Videos only up for 4 of the three attempts. 1 wide open make off of a Reed assist. 1 contested pullup miss by Durant. A wide open Tari miss on a would be Reed assist and a wide open Okogie miss on a would be Durant assist. Getting proficient 10-15 feet is a big plus, but it mostly only helps his shooting on 10-15 foot shots (slight help on finishes). Amen is absolutely deadly when he gets a step. Improving his three point shot helps his 3 point shot, helps him finish at the rim as defender has to deny the three-point shot, helps his 10-15 foot shot, opens up up the court even more for passing as the low man has to tag him on drives, and when someone else has the ball, Amen's man can't collapse. Give Amen JSJ's shot, and he's a Top 5 player in the NBA right now.
I agree on the 3 pt shot, but it ain't happening this year. If he can consistently stop and pop from the middie it will open him up for more drives and FT's. He will be our best creator by the playoffs, unless Ime pulls the plug on him as a pg. Just my opinion, but I have been right on most of those since joining clutch fans. Here are predictions I made before the season: Amen would be the starting PG and FVV would play off ball. Reed would come off the bench as the primary backup. Adams would get injured for several stretches during the season and why we needed a third center. Okogie was going to get more minutes than people believe and might start. Amen would struggle quite a bit until he got acclimated into his new position. Amen would become a 30% 3 pt shooter (missed this one). Jabari would be a better 3 pt shooter and more aggressive. Tari would not be signed and would get injured. FVV would get 25m a year from the Rockets although his market was the MLE. People would be screaming for Ime's head by mid-season. We would win between 54-60 games. Current predictions if you want to call me out at the end of the season: Amen will average 20 pts or more the rest of the season. Amen will initiate our offense more than 50% of the time in the post season. Reed will have his minutes reduced to 20-23 mins, because teams are going to continue to bully him on offense and target him on defense. DFS will be beloved by knowledgable Rocket fans before the year is out. The Rockets will largely stand pat at the deadline unless there is a season ending injury. The Rockets will again be the two seed and win their first round matchup, unless it is against the Warriors, Lakers, or Spurs (because the NBA will make it happen.)
The entire premise of this thread is ludicrous and I am using my official powers as forum moderator to declare it officially CANCELLED. No more posting in this thread is allowed and anyone who does so will be BANNED. Any further threads attempting to besmirch statistics or prevent their use will be treated as a BANNABLE OFFENSE. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Lies, Damned lies and Statistics.....which are bullshiticus to begin with, useful as part of a picture but some casuals have taken it to mean it shows everything and it doesn't not by a long shot. Seasoned Eye over stats 100 out of 100 times....baby ! DD
The Suns were 36/46 last year with KD, lost KD and only added Mark Williams and DB. They were 2-13 without KD last year. So are you saying the Suns are a good team or MW and DB are so much better than KD they turned a 36/46 team to a 21/15 team now? They're a bad team being maximized by great coaching. We still have KD, Amen, Adams, Jabari, Tari, Reed etc the two rosters aren't even comparable. It should've been a blow out instead the Suns were whipping the Rox until they ran out of gas in the 2nd half cuz they were on a B2B. I was wrong about Reed because he completed a 180 turnaround not normally seen in players. Just ask Johnny Davis, Joshua Primo and Rashad Mcants. How does that relate to coaching? You think our coaching is amazing? Do you realize Ime called two time outs B2B and it resulted in a turnover? Is that great coaching? Our winning play was Jabari giving the ball to KD and he iso'd for a 3. Is that great coaching??? Anytime we have late game heroics it seems to always be Alpi or KD iso'ing for a game winner. I don't think thats coaching that's just their natural talent and ability as basketball players. You are right, we have very few guys who can consistently create their own shot for themselves and others. So why are we among the top isolation teams? We already have very few creators as you said but we still have so many isolations? How others gonna score if they already can't create and our plays are all ISOs? Does that make sense to you?
In another thread, all our 3 pt attempts were on video. I counted 13 potential Amen assists on those 13 3 pt shots. Only 3 were made. Not all were drive and dish, but he was still initiating the action. Amen is starting to get it, in spite of his lack of outside shooting and he is the only one that really has the opportunity on the current team to be that guy. Ime took him out earlier than usual in the 1st quarter because he looked unfocused. When he came back he was determined to explore getting to the paint and being aggressive. To Amen’s credit he will explore getting to the paint and if it’s not there he will pull it out and pass to Durant and take his place in the corner, usually. I’m hopeful both Amen and Ime will stick to their guns and force the action with Amen initiating most of the time.
