Reminder: Running an NBA offense is a steep learning curve

Offensive rebounding is still coaching, though. There are a lot of coaches who tell their players not to crash the glass because they think it gives up too much in transition, and (they think) the superior strategy is to have everyone sprint back on defense as soon as a shot goes up. Ime coaching our team to have every player aggressively crash the glass at all times is definitely a coaching decision, and it seems to be working out for us. I don't think it's fair to characterize this as some random thing that happens independent of coaching. It is a strategic decision and it is a major part of our offense. Offensive rebounding is offense, there's nothing "artificial" about it.

 

I've said for a lot of last year I wanted to see Amen and Reed more in PG situations, especially Reed. Because that was the developmental year. The annoying thing isn't that the Rockets are taking lumps because Amen and Reed are learning on the job, but rather they should've been learning on the job last year. And therefore be more prepared this year when they are taking a step up.

As it stands, neither Reed nor Amen may be ready to take over the FVV role by playoffs. In which case they'd have to use resources at the deadline to get a PG.

 

I don't think it's a strategy at all, it's just a fall back plan that's working right now. I also believe this plan already failed in the playoffs but this time it was blamed on the players, next time it won't. Playoff teams won't allow us this large an advantage.

Even if this were true, he would be responsible only for the marginal difference between what would be our rebounding anyway. Look at our roster. No one is going crazy on rebounds beyond what we expected or what they've always done. If that's the coaching he's bringing, it's still not enough and lazy.

Most importantly, it's a gimmick we don't need. We have a talented offensive team now. There's no evidence this has worked. Our pre and post Adams winning rate is the same. We got Kevin Durant this season that's the big factor obviously. There are tried and tested championship ready offensive systems we can run. Why experiment in our short window?

Udoka's Celtics outrebounded the Warriors and still got easily beaten by a less talented team. Sometimes this strategy plays down to the competition, creating the illusion of a hustle that's not even necessary.

Unfortunately I can only debate by side with hypotheticals and other examples (no choice), but I honestly don't know what people think would be happening if we just picked our rotation to be better shot makers. This team would win 50 with any coach. For me, Ime was hired to exceed expectations. So far Ime's defenses have exceeded expectations but his offenses have been excused with "welp what else can we do".

Going crazy on iso is another sign that he's just a very basic offensive coach. I don't know about you, but I've lived through this experiment already and I know how it ends.

 

Yeah, Sengun definitely takes more 3s and hits at a better rate, which will probably decline to somewhere in the low 30s. That’s still a huge improvement for him. He is shooting worse than last year from 10ft to 3 pt line. With this shooting he will be a factor in our offensive draughts.

 

We're making it work well enough right now but all of these guys Amen, Reed, Sengun, even KD, that we are expecting to run the offense would be so much better if they just started their actions in their spot already after having the ball fed to them by a real PG. Like I get that they can do it well enough by themselves but if we're just thinking about ceiling, it can be even higher. Like real real championship favorite higher.

Amen is an incredible cutter and dunker spot threat. Reed is deadly off the catch and shoot. Sengun is one of the best post players in the league. All of those strengths are wasted somewhat when they have to bring up the ball and wait for one of those other guys to give them the ball in that spot. It doesn't really even have to be an Allstar like Trae Young, someone who can do what Tre Jones has been doing off the bench for Chicago will push us a level higher.