Neither Jalen nor Alpi would average anything near 30 ppg against the Warriors in a series. Rockets would be hitting the jackpot if one of them scores 30 once during the series. It will be defense carrying the Rockets to victory if they prevail. The offense is going to have a very rough time.
Draymond wont forget the drama with Alpi last game. He will seek out Alpi and try all his dirty tactics to throw Alpi off his game. Can Segun handle this for 5-6 games in a row?
If they give us an afternoon game and make me wake up at 3am to watch I'll have to send Adam Silver a very strongly worded letter. Afternoon games are dumb
Pfft paying fvv 40 mil but cant rely for him to step it up in the playoff is such a sht take. Man should b the leader and showcase his "championship" experience not defer and get carried The guy getting paid the most on the team couldn't b relied on for playoff success is just wild.
Are you assuming? Because I would assume the opposite. The league would want to showcase Curry early, not the evening on a Sunday
Stop it. Complaining that FVV is making 40mm is BASIC. Context matters. I'll say it again, the ONLY reason FVV got that contract is situational. In 2023, the Rockets were under the salary cap and would have been taxed and that money would have gone to Adam Silver anyway. Based on Collective Bargaining, the money had to be spent. Instead of getting pissed off at Stone for dishing out a massive contract, you need to praise him for attracting a short-term solution (that worked, mind you) and making the last two seasons a team option. It was a front-loaded contract to entice him to a crap team. The Rockets will definitely renegotiate his contract this summer. That contract wasn't a mistake, it was genius. FVV is what he is, a short-term fix and he never factored into the long term (10 years) plan to build a contending team. They need Jalen Green, Alp, and/or Amen to play at a high level. Again, if you are counting on FVV to be the savior of this team, you need to check yourself.
That's how they message each other in the ring yeah? Zebras call whistles early often in non-critical games...Donkey gets a couple techs for that "unfair treatment." A call from Secaucass executes Order 66 in critical games...tries to unnerve the youngins so they choke under pressure while Donkey's punching and kicking their nuts. Maybe being younger and unproven will lessen the entitlement that triggered older Rockets teams. Still ****ed up to have to be good enough to beat 8 with 5.
Jalen has played horribly against GSW this year. It’s another reason I didn’t want them as a matchup. Sengun rarely scores 30 points, but this is a team where that might be possible a couple of times in a 7 game series. We need Jalen to play well to get by in this series. The refs are almost 100% going to hamstring our defense against Curry. Look for some early foul calls on Amen holding Curry.
Yea, the Rockets need to find a way. If they want to be contenders, it's time for players to step up and transcend. My main point is that counting on FVV to carry this team is a trash position. If the Rockets don't do well, I'm sure the chorus of folks that blame FVV will be chirping away. The Rockets need the stars to play like stars. And when I say stars, I mean they need to step up their game to the next level like stars usually do during the playoffs. If Jalen and Alp simply hit their season averages, it'll be tough series. The role players just need to play their role.
I think GS can crush us without the help of the refs. We need solid play from Amen, Jalen, and Sengun every game. If one of them has a bad game, then the other two need to have great games or we need a huge performance from Tari or Jabari. We don't have experience and that's going to make it tough. Fred's job in the playoffs is to not turn the ball over and to calm us down. If he hits a few threes then that really helps but he doesn't need to score much. Jalen needs to score often and with efficiency. Cut out the bad shots. Score in the halfcourt. Sengun has playoff experience but not NBA experience. That could help but we'll see. He needs to score down low and not get frustrated if fouls are not called. He can't get into foul trouble. Brooks needs to not be an ass and not get techs. If he wants to get himself and Draymond thrown out of a game that's fine but I don't know if that will happen. Dray will get all the leeway at home and Brooks needs to know that. No stupidity from him. Continue hitting the catch and shoot threes well. Amen has a chance to show the league he has arrived. We all know it, we've seen it repeatedly. It's his time to show it on the world-wide stage. Avoid foul trouble. Tari needs to play with his frenetic pace but in control. Take good shots and don't be wild and out of control. Jabari can score over shorter players and I like his jumper. Keep making threes. His rebounding has been great and his defense is also really good. Play with passion and he'll be fine. We may see twin towers versus GSW if it gives us an advantage (I haven't looked at the stats against them.) The bench players need to come in and play their roles: defense, catch and shoot threes, reduce turnovers, etc. You know Draymond is going to play dirty if the game is close. You know Kerr and Curry are going to whine about calls. We have to stick with our game plan and not let them change the way we play. If we play GS then it's going to be really tough to win games in their house. I think we try to limit Curry and let the others beat us. But we have to defend their threes well or we get Hield, Payton, Podz, etc going off on use from behind the arc.
Matchups do matter in the playoffs but what the heck, our guys need to be dogs and let the whole damn league know that whoever they put in front of us, they’re in a dogfight.
What 5 man rotation do you want closing out games against the Warriors, and what offensive sets do you think would be the best for the Rockets to run?
Draymond started that drama knowing Houston was a likely first round match up. He was trying to start the mind games early and it will backfire on him.
