Fully agree. Feel free to shoot me down, but one of my main takeaways from watching games is that the single biggest thing we could do to fix our offense is getting Fred back. We had way too many headless possessions last season when he was off the court, and now we have headless possessions all the time for the same reason. The stagnant offense, the turnovers, the terrible decisions, the late-game collapses, our atrocious record in OT and close games — it all comes back to the absence of our floor general. Every time a decision in crunch time falls to Tari Eason, I want to close my eyes. To that, you can add: If Reed is starting, who's giving us a jolt from the second unit? Who's creating? Who's putting up the points when KD is out? We need two guys to run this show. In the old days we had Kenny and Sam. Fred and Reed could be pretty solid.
Udoka addressed this: https://www.si.com/nba/rockets/onsi...to-spurs-hall-of-famer-four-time-nba-champion
Sheppard has been very inconsistent in his shooting, defense, and passing. The coaching staff has let him play through it and he’s played better last few games. Hopefully he continues this upward trend
it used to be it doesn't matter who starts. it matters who finishes game. but i don't know if you've seen the past few games, the starters without reed have been in a hole in the 1st quarter almost every game. rockets have lost game because Ime didn't let reed finish. Now, rockets are losing games in the 1st quarter in double digits.
Fred would be better coming off the bench and working himself into game shape. For Ime to start Reed, Reed needs to keep his hot streak going for the rest of the season. Then the pressure on Ime might be too great.
Its ultimately not FVV's fault of "hijacking away" the team to him, regardless of what anyone thinks of him. We can't control personnel decisions, and can only go with who is currently on the roster. FVV on the roster is a very needed option regardless of "cap figures" and "impediment to individual's development". Even with the facilitating presence of Reed playing more, the team is still coughing the ball away 25-30 times to bottom 5 worst teams. If/when he is available, he helps, simple as that
They were also in a hole vs both Washington and Golden State with Reed starting. For now, I still have a slight preference for him coming off the bench so he can be more aggressive and not have to share the court with all three of KD, Sengun, and Amen at the same time, which is not a good lineup. I want to see him get as many of his minutes as possible with at least one of those guys resting.
Fred and Bari are perfect for the bench. One of Amen or Sengun will be staggered with them. Don't need more than that from the second unit. I think people are in denial about how rapidly Sheppard is improving. What he did last week he couldn't dream of doing earlier in the season. His awareness and speed of decision making is increasing week to week. Chemistry is getting better. He has more good scorers to pass the ball to in Amen/Sengun/KD. The problem is we all know that even if Reed's next 20 games were better than any season in FVV's career they would still start Fred. They'll always prefer a 7/10 defensive player over an 8/10 offensive player. Even if we were the best defense in the NBA and the worst offense in the NBA, Ime will always prefer the defender.
I agree in general, but my concern is that if the main problem to solve is late game collapses and OT, and FVV is the main solution, and playing Reed and FVV together is too challenging defensively, the implication is Reed will not close out any games until FVV retires. That is not a particularly good way for our floor general of the future to gain experience (plus I’m not sure it is even the best answer right now given Reed’s undeniable gravity, which becomes even more important in tight halfcourt games). I’m excited to get FVV back, but I don’t see any way that it doesn’t hamper Reed’s development and contribution significantly. Please help talk me down!
It could be worse than that actually. Ime's undervaluing of Reed could very well cause Reed to request a trade next season. Ime treats him as a bench player when he is a budding star.
With all the growth of the young players (especially Sheppard), Thompson hasn't peaked, and a healthy return of FVV, Adams and Finney-Smith (there is no way he can stay this bad with a summer to recoup) I would put the Rockets up against anyone next year and put actual money on the Rockets every time. That team would be too damn deep to compete against. A full year of getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and a summer to improve, shoot they should start the season 10-0, I don't care the schedule. 2026-2027 Fully Healthy Roster Guards FVV Sheppard Durant (He plays 2 currently) Forwards Thompson Smith Jr Eason Finney-Smith Tate Centers Sengun Adams Capela That's a legit 11 deep squad. Just need one more guard in the off-season for depth.
Reed didn't start against GS, he came is with a hole to dig out of. Until the GS game I didn't care whether Reed started or not as long as he got minutes. However watching him come off the bench both halves and having to play a quarter and a half without a rest, he needs to start. He's already not used to heavy NBA minutes, grinding him into dust like that on top of it, he's gonna be jello in crunch time. Stagger him, Sengun and KDs minutes to keep a facilitator on the floor at all times. If a coach competently staggers his starters minutes there's no need for bench offense. On top of that your best players need to know how to play their best when they are together, Reed can't hide from KD if he gonna help us win games while closing.
Reed Sheppard starting will change nothing in the wins column one way or another. He's already playing starter minutes. The last 5 games he's played 36/37/42/36/31 minutes. All him starting will do is have the offense fall off a cliff when the bench comes in. He's only going to get so many shots with both KD and Sengun on the floor anyway.
False, Sheppard hit a wall for about a month which pretty much all players who start to get PT hit. Outside of that sample his game had very little variance tbh idc what Udoka said about the offense, he’s the same guy that gets run out circles by Kerr with g league players and put in Amen, Senguin, Tate for a one posession 3pt game. He’s not very bright
"Chris Paul and James Harden won't work well together, they both need the ball". Yet somehow they managed to start both halves together....and we always had one of them on the floor running the offense. That's what I hear when people say Reed shouldn't start because we need "bench offense". Your best players are going to be closing, so they need to learn to play together. People talk like it's a hockey line change. All the starters out at once, now its bench time.
https://ibb.co/hJsswPwc I just dont remember the fvv experience the way a lot of people do. The Rockets weren't some well oiled machine when he was starting and he wasnt even doing a majority of the ball handling. The Rockets under Ime (and his celtics team) have had issues with late game execution. Rockets were 11th last season in blown 4th quarter leads. This year so far....they are 11th ... They still need one more blown 4th qtr lead to tie last years team. This years team also has 7 less blown leads overall. I remember last year there was a common theme of the Rockets, Fred included, getting CTE late in games. Thats the whole reason why getting KD "the closer" became a thing. Thats why everyone talked about the Rockets now having a closer. https://champsorchumps.us/records/most-nba-blown-leads-in-2026 Im with a lot of you. I do hope Fred comes back and starts so we can finally put the myth to bed that he's somehow this great offensive stabilizing force and having him out there will make the offensive execution noticeably different. Its like everyone forgot last season and the "Sometimes you. Sometines me" stuff and all the talk of us needing a closer. The offense was a mess propped up by offensive rebounding last year. Not by Fred.
not false at all. He made a lot of bad passes that would have been simple passes to Sengun in the post or perimeter but got picked off and he did it with regularity. Also had a habit of taking it by himself running to a corner and jackiup shots or just rushing jacking up threes. We already know what he does on defense. Again he shot 34% overall from 3 from dec 23 to feb 19. That’s almost 2 months. point is coaching let him play through. They are developing this guy and it’s pretty apparent. He’s shot amazing since after feb 19 and been better with his passing and decision making so hopefully we will see this sustained.
I’M NOT SAYING FRED SHOULD START. But, let’s not pretend he can’t do a lot of things we really need. He understands how to run an offense, and when he is on his game he can win games for us. If you are tired of watching Sengun and KD trying to run the offense, then you should look forward to seeing Fred return. A team needs more than one competent point guard. Reed and Fred can provide us with 48 minutes of point guard play. Watching Sengun and KD constantly fumbling the ball away is killing us. The return of Fred should really help us. If Fred somehow comes back this season, I would expect him to be coming off the bench and playing limited minutes.