For this game? Were those wide open? I think the clock malfunctions is slowing the NBA down from clipping the videos as only 4 videos are up on NBA.com.
I am saying the Rockets are injured in a way that makes offense more difficult. And if I didn't say or suggest it.... The Suns seem to like to get up to play the Rockets and over an 82 game season a scrappy team like the Suns can be an issue. You were confidently incorrect about Reed. To add further insult to injury you only gave him like a season and 10 games to declare he was a bust. Ime didn't make the team not execute a play and cause a turnover. You can't just blame whoever is convenient... Would you say the same thing about Steph or Klay during the prime GSW run under Kerr when they get the ball into either of those players hands for the last shot? Or any team with a HOF scorer/shooter? Because Durant and Sengun are pretty good isolation scorers.... some might say Durant is a HOF scorer..... I don't think Ime is some automatic top 10 coach in the NBA. I think what Ime has done very well (with the FO) is create a floor of a playoff team with an offensive and defensive system that focuses on possessions. Obviously, the goal is to be a contender but I see the issue more being injury bad luck and a young core still learning how to play.
I don’t the definition of wide-open, but none were tightly contested. A couple guys got there late. I understand fans being impatient with Amen, especially when he was missing all those layups early on. I was getting impatient as well. His mid-level jump shot is starting to drop more often and his form is much better. At some point, his confidence will be such that he makes those consistently just like his free throws. I think eventually he might become a decent set shot 3 point shooter, but it will take another off-season. The schedule we have for the next 2 months is insane and there will be little to no practice time.
So looking at that video, I see 12 potential assists for Amen (I may have missed one) and one pass to Reed that would not have been an assist. 9 of them were wide open, 1 open, 2 tight. On wide open, the Rockets were 3 of 9 on wide open threes on potential assists from Amen. 0 of 1 on open, and 0 of 2 on tight (Durant). I tried to use the NBA definition of 6+ feet as wide open, calling anything that was tight tight. open as anything that wasn't tight or wide open. 3 of 9 is close to league average on wide-open threes. On average, Amen should have had 1 more assist here on wide open attempts with the open attempt being a coin flip. So call it 2 more assists on usual shooting. Paint was packed, and Amen did the right thing, passing a lot. On the non-Amen potential assists on 3PAs, a lot of tight attempts. Mostly Durant. A lot of kind of open attempts that missed as well.
Fair enough. I think Amen consistently gets into the paint and is now converting himself, getting to the free-throw line, and passing when appropriate. It shows promise in him being the PG we need. Complaints about his handles and lack of court sense by some, were premature. Those proclaiming he will never have a shot are similarly premature in their thinking. There are still problems with spacing, especially when Sengun gets back. He needs to get back to taking 3’s confidently when left wide-open and Ime needs to convince Durant to be less insistent on initiating the offense and be willing to take more 3’s. When Reed is filling the pg role, Ime has got to call for more screens to free Reed up and again insist that Durant spot up and play off Reed’s creation. Durant’s ISO only game is not going to make us contenders. We will only go so far as Amen and Sengun take us.
My concerns aren't with his handles or passing. I am for a dynamic offense with multiple playmakers and multiple shooters. In the starting lineup, the Rockets have 2 playmakers that can't shoot, 2 shooters that can't playmake, and 1 elite shooter that mostly playmakes for himself. The team is so good that it usually doesn't matter. On Reed and Durant, I hate forced "plays". I like options. If they are going to deny the pass KD, the other three players need do something to allow Reed to have an option to take advantage of them denying KD. On KD ISO, it can be ugly at times with the high turnover rate, but KD is really good at getting KD the ball out of KD ISOs.
KD ISO’s are necessary and effective, just not as your first option most every time down the court. Reed seems to be very effective when Adams is screening for him, I don’t know why it won’t work with Sengun or even Amen. Adams is a great screener but has hands of stone and can’t shoot anything but dunks and layups.
Eye test says that Ime Udoka is a mediocre coach at best. A guy is killing the team and he doesn't try a double team to get the ball out of his hands. Literally WTF is he doing.....CLAP CLAP play D, is not good enough. DD
All three centers on the roster cant shoot 3s in today's nba. The two main point guards can't dribble nor create. Deeply flawed roster.
