[Discussion] The Rockets don't need to do anything

The record just masks what they are bad at......

• No real ball movement and ball watching, horrible shooting like it is Ariza going for blanks again......
• KD shoots way too much 2s.....
• Their flaws are going to be hunted in the Playoffs
• No Creativity whatsoever.
• So bad in road games, how you are going to steal road games in the Playoffs?
• Stuck on 1st Apron
• Jabari a liability now, Defense way overrated.....sloppy shooting.

Ime Udoka is just really clueless at times......most clunkiness in Clutch execution I have witnessed so far.

 

I'm not worried because of the heavy away schedule we have had so far, far more home games left than the other West teams

 

What we need to do is force stone and PeeMe Poopdoka out of houston. They’ve destroyed our franchise.

 

If u lose to Portland twice in 3 days when they’re missing 3 of their best players, you suck and you need to do something.

 

First make sure that the fanbase is sitting calmly at whichever seed....being serious

 

Need new coaches and at least 7 new players.

 

40 before 20 rule. yes we need to do something. We're effectively worse than last season.

 

The fans over react big time. just a bit too harsh tbh.

The west will be decide by 1-3 freaking games, it so tight.... All good teams are top 7.

Houston getting in top 7 mean there a freaking good team with freaking good players.

I FIGURE YOU HAVE TO WIN ATLEAST 48-50 TO QUALIFY!

 

No we are way better. Look up the record.

 

they just need to stay around .500 till sengun comes back , i know everyone is panicking but its not a big deal,
they can still win without him.

 

Indeed. People here are leaning on Alpi’s absence but forget that Blazers misssed key players too. They were actually playing with no pure pg like us. Lucky for them, Avdija is a good ball handler si he transitioned pretty naturally from being point forward to fill in for point guard. This is what Amen should become if he gets better from 3.
Anyway, yeah - the fact we lost back to back against a team we should win and not to an okc-level team, is really disappointing.

 

Yes but just like the spurs, the blazer are upcoming rebuilding team. They could possibly be a playin or better team this year so, road wins come extremely hard, but yes the rockets have played poorly in 4th. They need to find a good gameplan going into the 4th. Defense is key.

 

I think the Portland Trailblazers are really well built, yes, they lack another great Superstar but the rest is assembled.

Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Caleb Love should all make another leap forward.

Their miss is probably Scoot Henderson who might just become mediocre but even he has redeemin value.

Forgot Damian Lillard is coming back, sure, he would hold down the fort till a younger superstar comes along.

 

Houston made the deal for Durant. Doesn't that move you into a win-now mentality? He's healthy at the moment. It seems to me you need to add another veteran shot creator to go with him. Waiting for FVV next year is not adding a quality shooter, and who knows how Durant will be doing next year?

If you can add three or four more made baskets per game, how many more games would Houston win this season? 6? 10? How many top-five teams would you beat?

I have zero confidence that the internal development of existing players will get us that bump in scoring. It's not as if erratic/poor shooters can flip a switch.

Playing our "long lineup" is fine, but the return isn't there on defense. We're actually slower and giving up uncontested shots at a higher rate.

 

One year later and this aged well. Good call, Hank!

 

Yeah but doing something could be a rotation change, a tactical change, a trade or blowing it all up.

IIRC we had a worse record at this point last season and finished second in the West. I think we'll be ok.

Udoka's career record in the first half of seasons is surprisingly bad. This is not new for him. I think he takes way too long to figure out what's wrong and he's stubborn in trying some ancient way to fix it before succumbing to the obvious solutions.

Our lineups have not have enough time to gel and that's a big problem too. We haven't settled on starters (Okogie/Tari/Reed) and have had many lineup changes.

Finally, Sengun is our engine. Without him, it's impossible to rely on inexperienced playmaking. He's the thing that makes it possible to reduce the load on our PG's.

Interesting times but don't get too negative. Our net rating indicates we're better than our record.

 

Isn't this exactly what Tari and Okogie did though? Not sure how you define flipping a switch.

Young players who have been working hard on their jumper defy historical data all the time.

 

This team will be fine if it can stay healthy. That's a big if, and being "fine" probably isn't good enough if the expectation is winning a championship. They obviously aren't good enough right now for that. Maybe it will come together by playoff time. Maybe not. Who knows?

 

This is a reasonable expectation for this point in the season. In my opinion:
Positives:
Amen is progressing nicely as a PG and his ability to get to the line and make his FT’s.
Reed has become a solid rotational player.
Tari’s shot.
Jabari has improved in spite of last game (but not as much as I expected).
Sengun has improved his shot and no longer is missing bunnies like last year.
Okogie is a great defensive sub and filled in admirably as a starter.
Durant’s shooting is as great as always.

Negatives:
Tari’s is still injury prone.
Ime’s offensive acumen and bench coaching is still suspect.
Defense has taken a dip without Dillon and Jalen.
Amen’s shooting from 3 is disappointing after a promising off-season.
Adam’s is still an injury concern.
Capella is worse than Landale as insurance.
DFS’ injury (could become a positive at some point).
Durant’s poor response to double teams.

How far we go is mostly up to health and Ime’s ability as a bench coach improving.