I think for the locker room , the removal of KPJ is just going to remove this cloud of tension. I mean you could see with with young guys in Green, Jabari and Sengun deferring to KPJ on the court and I think part of that was those guys knew how KPJ could be if he doesn't get his way. A lot of dudes probably were walking on eggshells when interacting with KPJ. That's gone. This team in terms of their roster is now full of high character individuals and no problem children.
You could well be right. He probably added more drama and tension than anything else. As for the remaining guys, we can guess and extrapolate and listen to certain reports... but as celebrities and athletes show time and again: We really don't know any of these guys. (Maybe you actually do, but I've never met any of the current roster.)
Guys like Green and Jabari have had well documented lives in high school and college. Every place they go play and train, they leave a wake of people praising their character and work ethic as in coaching staff and players going out of their way to praise their character and work ethic unprompted. Like ya people can all of a sudden surprise you but I think it's pretty safe to say his like Green, Jabari, Sengun, Tari. Etc are probably not going to have many if not any off court issues. They just don't seem like that type of player. If they were you'd see signs already and stories of incidents from their high school, college/gleague days.
Yeah, people are complicated, I am too old for that myself but if nothing serious happens off court unlike these days, then all good. Too old for Player Only Fans Ish.
I've seen a lot of people say that asking for at least 40 wins is too much to ask. But let's be real, if the Rockets' win total is only slightly above the Vegas over/under (31.5 wins), we would have to watch a lot of losing basketball and this fanbase doesn't have the stomach to go through that again. By season's end, most people will be demanding a change, and Stone will be next in line for the chopping block. I think there's immense pressure for them to win this year which could explain why the Rockets were considering Harden for most of the year, and why they are trying to trade KPJ's contract rather than just waive him and see that as an opportunity to further develop Amen and Cam. Udoka said he expects to make the playoffs. We should hold him to that standard. Even worse, not achieving at least 40 wins would probably mean that Sengun, Green, and Smith were not able to take that leap under Udoka to establish themselves as franchise cornerpieces. If that happens, it likely means that Stone failed to acquire a franchise player through tanking. Granted, after the season there may be still hope with Amen and Cam, because they would still need some time to develop. I view this upcoming season as a test of whether Stone's plan to tank for high-draft picks actually netted us a franchise player. If Sengun, Smith, and Green are the real deal, we should win at least 40 games. Also, I'm not going to get upset if Udoka does things like bench some of the young core to play experienced vets (e.g. bench Sengun for Landale) because the man only has one mandate - to win. I'm going to give Udoka the benefit of the doubt when it comes to lineup decisions. Anyways, isn't that the accountability so many demanded when Silas was the coach? As Jeff Van Gundy said, if the players can't get it done under Udoka, it's the player's fault - not the coach's.
Starting squad is alrite, similarly to the Utah Jazz unit but the bench is really inexperienced and without much shooting. A lot is Amen going to the hole.
I'm tired of making excuses for Stone. The man has had 3 years. He's had multiple first-round draft picks to work with and the most cap space this offseason. If he can't get 40 wins in year 4 of his tenure the man will never get it done. The best thing you can say about Stone is that he drafts well. This season we will really find out if that's true.
We are going to get off to a rough start, we will be better, but we are still very young, and our older guys while leaders are not "THE MAN" type of players, so until one of our young guns emerges as THE DUDE, we are gonna struggle. Could be 4-16 or 5-15 in our first 20, we have a brutal start.... So, I think the Rox will win around 29-30 wins ...tops.... DD
You are a little more optimistic than me. With KPj (Udoka asking him for more CnS 3's): 31 wins (+/- 2 games) Without KPj providing cover fire/artillery/SPACING: 26 wins (+/- 2 games) I find it easy to defend our (Rockets) offense. With only Jabari being a consistent outside shooting threat.....I make the rest of the players prove they can make their outside shots. Going off of their history the Rockets will more than likely make 2 of 8 shots each player; if packing the paint with defenders and making the Rockets predominately a jump shooting team. We have no archers, artillery, snipers......makes for a rough outing in the trenches for our grunts/frontline ground troops. Does not help that VanVleet does not force the issue for fast breaks. He likes to walk the ball up the court. Which stinks if he plays 34 minutes. *Every year I do a win total prediction with a +/- 2 games (margin of error)
It's too early for me to predict. I'm going to wait 81 games before I am confident I got a bead on what this team is capable of.
Amen will look better than FVV by mid season and then we will frustrate Amen making him come off the bench next year
Then Ime and Stone will have to make the tough decision of starting, benching, or trading their 40million dollar babysitter or possibly risk upsetting their franchise point guard who will probably be real quick to leave to play with his brother I don’t know how long Amen will be cool coming off the bench if he starts showing to be better. How long will he sit on the bench watching his brother start with Cade?
