You're not alone. These are appropriate, albeit expensive, veteran additions for a defensive minded head coach. Quickly threw together some very rough minute distributions for this group and it is a pretty exciting exercise. Amen's ability to provide back up PG minutes will quickly make KPJ expendable. Tari/Cam could have a legit minutes battle. Tari has been great, so excited to see him get pressured from a new rookie. What really stands out is our Forward position. If Jabari can play some small ball 5 this year, Ime will have loads of flexibility to pack the court with a lot of length. Amen, Green, Brooks, Tari, Jabari/Sengun is an exciting lineup. Rocket 2023-24 Rotation PG: FVV (30), KPJ (10), Amen (8) SG: Ja. Green (32), KPJ (16) SF: Brooks (31), Eason (12), Amen (7) PF: Jabari (27), Eason (13), Cam (5) C: Alperen (32), Landale (11), Jabari (5) Reserves: - Jeff Green - Jae’Sean Tate G-League: - Amen Thompson - Cam Whitmore
Of course you should be excited the roster is no longer a dumpster fire. We can actually compete and win games.
You're not alone. These are appropriate, albeit expensive, veteran additions for a defensive minded head coach. Quickly threw together some very rough minute distributions for this group and it is a pretty exciting exercise. Amen's ability to provide back up PG minutes will quickly make KPJ expendable. Tari/Cam could have a legit minutes battle. Tari has been great, so excited to see him get pressured from a new rookie. What really stands out is our Forward position. If Jabari can play some small ball 5 this year, Ime will have loads of flexibility to pack the court with a lot of length. Amen, Green, Brooks, Tari, Jabari/Sengun is an exciting lineup. Rocket 2023-24 Rotation PG: FVV (30), KPJ (10), Amen (8) SG: Ja. Green (32), KPJ (16) SF: Brooks (31), Eason (12), Amen (7) PF: Jabari (27), Eason (13), Cam (5) C: Alperen (32), Landale (11), Jabari (5) Reserves: - Jeff Green - Jae’Sean Tate G-League: - Amen Thompson - Cam Whitmore
If we just did everything else except the Brooks contract I would have come away from today feeling pretty happy with our free agency, especially after learning FVV has a third year team option. That Brooks contract is insane. Actually insane, not just a little crazy like paying FVV the max. If we had waited I bet we could have scooped him for the room exception, and if we "missed out" on that toxic loser, who cares.
Out all day, so late to reply. We will be better than last year, but we are still 2 years away from being 2 years away. Free agency this year will set the club back a year - paying FVV max money and Dillon Brooks anything doesn't move the needle for me. FVV will at least improve the team on the court, but make it harder to send out a young guy with promise for a slightly older guy who has already become an all-star. VanVleet is a fringy all-star type, but on the Vet Max he needs to be all NBA to not be negative value on this contract. I don't care that the Rockets were looking to make a Splash - all you can eat Shrimp at Joe's Crab Shack like move as far as I am concerned. There were dozens of good value trades and signings. Monte Morris for a 2nd rounder... Some team picked up Usman Guruba and got paid a 2nd round pick... there are tons of things that the Rockets could have done, but they leaked their plans and stuck to them come hell or high water.
My gut feeling is…it's not done yet, still one piece away from accomplishment - hope it's a guy w/ a combination of rim protection, lob threat, nice mobility n 34% beyond the arc (will be a plus). If fail, shrug it off, back to work, get down to daily drills, work on defensive schemes, stress collective rebound. (We need a Obi Toppin sorta player, but hrs ago Pacers landed him through giving away two 2nd rnd picks. Sad, wht a steal.) From a weak a$$ coach to an iron fist one, it's a big stride, and…we drafted the best young prospects we could possibly get from 2023 class, awesome. i give FO an A for these maneuvers in past few months. Rest of things? just leave to Ime, inc allowing him the vets he want, cuz at the end of the day he is the person to deliver things by make the most of wht he got. I wanna see beautiful games this coming season as much as fundamental improvement on systematic player development, in this regard i believe our new added vets will show up n help Ime out. Two known unknowns: 1. As a future franchise player, has jalen green begun understanding the chip on his shoulder? Third yr, it's the third yr man, Stop walking through red carpet, go backget dirty in weight room; 2. Will KPj accept his role coming off the bench? He got tons of talent which i never doubted it, He can make big time shots, but he's always a ticking time bomb out there.
The only 2 players that has below 40% shooting of average more than 14+ pts are FVV and Dillon Brooks. They are perfect match. Let's call them Bricklayer Brother.
After some smoke has cleared, here's what I think about the roster. If Stone has another move in the works, all the better. FVV brings quickness to our backcourt, which we sorely need. He can run sets and defends well. I don't love his contract, but the alternatives were bleak. Amen Thompson isn't ready for anything more than to be our backup PG. If they try to have him play minutes at SG or SF, he'll struggle to match the league's physicality. I think he will truly flourish in that backup PG role, and with his competitive drive, he'll be fine. His shot has been put under the microscope and already looks better. Brooks + Cam Whitmore brings a lot of size and tenacity to the SF position. Brooks is no creator, but FVV will get him good looks. These are pieces that fit together. Maybe Jeff Green is in the rotation until the trade deadline and Whitmore has clocked his G-League crash course. Having FVV, Brooks, and/or Green on the court will mean fewer straight-line drives and blown assignments. Haven't we improved our D at the SF position? A frontline with Sengun (Lockdale behind him), Jabari, and Eason will fit together well on defense. If Jalen Green and KPJ can give us reliable minutes at the 2-guard, we've got potential. If they flounder, we may end up among the four worst teams in the league. After half a season, we won't even remember TyTy and JGup. They are borderline NBA athletes/players and could be out of the league (like Nix will be) in no time. Garuba and Martin may hang around longer, but they'll have to grow up to stick on anyone's bench. When they arrived in Houston, I thought they were shoe-ins to be in our rotation. But they don't fit with the rest of the players we've got here, and they didn't improve much last year. Blame the coaches if you want, but the coaches didn't force Garuba to come into camp out of shape, etc.
I'm excited again about this team.. one thing for sure, Ime has a style of play in mind, and he is shaping this team to do it... it's likely he has looked at the tape of our team, decided who fits, and what he can do to improve each one of the players he keeps..Garuba, Nix, Christopher, Washington, and Martin may be good players in a certain system, but they won't fit here..
Idk about “excited” but I’m intrigued. We should be much better. I’m okay with the gamble on bringing in Brooks in a vacuum. He was playing 30 minutes a game on a team that won 51 games. I’d like to know who we were bidding against though. I would have thought years or annual salary would’ve been lower. The FVV deal is really not a bad way to use a mountain of cap space at all.
Silas never had a chance. The organization wanted to lose & they did exactly that. Had he won games, they would've fired him quicker
This off-season we added: Udoka, FVV, Brooks(2nd team defense), Amen, Whitmore, Landale, and Jeff Green. Probably also ain’t done This is a completely different team. Post season type team
We needed a starting PG and wing. He got both. We needed a backup center and got that too. We need veterans to set the culture and added 4. We have identified the core 6+1 from the past 3 drafts and finally have a plan to develop those guys within a structured environment. No more AAU ball I hope.
