Are the "defensive" subs ever worth it? This dumbass coach is addicted to these late game blunders

In general I agree with you that there is an improvement trend since after the allstar break, though this 6 wins streak only included two competitive games so far (Knicks and Warriors). And don’t forget the miserable loss we had before this streak vs. Wolves, where we blew a 13 point lead in less than 3 minutes.

Regarding Curry - he indeed caught fire, but I don’t think that Reed presence would allow him to score more points, as either way Curry didn’t miss much. Perhaps Curry even would have scored less, as some of his points came after turnovers, that wouldn’t happen if Reed handled the ball.

 

Very possible! It’s like Ime subs Reed just out of the potential of defensive mistakes, and not necessarily on actual ones. That’s worse, obviously. I agree that on eye test Reed looked fine on both ends, yet he was limited due to Curry’s presence without any justification.

 

Rockets got to find a way to play Reed with Sengun and without the defense falling apart. Yesterday, the defense almost could not be worse than those 4 minutes without Reed, though. I'm fine with Tate as an injury replacement in the rotation. He should not be needed late. Holiday probably should play more. Not a big fan of him late either, but he's better than Tate.

 

In the middle or early part of the game, it is fine.

Toward the end, it really depends. Against a hot Curry, it was not worth it. When you are unlikely to stop the other team from scoring, you need to keep pace, so it is better to have the offensive unit on the floor rather than a defensive one.

 

He's so short sighted. As Rockets fans we're well aware what happens when Steph starts cooking, you don't stop it, it becomes a gunfight. We've not got Beard to go shot for shot, and KD would rather shoot 2's, so the last thing you need to do is bench our actual sharpshooter.

 

If you haven't seen all of his bad coaching decisions, then you're not watching or you're relative of this

 

Interesting fact, Reed Sheppard had a team best 119 defensive rating.

Tate had a team worst 131 defensive rating

Aaron Holiday had a defensive rating of 127 along with a 25% turnover percentage

Josh Okogie had a defensive rating of 128 with a 53% turnover percentage.

No sane person picks those 3 in clutch situations

 

He has made changes but playing well is stretching that when on their win streak they have mostly played garbage teams. The only even somewhat decent one was NY. And they are having problems of their own. But he is not a good offensive minded coach. This winning streak look good on paper. That's it.

 

And why sub in the low key idiot brigade instead of Capela?

 

These all-defensive subs are getting out of hand and ridiculous. You only sub in all defensive lineups like you did in the Hornets game when you are down in the second quarter and need to get stops and momentum, and also when the opposing defense (like the Hornets) is trash. When you are up double digits you don't need to put in all wing lineups. How many games have we lost due to his clinical obsession with putting 5 wings on the floor with only one shot creator in Durant.

 

I keep saying it. The man has a 90s mentality that is completely outdated in today's NBA. 30 years ago, a 14 point 4th quarter lead could probably hold up in most games if you had a defensive lineup out there that could consistently get stops. Obviously even in the 90s, teams could overcome that. Choke City comes to mind in 1994. So does the Blazers pissing away a 4th quarter 15-point lead in Game 6 of the 1992 Finals. But the odds were still heavily in your favor.

Nowadays with the faster pace and prevalence of 3-point shooting, a lead like that with 7+ minutes to go is nothing. It can be cut in half in no time. Hell, Minnesota wiped out 8 points of that 13-point lead we had in OT a couple weeks ago in I think around 45 seconds. Ime still for whatever reason doesn't get this or simply doesn't care. He's wedded to this idea that once the team is up by a certain amount by a certain stage of the game, it's time to go all in on defense and he resorts to subbing in a bunch of wings, most of whom can't dribble or shoot. And it keeps either blowing up in his face or coming damn close(at home vs Miami and last night at Golden State).

 

No I disagree with your approach. You have to balance out your lineups and find the best fit and matchups based on what the situation is.

As I take it many of you are complaining about one thing—Sheppard not playing down the stretch last 5 min or so of the 4th or last 6 min or so of the 3rd.

Sheppard had a lot of defensive issues with Podz who cooked him several times off of straight drives or dribble pullup three. He also had issues covering Podz coming off a fake DHO cutting to the paint.

But besides that both GSW runs was on Rocket miscues not about Sheppard not playing.

The first run Rockets had multiple issues including Durant TO’s including a fastbreak op with Tari, missed open shots (Tari in the paint and 3), and miscommunication on defense.

The second run was several bad plays in a row: Sheppard fumbling a give and go, Amen missed alley oop, Sengun stupid 3, miscommunication on defense in transition and not stopping their high screens with Payton (same thing they did last year in the playoffs FYI).

You people don’t see the small details and constantly yell foul play and get crazy because you don’t see your guy in the game. Its not like Sheppard is some MVP dominant all time great
Any coach can tell you that it’s about balance in terms of mixing in offensive players with defense. Its not like the offense can score every single time they touch the ball. That’s why you play defense and there’s nuances to it in terms of playing as a collective unit not just individually. The 2004 Olympic team showed us this. The 2004 Lakers also showed us this. Otherwise teams wouldn’t need Amen, or Dort, or Dillon. They would just throw out the markennan’s of the league and build a team that way.

It’s more complicated than simply say hey let’s put our best offensive players out there especially when Sheppard has been inconsistent and has deficiencies on both ends as a young player. The team won so let’s be happy about that

 

Is the head coach in charge of making decisions on which personnel plays? Is the head coach responsible for employing tactics and strategy for each game? Do players play based on merit and performance?

If so, why can’t Udoka as a professional head coach play Sheppard the way he see fits? What short leash? He’s a second year player with serious defensive limitations and error prone on offense.

The mere fact that Sheppard is playing big minutes while committing a lot of errors each game should tell you this team is developing him.

when did he say this season is about developing youth? The team has always said they’re in win now mode this year. But they have a lottery pick that they chose to develop instead of allowing him to sit on the bench

 

are you referring to the 3rd quarter? If so, the Warriors played small. They had Curry, Santos, Podz, Green, and Seth Curry I believe. Udoka countered with a small ball lineup that had switchable players (Tari, Holliday, Okogie, Durant, Amen).

As I said, situations dictate your lineups. The warriors run so many screens and cuts it takes experience and knowledge to play against them which is likely why Sheppard didn’t play in certain stretches. Holliday was solid on both ends most of the game. He made the right reads passing or switching on defense.

 

whats the evidence that inserting one single individual player would have solved all the issues the Rockets had against that furious Curry led run? There’s simply no evidence and a lot of assumptions.

Warriors kept running high screen and roll to get Amen off Curry allowing Payton to roll. Almost certainly they would try to get a one on one with Sheppard every time. Would Sheppard do any better or worse against Curry?

On offense how do you know Sheppard would hit his shots? And again you don’t know if the Rockets would shoot those poor shots or commit those TO’s with Sheppard on the floor. History tells us they have done this with him on the floor.

 

Dude Podz smoked him on many occasions. Twice on simple fake DHO’s cut to the paint where Sheppard was lackadaisical running behind him. He beat Sheppard in the paint on many occasions pulling corner defenders like Durant out to help which led to open corner 3s. Sheppard also didn’t communicate with Sengun on transition. Got caught in no man’s land and that led to an open cut and layup. Just a few examples. As I said because many of you don’t or don’t want to see these things, your perception of this particular player is skewed.

 

and he keeps repeating it every game, takes out the offense and he “believes” he is putting in defensive players.
Need to replace this crazy guy