Sengun? I'm not basing this assessment solely off last night's game, so I don't want for SOFs to look at it being one game analysis. However, the offense is centered around one person with NO MOVEMENT. So it's easy to combat. The main two culprits are Fred and Sengun. FVV is best used in the PNR, so naturally the ball is going to Sengun. I was at last night's game and it was so reminiscence of when the Rockets had Charles Barkley. I can still hear Gene Peterson saying BACKING IT IN, BACK IT IN, BACKING IT IN. Well Charles had the ball for 7 - 10 seconds while everybody was watching....SAME FOR SENGUN. The offense seem to flow better when Sengun scores between 15 - 20 ppg and he's not the focal point. I think the ball needs to be in Jalen or Amen's hands SPREAD the lanes and let them CREATE. The Lakers are doing just that with great success.
Rick Adelman would make Sengun into a top 5 player. Udoka makes Sengun into a “he look ok” player. Sengun needs to start hitting the weights and bulk up. Learn how to shoot free throws. He will be fine in the long run, but who knows if it’s here. If they want a major trade done, Sengun gets you the most back.
You know what’s crazy? There’s a handful of teams everytime we play them I feel we will lose, which is usually the outcome. These teams are: Kings, Warriors, Wolves, Mavs. We did beat the wolves twice this year but we have so much trouble against these teams and can’t get over this hump as stylistically we have issues defending them. They all play with a lot of movement and screens freeing up shooters. But What the last 11-12 games has shown is us teams are simply doing 3 things: -getting out on the break immediately after a missed Rocket FG -Packing the paint and using 2 players to stop perimeter dribble drive -Attacking Sengun in the paint. Teams are driving at will on high screens and baseline drives on Sengun knowi
When Sengun was out with injury alongside Fred; Jalen and Amen had the ball in their hands at all times. And the Rockets went 0-3.
Yes. The Sengun centric offense never worked and it seems they force it to him each game. They have played like this for the most part past 10-12 games and guess what? They lost like 9 of these games.
That’s a simple surface analysis and doesn’t look at deeper issues with this team. They need an athletic defensive big that can play high screen and roll and lob in my opinion. Similar to Claxton. They don’t have this. Why do you think OKC got Hartenstein? Teams arw driving on the Rockets at will with no big to stop them.
I am honestly not sure, he is so bad on defense it almost negates how good he is on offense. Last year when he went down Jalen was a completely different player - I honestly don't know but, we might be better off embracing another direction and trading Alpi to a team that has 3pt shooters....and embracing motion and movement....and switching D. DD
nope. That’s like saying Wolves lost games because Andre Wiggins was out for a stretch of 10 games when he played for them several years ago. He was a big part of that offense. Was he great? Certainly not. Similarly Sengun is a big part of this offense. Is he great? Certainly not. So without these players the team still has holes and gaps to fill for those positions and have to adjust how they play.
nope. I did not say Claxton makes this a championship team or deep playoff team. I said it resolves the Rockets paint defense issues. This team also needs a more dynamic 1 who can shoot unless Amen can start shooting next year. Those are the two glaring holes on this team. Having a Claxton like player opens up the half court immensely and our style of play would be dramatically different with more driving lanes, offball screens, and more movement.
Of course he's not great. He just happen to be the best player the Rockets have, and it's not neccesarily his fault.
Can you imagine him in the Vlad Divac role, or the CWebb role....so creative.... Adelman coaches circles around Ime. DD
oh ya for sure. Really miss that offense, so free flowing. Does any coach run the Princeton offense anymore?
What does this have to do with the fact that the Rockets paint defense is weak with him allowing teams to drive at will?
Uh..both those guys had a 20 ft jumper for pick and pops. Sengun does not have this. He has a 12-15 ft jumper that he doesn’t use as much as a 10 ft floater. So no they are not the same players and would not be used in the same offensive scheme.
True. We are a very game plan-able team. We have a lot of guys who only want to do certain things offensively and don't really trust in their counters, and Ime's defensive philosophy is to try to guard every action straight up and not ever overhelp or zone up on the backside. So if a team is well prepared to outscheme or outplay our Plan A... it's going to be an awful night for us. Ultimately it's a talent constraint though. Realistically I don't think our guys currently have the collective basketball intuition or skill level to execute a plan B or plan C well.
