to turnover ratio? Why should people pay attention when you lie to try to improve your point? And leaving out his amazing 3pt shooting percentage, you are just a hater.....and missing out on a guy that is developing nicely, and we all love Amen. DD
Rockets will eventually trade for a veteran PG regardless. It’s the only responsible thing to do because we don’t know how Reed will respond in the playoffs.
Of course not, and one day you'll be saying that you weren't a big Amen pretending to be a PG fan or detractor. It's part of why this shtick is so hard to take all that seriously.
