This team does not prioritize three pointers enough

Welcome to DD land.....climb aboard.

DD

 

But as you said “roster construction”. The way this team plays and the way it performs is due to how it’s constructed with 2 starting non shooters who are 2/3 of your best 3 players. For reference, Udoka’s led Boston team in 21-22 was 4th in 3pt attempts and 5th in 3pt%, which was right there with the Warriors. Personnel makes styles and tactically influence how a team plays.

 

What do we prioritize Oreom?

 

Does that pick-up line really work for you?

 

Said it vs Warriors where they were doubling us up on 3pt attempts which was only reason they stayed in the games in 1st place …

and all season, large part of our losses were simply teams taking 2 almost 3x the 3pt attempts to us and we playing 90 balls dominating the paint

In Amen thread I posted after he went 0-7 the first game vs OKC he never attempted more than 5 the rest of season

Bari and Reed are our only volume 3pt shooters and neither can create the looks for themselves

 

I think it’s simple man. Sengun wasn’t featured in the offense by Silas but instead he prioritized guard play and spreading the floor creating more driving lanes and three point shooting.

Enter Udoka and one of the first things he said was to prioritize Sengun as a main hub which the offense runs through. This allows him to find cutters off the high post and to pass out on doubles. And since he’s a good one on one player he can take advantage of iso play or post to find shooters etc. They can also play off the high screen and roll.

Unfortunately i think he hurts this team since he isn’t a long high screen and roll guy. He’s not a lob threat either. He’s specifically a short roll player. This combined with the fact his range is 10-12ft makes it difficult for guards to play with him since he demands touches on the perimeter and high post area.

But essentially that’s how we play. High screen and roll with Fred or ISO or post Sengun to exploit the 1-1 matchup and pick teams apart when they double. We also play Durant this way.

Maybe this team should have kept jarret allen or brought in a stretch 5 and prioritized guard play and 3 point shooting. Amen Jalen and Castle would have been a devastating and hard group to guard.

 

Who do you pick to become the next Dan Langhi in the 2026 draft?

 

This had a gigantic impact on spacing and running our "offense" by not making the defense work against us. If you hit early 3s the other team's D is going to get spread out and disrupt them for the majority of the game trying to counter your success opening up the paint.

 

Champagnie and Vassell are probably the weakest overall players in the Spurs' main rotation but they consistently find minutes because just their presence as shooters helps make so much room for everyone else. Neither of those guys are good self creators but it doesn't matter cause they're elite in their roles. I don’t think we need all our main players to be amazing shooters but we do need 2 or 3 guys who are absolutely elite at it and a real playmaker who can read the defense and kick it to the shooters when needed.

 

Vassel can drive especially from baseline. That’s why they’re so hard to stop when you hard close out on them. They can have 3-4 guys that can shoot and drive when VW kicks the ball out. Rockets don’t have that. Jabari and Tari are a tad slow. Sheppard has no explosion off the dribble. So it’s just Amen and Durant that can drive. One of them isn’t a shooter. This is the issue with this team. Fundamentally flawed.

I think a guy like Porzingis, Lopez, Miles Turner etc would be great for this team. Unfortunately the first 2 are aging or injury prone. This team needs a stretch 5 type or Amen just really have to turn on the shooting. Either way Sengun needs to go

 

Is this really true in the playoffs?

You know how ppl say offensive rebounds are great, but the playoffs are different. Same seems to apply here.

If we restrict our data to the conference finals and finals over last 5 years (ie true contenders), at best it’s a push.

OKC, DEN, MIL all won with lower 3FGA rate in the Finals than the Rockets
GSW and BOS were much higher

In the conf finals, it seems worse … more teams’ 3FGA rate for those games are lower than Ave vs higher.

 

Well, I dunno soldier? You looking for a ride? Or a Ride Ride?

DD

 

funny that this team’s only offense is chucking threes..

 

Welcome to what I’ve been saying for 2.5 years while everyone has been obsessed with Steven Adams’ offensive rebounding.

The universe aligned to give us a final answer on this. Durant, Sheppard and Jabari are an excellent collection of 3pt shooters. Some higher volume, some higher efficiency. They cannot be left open.

It failed. Two non shooters can’t be overcome in an era where the opponent is making a high volume of 3’s. Forget the defense for a moment with that lineup. Did the 3 shooters do well? Sure. The question is did it get Amen and Sengun open? Absolutely not. If you kept Sengun inside, Amen faced a wall of defenders when driving. If you brought Sengun out, it got worse. If you put Amen in the dunker and Sengun near the FT line, you’re screwing Durant’s spacing. Amen’s defender was always half-guarding him too.

It’s simply not going to work. To then want to play more guys who can’t shoot is absurd. That’s why I always say Adams is a great player with great production but on this team whatever he brings is neutralized some other way. Add Tate and DFS and you’re in big trouble.

We should have been accelerating Amen and Sengun’s attempts. Instead we were strict on them plus telling them not to attack the crowded rim so we turned them into bad mid range shooters. For what? They’re both shooting 25-35% from true midrange. They are literally more efficient from 3 even at these atrocious percentages.

This experiment is done. A marginal improvement in the 3 shooters around them won’t be enough. The defenders will stay home on the best shooters and leave open the worst ones. Only one non shooter can be hidden.

We can’t flip the coin again on this. We gave it a shot. Made them work on their jumpers intensively. Surrounded them with good shooters. Udoka is certainly not the one who’ll unlock it.

Time for someone to go or something to change. If we have to keep both and reset the timeline, we have to stagger them and the other 8 starters must ALL be shooters. I don’t know if that’s even feasible.

 

I think Amen and Sengun were the best available players.

Adams and Capela were cheap acquisitions and are only an issue because of Amen.

Okogie...vet minimum

Tate cheap.

Durant...more average in volume, but his skill level means he draws the defense as much as the high-volume guys.

The Rockets played a non-shooter as the PG this year. This is basically the difference between the Rockets being a slightly above-average three-point volume team and their actual near-the-bottom ranking. Amen was the best young player by far this season.

The Rockets have not been good enough to make trades for fit. Fixing the 3-point shooting problem means a step back in talent, as at least one of Amen and Sengun would need to go. Trey Murphy would be a good fit for the team, but I'm just not sure he would be enough to help the team win a title. The price to acquire him would be a lot unless it involved Amen or Sengun.

 

I don’t get it. Shooting is from the arms, hands, and mind of the players not the coach. Are you saying it’s the coach fault Sengun and Amen can’t shoot? Do you not think they train and develop their shooting at all the past 3 years? Who told them not to shoot? Players shoot or don’t shoot based on ability and situation.

 

how do you explain the difference in shooting between his Boston team and these Rockets teams. It’s roster construction. Personnel. Style of play and sets ran.