The Rockets traded a lottery pick for Kevin Durant. Expecting the Rockets to win a playoff series against a team without a top 3 player in the league and another top 50 player is not "unrealistic expectations" and the GM said that he expected to win more games in both the regular season and post season. Did the Spurs get lucky when they drafted Castle? When they traded for Fox? When they built an organization that focuses on player development? When they traded Murray for a lot of draft picks? When they drafted Harper? Keldon Johnson? Did the Mavericks get lucky when they went out and hired an excellent President of Basketball Operations. The Rockets GM made the decision to stop rebuilding - that he has enough talent. That is on him. Entering 2026-2027, FVV is old and injury prone. He is 33 years old and coming off a major injury. As for milage, FVV has major milage and had major milage at the time the Rockets decided to extend him. SGA also isn't 32 years old..... The entire league knew that DFS was physically in bad shape entering free agency--- the Rockets knew he had injury issues, and the Rockets knew that he was 34 years old... and Stone also knew that KD and Adams were injury prone and that FVV was old..... and he decided to double down with DFS. It wasn't wise. KD didn't have bad injury luck. KD was 37 years old and he was 3rd in the league in minutes this season....... he also has a long history of injuries and is old. The Rockets were LUCKY that Durant played as much as he did. The Rockets - be that Stone or Stone and Udoka, have built a team that doesn't fit well together and is flawed because of that, and relies on old and injury prone players.... it is a very fragile foundation and that is a large reason that the Rockets still haven't won a playoff series.
The Rockets do this a bunch. With Amen in the dunkers spot, there is always a man can rotate onto Sengun blowing up anytime Sengun rolls to the basket in which one of three guys needs to be able to help on Amen. Also, smart teams put the center on Amen basically allowing the center to play goalie on any drive and have 4 defenders guarding 3 shooters. Playing Amen in dunker's spot basically allows teams to double KD without having to play 3 defenders for 4 offensive players as 2 defenders can guard 2 shooters, and the center can guard 2 non-shooters. Also, only having to keep track of three shooters is much easier than 4. Most defenders are typically playing halfway from their man and the basket such that every defender can help on Amen easily if Amen's man helps, while if a low man leaves a guy open in the corner, it can be a long run to contest for the helper. Sure, Sengun threads the needle to Amen a couple of times in the game, making Amen's spot in the dunkers look good. I thought Amen and/or Okogie's man being able to hep so quickly on PnRs was a much bigger detriment than Amen getting a few dunks helped. Personaly, Amen on the ball was really the only time a driver didn't have to deal with his man and Amen's man as they were the same defender.
Amen as a rim threat (both as a dunker and an offensive rebounder) shouldn't be parked at the dunker spot, contrary to popular thinking. He should be lurking either along the baseline from corner to corner or on the wing, constantly moving. His defender has to pay attention to his whereabout. Another problem we have is that Sengun is not always looking to feed rim running. When he's waltzing to the post, he becomes tunnel vision, so much so that I started questioning my impression of him having great court vision. That said, if Amen and Sengun could develop better chemistry, they could work at least decently well provided that the connection is intentional and not just for bailout purpose.
they will never play to their full potential together... it's so obvious, but the cope is too much around here. i would bet not even a great offensive coach would make it work... maybe a marginal improvement at best. but, like in every other sport or league, it's easier for fans to always blame the coach. i don't think ime udoka is good, but you can't put this issue on him.
Of course, but you do have to weigh the pros and cons.... Season ending inquires, while climbing, are still pretty rare. Again.... big difference between missing 20 games vs a full season / half a season. The pros.... FVV is a competent PG, a good individual and team defender, and serves as a secondary coach on the court. Cons.... he can be a streaky shooter, doesn't finish efficiently, and is older and have a higher injury risk. KD, FVV and Adams are a bigger injury risk than 20 years old but they are also on relatively short contracts to mitigate that.
