This Is Going To Be An Interesting Summer

Triple J is a loser. Nothing about that guy speaks to winning basketball. Super Talented but inconsistent and lacks effort.

We don’t necessarily need a stretch 5 if we trade Amen as well. I think trading both of them along with Sheppard for stars will propel this franchise to phase 4 which is dominate now.

It’s such a shame our 2 best young players can’t shoot. I mean it’s awful and a waste of talent. I’ve never seen anything like this where you have great talents that can’t shoot over 10 ft. Boggles my mind.

I disagree Udoka likes slow offenses. His 2022 celtic team wasn’t slow. They were one of the top teams to shoot with 0 dribbles. They also shot early in the shot clock. They also made that extra pass to shooters and played a better team game.

 

Sengun shot well in international play and in the first month. It's either mental or fatigue... or bad offensive coaching.

 

Re-Branding.

@Jontro

 

Mental fatigue after the first month of the new season?

Does coaching run out on the court and shoot the ball for players? Did coaching somehow controlled his hand to make him miss his shots?

He did not shoot well the first month and went 7-27 from 25-29 ft 25% which were the majority of his 3s. This is why he stopped shooting.

 

Forgive some edits on my own part.
As far as Sengun and Reed, it's tough to gauge the extent of their faults because the team is such a hot mess. "The dog's breakfast," as the English would say.

And you have more faith in Tilman Fertitta than most of us on the board!!

 

Keep in mind that Sengun's numbers beat out Chet's, who got voted in, and LeBron only played maybe 60% of games before the All Star Break but, because it might be his last season (I doubt it), they put him on the team.

 

Can't believe I'm mostly agreeing with you. Mostly.

No one has really denied Kevin Durant's s**t-posting against his teammates, which is the peak of childishness, especially for a 37 year-old who's been in the league for eighteen (?) years. So even though there might be embellishments from internet trolls to augment the damage, there's really no softening it either.

What a cluster***k of a team. Owner, GM, coach, star player.

 

Anyone that doesn't think Lebron is in the same league as Magic is an idiot. Lebron and Jordan are 1A and 1B.

 

Ime's been over his head for awhile now. He needs to go. But, it won't happen.

I don't see any MAJOR moves coming in the offseason. KD hasn't had the right pieces around him, but FVV will be back. Like it or not, he'll be the starting PG out of the gate. But, we'll be able to deal him by the deadline if need be. Adams will be back. But, DFS likely gets dealt with assets for need/depth.

 

Chet is efficient and has dpoy votes.

 

That would be nice but it's not going to solve the problem. Trying to make 2 non-shooters work without an all NBA calibre player is looney.

We have no choice now so we should do it for the rest of the season but why are we wasting so much damn time on this? We have the roster to try it.

Sengun
Durant
Tari
Amen
Sheppard (who can also help the PG).

Yes yes yes the defense will suffer but that's where Udoka's skills become an asset rather than a liability. He can make that team overachieve defensively, that's his strength. Him wasting another half a season for the 3rd time in a row to come up with some mediocre offensive idea is so tiring.

If we don't know by this season though, I'm NOT supportive of going next into next season blindly and hoping one of them can shoot. That is too big a risk, pissing away yet another season.

 

I've never seen Ime open the court his entire coaching career so I'm not sure he's even capable of doing it. He had Brown and Tatum and his brilliant idea was to slow them down and crowd the paint. That's why Kerr crushed him in the Finals with a less talented roster.

Which is why I always say: this team is primarily built around Ime and that's a mistake only an insanely incompetent GM would make.

 

The Rockets can fix most of their problems by trading Amen for the maximum value they can get, hiring an experienced offensive coordinator for Ime, and bringing in another guard who can shoot.

 

No chief there's no logic that could possibly rationalize that 0.2 extra blocks per 36 is worth shelving the better shooter on a team who's #1 problem is shooting. Not to mention Tari is significantly better at guarding SG/SF's - which is currently Jabari's job.

Durant is always hidden on PF's so there's no reason to have Jabari out there. He's neither the best defender nor the best shooter for that position. Tari has won that argument handily.

There's nothing wrong with coming off the bench and developing there. He's just not a good fit for the starting lineup. Reed, Okogie and Tari all do things we desperately need. Jabari just does nice-to-have things.

 

We don't have any stars among our draft picks. The KD trade is a failure. We may need to do a mini-rebuild...hopefully with a new GM. I feel the worst thing the Rockets can do is to continue to go all-in with KD by making a trade for another star player to pair with KD.

 

Their problems are solved mostly by Sengun, and Amen learning how to shoot, and Sengun & Reed learning how to play defense.

However that's not a problem that's easily solved that quick. The biggest question over the summer will be whether or not Stone needs to break up Sengun, and Amen because you just cannot have a team be successful in the modern NBA when your two best young players both cannot shoot.

And if you are going to break up that duo, who would you trade, and what would need to get back?

...

Re KD: I don't care if he did the burner thing. It won't make me trade him at a loss. I'd trade him for bball reasons if they could get value back. If you cannot get value back, let the old dog play it out, and after next season he's a massive expiring contract you can use. I want to see what the team looks like next season anyways with FVV, and Adams back healthy, and some improvement from the young core. I would trade him if there's value, but if you can't, you still get next season to see what it looks like with a healthy team

Re coaching: Don't see any change

Re front office: Don't see any change, but would be nice to add a President role that provide a check on Stone, and serve as more of a consultant. I think the future is certainly Patrick Fertitta running the ship and I really don't want the only persona he learned anything from to be freaking Rafael Stone. Not sure what his health is like, but I would love to have Rudy T serve in this role for 2 years. I could even see Mario Elie maybe being a good fit here, or someone that understands the Rockets legacy culture, and has those key relationships around the league.

Draft: I want to see Stone find a way to acquire a first round pick this draft, and bring in some more talent. I think our bench is wayyyy too shallow, and need more cracks at the bat with talent both this next season, and subsequent seasons. I don't think we have nearly as much depth as people think.

 

that lineup is something many of us have been calling for. Also more Bari at the 5 when Sengun is out. So basically better spacing lineups…which Ime refuses to play.

 

For better or worse, Patrick is the future GM of this team. So replacing Stone might be irrelevant. As noted, I think we need a president of BBall ops who can oversee Stone, and Patrick for a few years, and really be that mentor figure... mostly for Patrick.

I agree the worst decision would be to go all in on another aging star. That almost never works, and I don't even have to name examples because we all know plenty of them.

I wouldn't say our picks are not stars... I would say that they have HUGE flaws though. Like all of them... so the question is really about fit vs belief in development. Sengun and Amen are young stars... but their flaws are so big and duplicative in terms of shooting that the big question is fit next to each other. Do you pull the band aid off now this summer, or wait and see?? Its a big decision but IMO it's the big one.... even bigger than anything related to KD. KD is temporary. The Amen/Sengun question is long lasting, and impacts the future for many many years.