Reed had a very hot start but he cooled down significantly Was completely scoreless in the second half. This is also his first game playing 30+ minutes so he was probably gassed
As crazy as I thought this was originally, it just might be the answer! He could still get his same mins but just in a different role. However, futuristically I think it will hurt his trade value
Naw, I don’t think its that. Miami's guards played really good defense and Reed is not the type of player where he can get his own shot. Its his lateral quickness
There is no perfect player. If you trade him or bench him, what weaknesses are you getting in return? My guess is they would be more pronounced than Sengun's. How many teams have the kind of bigs that give Sengun trouble? Not many, I think. Even fewer that we would be concerned about in the playoffs. I'd happily meet Miami in the finals and live with the results.
I understand the logic. I posted something similar about amen going to the bench last month but at this point it makes some sense but not really. These guys need to continue to start. it is entirely possible that we supplement the coaching staff in the off-season with somebody that can help on the offensive side of things. I do believe that the players could co-exist and even have it be beneficial. Udoka, is not facilitating that sort of offensive synergy right now. even if the franchise decides that we need to trade Alpi, he needs to start through the rest of the year. He will still have incredible trade value.
Eh, Amen's +/- might be the highest on the roster & among starters. Him being a star is irrelevant because he affects winning more than almost anybody on the roster, especially Alperen Sengun
I believe that Alpi's defensive problem is not the real issue. His defense has regressed this season. But last season wasn't that bad. That means to me a matter of motivation rather than ability. He will never be a great defensive player. But he can be adequate. The issue is offensive fit, specifically with Amen a non-shooting perimeter high minutes player. That IMO is more a coaching and team building problem. Two non-shooters should be able to give you adequate offense if you can devise some creative schemes and bring in better shooters. More concerning is his efficiency. He needs to be better at scoring on close range shots. I think at least part of it has to do this spacing. He gets double teamed down low. It doesn't help that he needs to create his own shots almost every time from the 3pt line. Some of it is on him. He needs to be better at hitting the open man when the defense converges to him. His assists number has increased. But he could do more to punish double teams.
Alpi & JSJ both rate as above-average defender in the post but have issues on the perimeter, especially Alpi. Rox lineups with 2+ weak perimeter defenders tend to have issues.
It's a team building problem. We have a bunch of 3-4 (Tari, KD) or 4-5 (Bari, DFS). We have no 2-way players who can man the 1-2 spots other than FVV. With Fred out, we have 5 back court players. Amen and Okogie can defend but not shoot. Reed and Holiday can shoot but not defend. JD is not a full-time player.
It’s true. On offense we can at least put guys in position to be good enough though, Okogie can make “the corner shot” and his minutes decrease is inexplicable. He was on a tear in December until the Sacramento OT loss, then drastically cut and we limped through January. We had some guys return that game though IIRC It makes total sense in the context of not letting his next contract get out of control, so maybe it’ll work out longterm given that no one will remember our regular season record
I used ordinary fields goals for BOTH the Rockets Reed/Tari, AND for Heat Herro, to show they lost their direct matchup. 8/12 FG is sold on head to head without use of advanced metrics. That was the point of that Or put it this way, it'd be sweet if Sengun shot 8/12 efficiency, right? You can disagree, you might be cool, but don't you "Uuuuuuiuuugh ACKCHUALLY--" sass ME. Not playing that today lol
I do agree on that, that's it not a good thing. Only that it shouldn't have been "surprising". Should have added, it DOES bring the real concern that the Heat gives other teams the plan on how to stop Sengun & the Rockets. So it can spread past just the Heat. So Sengun still needs to adjust & step up asap I figure most teams don't have a 5 time All Defense center and a long pogo stick with a 3 ball as backup. So most teams won't be as effective with their personnel. But zone defenses itself has given Rockets trouble. That's what I meant by "concern vs other teams". The Heat have the personnel, scheme and the coach. Other teams won't. But maybe just the scheme itself can cause troubles
Honestly I don't even know what you're talking about, but here is Sengun's direct matchup: Sengun: 43% TS, 86 ortg, 117 drtg, 6 rebs, -18 Bam: 61% TS, 130 ort, 105 drtg, 11 rebs, +16 Bam OBLITERATED Sengun. Let's not even talk about Ware. Ware and Bam actually went head to head with Sengun. Don't even know what Herro has to do with Reed since he was mostly on Davion and Larrson. Did you watch the game? There's no way to spin this as Sengun's teammates let him down using some nonsensical "head to head FG" stuff...whatever that even means.... If not for DFS he would've been the worst player to play in that game. He definitely had a worse impact than DFS since he played so many minutes.
