It's hard to frame KJ Martin's position on the roster right now. His age, potential, strengths and weaknesses seem more suitable to be developed under a playoff team. He seems a bit like Carl Landry, in that he is likely most effective as a player coming off the bench. He is too good for this team to only give 15 minutes a game, but at the same time, his ceiling seems to be capped at being a very good role player.
Good catch…meant KMJ behind Tate. Also meant include Christopher behind Nix. Obviously, this is the Rockets likely lineup….my would have Nix as the primary backup and wouldn’t be having Tate start (would be Eason or KMJ).
Good catch…meant KMJ behind Tate. Also meant include Christopher behind Nix. Obviously, this is the Rockets likely lineup….my would have Nix as the primary backup and wouldn’t be having Tate start (would be Eason or KMJ). Great assessment….there’s something unique and high quality to his game, but he doesn’t feel like a “must start” player.
KPJ, TyTy Green, Tate, Christopher Gordon, MARTIN J. Smith, Eason Sengun, J.Smith, Garuba until Gordon or Tate is traded
Best combination of talent to start with: Porter / Green / Martin / Smith / Fernando Then blend in Sengun => crafty, different look to run the offense out of the high post. Let him play to his strengths and be like a difference maker as the focus of the offense because the other team will have to make adjustments which opens up the rest of the team. Gordon => glue guy, shooting, defense, veteran leadership, just be himself Tari => energy, rebounding, defense, smart hustle, points from nothingness Porter / Green / Smith get 30ish minutes while everyone stays fresh with 20ish minutes, with spot minutes going to Garuba / Christopher
If Jabari is healthy Fernando should not get more than 15 mins. LOL that he is starting over a healthy Sengun.
That’s why he stands to get more minutes running with 2nd units because he won’t be hunted as much there nor be put in the position of defending the paint against the very best players where he picks up a lot of cheap fouls
I owe you an apology Fattz. Can’t believe that Silas is doing this, but I get the idea. Fernando looks like a career journeyman to me, so I suspect this will be short lived.
Last year people hunted Green as well. But that's not a reason to not play Jalen. I'm happy that we have Tari and Jabari, and we still have Gordon and Tate, so some of that is mitigated. And Jalen supposedly also gotten stronger, point is just because a player might be targetted (unless it's super bad... like Armoni Brooks situation), shouldn't the one of the only reasons to yank someone. With Jabari, hope is that team defense will go up. Was originally hoping to see that with Sengun. Even if Sengun is targetted, with Jabari in the lineup, how much the defense can still go up. Rockets will do what they do; so let's see how things play out. Sengun in the 2nd unit is not really going to help him. The wait and watch (to me at least), is if this starting unit with KPJ and Bruno pans out. My other hope is that on offense, Jabari is still a priority and make sure he's fed a steady diet of shots.
Why we never consider playing big line-ups? Sengun at 4, Jabari at 3, and then Green and KPJ. Jabari would be perfect in that role both offense and defense. Sengun could attack against PF's which would be ideal. Center for this line-up would ideally be 3-point shooting defensive big, but we could try any of our own bigs as well: Garuba, Boban, Bruno.
Person with the most fouls last year was Spoiler Tate. 3.7 per game. 26.4 min per game. If Tate gets in foul trouble in pre season, no one bats eye. We only mention his 3p%. Sengun fouls? yes, I rather a Tate or Sengun tries on defense, than Wood who fouled 2.5/game. Some of these labels.
Sengun running with starting units and constantly being in foul trouble is also not going to help him. I think ultimately your view of what is "helpful" for Sengun is based on your thoughts of his ceiling. While I love watching him play and think he is a truly exciting player, I also think his defensive limitations are going to keep him from being a starting quality center and I think he is most valuable operating in a half court style of offense run through him...which I think may come at the expense of frankly better players than him on the court. Nothin wrong with him per se - but I see the future with Jabari, Jalen, KPJ, Eason, etc and none of those guys necessarily are at their best in a structured offense going through the post with Sengun. We can be good that way(assuming Sengun improves tremendously on defense) but we can be special playing fast, moving a lot, and frankly playing in chaos, and spreading the court. Sengun is just not that guy unfortunately...
He fouls at around the same rate as Tate last year. How many times has Sengun actually fouled last year. If people play defense, there's going to be fouls. Sure we want everyone to play smarter defense, but this label is getting a little overblown.
I think you’re just talking out your ass at this point - ha. I mean, Sengun never fouled out because he played limited minutes. That doesn’t mean he is not prone to fouling - he just wasn’t really given the opportunity to play enough to foul out. “If people play defense, there’s going to be fouls” has nothing to do with Sengun. It’s just a statement you threw in there to make it seems like him being bad at defense is evidence of his defensive effort. You don’t have to distract from it - Sengun is not a good defender. He just isn’t right now. If you think otherwise you need to prove it. Tonight Sengun gave up a couple of wide open shots to the best shooter in the game. He was literally backpedaling under a screen trying to protect the roll on a player where everyone in gym knew you can’t leave Trey Young open. That’s problematic for two reasons - a)his awareness in real time of his opponent’s strengths/weaknesses is slow and b) once he realizes his mistake he had absolutely no chance to make it out there in time because he has slow feet.
Eason needs to start. Sengun needs to play with starters more, no point having him in with Matthews and KPJ. A Sengun-Smith-Eason front court would work really well, Eason would help address some of the defensive concerns regarding Sengun. I’d like to see this trio get 15-20 mins together on the floor alongside two of KPJ, Green, EG. I think that is our most capable line-up.
Not sure why Silas is really opposed to staggering Green+KPJ. We didn't see it last year and we didn't see it last night either. Silas opted to have Eric Gordon run the point at large length last night. Odd to me...
