I saw something in the San Antonio, Dallas, and New York wins that has me really excited. Not individual player performances, but set's of players just really wreaking defensive havoc. Specifically the duo of Amen and Tari, and trio of Amen, Tari, and Jabari. The hounding, relentless defense then leading to transition buckets and points off turnover. I almost don't even want to see anything else. Watching that crew suffocate the other team for stretches fills me up. I don't know that I've ever enjoyed Rockets defense as much. The second duo is the Sengun and Jalen duo I saw in the San Antonio game. There was one play where the Spurs were collapsing on Sengun and he threaded a pass to a cutting Jalen for a lay-up (might have been a dunk). I know this is what it's supposed to look like but I haven't really seen much up if until these last few games. Anyay, I'm putting this up here because I'm curious what "teamwork" is getting everyone else excited. There's so much talk about individual franchise players and I guess I wanted to identify the "franchise" units that we might look forward to. I'm not a stat head or bball coaching type. I guess I'm curious what the real students of the game are seeing. I think tonight will be a great test. I hope what I'm seeing is real. OKC has evolved into a great team. I hope we can give'm hell at least.
We can't beat teams with good small-ball lineups.....and they are poised to win it all over conventional format teams. I've been preaching it for years. Glad to see at least they have taken my advice.
Good thread. I too like the duo of Tari and Amen, but I’ve been excited to see what that looks like going back to last year. Those are my two favorite rockets. The effort, the defense, they move without the ball, they rebound, Tari’s shot is coming along; he’s shooting 40% from 3 on 3 attempts per. His shot was also improving before he got hurt last yr. Tari and Amen should be playing at least 32 min a night. They change the energy of the game when they play and take pressure off our other defenders because they terrorize all over the court. I agree that there is something with that duo and Jabari at the 5. Im down on Jabari but at the 5 he spaces better than Sengun. If Sengun can expand his range, he’ll be a great fit with Tari and Amen. I actually think the decision long term on the roster will come down to Sengun or Bari. Sengun is gonna have to learn how to space the floor to take that next step, but we all know that. I haven’t found a combo with Jalen that I really like. I think Jalen has to become a better shooter to maximize his play with Sengun. I do like the duo of Sengun and Fred.
Ime has to fix his lineup - he’s torn between bigs - if Alpi is off, sometimes he plays Bari at 5 or Adams if he’s healthy if not it’s Jock … Bari benefits more playing with Thompson and Tari because he’s no longer the 5th option could move Tari to starting lineup and him and DB defense pairs just as well and keep him in when FVV sits and Bari and Thompson comes in We have to do something because too often if Alpi and Jalen both sit at same time - teams pack paint and we have 0 offense and FVV goes into chunk mode
