You guys are funny - you both sitting next to each other...lol. Everyone watches EVERYTHING - but where we put our value matters the most. OFFENSE is GREATER than Defense in importance. It is EASIER to teach a highly skilled offensive player to play average defense. Than to get a highly skilled defender to play average offense. The Rocket's problems are in the OUTSIDE shooting variety, we have 3 of our staring 5 who are primarily 2pt shooters in Amen, Sengun and KD......we have 2 that score from the outside primarily in Jabari and Reed.....what we need is for KD to take more 3s.....we need MORE 3pt shooting, we can't win in this league in anything important with 2 pt shots being the primary focus on scoring, we need more 3s....lots more of them. You can get by with one inside guy, but the best offenses, and teams have a ton of guys that can beat you from 3, our roster construction is so 1990s.....it hurts. So, yes, I value offense over defense, and while defense can and should be better, we aren't losing because of it, we are losing because we can't keep up offensively. If you shoot 40% on 3pt shots out of 100 shots that is 40 makes, or 120 points. To make 120 points in 2pt shots you would need to shoot 60% - and that is not happening. I know Math is tough in this - Tik Tok look at me world, but that is the biggest issue. DD
I don't think Stone and Tillman will allow Ime to make that decision unless Reed massively disappoints and Fred is a lot better than I expect him to be.
Stats say different. Maybe offense is more important, but you do not win championships with mediocre defense. You pretty much have to be top ten and even that is suspect if you have a walk it up offense like last year you need to be even better.
Stats....LOL - LIES.....DAMNED LIES....and STATISTICS...... You can read stats in multiple ways, but all the advanced metrics start with a HUMAN input and then an algorithm which may or may not be accurate. People just cherry pick stats to make their point. In the end it is simple - did we outscore the other team........YES = win.....NO = loss...... You can't win by focusing on 2s.....3s need to be a bigger % of our offense. We need more 3pt shooters to really compete in the modern NBA.... DD
Sengun is not a great defender, the issue is that you need people to cover for his deficiencies. He is a good defender if he has other players that can cover for him in the areas and situations where he struggles. And if you have other defenders on the court who can do that, he actually is good at a lot of things defensively. Last year showed us that you can build a very good defense with Sengun at the 5. I think its oversimplifying to say "he sucks" or "he's good". He can be good, but he is limited. KD is fine as a defender. I've seen a lot of people argue about this, some saying he's good and others saying that he sucks. He definitely doesn't suck and he can hold his own in a vacuum but he is not good enough (or is just too old) to be a guy who can help cover Sengun's deficiencies. So that's why we see these issues when Sengun and KD share the court. KD is not a high effort help defender, which is expected for a guy who needs to score 25+ every game and is 38 years old. Throw Reed into the mix and I think he is the worst of the three. Similar to Sengun he really needs players that can cover for him. I think that's why the Reed/Capela lineups do so well, the defensive deficiencies from Reed can be easily covered by a strong rim protector. But that's not Sengun. And I think this is the problem, and this is why these 3 guys together just don't work. People really like to point the finger at one of the three based on who they like or don't like. If you think the center is the goalie then this is all Senguns fault. If you hate small guards who gamble on steals then this is all Reeds fault. If you hate that a 38 year old doesn't have the motor of a 22 year old to play help defense then it's KDs fault. It's a problem with all three of them as a combination, and I don't think it's possible to have a good defense with these three guys on the court. I don't think there's any coaching that can fix it, I think this is just a problem of having players that simply aren't good enough. Every single player we've drafted has severe deficiencies and there's only so much you can do to play around them.
You don't need someone to cover for average defenders if you have above average offensive players...you will outscore the other team. DD
No one has said we can't play better D, but if we scored more consistently it would not matter as much, IMHO, we have too many defensive first players, and not enough offense first players. And our focus on some of our better players is on 2pt shots and not the better 3pt shots. DD
Got it - DD said the problem with allowing a tanking team to put up 132 on us is the offensive production. I hope everyone is taking notes here.
I’m not disagreeing that we need to take and make more 3’s. Just your discounting of one side of the ball that is 50% of the game. I even agree that having a good offense is more important than a good defense. I’ve even said if Sheppard can elevate his defense to average he could be an all-star, but a team can’t have a mediocre team defense and win a championship which is your contention and history bears that out.
I wouldn't bother putting much stock in DD"s comments - it feels like he is particularly trolling today. Anyone who thinks a tanking team putting up 132 on us is a reflection of our bad offense is not serious about basketball AT ALL.
They got hot from 3, how old are you? I mean every few times a year you run into a team that just hits unlikely shots, they out played us and took tons of 3s, something we were not ready for , and got down 20 - hard to make that up.....especially when the other team keeps hitting 3s. Yes, our D was bad in the 1st quarter, yes our energy sucked.....if we come out ready to play we win running away - and I don't want them to NOT play D - but we have to choose do we want to give up a 3, or force them into the middle, where we have no rim protection. DD
Good post. I think this is why I take issue with Stone's lack of moves with our young guys. They picked the best player available in every draft and didn't have access to the all world talent guys like Wemby, Cade, and Flagg. What they got was good but flawed players. Each is valuable in a specific context but what never happened is we never traded them out to get a collection of guys who complement each other well. The result is the limitations of all our players get particularly exposed and are highlighted on the current roster. They tried to address it with aging players to cover the gaps but given DFS has been terrible and maybe still not healthy, Stevo and Fred will miss most of the season, and KD's advanced age and already heavy offensive workload - it hasn't ultimately worked out so we are still just highlighting that the defense looks pretty bad when Alpi, Reed, and KD are together and the offense looks pretty bad the more Tari/DFS/Jabari are initiating but the real end goal is to create lineups what mostly supplement our players weaknesses with the strength of teammates. That is the work our GM still needs to do because right now Ime is choosing between a bunch of bad hands to play in game
Denver just did this recently. It is difficult, but possible. The Rockets have not gotten to the point that they know who they want to build around. I think they are leaning heavily towards Amen, but he's not made the leap to the point that he's worth building around. Building around a player typically closes off options. I'm really down on Sengun this year, but I don't have access to medical information. I think the Rockets are still a year away from either going all-in on Amen and Sengun, building around one or the other, someone else, or blowing things up.
The KD trade had everyone thinking that we're in win now mode, when in reality the cost was very low commitment and the core of the team is actually super young. Next summer is the pivotal crossroad for the future of the franchise. Like you said, an extra year of data will help them decide who we should build around, if that player is currently on the roster at all. KD is still movable if we want to move on. And we'll know where Brooklyn and Phoenix's picks land so we'll have a lot of clarity on what's in our war chest. This summer I think the team will be content to offer Amen an extension and essentially run it back. Fans won't be happy, as having a 38 year old KD still be the best player on the roster won't be fun. But blowing it up this summer would be super premature and another win now move like trading for Giannis would be a disaster IMO.
