The best 2 guards on the team are FVV and Amen. Amen has shown a dramatic increase in playmaking as he's figuring out how to attack players that play off him. Amen's assists have gone way up while his TOs have only gone up slightly. Defensively, Amen is the best at the POA, and gives a lot of energy in help. With FVV, Amen, and Sengun, the Rockets need to put the best shooting and defense in the other two spots. On Amen playing as a guard or forward, it should be about getting the shooting and defense at the other two positions in a manner that fits FVV, Amen, and Sengun.
Ok, but we may have that already with Jalen and Jabari. Both have been excellent shooters for the last 30 games they have played. Both play defense as well. The best thing that could happen to this team is Sengun getting proficient at 3 pt shooting and FT's and Jalen getting the whistles he deserves. We also need more capable shooters off the bench. This off-season should be concentrated externally on getting 3 & D players and internally on Sengun and others improving their offensive efficiency.
Jalen has been shooting pretty darn well for quite some time now, and Bari may very well be the perfect fit for what you want in the other spot. By the way, Brooks is averaging almost .39 from 3 this season. In other words, I think we have 3 guys already in Bari, Brooks, and Green who fit well around FVV, Amen, and Sengun. Going forward, we can either trade for another piece, or there are some really intriguing prospects in the upcoming draft, particularly if we get good lottery luck or trade up. Jakucionis, Johnson, Knueppel, etc.
Green has not been playing defense well relative to other options on the team. He's tagging rollers weakly and he's rotating slowly to shooters. On shooting and defense, Green has definitely been worse at both relative to someone else on the team you didn't list over the last 30 games that they've played. I think Amen is good enough at playmaking with FVV and Sengun on the court that shooting and defense are most needed from the other 2 players. On best thing for the Rockets, I think Amen getting proficient at 3s would be the best thing among isolated skills.
When Amen has it going on offense he's already a 20, 10, and 5 guy with 3 stocks--and even when he doesn't, he's still giving you "defensive specialist" level D. I think it's become pretty clear that if it's a choice between him and Jalen as the top dog in the backcourt, it's going to be him. That said, I think they can fit together pretty well when Jalen is hitting three pointers, so if JG improves his consistency as a shooter I think it's fine to lock up both of them.
We've got 328 minutes that suggest Brooks fits with those 3 (offense is good, defense is fantastic), and 158 minutes that JSJ fits (offense is fantastic, defense is good). We've got 322 that Green that the offense is great, but the defense falls apart.
No you weren't. You were talking about Jalen being a 25ppg scorer and that's why he can't be 6th man. It's not that hard to scroll a few pages back to see what you wrote you know. If you think Jalen can be a complimentary starter who shoots 3s next to Sengun and Amen, I definitely agree that he can be such a guy. But if you think he can be a high level scorer in his own right, he will have to come off the bench or at least really stagger his minutes alongside Amen. Cause when they're both on the court, Amen should get bulk of the playmaking duties and Sengun the second option. Because they are proven high level passers.
When Green has it going, he fits with everyone as the Rockets just outscore everyone. I think Amen improving offensively has made the Rockets offense function well with FVV on the court and Green off. Prior to mid-December this was not the case. Sure, the Rockets won most of those minutes on defense prior to mid-December. I'm more comfortable with relying on the best defense the Rockets can play with FVV, Amen, and Sengun. I do get that the Rockets would miss out on more of Green's great games in which the Rockets almost always win. Caveat: I may be a extremely biased as the defense looks so inept lately when the starters are playing good teams. I'm much more comfortable when the defense is playing well and may make me a little harsh on what I perceive to be the likely largest problem when it is not. The offense looked so good with Amen starting before FVV went down.
Buddy when its the last 3 minutes of a tight game do you notice how when Amen has the ball, he stands still and watches while Jalen tries to break free from defenders face guarding him off ball so Amen can dump it to Jalen? When Ime needs someone to attack point of attack defenses in half court sets during "clutch"(tight games with 5 minutes left) situations he only trusts healthy Fred, Jalen and Sengun. Amen Thompson has a decent share of the blame for Green being in these lists and you want Green to play third fiddle to Amen? When Amen reaches these lists, then we can talk.
Those are cool stats - thanks for sharing. I do think to some extent that is not a stat reflecting just Jalen's capabilities but more a reflection of there not being a lot of offensive weapons opposing team's defenses have to split focus around in Houston. We basically have one 3 level scorer on the roster so teams prioritize guarding him first at all costs and and everyone else is contextual to where they are on the court. Fred is basically a mediocre(and at times below average) offensive player with an above average defensive skill set. Amen is a plus plus defender but is a poor offensive player outside of the 15ft, Bari is a plus defender and an average to slightly above average 3pt shooter who is below average at the hoop, and Sengun is a slightly above average defender who is effective only inside of 15ft. Dillon is probably the most well rounded scorer outside of Jalen but we know he isn't a playmaker so putting the ball in his hands can be dangerous because he is equally likely to put up a terrible shot outside of the flow of the offense as he is to hit a tough one within the flow(although he has grown a TON here but I still wouldn't call him an offensive creator). TLDR - those stats really speak to our roster construction of a bunch of "best player available" from the draft who don't necessarily fit cohesively offensively today and speak less to Jalen's individual skills.
