The issue is Ime. Would Fred be very helpful off the bench playing limited minutes? Of course, but you'd need a more intelligent coach for that. If FVV comes back, Ime will have him starting and playing 40 minutes a night till he goes down again. A lot of things would be great in theory, but then you have to remember the Rockets have a 65 IQ head coach.
I think a lot of people misremember last season. Would Fred help to stabilize late game situations? Sure. Would he make a huge difference? I don't think so. We blew games in crunch time repeatedly with Fred. Mostly because we couldn't score. The difference between last season and this season in the minds of fans is that last season was exciting seeing the young players grow. We went from 22 wins under Silas to 41 wins under Udoka and then jumped to 52 wins. Those blown lead were excusable because we were a young team. This season, fans expectations are high. No more excuses. That's why those blown leads are so much more infuriating and memorable.
I think it is disappointment that the Durant trade did not significantly improved our offense and ability to contend. It's also fatigue to our defensive, slow offensive strategy. We see too many teams come in with fluid, movement offenses that even when not effective are more fun to watch. It's the same thing that happened with Thibs. That philosophy can keep you competitive in the regular season, but it is not championship worthy and it gets boring, especially when nothing changes from year to year. There may be some old schoolers that really enjoy that kind of basketball, but the majority of fans are drawn to fast paced, ball movement type basketball. Most fans, 90%+, would rather watch showtime Lakers basketball or 4 out offenses like GSW, then methodical defense first basketball. Winning will cure all, but do we really think 90's basketball has a chance in today's game?
See this is what pisses me off, it would, it should and it COULD if we had a decent coach that would realize Durant is 37, and not capable of being the INITIATOR - and lean into Reed. Ime is holding this team back from being it's best self, and by proxy, KD is too, we should not be LEANING into KD late, it should be a team approach, think back through history who hits big shots? Elie Horry Cassel Maxwell Kenny Kerr Paxson whoever is open is best philosophy and everyone feels empowered. DD
Exactly. I posted the blown leads stats from last season and this season on the previous page. Also, there is s reason why they had the sometimes me, sometimes you mantra while our offense was propped up by offensive rebounds. And why KD was largely considered the closer we needed. Healthy Fred would help, but I feel like im in the Twilight zone when people talk about him like he was some offensive maestro constantly getting this team great looks and running this like a well oiled machine.
You cherry picked the 2 month sample. From the 23rd of December to January 22nd he was 37% from 3 which is down from now but not bad considering the volume. From then to the All star break his shot was bad. So roughly a month of actually sub par 3 point percentage. A bit misleading on your part
Not at all. I covered that period since that was the period he struggled. The all star break was FEB 13-16 and the Rockets didn’t play until FEB 19 which he shot .200 in that game. He shot 29% DEC 23-29. Then 33% for January He also shot 33% FEB 2-19. And as i said he has been shooting well since.
That's right, I meant to say Portland and Washington. Doesn't change my original point though -- if anything it bolsters it because you saw what Reed was able to do playing the 6th man role against the Warriors.
FVV would mostly help in the first 3.5 quarters (ideally preventing some of those clutch time possessions from even being needed). This is mostly by keeping the TOs low and getting the team in actions faster, executing better, etc. In the clutch, he'll be less likely to make as big of on impact, especially if the idea is to still go through Sengun or KD primarily. I think he still would make a positive impact because he would be capable of doing things that our closing lineups don't really have much of (even if you include Reed), but at the end of the day, a lot of those clutch time issues IMO are the result of certain players not processing things very well. And all it really takes it one mistake for an entire possession to be blown. If those same problematic players are going to be in those lineups, I think there's only so much you can change by swapping in FVV. I'm purposely not naming problematic players, but honestly all of them kinda struggle with issues that negatively impact things. So take your pick.
You're talking about two guys who needed the ball but were also world class distributors and had a clear hierarchy between them. On this team it's four guys who all need (or in Amen's case are forced) to have the ball in their hands to be effective, and they have a murky hierarchy. Not really similar at all imo.
We are still a young team. Even younger despite KD because we are missing both FVV and Adams. The "fans'" unreasonable expectations do not dictate reality. Again, we are a young team and we often blow leads like a young team learning how to win and missing key rotation players.
There's a reason why the national media soured on the Rockets as contenders with FVV out for the season.... No one is claiming FVV is anything other than a competent PG who can competently run an offense and play great team defense. I feel like I am in the twilight zone listening to folks underestimate doing the simple things on offense after everything we've seen this season.
I don't disagree. But my point wasn't about fans dictate reality. My point was that some people claim if we had FVV we wouldn't be blowing games like we've been doing this season The reality is that we did blow games with FVV last season too. FVV would help but would not save us. Losing him is not the sole reason why "this is not our year." In fact, maybe this was never our year in the first place with or without FVV.
I didn't really care for Reed starting early in the year because at that time, I just wanted him to get minutes and actually develop. But now I do think he needs to start. Because man the current lineup with Amen/Jabari/KD/Sengun/Tari just doesn't work. It's not even working against crappy teams much less teams we may have to face in the playoffs. Reed may or may not be the savior, but at least there's a possibility that he's the savior.
I think in order for it to have been "our year," we needed one of the young guys (if not multiple) to take a huge leap. Sengun taking (and making 3s) and increasing his overall efficiency while maintaining his decent play on the defensive side. Amen being super effective as an on ball player (possibly while also being something like a ~30% 3pt shooter). Reed starting the year off against OKC like the game he did against them last year (plus having more of those games in general). Ideally all 3 looking like potential perennial all-stars. Maybe could throw Jabari or Tari in the conversation, though I think the ceiling of the team is impacted more by those other 3. At this point of the season, I don't think any of those 3 players have taken the leap necessary to do that. So yes...it wasn't going to be "our year" regardless of whether FVV was healthy. Definitely raises the floor and pushes the odds of a deeper playoff run though. Perhaps he could have accelerated the development for some guys as well.
FVV clearly provides an experienced offensive floor for the team. Not to mention he is good team defensive player and can hold up at the point of the attack. Adams was also very important for the team as well, not just for the rebounding but because he is a pretty elite screener. The thesis of the team was vets help cover the weaknesses of the still developing young core. I think that's more of what Stone meant by "this is not our year".
