ClutchFans Game Thread: Warriors @ Rockets 4/20/2025 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

I didnt say anything about winning the eastern conference even though i disagree on that point though.

The Celtics were #7 in offense.

Hes proven that he can coach a good enough offense with better offensive players. Theres not even a logical rebuttal against that since its simply a fact.

And i dont know if those players would shoot better or as good here but im confident theyd shoot better than the guys we have.

Batum is a career 37% 3pt shooter. Thats above league average. Hes shot the three well prett much his entire career no matter what team hes been on. Same with Bogdonavic.

Also we dont have Harden and Kawhi setting them up. I dont think ty lue is doing anything that makes his team shoot THAT much better than Imes. He just has better offensive players.

 

So by that logic is it fair to say that the Rockets are great defensive team because they have great defensive players?

Because if Ime is not responsible for the abysmal half court offense this team runs I don't quite understand why do we give him credit for great defense this team plays.

 

No but it was the moment that all momentum was taken away. Failed challenge, lost a timeout, missed travel call, down by 4.

couldn’t challenge next the out of bounds play. Curry put the game away with that three pointer. Such a frustrating sequence.

 

Ime is a reat defensive coach and a very very good overall coach (deserving of finishing 3rd in COTY imo) but what's funny is for someone to yell that we can't shoot.

The fact of the matter is, we couldn't shoot well to start the season, and then instead of raising the minutes of the few shooters we have, Ime actively worsened the quality of shooters we have in our rotation by prioritizing rebounders. What an absurd strategy. The perimeter players were struggling to get to the rim and generate FT's because our shooting was not good and Ime's reaction to that was: why don't I give more minutes to rebounders who can't shoot and park them in the paint? What's worse is he's not consistent with his strategy.

He was probably thinking "at least those rebounders will grab the misses" - not realizing, those players are going to make it less likely than before for our perimeter players to get to the basket, so the advantage is negated. This really screwed Amen and Jalen. Amen less than Green because he's not fully perimeter oriented and can grab rebounds playing SF. But both of these guys deserve an average paint at the very least. We've built the team around Sengun/Adams/FVV and everyone else just has to fit in. I don't think building around Sengun is likely to be more successful to us than if we had built around Amen and Jalen.

I believe we can win this series even with this misguided strategy, but there is no doubt Ime has made our shooting even worse than it needs to be and made perimeter scoring harder than it needs to be on this team. If you don't have good shooters, you usually then play your best shooters more. You don't double down the other way. Sadly it seems Ime's ego insists on this team becoming like him rather than looking at the parts he has and designing the best strategy for the parts we have. It was necessary to build a defensive identity for this team, but we are now LONG overdue on offensive work and Ime doesn't seem fussed by it. Reminds me of JVG days.

 

Most of it is because of the players, yes.

Do you think Ime could take a bunch of turnstyles and make them the #4 rated defense in the league?

Of course not.


Defensively the Rockets might have the best wings in the league between Amen Tari, Brooks, and Jabari. Sengun has improved a lot defensively and Fred is still a good perimeter defender. Even jalen has improved a lot defensively.

Jusy fyi, the Rockets were 5th in the league at generating "open" shots (Closest defender within 4-6 feet).

They were bottom 10 in open shot fg%.

That means that the Rockets got a lot of open looks, they just sucked at hitting them.

There has never been a successful coach who didnt rely heavily on the abilities of their players. Doesnt mean coaching doesnt matter at all, it just means there's a limit on what they can do based on what they have to work with.

 

I thought the problems were obvious...

Green, Amen, and FVV made bad decisions to drive when Sengun was parked in the paint. It led to playing for whistles because they couldn't finish.

When Sengun and Adams are in, they need to move Sengun to the free throw line and run the offense through him with cutters. Usually the cutter beats his guy so that leaves Adams's defender choosing the ball or Adams to defend.

When Sengun is at the 5, he needs to play more on the perimeter to clear the paint for drives by Green or Amen. He can still crash the boards from behind to a degree. The goal is a dunk or layup so the probability of needing a rebound is limited.

 

It happens when you get hacked to hell . .. no call .. . and it's a "turnover" or a badly missed shot

Rocket River

 

The paint is not just packed because of Alpi and Adams - it's packed because we don't have any perimeter shooters that punish them for packing the paint. If we had one or two guys who hit 50% of their wide open (key word - wide-open) perimeter shots, then all the defenders collapsing into the paint would be forced to stay on the perimeter. This would then allow both Alpi and especially Steven to body their defenders in such a way that it opens a direct path to the basket (I've seen Steven do exactly this and I'm sure Alpi can do it as well). The other benefit to having better shooting is that Sengun isn't playing against three defenders most of the time - all the guys packing the paint

The problem with building around Amen and Jalen is both their lack of shooting and Jalen's inability to make the right read/decision with the ball. If Jalen showed any reliable ability to pass to the open man on the perimeter when he drives, teams couldn't collapse on him so easily. Amen is better at reading the defense but his shot is even worse than Jalen's and defenders automatically just play drop coverage on him.

All this being said, I agree that Ime has been short-sighted in not giving greater time to the best shooters on this team. When he became the coach, I remember him saying that he had never not made the playoffs (I'm assuming he meant over his entire NBA career - not just as head coach). His implication (that making the playoffs was considered the threshold for success) is admirable, but it does appear to have meant that the development of less advanced defenders has been de-prioritized. That needs to be rectified next year.

 

Does Mazzula get any credit in Boston?

Rocket River

 

The paint is packed when there's non-shooters. One non-shooting C you can live with. Two non-shooters is egregious in today's NBA. They're not going to leave the 3 other guys open - why would they? In fact they are especially not caring about those guys driving, so they can defend them closer and put a hand in their face easier. If they blow past their defender, the paint is packed so it's acceptable.

To punish 2 non-shooters you need elite shooters around them and you need the non-shooters to draw a double team. They're not doubling Amen and Sengun so our shooters are not open. Jalen is a shooter in this offense who's being doubled. In fact they are doubling Jalen most. That means the non-shooters getting single coverage have to win it for us.

We can totally live with Amen, Jalen and 3 shooters. You can't judge what they can do by how they do it here. Our shooters are never left open for kickouts because - you guessed it - the paint is packed so there's no reason to cheat off shooters.

Respectfully, I'm going to bow out of these discussions because I need to get into optimistic mode for the game. Need to just be a fan now, no disrespect at all to you.

 

Alpi the closest thing we have to a true #1.
He played extremely well, no complaints.

 

No we don’t have a true championship level # 1.

Alpi played well. No complaints.