We had to see our backcourt exposed by a smart playoff team to finally understand that Fred and Jalen are not consistent enough to be a starting backcourt because when push comes to shove, most teams can live with these guys(especially Fred) taking wide open shots. It makes it easy for smart teams to scheme against us if the odds are probably going to be in their favor if they let Fred, Tari, Jalen, Dillon, Amen, shoot as much as they want from 3. We had to see Alpi play a good but not great series to see that there are limits to having your post guy as the best offensive player in the series because you are exchanging twos(and missed FTs!!!!) for 3s when you are playing good teams. The lesson is maybe that your best player can't be a post player unless they are actually a 3 level scorer and unless they can hit FTs - you know the BIG thing separating Alpi from anything remotely resembling Jokic. We had to see that as good as Amen is defensively, he is a ultimately a determent to your team offensively without significant growth. One way players are easy to scheme against in playoff series and Houston never really found a "system" that took advantage of the good things Amen did offensively so every minute he played offensively was at the expense of our team's offense. We had to see Jabari provide a spark off the bench because while he isn't great at any one thing, he is more valuable in a series when we need more balanced players to make it difficult for opposing teams to scheme against. We had to see the real limits of Steven Adams in high leverage moments because "Hack a Steven" can and will be used against you in a playoff series in a way it wouldn't necessarily in the regular season and that was especially problematic because Adam's offensive rebounding WAS how we generated offense in the back half of the season - by getting 3 and 4 looks. We had to lose THIS way to THIS team to force change. No one in the Rockets org wants to lose the Warriors again ever. It had to happen like this to force the change that we have all been begging for - a consolidation trade, a better team strategy than 'figure out how to make the "best pick available" work' - now we have to get to the hard work of building an actual team(without Fred and Dillon training wheels). ...and to be clear I'm not calling for moving any one player over another - just to say that this series has exposed our lack of offensive answers and the entire rotation AND coaching is to blame in some way and we need to remake it in a way that keeps some of the defensive toughness while also bringing in more reliable offensive talents. We aren't good at shooting 3s, we aren't good at shooting in the mid range, we aren't good at shooting FTs, we lack guys who can get their own shot, we lack guys who can playmake consistently, our spacing is still troubling at this point in the season, we lack a solid offensive identity. Those are the things we NEED to fix to take a step up and I think it's safe to say much of that isn't the type of stuff that is going to happen from organic growth. One more parting shot - with 4 seconds left to hit a 3 in a must win game, our lineup to both 'get a rebound' and 'push the ball for one more score' was Fred, Steven, Alpi, Amen, and Dillon Brooks. Let that sync in for a second about how doomed we were before the buzzer went off.
Unfortunately these issues had always been present. It's just fans being too blinded by "We are #2 seed you can't speak negatively of a #2 seed or you are a hater" kind of deal. To me it spoke more volumes that the front office refused to make any additions to the team at the deadline. Mind you even if you thought they shouldn't pay up for a KD or Booker, both Lavine and Bulter were traded for lottery-protected 1sts. Which given the Rockets stock of picks is nearly nothing. So yeah, the fans are just figuring out what the front office already knew, that this team was not good enough to compete in the playoffs and didn't bother to improve it.
A lot of us knew all of that and have been saying it all year, not sure why Stone and Ime aren’t clued in? DD
I do think the coaches/front office already knew that we couldn't compete in the playoffs - I think THIS had to happen to make the change an easier sell with the fanbase and the team chemistry because I think it's highly possible that 3-4 rotation players in this series are either on different teams next year or in drastically different roles. The Warriors are the 'ugly truths mirror' we had to hold up to Jalen, Fred, Amen, Alpi, Steven, Dillon, Tari, Jabari, Ime, Stone, and the Houston fanbase stumping for individual players over team cohesion. For example, in a very real way we are watching the last game or two of at least one of the Jalen Green or Fred Van Vleet era in Houston and I think it's even possible for both to be gone this offseason.
We as fans noticed this - we knew something wasn’t right, and it was exposed during the season when we would lose big leads Rockets with Bari starting 22-11 Rockets with Tari starting. 14-0 Rockets with Amen starting 39-26 meaning we are 36-11 starting someone who can spead the offense (regarding last play) I was livid, you can have FVV inbound the ball … but you better have Amen, Adams,Bari in to block out and rebound if the play was Alpi over Draymond that had a 15% chance of working to start Butler simply walks past DB and goes up for rebound while Looney occupies Adams SMDH
I’ve been sensing that last year really should’ve been a playoff berth, complete with growing pains. This year should’ve been the one. Now we got a heck of a road to plow to make it happen.
I feel like a lot of these points were evident before the playoffs began, but I agree with your sentiment. And let’s be honest, we know we can’t go another year with Fred as the starting point guard. One decent playoff performance doesn’t erase a full season of poor play. We can for sure start there. I also couldn’t agree more that Sengun is not our #1. I’ve always said he’s a #2, and without the shooting skill his impact is going to be significantly capped. Upgrading Fred and finding a true #1 offensive option to me are the things we need to accomplish this offseason…and that’s a lot. Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and land a franchise guy in this years draft
Ime wanted a go to scorer at the deadline remember? I don’t think Ime is a Jalen believer at all. I do think that Stone enjoys collecting data about our players with the largest sample size available and not rushing moves. He did point to have less confidence in Jalen than Sengun though. The contracts show that.
I’m pretty sure Ima knew and knows. Stone is just a dogshit GM who has no idea how to build a team. Dude shows up once a year when he’s obligated during the draft. He built a team by being awful for years and somehow gets praised for that.
The bright side is that while the Rockets are an extremely flawed team, devoid of shooting, playmaking and a star, they still managed to have the second-best record in the brutal Western Conference. Moreover, we have considerable assets to address the deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball. The worrisome part is Stone is untested as a GM. Tanking and lucking into high lottery picks are one thing but using the assets to build out the roster is going to be a real test, and that could happen as early as this offseason.
Yup - 100% this. Nothing wrong with Fred - he can be your backup PG, he can even start occasionally during injuries to other players but he can't be a consisten 40+ minute player anymore on a good team...and more than that - he can NOT be your most expensive player on a good team.
Yup - it was absolutely brutal to see that with our season on the line, our BEST way to score is to put up a contested mid range shot over a DPOY candidate and hope to get an offensive rebound. That says everything right there.
Ime doesn't DEVELOP a go to scorer he has one on the bench in Cam, or a potential one and he has an elite shooter in Reed....Ime ignored em...let them rot all year. What a waste of a year. DD
and Alpi is shooting 11% from midrange in playoffs!!! they should of had Bari curl when Alpi backed Draymond down and it would of been a open middy for Bari ….
Cam and JG work very well together…that used to be the late 1st 2nd qtr unit paired with Amen and Tari …was very very good but then Ime got pissed at Cam defensive effort and that was all she wrote
Deadline move should have been Brooks and whatever to MIA for Butler … I did not want Butler going to GS… and MIA wasn’t going to send him to the East…. Stone fiddled around with Phx too long and it’s biting us in the ass…
Yeah, I was yelling at the screen wondering why Reed didn't get subbed in on the last FT attempt as your other guard with Fred knowing we needed a long distance shot to win the game. That's literally WHY we have a 3pt specialists on the team. Ime too worried about who is going to take the shot and not thinking about who is going to make the shot which frankly should have been Bari and Reed(although I see why Fred was out there given his hot shooting night)
