ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Heat 10/10/2022 (Preseason)

Cant have 25 turnovers in the NBA and expect to win.

 

This is probably a precursor against upcoming playoff teams.

Close games with most of the starters against a veteran team that has nagging injuries.

 

One of the main reasons of our 25 TOs yesterday it was our one-dimensional and predictable offense.
Lucas thought that Adebayo would play and preferred a game plan focused on our guards. That's OK, but you have to read the game and for a big part of it the Rockets were not playing good basketball, defense was set and TOs and bad shots arrived, with the consequent transition oportunities. You look ahead and got a piece like Sengun who can open different alternatives and create quality shots and quality movement, so you try to use it.

One of the challenges for this starting unit it will be recognizing when it's time to focus the game outside and when to play a little bit for Alpi. Not only low post plays but handoff and short-roll situations where he can make plays for others. That's not easy to realize while you're playing, so the assistance of the coaches will be necessary.

But if you start Sengun, you have to find a way to do a much better usage of him. He's not Boban, he's super versatile offensively. Look for him.

BTW: Don't forget how much we missed JaSean Tate yesterday.

 

They are unknown to us but well known to their scouts.

 

Excellent post. Lucas felt this way in hindsight. I loved his funny response about it's now Silas' problem. Saw a couple of posts "you can't slow down the pace for Sengun" which is the wrong way to approach things. The pace was unsustainable.

On to happier things, I thought dancers practicing with the players only happened in Highschool movies:

 

I noticed our 2nd and 3rd unit spacing was awful and that many of their turnovers would be cleaned up as rotations get set. That said, if you run as fast we we do you're going to have turnovers. It's part of the style of play.

 

Thats true to an extent. Jalen had some dumb passes into the roll man that were taken. Scooter as well. I agree that with set rotations and continued chemistry it naturally resolve some of this and the poor hands by the bigs inside on those occasions didnt help. Its preseason so there is plenty of time. Hope to see that more of a focus in the next game. This team led the league in turnovers last year at 16 per game. If they would have had 9 less turnovers last night they probably win.

 

LOL @ Heat announcer

 

Nothing distracts Jalen Green.

 

nice!

 

So our backcourt ceiling might shape up to essentially be a taller and far more athletic Dame & CJ backcourt which with paired with the right frontcourt(Jabari and Sengun hopefully is that) can be contenders.

Dame and CJ got to the WCF. A more talented version of that with the right frontcourt can win a ring.

 

Nice game. I hated Jalen's 1st half last year, loved his last dozen of games and he looks like a completely different player in terms of confidence. Loved our backourt last night.

I keep loving KJ Martin play, he cares about the game. Not sure if he fits, but he looks prepared. Tari looks great.

 

Rewatching the game I definitely thought that the Rox missed out on Nikola Jovic. We picked 1 pick ahead of Miami with hindsight it probably should have been better to get him rather than 2 2nd round picks and Tyty. I think this kid just oozes potential as a 6'10 guard, I dunno why everyone was all over Cade whom they thought was 6'8 when he was really 6'6 but then nobody gave a crap about Jovic who is legit a 6'10 guard. His numbers don't jump out but then again Jovic only started playing bball at 13 yrs old, hes gonna get better and better will prob be Heat's star one day.

As for this team we are actually missing big chunks of depth with Bari, EG and Tate all out so to only lose by single digits to a good Eastern team you know what I'll take it. However this game does show a huge difference between the core and everyone else. At the very least, looks like Rox are gonna be cash money for their core group of guys. Green, Tari and Bari look like up and coming superstars and KPJ and Sengun look like they're gonna be EG level at the very least. The rest of our guys don't look so hot I mean ok KJ Martin looks good but I'll wait to see his contract terms first he's an upcoming FA I believe. Josh Christopher, Nix, Garuba and Tyty Washington, these 4 have been underwhelming so far. Tyty Wash esp hsn't even had 1 good game since SL. We really miss EG and Tate the reality is these 2 players are needed to beef up our bench cuz after our first 5 guys the performance drops pretty drastically every game. This is especially true for Eric Gordon, a lot of people want him traded but if we do trade him we need a Struss-like replacement first, we need a sharpshooter at the 2-3 position who can feed off from the attention everyone else is getting. Again, in retrospect Jovic would have been perfect for this role maybe Rox can trade EG for Jovic or someone similar by midseason.

Bruno Fernando looks like a steal. Dude does a little bit of everything blocking shots, getting rebs, passing and of course scoring in the post. His deal is killer good 4 years at 2M each lol. Garry Bird also has the same super team friendly deal but unfortunately he kinda sucks ass. Maybe spent too much time partying in the offseason or something I'd say hopefully he gets better but at the end of the day he's still end of bench filler and wouldn't even be playing if EG suited up.

 

Lol why after one game are we wanting to put sengun on the bench .. lm pretty sure towards the end of regular season last year when sengun got more playing time and started we looked better … did we really forget how young he is .. he’s just getting started . BE PATIENT

 

KPJ would have gotten so many more assists if it hadn't been for so many missed shots. Nix and Matthews are clearly under mental pressure to succeed.

 

KPJ looked like a keeper.

 

Was that the only top 5 protected pick?

 

I believe another is top 10 protected. Things would have to go pretty bad for that not to convey.

 

Nice? That was AWESOME!

 

I don't want to overstate anything but I think last night showed what a lot of us had been thinking for awhile.....HOW WILL ALPI FIT IN A STARTER'S ROLE?

It's early, he played overseas most of this summer, so he didn't have as much time to practice with the the current players BUT (AS STEPHEN A SMITH WOULD SAY), the lack of height, physicality and athleticism does bother me moving forward.

I am willing to give him time, same for Josh Christopher and Gary Bird but what killed us last night was the starting center position and the bench.