Here's a shocker - by having no point guard and playing 4 big men at once the Rockets have managed the 29th quickest pace on the league - sure let's turn Amen Thompson into a halfcourt table setter
Well he is a piece that can hit a 3, and can drive - he isn't the ANSWER but he is better than 2 second round never will play players. DD
Yep yep yep....we need a creator, bench Adams start Reed and live with him learning how to play D....and we are instantly better. DD
We'll be ok. The double big is fine off the bench but the starters need more balance. Hopefully they switch it up soon. Holiday/Sheppard/DFS need to fill that void.
Y’all know much about Anthony Black on the Magic? I always trade for him in 2k but not much highlights to watch 6’7 point guard seems like a fit with Amen at SG. Wonder if we could trade for him
Cam Whitmore went from the 10th man on a good team last year.... ...To the 8th man on a team that is horrible this year The Rockets team construction is poor, but it's not because they got rid of Cam Whitmore
As much as I disliked our offense last couple years we still had an identity on both ends. We were savage, physical, and nasty on defense led by one of the toughest guys in the league in Brooks. On offense we played through Sengun. Yes it was unbearable but we knew where the ball would go. Sengun high, low, mid post. Jalen DHO’s or getting a screen or 2 up top. We are asking guys to be in new positions and roles this year. We are placing our championship hopes in putting Amen in a position he’s never fully played professionally. We are playing a second year guy who wasn’t good enough to play last year and is still very raw and mistake prone. We also inserted a 37 year old player to lead this team who’s been more mellow and lost one of the most vocal and physical defenders in the game. We start the game playing double big 2-3 soft zone and use it though-out the game. All of this has changed the dynamic of this team. It has certainly affected the energy level on the floor on both ends. It has certainly hurt us especially on the defensive end since Brooks could switch and guard 1-4 positions. They now rely on a soft zone instead of aggressive man that leads to steals and fastbreaks. This changes the entire complexion of this team. i didn’t like the trade from the beginning. No matter what your view was on Jalen that team last year was better. Teams with identities win in this league. We currently have no identity
Amen as the point is stupid. He can't pass and doesn't set up plays. And Reed is not a good PG. All his playmaker was running to the basket, jumping, and then throwing it to the outside. Or hitting half court and giving it to Durant or Sengun. No team ball at all. Fred would have won this game yesterday.
i do like the idea. He can handle. He played it fir a stretch of games under Silas. He gives us a tough defender that can switch 1-4. I say do it. Only issue is shooting but we don’t know where he’s at with that and Im willing to sacrifice one position for better defense and winning plays
Again the fact that people in the off-season thought someone was just going to "slot in" for Dillon or that he was "blocking" the development of better players was nonsense Elite defender capable of guarding up or down, depending on the situation who hits nearly 40% on volume 3s (a lot of which are above the break) is a VERY HARD TO REPLICATE skill set. There's only a few of these guys on the planet, Brooks was one. Again it's nutty to think about because Sengun is a better player than Green or Brooks but as I have said getting rid of him for Durant or Giannis or whoever - instead of Brooks & Green - would have left the Rockets with a more coherent roster
That would be intriguing especially if they had a stretch big. But even without one you’d have a pretty dynamic team.
Not even going to address that **** show on offense that has become infinitely worse than last year. That's saying a lot. I thought Brooks actual defense was a bit overrated, but damn KD is a sieve who makes no effort to play defense, box out or rebound. Going from Brooks and Jalen to KD and Reed/Adams has tanked the once nasty defense. Whoever thought KD could play SG and Amen could play PG should be fired. Almost every starter is playing out of position and in a role that they will NOT excel at. We all knew this would be a disaster. Soo much to fix with little in the way of solutions unless the roster is entirely overhauled, which will not happen.
The roster doesn't need to be overhauled, maybe just trade a wing for a vet PG. The lineups, rotations, and schemes need to be overhauled.
Still VERY early in the season. New mix of guys and new roles to work out. The double big worked last season and has its positives for us but I think it needs to be used in specific situations and not be our default starting lineup every game. Hopefully they see this and will make a change soon to get the offense going.
This past offseason the FO and Udoka made two giant bets. The bets were: #1 - KD would be immune to age-related decline. #2 - Last season's "success" with limited ball handling, perimeter shot creation, and spacing would scale up with even less of those skills on the roster this year; by trading them off for more size, toughness, and redundant good players at the 4 and the 5. Personally, I never agreed with either bet. Nor did I think it would be particularly fun to be a fan of a team making those bets. All else being equal, watching young players >>> old players, and watching coherent offense and shotmaking >>> CTE offense. But the bets have been made. The underlying preferences here are core to Udoka's identity and they won't change while he is our coach, which will be for a long time. It's still early in the season so maybe they work out. Nothing to do now other than hope for that, and cook up trade possibilities that fill the void in guard talent but still align with Udoka's philosophies (i.e., we're not trading for a guard that isn't a plus defender... it ain't happening).
I guess people forgot how we looked last year as well. We looked terrible last year on offense, especially when Fred went out. This year, we look marginally better only because we have KD.
