My eyeball test says JSJ gets targeted much more often than Durant by quicker players. Durant usually has the slower offensive player than JSJ, but the opposing team rarely goes after him. Maybe if Sengun and Reed were never on the court and JSJ wasn't on a SF, Durant would get targeted more. I just don't see most teams going to the effort of going after Durant. When Durant gets targeted, it seems like it is a bigger guy, like Paolo, trying to push him around.
I count 15 players that are as old as Tari or younger, shoots more efficiently and shoots more often from 3 than Tari. 5 of those guys suck. So of the 11 best players that are high 3-point volume and efficient young players, the Rockets have 2. The Rockets have 1 of the 3 that play good defense consistently (Edwards can play defense, but generally saves energy for offense).
it only appears that way because JSJ switches with everyone - him and Amen…sometimes he can’t laterally get in front of the smaller player during the switch which leads to him being beat…. He also plays solid D vs gambling (like Reed and Tari) that’s why it’s rare you see Ime fussing at him about D cause he sticks to the gameplan
He has been having a career best in 3pt % and career worst in 2pt %. That obviously can't be for real!
Hard to evaluate him, he basically only played 1 full season, he practically missed another season. He half played 2 seasons. The Full Season he played was a Rookie Season to boot. The Sample Size is just crazy invalid......
Our defense still sucks with or without Sengun, mostly because our offense is so atrocious and throws up brick after brick. If we were able to convert better on offense, we'd have more chances to get a set defense in place - last year, even with our crap offense, because of our offensive rebounding prowess with Adams, we kept the other team stuck on the defensive glass instead of getting out in transition. We don't have that offensive rebounding luxury anymore, and Ime is incapable of devising anything remotely creative to save his life.
I’m not a Sengun hater but the defense is so much better without him. He’s been objectively bad on defense this year. I agree our **** offense makes things harder on our defense but mainly because of the turnovers, not missed shots. We give up WAY TOO MANY live ball turnovers above the 3 point line. That’s like a guaranteed fast break for the opposition. KD is the main culprit for this and he NEVER hustles back
Yea the live ball turnovers are definitely the worst and you are right in saying that this is the main culprit. Combine those live ball turnovers with what seems to be league-worst offensive percentages across the board... this is the worst offense I've seen as a Rockets fan, especially considering the offensive talent that we have to work with. Someone else mentioned this in another thread, but rings true in that everyone on the team is basically expected to play great defense and just stand around and watch KD iso and get his points on offense... which is a great way to alienate players and destroy any motivation to play with energy as you know you're not going to touch the ball on offense but still get b****ed at for a defensive lapse here and there. The whole entire system is f***** this season.
The energy is definitely lower across the board this season. I agree the guys are not playing for each other anymore. It sucks. I was a little worried that our 2nd seed last year was a bit of fools gold but I liked the KD trade because I thought the price was reasonable. Losing Dillon hurt our culture so much. KD and Alpy both “pick their spots” on defense and that lack of effort is cascading down to the entire team.
The Opposition knows exactly how to play the Rockets, exert pressure on KD and Sengün, let the non shooters shoot 3s..... Iffy ball handling, inconsistent rim protection, not good shooting.
He did play in more than 200 games. That's a sizable sample. And his 3pt% has been pretty consistent, including his rookie year, before this season, which was slightly lower than 35%. If a player jumped 3 percentage points in one season, it would be considered a good improvement. His earlier 40+% was clearly not sustainable. What's disappointing is how much worse he has become over the last month or so. He had never been this bad before.
