Stone's trash ass threw the entire MLE on a player that wasn't even worth negotiating with by a team that traded for him
He is there for his defence. His minutes are right down from the previous years. Okogie can't get game time anymore either. Ime's rotations are just awful
Okogie has played really well this season. It's crazy that he is now out of the rotation even after Tate gets injured.
Once again My same 2 points plus a bonus 1. KD at this stage of his career is a 4. He and one other big is all the bigs that should be on the court together defensively. Our lineups should have either one or two bigs max.... including KD as a big. Bari is a big. So when Alpi or KD sit and Bari is in with one or the other it is still a double big lineup. When we go with alpi kd and Bari we have too many bigs to defend the perimeter and it's easy for opponents to dissect us. DFS is also a hybrid big. Two bigs max on the court together. And we need to explore 1 big lineups a whole lot more. 2. The only way we should be playing offensively with Amen is the INVERTED PICK AND ROLL with Amen coming up from the baseline to set the screen for Alpi or KD and then rolling to the rim. No other half court offensive set has a chance of working with Amen and Alpi/KD at this juncture of the season and their individual developments. The playoffs is all about half court execution. Until and unless Amen develops a good 3- point shot there IS NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE WAY TO USE AMEN in half court sets that would approach any sort of championship level offensive efficiency. Inverted pick- and- roll with Amen is our only opportunity to salvage this season and give us even a tiny shot at a championship with Amen playing as a starter and top 5 guy on the team. --------------------------------------------------- 3. This all involves increased usage of smalls and wings, including REED! Ime HAS TO gain coaching flexibility to best coach the group our GM handed him. Shouldn't be so stubborn. We're 2/3 through the season. Amen isn't going to start shooting a 40 3- ball in the last 20 something games. Reed isn't going to become a defensive grinder this season. Bari isn't going to magically become a playmaker. KD is an inefficient high- turnover playmaker from the perimeter off-the-dribble. There's not enough time left this season for those guys to dap up their skill sets this season. They are what they are. Put all of them (qwarts and all) in the best position for the team to succeed and use the strength of each players skill set to help cover the weakness of their teammates skill sets. Alpi and REED are CLEARLY the two best playmakers on the team. Embrace that! Step into it full fledged. Design offensive play to maximize their great offensive playmaker with KD creating space with his gravity. Defensively KD plays the 4 and helps Alpi on the interior with Amen and Tari staking havoc on the perimeter with both those guys helping to cover all these massive blow bys (greatly exaggerated) that REED allegedly gives up (which really isn't anymore than Bari and KD give up playing out of position) while Reed uses his ball nose to disrupt passing lanes and create defensive turnovers. Coach has to make it work. That's what he's paid to do. Not stubbornly plod on a course that he does not have the personnel for.
Love the PnR with Amen as the screener, but only when the Rockets aren't playing a center. When 2 nonshooters are on the floor, the non shooter's man is in the paint for whoever isn't in the action. If both* nonshooters are in the action, the defense just doesn't honor the action and plays drop. The Rockets small ball centers have not played well. DFS being slow and missing shots has been a huge problem. Not as svelte as he was in Dallas, or even LA when he was able to guard Ant. For all the talk of the Rockets should have used that salary for a PG, the Rockets don't have a backup wing that can shoot and play defense. The Rockets needed DFS to be better, so things like the inverted PnR work. Heck, Reed is in there with a lot of mutt lineups, making offense really difficult even with him coming out of his slump. DFS does look to be fundamentally sound on defense, and clogs things up even though his POA defense is limited to slow players. Edit *probably should have put two instead of both as both implies Rockets are only playing 2 nonshooters at a time.
THIS. There's nothing wrong with Jabari he just doesn't fit and we don't need him in the starting lineup. Better perimeter defense or better shooting or better playmaking would all be more beneficial in his spot. This will never work. It's not possible to run a passable PnR with two guys who can't shoot. It barely worked with Sengun/Jalen before Jalen could make 35%. Teams will just drop back and let any of the two take a jumper - which was available without the PnR anyway.
Tari could be that guy if he didn't have to play guard where ONLY FVV could shoot and play defense. There was a choice whether they wanted wing depth or guard depth. Stone thought there was no difference between wings and guards (or that's what he said). And he banked totally on FVV.
