Why do the Rockets give up so many double digit leads this season?

Poor defense.

 

There is a lot of issues IMO.

Part of it is that there isn't the effort or pride defensively that existed in the past.

This team used to have the identity of elite defense and that carried over for 48 minutes.

Now there are defensive lapses, injuries and defensive personnel isn't as good as in the past.

Also - the outside shooting other than KD hasn't been good enough.

Reed Sheppard was excellent for the first two months of the season, but now for the last month has been mediocre from the outside.

The pieces of the roster also do not really fit all that well - and while I am not a fan of dumping on the coach, the reality is that Udoka is not exactly MDA or Larry Brown or Steve Kerr at getting creative and adjusting line ups so that players like Sheppard and others can succeed.

Maybe I am being pessimistic, but it really feels like the identity and how this team will play is being bottled up by the coach. He has a round peg but insists on fitting it in a square hole. Things can change, but it feels like we will go back to FVV pounding the ball, shooting poorly from the outside but controlling turnovers and beating bad teams but losing to elite teams because we cannot score. Reed will be dealt for someone like Malik Monk to come off the bench, or maybe ownership gets angry and deals Segun and Sheppard for an aging star this summer.

Watching the Spurs get better and seeing Cooper Flagg drastically improving when he should be a freshman in college isn't a lot of fun as a Rockets fan.

 

Ime is going to need better personnel if he's going to be the guy. We haven't done a good enough job of adding shooting around Amen and Sengun, regardless of KD still being one of the best there is. I'm concerned by how both of our top picks who were supposed to become elite jump shooters have had bumpy starts to their careers (Jabari and Reed).

 

Why do the Rockets give up so many double digit leads this season?
______

 

It's simple. We have no one on the team that can control the tempo of the game.

Reed is two years too late into the rebuild to be given the freedom to learn at the expense of W's, and Amen is not really a PG, and that's excluding his outside shot.
Alpi is a great passer but he shouldn't be the one with the ball at half court, starting a set.

Fred, for all of his dumb shots and poor %'s, is good at controlling the tempo. He can be too slow at times, but he knew when and whom to push and when to slow and calm the team down.

We need a PG badly, and even old ass CP3 would jolt this team back to 2nd in no time.
I hope we get help by Thursday night, even if it costs us a 1st.

 

Mostly due to scoring droughts. And a lot of them are self-inflicted. In the 3rd quarter against the Pacers when the Rockets squandered their 12 point lead, Ime had a lineup out there with no one who could create their own shot other than Amen. And he can't shoot.

 

I remember there was a time when we had FOUR non shooters on the floor. Tari was the only one who could shoot. How are you going to score with that lineup?

 

Yeah didn't we have like Okogie, Tate, Clint, Tari, and Amen on the floor at one point, or am I misremembering? Whatever it was I remember thinking it was such a cursed lineup offensively.

 

It’s simple we need one more consistent 3 pt shooter and a new coach. Neither will happen this year. Just go ahead and let Amen and Reed continue to develop and maybe we luck out and get out of the first round.

 

If Reed gets back his shooting form, AND KD is healthy, by playoffs time, we might have a chance.

 

Yep

 

Oh oops

 

If the odds for a chip are >5%, go all in. Damn the consequences.

 

Coaching

 

Like you mentioned, foot speed doesnt necessarily correlate to pace & tempo. Rockets actually play much slower pace this year with hyper athlete Amen at PG, than with FVV previous 2 seasons. (4th slowest in '26, compared to middle of pack last year)

They don't have crispness, rhythm, fluidity, control in much of anything. They put secondary ballhandlers into role of primary, and it shows

 

Correct. The Rockets need something big to break their way.

 

I'd suggest Ime primarily playing through Sengun and KD is the real reason we're so slow-paced. Both guys like to get the ball and slowly go to work against their man. It has little to do with Amen's point guard play. He does try to push the pace, and so do Tari and Jabari and Reed for that matter, but as soon as the ball touches Sengun's or KD's hands everything slows down.

 

Alvarado could have been a very good acquisition for the Rockets with some effort. The Knicks are reaping the benefits.