So Ime not trusting Amen is an indictment on Amen? Ime is a horrible offensive coach, Horrible! Don't use his crappy decisions to pump up your guy in order to deride another team member. Amen, Jalen, Sengun, and FVV at times have all sucked going down the stretch and on a few occasions performed admiriably. We might not have a closer, but maybe we do and our coach just doesn't know how to put them in position to succeed. I can't count how many times Jalen has fumbled away leads this year or FVV chunking up logo 3's that he misses most of the time. Sengun hasn't been able to hold onto the ball to save his life lately. He can't even come up with a decent inbounds play. Give me a break.
This is why it matters how a team "build around" their stars. It makes a difference whether the Rockets try to build around Jalen or Amen as the lead perimeter guy. If you're building around Jalen, then you want Amen to be more as the team's PF dunkers spot guy. The role he played for the second half of last year and first half of this year. If you want to build around Amen, Jalen ideally would be more of a catch and shoot 3pt specialist and play more off-ball. Personally, I'm much more on board with building around Amen, because he's showing the kind of all-around play that is already bordering on stardom, and has a very realistic chance to becoming a superstar.
Yeah, I'm advocating for that as well but for different reasons. Amen is basically a cheat code in terms of flexibility because aside from outside shooting he can do most things reasonably well so to me, he is the ultimate "make a roster work" guy. If a lineup lacks rebounding, he can step it up and grab more boards, if there are defensive issues with a lineup, he can be employed in a way that can minimize that, if we need him as a rim protector in a small lineup, he can do that, if we need him playmaking he can do that, etc. Basically you can trade any of our others guys for any game changing player in the league and Amen can immediately be a roster unifier to fix whatever gaps those trades create. This allows him to be valuable virtually any time he is on the court. That's what makes him the most valuable guy on the roster because he doesn't necessarily need a specific lineup to hide/fix weaknesses because he can find a way to fit into virtually any offensive or defensive unit. That's what Fred/Jabari/Adams/Tari all missing games this year has exposed - that guys like Jalen and Alpi could be exposed in the right matchups when we lost our roster flexibility.
Almost all championship teams are built around multiple players and most teams built around one player fail. You surround Amen and Jalen with 3 shooters. Amen can do everything he does with Jalen on the court. Jalen doesn't need 4 shooters because he can shoot - if defenses sag, Amen just sets a pick and it's done. You just need a shooting C in that scenario. Anything good for Amen is good for Jalen and almost anything good for Jalen is good for Amen. The only roster construction issue we have is there are two players who can't shoot in the starting lineup. That's flat out bad, no one voluntarily does that. Jalen has been hitting his 3's at a high rate and we're still losing so the idea that that's all Amen needs is not reasonable. Were you asleep during the Rockets nightmare of trying to build around one player who didn't seem to fit with anyone even though he could do everything on offense? Let's never put all our eggs in one basket again even if it happened to be Jalen. Amen and Green as starters with FVV at PG is on a 60-win pace or close to it.
Actually almost all championships are built upon one star big and one star perimeter player. I didn't mention Sengun because to me it should be obvious he's the big you build around. And so the choice is clearly Amen or Jalen as the perimeter guy you want to work alongside. The only two major championship teams in recent memory that is built around two perimeter players like you're suggesting, the MJ/Pippen Bulls and the Wade/LeBron Heat. So basically, if you need one of the two best players in NBA history to make it work. Now I like Amen a lot, but even I am not going to say he's going to be in GOAT conversation.
I agree that Amen is one of the most flexible players in the league. But to me that flexibility only applies to his floor. Meaning if he doesn't develop into a superstar, he's at least a high end role player. Think someone like Shawn Marion or AK47. However, recently he's showing he can be more than just a swiss army knife, so I'm more trying to imagine if he can become Russell Westbrook on offense and being an All-NBA defender. It's the latter scenario I believe the Rockets need to properly build around him.
The star big man/star perimeter player premise doesn't really hold up for the last ten championships, basically since the start of the space-and-pace era. It's clearly still a viable model but also clearly not the only model. Asterisk means the "star big man" was more of a big rim-protecting power forward, in other words Giannis or AD. (I'm not count KD or any more perimeter-oriented PF who doesn't play remotely like a center.) Boston - No Denver - Yes Golden State - No Milwaukee - Yes* Lakers - Yes* Toronto - No Golden State - No Golden State - No Cleveland - No Golden State - No That said I'm not out on Alpi as one of the guys to build around. He needs to make his damn layups and free throws though.
I think you're dramatically underselling Draymond's value as a player for the Warriors. If you ask any Warriors fan it's clearly Draymond after Curry in terms of the most important building blocks of their dynasty.
