Let’s talk about Tate

Why you giving up on him. I have a highlight that’ll surely change your mind.

 

I’ve watched every game this year. If anything Tate has regressed. He is what he has always been, a hustle guy that needs to come off the bench as a valuable role player. No need to trade him, unless he thinks he’s worth a bunch. I’m sure most teams see him for what he is and won’t give us much for him. Late FRP at best or as a throw-in with picks to move up.

 

Agreed that Tate took a big step last year but certainly hasn’t played as well since the all star break. He’s very good under the basket and he’s a good defender, but his handles are not there and his shot hasn’t improved; he turns the ball over and of course he’s very undersized for a forward. Great role player, great motor, but there are significant holes in his game. Happy to keep him at role player value, but off the bench with scaled back minutes.

 

Lulz, no one is giving up a draft pick for Tate. He can't shoot, and isn't a great defender.

 

Love some good training camp/offseason propaganda.

“Jae’Sean Tate looking like Steph Curry shooting.”
“Danuel House is the Rockets training camp MVP. Looks like the best player.”
“_______ is slimmed, trimmed and in the best shape of his life.”

 

Guy we want to trade is reportedly looking amazing in camp, I'm shocked.

 

I really want to believe it but I just can't

 

Ben Simmons can't miss in practice either.

 

Unless he’s grown 4 inches I don’t want him on the team. He’s 26 already and I would rather give the minutes to kmj and whoever we draft at #17

not enough minutes to go around and he is the first I’m willing to sacrifice for extra minutes

 

He is great about missing practice though!

 

I think it's time to move on from Tate. We need longer more athletic players. Tate would be coming off the bench on a better team. I'm hoping Stone is looking to make a splash in free agency to bring in some players to make the roster more competitive. The Rockets should be trying to sign someone like Miles Bridges...offer him a max contract once we dump Wall and Gordon. Imagine him with Smith, KPJ, Green and Sengun...scary hours.

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/te...-up-option-JaeSean-Tate-contract-17265441.php

 

i like tate, but it's all about how much he wants, we can't pay them all. how much would you be willing to pay him? he could possibly get the midlevel from someone next year, but honestly, i think that's too much for us. I'd offer him 5 to 6 million a year, if not trade him at the deadline. He'll definately get minutes up till the deadline, letting eason ease into the defense. But if we can get a first i think we'd have to do it. if not, i think we'd have to go to restricted and match up to the midlevel.

 

hes definately a keeper if that 3ball truly improved, if not, i wouldnt pay anything more than 7 million a year

 

Tate is going to look better defensively with good defenders available to play with. He's going to look better offensively because there's a good number of shots you, he, Silas and I know he was only taking to further his development i.e. he would never take those shots on a better team. Not to mention how much more attention Jabari/Jalen/Sengun are going to get, creating space for others. He was even playmaking a lot last season, and he will do that less and thus turn it over less.

I don't know why people can't understand how tanking works. Just give next season a few weeks. There's no chance his stock drops, there's a good chance it will rise at least a little bit.

 

So Tate has 1 guaranteed year remaining at $6.5m. That would have been ultra cheap to dump, but the team for whatever reason opted to dump a few recent first round selections by adding a couple of second rounders. Does this mean Udoka preferred him? Because from an asset perspective (Stone) it would have made more send to dump Tate.

Some things to consider:

1) Tate looked like a bad defender in a non-existent offense. What young NBA fans won't understand is that no one looks good when the perimeter is constantly leaking and there is no good rim protector. You can put Mikal Bridges at SF on our last 2 seasons and his advanced defensive stats would take a nose dive as would his motivating to keep making up for other people's mistakes. I think Tate is not an elite defender, but a very very good one within an average NBA defense. He plays tough, dives for loose balls and talks a lot. I think these qualities may have enticed Udoka to keep him at his low salary.

2) Offensively Tate is barely average. The most important factor is his shooting, since you'd want to stick him in a corner. Now you've heard me say this many times: there was a SYSTEMIC problem with shooting especially last season which led almost the entire roster other than the primary playmaker (I wonder why) to shoot below expectations even though they were alleged to be as open as players on other teams. WHATEVER the reason, if you scroll through our individual 3PT%'s, it's clear something was wrong with the system that was leading to a team-wide drop in 3PT% relative to normal expectations. My guesstimation is that everyone shot about 2.5% lower from 3pt range due to the systemic issue we faced. The system is totally gone now with a new coach, new PG and better vets, thank god.

We heard last summer that Tate genuinely worked on his 3PT shot a lot. I know lots of players sincerely work on their 3pt shots with no results (not uncommon) but I'd like to make a case for Tate. I think he was - like many players on our roster - a victim of tanking circumstances but he's not one to whine about it.

• If my guess is correct (that everyone shot on average 2.5% below what they were capable of), then Tate would have shot roughly 31% again last season (same as the season before he worked on his shot) rather than the atrocious 28% he finished with.
• When you work on your 3pt shot, it often takes some time for it to become second nature. As you know, the Rockets "mysteriously" held Tate out way longer than he needed to heal from his injury. That means he was rusty as hell when he joined our clanky rotation. It's conceivable that with more shots and more games to get in game shape, he would have shot better.
• Tate very slightly improved his FT% from 70% to 72% last season.
• On a small sample, Tate shot 4 of 11 from the left corner last season (36.4%). Too bad it's a small sample, but maybe a good sign. Left corner would be a great spot for him in our offense.

3) Character: the only issue was at times in the past 2 seasons Tate would do more than he could. I can understand that. It was development time, not winning time. All in all when you watch him play, you can tell he'd do anything for the team. He can guard 2-4 fairly well. Very good rebounder for his size. Above average passer for his position. Great at blocks + steals for his position. Would be good on switches since he has some ability to hold his own against bigs. He's a hard worker on the court with a high motor, you certainly can't deny him that.

All in all feels like Brooks, Tate and Eason is a tremendous trio of defenders we can use. Reminds me of when we had Ariza, Tucker and Moute which drove opponent wings crazy. Of course our 3 are not as good as those 3, I just mean in terms of having switchable OPTIONS guarding the best wings.

Whitmore can potentially compete for minutes at the 2/3 but let's be honest, we're no longer in the phase where a rookie can secure guaranteed significant minutes. We're going back to the healthy way of developing prospects which is slow and steady.

If Tate is still on the roster for training camp, I hope he's continued to work on his 3pt shot and I can see him having a turnaround season off the bench for us. Keep Brooks, Green and Eason on their toes for minutes at the 3/4. I've always liked his attitude so maybe he'll surprise us.