Our 3 point shooting conoundrum

They, won't keep pace? I give credit to Udoka for finding ultimate work-around with offensive rebounding. It might feel like some "tush-push" gimmick, but if it's working and nobody is stopping it, keep doing it as far as it can go, until it doesn't work anymore. Double bigs was their pace keeper

But now it doesn't work anymore lol. The offense is that bad, where they have so many misses, that 2nd chance points doesnt even keep pace. The offense is that bad, where the weakest opponent doesn't even matter. Offense is that bad, where they miss too many shots to allow the defense to reset, which burns defense even more

The Rockets ONLY HAVE DURANT as a starter who can shoot 3's. And everything else is a struggle. Rockets can't even hit shots in an empty gym.

Rockets as currently instructed, need to work in Sheppard more. Not even to develop as a star. Or to try to "integrate" with Ime as a "defense" player. Rockets worst area is making 3's & getting better looks. And that's Sheppard's immediate skill right now. Seems really that simple.

Past that, can only extend the bench, play starters less, and hope that "fresher legs" brings back shooting. Or trade for shooters. Can't really trust Jabari to regain his form

 

I have full confidence that any player that put on Rockets jersey will loose 10pts off their 3pt rating.

 

What is to explain, Alperen led Türkiye to the Final Game at Euro Basket, shooting 3s en masse and took it over to the 1st Game of the Season.

Then he reverted back.

 

Yep. Trading for a shooter is not going to solve the problem. If we get a great shooter, he will instantly become average. If we get a good one, he will instantly become below average. If we get an average one, he will instantly become bad.

(Durant has passed the age of being affected by the Rockets shooting curse.)

Besides, who is to say that if we get a shooter, Udoka will actually play him?

 

Ime doesn't want the Rockets to be able to make 3's, he just wants lengthy athletic defensive minded players who can't shoot. The fact that the Rockets made any 3's at all is something Ime is upset about and is actively working to change.

 

3pt shooting is so 2020s.

We’re in the 90s man. One might say we’re partying like it’s 1999. I heard 99ers rule?

 

This is not true. He averaged 2.4 attempts per game in Eurobasket and shot 31% on them. He had one good game where he went 4/7, and the rest were unremarkable. Most of his games he was either 0/1 or 0/2, and he had a game where didn't shoot any.

The bottom line is he is not a good 3 point shooter and never was. He does have the potential to randomly have a very good game from 3, it seems like once out of every 15 or 20 games. We got tricked because he had that one good game as his first game of the season, where he went 5/8. That single game distorted his percentage and had many of us fans thinking he learned how to shoot 3s. The reality is that on any given night there is a 90%+ chance that he will shoot very poorly from 3, he will take very few and probably make none.

 

If you take out the first game (which was obviously just a random fluke) he’s at 25% for the season and makes like 0.5 a game

 

So you're telling me a center shoots 3's like a center?

 

I don't think "random fluke" is the right way to describe it because I'm pretty confident it's going to happen again. He is going to keep having those games, just not very often. That game was 5/8 from 3, but he's also had a 4/6 game this season. So he's had 2 of those games out of 32 total played. And then as I mentioned in my first post, he had the game at Eurobasket where he was 4/7. I think it's fair to say that more of those games are coming, but they are rare. And for every one of those games, we will have to endure about 15-20 games of 0/2 and 0/3.

 

That makes him a total non shooter. Those random one offs are meaningless. A player only really provides spacing if the defense cares about them being open. You can punish that if you’re a high volume and high % shooter, and in that case eventually the defense changes, but him going 5/8 twice a year is irrelevant. It’s why okogie kills the spacing so much, even with him shooting an ok %.

 

Unless you play for Portland and are playing the Rockets. Then you’re 7 foot Steph Curry.

 

Must have been Reed Sheppard's fault.

 

Am I the only one surprised that Amen is 5 for his last 20?

if you had asked me, I would’ve said 1 for his last 20

he must’ve hit those threes when I using the bathroom or getting a drink because I haven’t seen any of them

his 3 point shot is more broken than ever this season

front row needs helmets just in case one of Amen’s airballs hits them in the head and gives them a concussion

 

as far as Sengun’s 3pt shot: law of averages. He’s not a shooter yet. That's not gonna happen over the course of one offseason. I would prefer him to focus on becoming a great mid-range shooter (which he has a lot of improving to do) as opposed to a 3pt shooter. I don’t want to see Sengun jacking up 3’s but we need him to be able to score with good efficiency in the mid-range. If Sengun becomes a good mid-range shooter, he’s a perennial all-NBA guy. Crawl before you walk. Walk before you run. Master the mid-range shot before jacking up 3’s. Love Sengun but I’m disappointed he hasn’t made more progress on his shooting. Hopefully he continues to focus on that this offseason.

 

We agree on all of this. I was just nitpicking the term "random fluke", to me that implies that you don't expect it to happen again. I expect it to happen again, but not even close to enough for him to be a shooter that provides spacing or is reliable or anything like that.

 

When all you sign are garbage brick and D players you are going to be really bad at shooting

A true revelation

 

Sengun’s case is pretty easy. It has two factors.
1) He typically starts the season with a better shooting form and it fades away as the season goes on. Same with his free throws.

2) Psychological factors. Probably imposed both by himself and Udoka. He should take keeping them but he doesn’t. I think it is a coaching decision that Sengun is okay with. He was confident at the start of the season. Now he is hesitating and not taking. There is no way he can improve by hesitating. The thought of missing is in his head.

I think his form was visibly better to start the season and now it is not. Maybe he should keep the shooting coach with him at all times, I don’t know.

For the others they all have serious problems with their forms. Jabari is supposedly a shooter but his form is not all that good. No need to mention Amen’s form. I think ime pressure and lack of coaching are a real factor as well. When the inevitable shooting slump comes, we don’t have mechanisms to run when thresholds is not falling. We just take more and more, it is harder to get out of a shooting slump without getting into rhythm in other ways and feeling the pressure from your coach.

that’s just flawed way of looking at the numbers. You could take out the grenades he had to shoot with almost no chance of making. Cleaning extremes or other non typical situations is part of doing statistics, but you need to do it thoroughly, not the ones that justify your eye test.

I don’t think it is random but I don’t think it is likely to happen this season. It happened at the first game when his form and confidence was at its highest. Now he lost both. He doesn’t even take a second shot if he misses the first and he hardly takes one early in the game. This makes it very unlikely to see another game like that.

 

Sengun needs to learn bow to make a free throw before taking the three point shot.