Might have been me ..... I made a post about the subject before the start of last season and took some heat for it. They weren't quite as bad as last years dead last but were in the bottom 3rd at #22. Only three Rockets shot above league average from 3 for the year FVV, Jabari & Holiday. (I'm not counting Nate Hinton or Bullock).
We can't reach our potential as a team with this starting lineup due to poor 3 Point shooting: Sengun Jabari Amen Jalen Fred That's 3 players who aren't 3 point shooters and it shows in our results. Replace Amen with Brooks and it's helped a lot but doesn't make us a good 3 point shooting team. Fred gets a bit too much hate but he can flat out shoot. If Brooks is out in a few years, then out of that lineup Jalen or Amen has to go, maybe both. There's a lot of smoke blowing up someone's ass with the idea that Amen will become a good 3 point shooter. There's a lot of talk that "he can work hard and get his 3 point up to 36% or so." That's certainly not happening next year and might be really hard for him to achieve at all. If Jalen cared about his game then he would have worked on his 3 for the past three years. Is this a disguised bash Jalen thread? Not really. When we play a great 3 point team like the Twolves or the Mavs or the Thunder we can play them tough. But when they start hitting their threes it's usually over for us. Without a dependable 3 we are subject to the whims of their shooting. And their shooting is great, particularly Min and Okc. When we get a big lead and lose it that is usually a result of our poor 3 point shooting and/or their great 3 point shooting. To get better, we need to make hard choices with Jalen and Amen (assuming Brooks leaves in a year or two). Sengun is our best player and he only needs to get to 3 attempts a game so 34-35% is probably okay for him. Fred is a great 3 point shooter. Jabari is coming into his own as a shooter and showing what we wanted when he was drafted. We need two more great 3 point shooters for teams to take us seriously and be a playoff winning team.
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Jalen being a inconsistent shooter who takes a lot of difficult threes many of whom are from teammates dumping him the ball with 5 seconds in the shot clock left isn't why spacing for this team is poor. Jalen puts the fear r of God onto opposing team defenses the moment he makes his first three because they know he's capable of making like 4 straight. His inconsistent shooting isn't a reason for poor spacing. He is what is creating spacing for this offense currently. How many wide open threes for guys like Jabari, Landale and Jeff have been created the past month from Green being an ultimate floor spacer post ASB?
One of these two would be great, anyone but Nikola Topic. I think he's severely overrated with the influx of Luka, and doesn't fit the Rockets needs at all either.
How was his defense? His shooting numbers were a bit underwhelming as a Rocket, but I always suspected that was just a bit of bad luck over a relatively small sample size. Glad to see he had a bit of a bounceback season.
We do. Internally, Jabari has the greatest potential and most impact as a stretch big. I wish he would have taken a greater share of the 3PA for the team.
You are the anti-Bobbythegreat. Green isn't shooting bad threes with 5 seconds left in the clock. That's a myth that you're using to prop him up. He shoots something like 32% on WIDE OPEN THREES. He can't shoot and blaming it on other players is silly. Accept it. I can admit that defenses seem to care about Green on offense and prepare for him. They are not scared of his 3. Can you admit that he is a bad shooter from 3?
That’s what everyone is missing. We need a starter that can shoot. And create. And do a lot of different things. That kind of player opens things up for everyone else. Poor shooters don’t have to take ill-advised shots. Decent shooters have more room to work. We’ve got to have that catalyst that makes everyone else better. The biggest part of our bench (as currently constructed) are Cam, Tari, Bullock and Holliday. I don’t think anyone would consider them poor shooters. We need that star player.
I expect Green/Sengun/Smith to all tick up percentage points. Amen probably goes up 5% but won’t take many. I think The starting lineup is going to be OK if we can balance it out with really strong shooting off the bench. Cam is a start. Need an absolute sniper playing 25 off the bench.
I can't believe I'm going to say this but...if there is a star who can replace Jabari for a few years I think he would be better off the bench and given room to grow into his potential. A star level 4 who effectively does everything Jabari does, just more consistently and with more confidence. Jabari was my pick for the biggest leap this year. I also believe if we ever go to another championship in this era then it will be with him and Sengun leading the way. I'm very high on him. But he's young and if the player is available then I say get it and move him to the bench. Also a star shooting guard. I like Jalens improvement, but I think he's replaceable because of the inconsistency or should come off the bench if the right player is there. I just don't think he's got the right collection of rocks in his rock box.
Jalen's jump shots vs. LAC on 4.15.24 1st Q Right off the bat, gets the ball at 10 seconds with a pick/screen from Amen, 3 point miss 7:37 wide open long 2 miss 5:50 wide open 3 makes 5:20 gets ball at 12 sec, pretty open catch and shoot 3 miss 4:48 gets ball with 10 sec, pretty open, made 3 3:18 Jalen dribbles the ball across halfcourt with 20 seconds, dribbles till 11 sec left and takes a stepback 3 miss 3:03 Jalen CAN'T get past his defender for about 10-12 sec, DUMPS ball to Aaron with 5 seconds left 2nd Q 3:01 gets ball at 19 sec, dribbles back to a 3 and miss 1:06 gets ball with 19 sec, did a step left and shot a 3 with 17 sec on the clock. miss 0:25 has ball at 20 sec and shoots an airball 3 (probably trying to go two for one, but an awful shot), miss 3rd Q 8:58 gets ball with 18 sec, 3 pointer, makes 6:35 stepback 2, makes In this game, Jalen didn't get the ball with under 10 seconds on any shot I saw. He initiated the offense often (probably some due to Fred being out) and appeared to shoot some bad shots when he couldn't get past his defender.
Yes I agree. Need to more accurate 3 pt shooting and long jumpers to stretch the court and create driving lanes and cutting for Sengun high post action. This also includes Sengun to make defenses play him closer so he can pass out of the post or DHO. But this team also needs to get to the paint better. Smith has worked hard on handles and getting to the paint and needs to keep improving. The issue is the Rockets don’t have many players that are great at getting to the paint. Brooks, Eason, Smith and even FVV have limitations to their game and they’re not great dribble drive players. This has been an issue I’ve seen. For example Jabari gets run off the line. He dribble drives but is slow and doesn’t have great handles. He can’t get by his man or into the paint so he pulls up for 12-15 ft jumper near FT line. Brooks and Eason are similar in this regard. These guys need to improve their attack to the paint.
