I am not a fan of Udoka's offense at all. I think he has to get an OC and be more flexible in how the team is constructed. My biggest issue with Udoka is how stubborn he is.
I won't go as far as to say that it is equally hard to build around Reed or Amen - but agree it hard because of the flaws. Sengun is a good player, a very good player with the right cast around him, I just don't like the fit with Sheppard and Amen. So the Rockets can move Sengun or they can move Sheppard and Amen -- my bet is they hold onto Amen and Reed.
I don't think an OC would help unless they had control over everything including seeing lineups and rotations.... something Ime would not give up. My main issue with Ime is that as far as I can tell, he's not good at anything that adds value to the team. He knows nothing about offense and apparently he can't run a defense unless all 5 players on the court at all times are hyper athletic wings who are amazing defenders.... and even then he'd still probably have them playing drop coverage against Steph Curry. When you have a fundamentally worthless coach that is also one of the more stubborn humans on the planet, it's a recipe for disaster.
Yes, I see that. Especially if Tilman Fertitta is unwilling to eat the rest of Stonedoka's contracts and they're still with us. Udoka has never liked Sengun as a player. Udoka has never seemed to value offense or passing (hey, we have FVV, just can't play him: wait til next year!); it's always about being tall and mobile as a means of playing defense. Sengun would go before Amen or Shepherd (even though Reed Shepherd is Ime Udoka's biggest blind spot). If Sengun is traded, one can only hope we get a good return that doesn't leave each of us glowering alone in a dark corner chugging one Dox XX after another. @Bobbythegreat This pretty much sums it up. Stubborn as hell. Fundamentally worthless. And, yeah, if he doesn't have his dream extra-tall athletic lineup for defense, he has no Plan B. Not that Plan A is going to win much of anything.
What good would an OC do? Like you said, Ime is stubborn. He is also a Narcissist. He will still be the insanely horrible bench coach and would never abrogate any part of his rotation responsibilities to an assistant. He would also insist on the likes of FVV and DFS on the roster.
This thread is the first I've heard of Sengun apologia where he has to be catered to like a 1980's big man with only a back to the basket game and the ability to maybe catch the ball on the PNR and thats it- maybe if this is the case he shouldn't be an all star or paid a big salary and instead be treated like a role player. Basically just make him Stephen Adams backup. Maybe the Front Office and the Coaching staff are failing Sengun by treating him like he's capable of being a "SenHub" and "Baby Jokic" when he seems not to be at the level required. Again go back and watch this, if the Rockets are "failing" Sengun by making him a face-up drive to the basket player, which he has been for FIVE YEARS now as long as I've had to watch him, why is the Turkish national team failing him in the same way? Did Beskitas fail him too? The whole value proposition of Sengun is supposed to be a player that can create and run and offense. If he's that easily countered by having - Jaxon Hayes & Jared Vanderbilt - crowd the lane in the year of our lord 2026, then god have mercy on us for building around that.
I wasn’t coming at you. I was just saying trading for Paolo would be stupid. I didn’t even read it that you were advocating for it. Only that it was reported.
Honestly I don't know if Rick Adelman could do any better with Amen, Okogie, Tari, Tate, and DFS as your wings. You need your wings to dribble, pass, and shoot, and none of those guys can do all of those things. However, you can say that Ime had a lot of say in giving those guys their roles.
It was probably just a bad game, but we'll have to see how the rest of the series goes. If we get more than one more game where he sh*ts the bed like this I think the odds of him getting traded in the offseason increase dramatically. I do think there's a world where Sengun adjusts and becomes more of a pass-first guy on offense and puts more of his focus and attention on defense. Like, he'd never be a massive impact defensive player, but he could be more consistent with his effort level and attention to detail. I wonder if he could ever become that kind of player with the Rockets at this point though. He might have to take some lumps and reset his ego a bit to get there.
