I keep hearing this from some people - yet the Rockets are consistently playing way better in the minutes he is on the court than when he is off. The +\- has extended across months of data, different line ups and opponents… and yet the Rockets win the minutes he plays. So at some point it goes beyond statistical outlier and it becomes a fact that the Rockets are objectively a much better player when he is on the court. I think he has defensive issues in certain match ups, but overall it has been really exaggerated and magnified by the lack of a post defender. If you want to criticize the defensive limitations of a player- it is Sengun, who is a very good player but a poor match for this team and coach. Sheppard is way down on the list of problems for the Rockets.
There was, in the 3rd quarter the Rockets were sending hard doubles at the dribbler and it was causing all sorts of confusion for the Spurs and they turned the ball over several times. It led to the mini Rockets come back towards the end of 3rd since we really should have been down by more than 25 at that point, but Ime inexplicably went away from it to start the 4th and also sat KD which I thought was a mistake since we had some momentum going into the 4th quarter.
Wemby was giving Sengun the same exact treatment as Amen. I actually don't understand what happened to Alpy's shooting. His percentages on close and mid-range shots has fallen off a cliff. He was pretty good at both in his third year. As much as people talk about Amen needing to shoot better Sengun is actually a bigger culprit since we actually try to feature him offensively. I think our coaching staff obviously needs to be better but he is just not nearly as good as he was in that 23/24 season. He was an all-star this year by reputation only, he didn't really deserve it. To be fair, he definitely should have gotten it year 3. I'm just having a hard time seeing him be the starting center of a deep playoff team the way he is trending. We have to make some really SERIOUS decisions soon. He could go from being a valued asset to an albatross pretty quickly depending on how the end of the season and playoffs plays out.
I don’t want to agree with you- but you are completely accurate. Sengun had to go through the Silas/KPJ/Green comedy hour to start his career. It was a complete waste of time. Amen would be further along and Sheppard would as well.
Franchise players know if your organization have Popovich, Johnson and Buford or Stone and Fertitta. Young stars not wanting to join you/work out for you. Even KD's preference were the Spurs First, and then Miami and Houston.
Exactly - when it gets to like the 4th or 5th excuse for why the Spurs are doing well… it’s time to just admit that they are right now a better and more complete organization.
every spurs player feasted with open 3s all night Sheppard would be licking his chops playing with Wemby
The spurs are the model organization in all of sports (Brady Pats were in the convo at one point) They just find dudes and develop their game to fundamentals so well The league probably did facilitate him going to SA but can you blame them? The next big hope for the NBA going to a failed franchise with a. bad track record isn't good
Sheppard was a lottery pick in a weak draft. And he’s finally broken out. Have you seen his post ASB stats? He comes of the bench only because tari eason will cry like the sensitive little boy he is. Rest assured. I will agree on sengun not being good enough.
Amen has been pretty damn awesome all of 2026. His only problem lately is deferring instead of just taking over the games. He could’ve easily scored 30+ tonight. He needs to unlieash himself instead of waiting on Ime and Durant to give him the go ahead. 26 last game, 23 this game, good assists, practically no turnovers and all anyone can talk about is Reed needs to start. LOL. As I predicted Reed was absolutely dominated by the SA guards on both sides of the court. Castle blows him away @Bobbythegreat, every time. Sengun, Durant, and FVV should all be traded if the return for each is positive. Yes, I’ll take the athletes Amen, Jabari, Tari over the p*****s Reed, Sengun, and Durant every time. It’s pretty sad when the excuse for your performance is that you don’t have the league’s foremost journeymen, FVV and Adams. In the rotation. I’ve been saying it for 2 seasons, Ime has to go.
Sheppard would probably be an all star next to wemby. Any defensive blow bys on reed are covered by him
Wonder why? If one player doesn’t develop. It’s on the player. If the entire team is playing the same. It’s on the coach.
The difference is in the 3 pt shooting, Rox shot 8/28 for 28% while Spurs shot 21/40 for 50%. Udoka is supposed to be a defensive coach how come we cant defend 3 pt attempts???? Still keep running zone into 3 pt bombing teams??? Rockets won that 1st quarter when Alpi sat down and Clint manning the C spot. As usual Dumbdoka just played him 15 mins and played Sengun who had the game worst -28. Our offense is ass. Everybody except reed just shoots mid range and 2s lol wtf. This team isnt serious till we get rid of the coach.
If we landed the number 1 pick during the Cunningham or Wemby draft, neither one of them would of been able to do a damn thing during the first 6-7 years of their career from landing and playing with the Rockets. They would of played with us and they would have to have learned to like it. The Mobley BS during the Green draft, was just that, BS. Rockets saw Green as a high ceiling player that could potentially become a franchise player, so even though Mobley's dad didn't want him to come to the Rockets because of KPJ, the Rockets did not see Mobley as a franchise player, therefore, although they may have considered the possibility, they likely were going with Green. Young stars, well, young stars don't necessarily have a choice who they play for. How many Kobe Bryant situations have we've had in the last 30 years? How many teams have been forced to trade their franchise player during their 1st or even 2nd contract? Players come to play for teams that will pay them and will have a chance to win a championship. Since Stone became GM, there really hasn't been much of a chance for him to go after a big name due to how the salary cap rules has shifted. First of all, during the rebuild years, we didn't have the draft capital nor team to make a move for a franchise player that wanted out. Even now, we haven't seen some major shift in star players wanting to move on from their teams. Sure, you've had KD and Irving that have shifted. Giannis is a b**** that can't make up his mind if he wants to leave or not, but I guess this is Stone's chance (and quite frankly I hope he doesn't pursue). Fox, meh, I personally am glad we aren't paying him max money considering we are now having to start paying our core. Doncic was fluke that no one even knew about. Now-a-days, most players are staying with their team.
Your favoritism and bias for amen (who has been my fav player) and hate boner for anything negative Reed does occasionally is becoming glaring Sheppard needs to grow a pair for sure and I am with you on that, but laying blame to him tonight is hilarious. Facing a full court press from Castle/harper who gave KD issues as well and Cade the other day is pretty telling. Amen not being able to shoot has been one of the biggest problems of this team all season long. He had open jumpers all game long and made a 3 which all of us celebrated like Christmas. His court vision is amongst the worst I’ve ever seen. I think he’s untradable because he does so much and never lets up but you are being delusional here amen has taken a step back this year and has not been by any measure “damn awesome”. I can’t tell what’s more insane, that or taking tari over Reed. You should look at the numbers sometime…your eye test is failing you big time
I think it was Mobley's dad knowing something about the development in this very organization..... Word travels fast....but yeah, Cade's support team would not have done anything........sure but you got to have the Number 1 pick...... But even if you had Cade, filling out the roster is quite the Herculean task for a slightly above average GM Stone is.......
i think Ime needs to use these last few games to stress test how bad Amen is at shooting 3's. Let Amen (and Sengun?) shoot the threes. Rockets need to get the volume of threes up. Also make Amen shoot when he is being guarded like a center at the top of the key.
Im saying this group isn’t good enough collectively. I like Reed and Amen. But the pieces don’t match. I already said i think Giannis and a myles turner/stretch 5 can win this team a championship.
