When will Reed be placed into the starting lineup?

JB Bickerstaff is starting to reduce Ausar’s minutes, because he knows having him on the floor against good teams is bad for their offense. The only thing that’s ludicrous is that people think there is no way amen should be benched.

 

I see absolutely no reason for Amen and Reed not to start. They play very well together. Tari should go back to the bench and come off the bench for any of Reed, Amen, or Durant depending on matchups and who is hot. Durant and Sengun Iso are the problem with starting Reed and Amen. Get away from Sengun and Durant from controlling the offense when these two are in the game together.

 

One reason would be because Amen can't shoot and isn't as good a player as the other starter who can't shoot. Would Amen and 4 shooters work? Sure, but Sengun and 4 shooters likely works better.

If Amen can learn to shoot at a respectable rate, then OF COURSE he should start, but until then he makes everyone else on the court worse by being there.

 

And yet the offensive rating when Amen is on the floor is 119 and 110 when not. Defense is even more dramatic. When Amen is on the floor we have a differential of over 8. It is the best on the team.

 

That's because there's not much of a sample of the starters minus Amen with a shooter to compare it to. Ime loves his awful rotations which kind of kills that metric but it's obvious to anyone watching that the offense struggles with more than one non-shooter on the court. Don't worry this isn't an "eye test" take where I'm saying "trust me bro", it shows up in other metrics.

Here's a way to look at what Amen does to the spacing.



Amen's negative impact on spacing is almost the same as Reed's positive spacing and Reed's gravity or positive spacing is the 34th best in the league.

Amen hurts spacing more than Clint Capela. Defenders respect Amen's shooting less than Clint's.

 

You only like stats when they support your narrative. +8.7 when Amen is on the floor is the best on the team. Better than all other Rockets. I’m in favor of starting Reed, but not to replace Amen which would be ignorant.

 

Yeah, it was a dumb question. If he straight up asked, "Will you consider starting Reed?" he might get a much more meaningful answer.

 

Reed + Sengun is the problem. Makes no difference if Durant shares the floor with them.
https://databallr.com/wowy/HOU/2026/2026/regular/high/wowy/1630578/1642263/201142/1641708/1631095

 

No, I always like stats, I just know to never trust just one, especially when small samples or weird things are involved.

Also I'm not saying to never play Amen....just being honest that until he can shoot a basketball at a respectable rate, he's a detriment to any offense that doesn't have him as the sole non-shooter....and if you have to pick between Sengun and Amen, he should lose out. Sengun is simply the better player at this point.

Now if Amen learns how to shoot a basketball, everything changes. He could become the best player on the team and one of the best in the league if that happened. Until it does however, it'll be up in the air if the damage he does to everyone else in the halfcourt when paired with even one other non-shooter is worth the benefits he brings on defense and in transition.

 

I don't see how this is relevant. Ausar gets Tari minutes (~26), not Amen minutes. Hence, his minutes can go up and down a lot.

plus, he just got above season average minutes (28) in their last game, which was OKC. His monthly ave has been same since Nov.

 

What does any of this have to do with reality?

Are you going to play both Sengun and Amen 30+ mpg. That's reality

And if so, what difference does it make who starts, you'll have to deal with a lot of overlap. Starting Starting Reed, Amen, Tari/Bari, Durant, Sengun is completely justifiable. especially, with the Reed, Tari, Amen tandem to force tempo early, with Katie as trailer. We've seen Amen's elite ability to press and probe early even after made baskets, too, then give up the ball and go to dunker spot.

you guys are not really debating reality, when it comes to the idea of benching Amen.

 

Ausar has been an absolute menace on defense this year https://www.nbarapm.com/player/Ausar_Thompson

 

It’s very relevant. The insistence on playing amen the amount of minutes we have is a key reason why our offense has been in the bottom third of the league since the turn of the calendar.

JB benched Asaur in the third quarter of that San Antonio game recently and he didn’t see the floor again. Would Ime ever do that with Amen?

 

Based on your stats, you would prefer to start either Capela or Okogie over Amen?
Come on bro, eye ball test shows we're not optimally utilizing Amen!
Reed should start over Tari, but Ime doesn't fully trust Reed on defense so thats why he's still coming off the bench.
Screw your stats, they're lying to you!

 

Those numbers just show how much a player hurts spacing, not who should start.

It shows that Amen absolutely kills spacing, having one of those guys out on the court is fine, having 2 of them is not fine.

 

Then the reality is that the team isn't going anywhere at least this season....which is probably the case since they have Ime as their head coach.

Reed does help mitigate the absolute disaster that is Amen when it comes to spacing, but if he's replacing a shooter, it does less good for the team than it would if he was replacing a non-shooter.

The real solution is for Amen to learn how to shoot a basketball better than an 80's center, but that isn't happening any time soon....if ever.

 

First, it is not relevant because it isn’t a JBB trend. what SAS can do with Wemby playing centerfield is unique. JBB played Ausar above average minutes yesterday vs OKC.

Second, It is *not* relevant to the discussion of overlapping minutes with Sengun, because no one in the fanbase is saying Amen should only get 26 minutes, like Ausar. I mean, there’s no talk shows, media, anyone saying that.

you Ausar comparison is not relevant on two fronts, here.

 

You didn’t answer my question. Would Ime ever bench Amen if the game depended on it?

It is absolutely relevant to the overlapping of minutes with Sengun. Having Amen out there as a non shooter with Sengun all the time is directly correlated, not only to this team’s putrid offense, but Sengun’s overall regression this year as a playmaker. No talk shows are talkikg about Amen being an issue because talk show hosts never follow the rockets closely, duh


They are, however, talking about JB starting to lessen reliance on Asuar. Go listen to the newest hoop collective if you don’t believe me.

 

It isn’t reality that Amen is an “absolute disaster” for spacing. I watch these games, man. Don’t get hyperbolic with me. You come off sounding insecure when you wildly exaggerate — as some tactic to get ppl to concede ground.

I can show you why he isn’t a spacing disaster. I can show you many clips of his gravity with and without the ball, in repeatable situations for this team, or any team. I guess you mean when he’s handling the ball out front, in ISO?

Hell, even then, with 4 shooters he’s a threat as big as early Giannis.

 

It's not exaggeration at all, I even posted the numbers to prove it. When you deny obvious reality it comes off as insincere....as some tactic to attempt to not have to concede ground.

Also, saying that "with 4 shooters", you are dodging the point....you HAVE to surround Amen with shooters to mitigate the harm he does to spacing. There can only be one player with that kind of negative gravity on the court or you are in trouble.

Unfortunately for Amen, he's not a center AND he's not better than Sengun currently, so the team should make Sengun the one non-shooter in the starting lineup.

In the future, hopefully he becomes a respectable shooter so it won't be a problem anymore