Yes, but with the Rockets he has never had an trusted offensive system that tells him to ask for the ball here and do this. If he had a true offensive system that he could trust, the hope is that he can be better and show more. For example, the Rockets players off the ball have some of the least set movement and screens in the league. It is basically everyone stay in play or cut to the rim if your guy falls asleep. That is very easy offensive for pro level players to cheat off of and clog the paint. The system is "Sengun go do something." Plus the few basic sets that the Rockets do run, if feels that Sengun doesn't trust them or they asking Sengun to do stuff that is not his best abilities. For example, Sengun is a poor pick setter, especially on a PnR. On handoff/picks, he is bit better, but honestly he is barely average at that. Also, Sengun is still undersized with limited quick jump to be a primarily working in the paint. He is better working around the FT line or baseline where he has the option to take someone off the dribble, but he still has not made that jump shot nearly automatic.
I would agree that this would probably be their preference among those options. The challenge is that Sengun is a full time starting C for us. Neither Adams or Jabari can be that, or even close. Paolo can't either ofc. So after trading Sengun you need to fill his 2,200 minutes per season of starting C, and presumably you are trading him for an offensive star or at least starter at another position. And the whole point is that you want that new starting C to be a shooter or elite defender, otherwise we'd have the same issues we had with Sengun. IMO It's a very very difficult path to go down, if the FO tries to salvage this specific group's limitations by trading Sengun (or any one core player). I don't think there is a skeleton key trade out there. When you don't have a truly elite centerpiece, it's hard to stay afloat by plugging holes in a leaky bucket.
Rick Adelman also glued Drazen Petrovic to the bench and thought Drexler was not suitable to slide to SF.
As long as you are willing to wait a few years for it to jell there are a number of moves involving Sengun that would be worth thinking about. Okongwu and NAW works. Would it be worth it if they didn’t throw in a pick or two? Ware and Wiggins? Trading Sengun for any non-shooter would be insane, especially an old one like Giannis. If you can get a third team involved there are more possibilities. I think there are plenty of teams that like Sengun’s potential.
You are probably right - but they are not going to fire Udoka. They as of a few weeks ago were happy with Stone and Udoka. So I think the only solution is either trade for the players Udoka will use or try to sell him on an OC. The only silver lining is that for a long time MDA was so full of himself that he wouldn't have a defensive coach - and when he did, wouldn't listen to him. That changed with age and worked well.
Its not bad roster construction its bad coaching. Lakers dont have a lot of shooters too apart from Kennard. Amen, DFS, Sengun and Tate are really the only ones who cant shoot. Everyone else can shoot 30% or higher. Rox are actually 4-0 without KD. That means our players are so talented they can win games even without KD. But this is the playoffs talent alone cant cut it we need coaching so I hope all this pressure got to Udoka and he did some work for once.
These are all valid points, and I agree the Rockets would be on the hunt for a real center. My concern is that we are going to be headed in that direction anyway. I have brought up the name Walker Kessler before in a trade, or perhaps the Rockets target someone in the draft, but young centers take awhile. I don't think there is an easy solution or it would be done.... it feels like death by 1,000 cuts... a series of not terrible decisions, but not well thought out decisions that have gotten us this far. As far as who you trade Sengun for -- I have heard the same names as everyone else.... Giannis, Banchero.... the most interesting one I heard from someone with the Bulls was the Rockets trading Sengun for someone in the lottery of this draft.
These kinds of trades are not exciting, but they're probably better than the status quo. I can also see the argument that, oh, those players (Okongwu, Ware, etc) don't move the needle enough on our roster construction issues to be worth giving up a young all-star, and it's better to just run it back and bide our time for something better to come available. I don't know. The Rockets have put themselves in a tough spot where they have to either get worse on talent in order to make the roster click better, or get better on talent (Giannis) but get older and make the roster construction even worse. Or just keep running into the same brick wall I guess.
Sure, you could trade Sengun for role players. To what end? Our primary I don't think the goal is "better than the status quo", which I think you and I agree on. I also think the FO agrees, and that the vast majority of the fanbase does not (understandably). IMO an NBA championship doesn't lie on the other side of a series of transactions that each incrementally improve this team. You either have the right foundation stones or you don't; and if you get caught up in trying to improve a group that doesn't have them, you end up in a dead end blind corner. Instead you stay competitive while looking for opportunities to get new foundation stones. I am optimistic, from what I've seen, that the FO and Patrick Fertitta understand this.
