...we would have one next year (even without the likely addition of a top draft pick and a good free agent) with this lineup getting most of the minutes now to develop them and their chemistry with each other, and with a real coach. Green (36) Bari (32) Tari (36) Garuba (24) Sengun (36) KPJ 6th man (28) KMJ (24) JC (8) Tate (8) Bruno (8) off the bench No minutes for Gordon, Nix, Mathews. The talent is there. But wtf is the coach doing, sitting Alpi and Tari, while playing Gordon, Nix, Mathews. What is even the point of that? P.S.: This doesn't yet include TyTy - I'd like to see if he can get some quality minutes in. He could take 2-4 from each of the bench guys if he earns them.
You could also swap KMJ and Jabari here for now. Would be a better lineup in the short term, at least. Green KMJ Tari Garuba Sengun Probably our strongest lineup right now.
Nix is not an NBA calibre player. He is a 3rd string "point guard", fringe roster player at best. Playing him 15-20 minutes a game is bordering on ludicrous.
That starting lineup would struggle to bring the ball past half court every possession. Did you watch when KPJ was out? Green is not a PG.
And the spacing... I know Garuba is scorching hot right now, but I can't imagine how bad the spacing would be if he and Sengun were given wide open 3s all night long... ugh
This is what always makes me chuckle when I see the people saying 'idiots we're meant to lose herp derp' Blissfully unaware there's the wrong way to lose (what we're doing, and Silas' second year in a row doing it), and there's a right way to lose which builds for the future and develops the right players and puts them in situations to learn now. But alas, apparently we're meant to lose but also play a guy who won't be in the NBA once he's not on the Rockets (Nix) and a guy who should be getting the John Wall VIP treatment (Gordon).
We get it...you don't like KPJ. I'm not in love with him as a PG either. But, you gotta have someone perform the most basic ball handling duties. The rockets really struggle to do that when either KPJ or Nix is off the court. I feel fairly confident this will be addressed through the draft or free agency this summer. But, for now, KPJ is what we got.
No to playing Sengun and Garuba together .... can't see it working due to spacing issues on the offensive end. Neither are competent shooters from distance despite Garuba shooting .857 on 7 attempts for the season.
Jabari is shooting .302 from 3 ..... and you wonder why the spacing is off?? I won't even go into KPJ ... no need.
I want KJ to get at least 20-25 minutes a game but we need to let Jabari work through this. I definitely think he's better than what he is showing. Without a real PG it's tough. Ultimately your lineup is close though. Silas is too stupid to let Alpi operate from the high pick and roll with Green so we're essentially wasting a season
Such a dumb lineup, like why would you have pretty much all non shooters and non ball handlers. Basically this idiot is pushing his Sengun agenda (per usual) once again. Dude is living in a Turkey fantasy land.
Do we have any reliable ball handlers to be honest? Maybe Green can get there. People want Gordon and Nix gone. KPJ Green Smith Jr. KJ Sengun Garuba Tyty? (maybe)
No matter what lineup this team throws out there next year they are not going to have a winning record. This team isn't going from being the worst in basketball 3 years in a rows to being a winning team with just reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.
We have lot of under developed guys. People can argue which guy should get swapped out: Gordon, KPJ, maybe even Smith... but one thing lacking from the last few games is that the starting unit can be really bad at times on defense. This "three guard" (kpj/green/gordon), 4-out / 5-out system itself is not bad in principle, but what has this offense net us? 27th in the league. --- Pacers (9-6 record): we lost home game 91-99 (8pts). Ryan Hollins and people say: "...well we missed KPJ". I'm like: ".. did we though?" Warriors (8-9 record): OK, KPJ is back... is the result any different? 127-120 (7pts) loss at home. So did KPJ helped or no? If people re-watch the game; the very first basket was an uncontested fast break layup of Klay on KPJ. The lineup shake up is to see if we should insert more defense. Maybe not have the Rockets be in the hole early. GSW dropped 40 pts on us in the 1st quarter. Rockets spent rest of game trying to claw back. As the game went on, I saw positives: Tari busting his butt. Garuba chasing Steph around and worked to an extent. Steph still burned us on transition 3 and other places. In hindsight, if we knew Klay was going to be this hot, I would have started Tari on Klay for the whole game (over Gordon or KPJ). Klay was KPJ's man, Thompson dropped 41 pts on the Rockets, but people say KPJ had a nice game; because his offensive box score was semi-decent. If 2 of the 3 goon squad started this game; yes one could argue the result may have been different. Putting player's feelings and the "hierarchy" aside; if this year is the year to experiment; put in guys that has been helping you get stops. If it doesn't work, we're not worse off because guess what: we're still 3-14. When Bruno returns, it's almost inevitable that Silas will start him over Sengun. Will Bruno alone be the defensive difference maker to overcome the four starters: KPJ/Green/Gordon/Smith?
Blaming Jabari's problems on the lack of a point guard is off the mark - He's getting open shots, 91% of them come with no defender closer than 4 feet. Those are about as open as it gets in the NBA and he's shooting .302 from 3 .... that's on him. I think he's better than this too ..... we can be patient with him, at least for this season and into next. Here's the link .... Players Shooting Dashboard Closest Defender +10 | Stats | NBA.com Green is operating in the pick and roll quite a bit recently having had several games of 6+ assists, the majority of that working with Sengun. I wouldn't call that wasting a season when last year he couldn't run a pick and roll to save his life. That's significant development. As for Sengun, he got more opportunities when he was with the second unit - Away from KPJ. With Fernando out he's in the starting spot stuck with KPJ eating up possessions. KPJ is the tank commander ....