When I watch, his defender pays just enough attention that Amen can't cut on every play for easy baskets. Granted, sometimes Amen is guarded without the ball when teams are sagging off Okogie as well. He still gets some because his man is generally more concerned with other players when Amen is away from the basket without the ball. Stats suggest that away from the basket without the ball, Amen's defender pays him the 7th least attention of all non-centers. To me this is an amazing stat considering there were plenty of games in which Amen was defended while Okogie's man was ignoring Okogie.
And? So do they need to give up a pick every year to go all in because we moved a lottery pick and Jalen Green for KD? Pretty sure KD has eyes and knew he was joining a super young team. I never claimed it was disappointing how the season ended, I thought were talking about managing expectations that were put forth in the offseason. Are you just forgetting the several years between the Kawhi trade debacle and drafting Wemby? The Spurs have been a better run organization than the Rockets.... be awesome if we had their ownership group. I won't argue that the Rockets aren't one of the better organizations now that Tilman is in charge but Stone ain't the owner. Did that help them trade Luka? Or get them the number 1 pick? I have no objections to Tilman paying for better scouting/development staff, better assistant coaches ( or just eating Ime's contract), and better president of basketball operations. Did he? Where are you getting that from? I prefer looking at actions.... and a bunch of short contracts (that can also be used to combine for a bigger contract), holding onto draft picks, and still keeping such a young core suggests otherwise to me. Well..... we didn't know he would have a season ending injury before we gave him an extension...... FVV played 81% of the games his first two seasons. That sounds injury prone to you? During the same time, SGA played 87% of the games despite his age. And the Rockets knew he was going to have surgery at the beginning of the off season and have time for recovery. Players have surgeries in the offseason and it usually doesn't involve the type of setbacks DFS had. The Rockets gave him a two year guaranteed deal for 8% of the cap. And again.... season ending injuries aren't the norm despite "aging players". I know you can't admit there's a difference between missing 20 games vs a full season because then your argument is much weaker. Do you follow other teams in the NBA or have you not been aware of the rising injuries among the entire player population? We've only been in the playoffs twice.... and we aren't done with the rebuild. We could have a totally different team next season if we move Amen or Sengun. Because we didn't get that franchise player, the FO kept our flexibility and not loaded up on bad contract, long contracts. His actions suggest he knows we are further than closer.
It's actually both, and when you look at the product it looks like it's more than one thing going wrong. Udoka has underachieved on TS% in every season of his career. He's a bad offensive coach. Mazzulla coached practically the same roster to a higher TS%. They went from 9th to 5th. That doesn't just happen with luck. Most people believe coaches can't possibly impact the game that much, that they are slaves to the pieces they have. Well that's BS. The whole point of coaches is to get more out of the sum of parts than another coach would. To expect this guy to optimize - not to make perfect - but just optimize two non-shooters as much as possible is an unrealistic expectation. When you have 2 non-shooters who you want handling the ball, you better have an elite offensive mind on the staff just to get them to the maximum they can achieve. You still won't have good spacing and you'll find that the paint is a jungle but there ARE things you can do. Playing a faster pace for example ensures you're snatching more points in transition. Accelerating their development as shooters by not ******** on them when they miss 3's is another useful tactic. Making sure the rest of the roster is full of shooters (and playing them) is another tactic. Giving them the ball in more intelligent spots is another tactic, and that can also be done by ensuring you have a PG when your starting PG goes down. Flare screens is another tactic that can free your actual shooters from the defenders who stay home on them all the time. If everything is done well we would look a lot better AND it would still not be pretty.
Yes, but I'm wondering if he's starting to become a bit injury prone as of late. Last thing we need is a guard version of Tari as far as availability concerns.
