I see both Rockets analysts and people here that have voiced displeasure with us not getting Lopez. So my question to these people is....what was the idea of Lopez? Was he going to be the starter? Or was it going to be another "competition"? I'm not sure I buy the idea that the Rockets were going to offer him 25m per year to go into a competition with Sengun and potentially be a backup. So was the intention for him to be the surefire starter? And if so doesn't that say a lot about what they really think of Sengun?
either they were gonna start Sengun and Lopez together, or Sengun was coming off the bench u aren’t paying a big man major money in free agency to be a bench player nor would Lopez have ever signed here without full understanding that he’s a starter
Remember Ime said that nothing will be given next year, it will have to be earned. So I don't think you can say 100% Lopez would have been the starter. HOWEVER when a player is added under "your" watch or regime he definitely has a leg up on players that were here before you took over. So I don't think he would have been handed the starting job but I think Udoka would probably favor him even in a tie with Alpe and Lopez would have been named starter by the regular season opener. Unless of course he went with a 2 big offense.
I think they saw Lopez as someone that could space the floor, provide game-changing defense, and be a good mentor for Sengun. Looez is a very unique player; there’s very few centers as impactful as him. It’s not a matter of who was gonna start; Looez was going to be good for our team, and I believe, good for Sengun. There was 30 minutes available for both players. assuming we don’t add another center, I believe this actually demonstrates a high degree of faith in Sengun. Again, Lopez is special, but it looks like they feel better about Sengun than going after a Lopez alternative. Speaking for myself, I’m over not getting Lopez. What I’m not over is how we clearly didn’t have a good plan B and mismanaged the rest of our free agency.
You are reading too much into it. It wasn’t an indictment of Sengun but rather a means to bring in a guy who with Alpi would have been made one of the best center rotations in the league. Even if Brook started this year Sengun would have probably played more minutes.
Not getting Lopez it’s probably undeniably better for our long-term outlook. Those minutes going to our core and the clarity we will gain on said players is better. The reason that I like the pivot to Jock is tgat the contract terms are so flexible. If you consider the role that he plays in the flexibility in that deal, I really think he may have a positive trade value as soon as January. Jeff Green may hold some positive trade value around the same time to 18. Looking to make a playoff push. KPJ has the same flexibility on his deal AND is a stud to boot. Tate is another 6.5 million. Tate/Porter/Jock/Green/Brooklyn assets is a pretty strong package if a major player becomes available.
I imagine the intention was for him to be the starter, but not to play 'regular' starter minutes (30+). Possible split the game time half and half with Sengun, with the intention of Sengun getting that really solid tutelage to get him 'up to speed' and have him taking over at some stage as the starter (next year? later this season?) All a moot point - didn't happen.
The intention was to sign one of the top 5 best defensive players in the league and combine him with good defenders in Brooks and FVV. Udoka wants a team that plays hard and defends every night. On offense, Lopez is an extreme rarity of a 3 point shooter and post player. He can play with literally anyone. If a player struggles to play with Lopez, it's more about that player than Lopez. We all need to move on from Lopez since we didn't get him. But, it's pretty basic stuff to want an elite defender at center who is also versatile on offense.
This is kinda where my head is at as well. He's not like Jeff Green and making 7m a year. It makes more sense if the idea was him either backing up Sengun or competing with Sengun at 15m per year or so. I just can't see them offering 20+ per year to a guy competing for a starting spot over a clearly more talented player. Also the fit with FVV and Green is awkward. FVV's game seems to mesh better with Sengun than with Lopez who I think would benefit from having an Amen Thompson type of dribble penetrator. Something FVV is not. The more I think about it, the less sense it really made in the long run.
He would have started, the question is more whether we would have started games with those two bigs lineups Ime likes (Sengun at the 4) or whether Sengun would have gone to the bench. I believe it probably would have been the former unless Jabari absolutely went off in the preseason. Yeah, the more I thought about it the more "meh" I got about the idea. I still don't think it would've been a bad thing but I wasn't as fired up about it as some posters. That's why I was making all those posts about actual backup centers, I was trying to think about who we might pick up that would be happy to come off the bench. I didn't see Landale coming but I'm fine with the signing.
I'm starting to think that the whole idea was to make all of last seasons starters our bench. Thus turning the team into a winning one.
Whats the diff between FVV and Amen, Lopez and Sengun? Fvv and Amen have different games and so do Lopez and Sengun. Also I disagree with you on fit Lopez as a defensive stretch 5 fits with anyone. We have tons of dribble penetrators from Amen, Green, KPJ, Cam, Tari etc FWIW Sengun would prob be our PF if Jabari still plays terribad like he did last year.
DPOY candidate who can stroke it from 3? What’s not to like? You don’t sign him for $25M and he doesn’t leave a championship contender to come off the bench for the worst team. He was gonna start. Oh well!
Absolutely start, possibly in front of Sengun or maybe double big with Sengun. It says the organization doesn’t see Sengun as a defensive anchor right now, which anyone can see. It says nothing about how the organization views Sengun long term though, because bringing a 35 year old to a team whose core is 21 is obviously not a long term solution. When our core is in their prime in 4 years Sengun would have surely beat out a 39 year old Lopez(if he’s even still here), and we would still have to answer the question whether we are going with Sengun at center or not. In that sense, while undoubtedly we will win less games without Lopez the next two years, we will have expedited the discovery process and have more answers about our long term core. So really I don’t think we lost much in the grand scheme of things. Oh and I disagree with those saying the Rockets didn’t have a plan B after losing out on Lopez. You are looking at the plan B: Sengun.
The objective is to win 40 games this or next season. Pretty simple. Brook Lopez would help with that. Alpe and Brook sharing the load, sharing minutes, sharing starter job.