I know. Horrible decision. He was a local kid too. Would have been a great fit. Made the same mistake with Rashard Lewis as well
ESPN: Rockets’ Patrick Fertitta ‘not wavering’ from patient approach MacMahon: They have Rafael Stone and Patrick Fertitta, Tilman Fertitta’s son. They have preached patience to Tilman. When you talk about ownership with the Rockets, Tilman is the owner, but Patrick is the day-to-day presence. He’s the guy who is really hands on, at the practice facility on a regular basis, and with the team. He’s the one who’s running the team, side by side with Rafael Stone. I can just tell you, Patrick has a very patient approach, which is a little surprising. He’s in his early 30s. Going back to the (James) Harden trade and the painful rebuild and all that, he’s the one who has really been able to convince his dad, ‘We have to be patient. We have to take a long-term view.’ I can just tell you, he’s not wavering off of that. Wright: That’s great to hear because that’s a little security for Rafael, and I really like the way he’s done things. He’s exercised some restraint. They’ve got some young talent that looks like it can be something, but they’ve got to cultivate it. It’s up to them to develop it. MacMahon: It’s up to the young guys. Elsewhere in the show, the hosts named Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell — but not Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo — as someone the Rockets could be aggressive to try and land via trade, should he become available.
Nothing wrong with being patient, but they don’t have the foundation. They don’t have a franchise player. They don’t have a good player development system. They’re just gonna spin their wheels. It makes me very uncomfortable that a couple guys without a basketball background are steering this nba franchise.
I don't know who Wright is but that's bananas for anyone who has followed the Rockets. Stone has no idea how to craft a team as evidenced by what we have now. "I really like the way he's done things" ??????????????????????????? Dumb Dumb Dumb (A better coach might solve a lot of our issues. But I blame Stone for Ime as well.)
Yeah, I'm all for patience from the standpoint of not blowing up the young core. But what are we building towards? Season 1 of Ime, they went 41-41. They unfortunately didn't get a taste of the playoffs or play-in thanks to the West being unusually loaded that year(10th place Golden State finished 46-36), but it was overall a good start coming out of the tanking years. Season 2 of Ime, they went 52-30 and really could've won more at the end if they wanted. That was good enough for 2nd place in a suddenly far weaker West(where the hell was that the year before?!), but despite the success, the Rockets were still decided underdogs to the veteran Warriors. And that played out as expected as they found themselves down 3-1 and made it respectable before bowing out in 7 games. Now overall, the 2nd season was good, but there were glaring deficiencies on offense. Alpi was regressing at that end, Amen still couldn't reliably shoot, Jabari hadn't improved, neither had Tari, Reed barely played, Jalen was up and down as usual, and Fred was mediocre most of the year before catching fire in Games 4-6 vs Golden State. Season 3 of Ime, they went 52-30 again, only this time they had to finish on a 9-1 hot streak to match last year's win total. Injuries played a part, but honestly that's not why they didn't win more games. It had far more to do with the offense being even worse than the previous season despite adding KD and the team repeatedly blowing big leads because they had no idea how to execute in crunch time. As far as the young core, Alpi regressed even further, Amen still can't shoot aside from at the foul line, Jabari improved marginally(not counting January's slump), Tari had a great first half before turning into a complete scrub the last 3 months, and while Reed had a solid regular season, he was awful in the playoffs and we still don't quite know what we have with him because Ime never fully committed to him as a starter. And in terms of the postseason, it was a disaster. You can make excuses for the Rockets losing to Golden State last year, although I'd argue with Butler out for Game 3, they squandered an opportunity to win that series. But there is no justification for falling behind 3-0 to this Lakers squad and then getting smoked at home and falling in 6 games. And now their approach seems to be to run it back and hope that a bunch of 30-something players who are injury prone somehow stay healthy all year and the young core who haven't really improved over the last 2 seasons suddenly take a huge leap. And that the anemic offense is fixed with the same coaching staff that failed to make any adjustments the previous 2 years. Sorry, but that's not being patient. That's settling for mediocrity.
Correct. If one of them doesn’t get a 3 point shot, they are not a good offensive fit. A better coach may be able to make them somewhat more effective, but probably not good enough. Same with Reed and Sengun. One needs to get much better at defense or they do not fit. We have problems with our coach and with our roster. Maybe Stone can/will fix the roster, but it doesn’t seem to me, he is really in charge. I think Ime is making the roster decisions. Ime needs to go and he will be after next year if they run it back. My much bigger fear is they gut the future for another has-been with this same brain dead coach.
