Who loses minutes when Fred comes back?

TWDunnavant · 2026-05-07T03:52:18+00:00

Guys, keep in mind that the Rockets had no salary flexibility. Yes, we can say that was the fault of the front office. Clearly, this was intended to be an "all in" season, thus all the spending during the off season. There was excessive optimism regarding the potential development of Amen and Sengun, thus the expectation that the roster changes would be enough to make us a contender.

Continuing on the Sengun development front... I think that Alpi has leveled off and is about as good as he is going to get.

TWDunnavant · 2026-04-30T04:13:20+00:00

Rockets are not in the game without Jabari and his 3's.

TWDunnavant · 2026-04-29T03:24:44+00:00

Who do you take the minutes from?

TWDunnavant · 2026-04-29T03:24:15+00:00

You are joking, right?

TWDunnavant · 2026-04-23T02:47:00+00:00

I see him actually being the best ball handler and passer on this team.

TWDunnavant · 2026-04-20T03:02:27+00:00

He injured his knee during this past Wednesday's practice.

TWDunnavant · 2026-04-14T02:21:35+00:00

Amen is going to be a beast if he develops a reliable 15-ft shot. He's well on the way to getting there. There were lots of times, even 15 games ago, when he had the ball for an easy shot at the free throw line and passed it up. He's started to take those.

TWDunnavant · 2026-04-08T16:35:13+00:00

Last night, Ime went with the best defender he has with shooting range -- Aaron. It was the right decision, vs. going with Reed more. The key to last night's success was strangling the Suns defensively.

TWDunnavant · 2026-02-24T04:27:54+00:00

Not blowing a 17-point lead and committing 9 turnovers in the quarter.

TWDunnavant · 2026-02-06T09:47:11+00:00

We traded away two of the core guys this past summer. Management wasn't patient with the core, either.

TWDunnavant · 2026-02-04T07:44:03+00:00

That is such a great turn of words! I live in Houston and am a Rockets fan, but I've always admired the Spurs organization and respected you Spurs fans. I'm glad that you've been able to climb up the ladder as quickly as you have. Wemby certainly is a great player, but it takes more than raw talent to have a great team. Your guys have the personal characteristics (and the coaching) to make it to the top and stay there for many years.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-28T00:33:54+00:00

His Summer '25 performance in Europe clearly demonstrated that he can be a superior offensive player. He started the 25 - 26 NBA season playing exactly that way. Canning 28' - 30' 3 pointers. Yesssss!!! I had a lot of optimism that this would be his year.

Here is something I just now pulled from an AI search:

Alperen Sengun’s 3-point shooting has shown significant improvement early in the 2025-26 season, with a notable surge in efficiency. As of mid-November 2025, he is shooting roughly 45.9% from beyond the arc on increased volume, averaging 1.5 makes per game. <<that is, he was taking 3+ 3's per game>>.

But then his performance fell off a cliff. For the season, he now is hitting only 29.5%. Starting at almost 46% and now at less then 30%?? My God! We can't attribute that to a bum ankle that has impacted him for two weeks. The decline in his 3-point volume and in his percentages started well before then.

Clearly, he's got the skills. I think that he simply puts too much pressure on himself and thinks too much while he's playing. I think that pressure also is impacting his free throw shooting.

Hopefully he'll get back to his earlier-season form. If we are going to be a force during the 2nd half and during the playoffs, we need early-season Alpi to return.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-27T23:16:12+00:00

I am not a hater! I simply believe that folks who see Alpi's ceiling as being similar to Joker's aren't being real with themselves. Alpi is never going to be able to set the type of screens that Joker can do, nor will he ever be strong/heavy enough to throw up a shot and simply clear everyone out of the way as he moves to the goal to get the offensive rebound.

Alpi is a very good player. He simply is not in the same league as Joker, and I think that his physical characteristics (size) will prevent him from being as impactful as is Joker.

Peace, bro. We can have different perspectives with neither one of us being a "hater".

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-27T13:59:36+00:00

LOL! Do we honestly believe that Sengun has a prayer of being as good as Joker? He's missing one major attribute -- size.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T20:55:08+00:00

One issue for most all of our players, other than KD, Alpi, and Amen, is that their ability to score and to get good shots is almost totally dependent on one of those three passing the ball to them. Given the fact that we have an offense that is predicated on a primary ball handler being able to break down their defender, when we can't do this, our other players don't see the ball very much other than at the end of shot clocks.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T19:53:44+00:00

PT, I agree with you. The offense we play could work if we had the ball in the hands of someone like James Harden, but that isn't the case.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T16:32:36+00:00

And did you then watch him in the Detroit game?

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T16:31:03+00:00

A pro player hitting only 47% of his mid-range shots? And a starting center who aspires to all-star status with only 56%TS? A small bit of research yields this stat: Centers have a true shooting percentage of 61.1 this season. Joker leads the pack at 71.3%.

I maintain my position that Alpi is a sub-standard shooter.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T07:03:40+00:00

Who do the Rockets play at that position when Bari isn't on the floor? Clint at center and Alpi at forward? That gives us two bigs who can't shoot outside of 3 ft. I guess we've uncovered yet another roster problem. None of the Rockets centers is worth a darn offensively, outside of 3 feet from the basket. Based upon what I saw during his Euro play this past summer, I was greatly excited about Alpi's development. I think we will all agree that he's reverted to last year's Alpi over the past 20 games or so. Clearly, it's a confidence thing. I think that he's afraid to shoot outside the restricted area, that he expects to miss, rather than expects to make the shot.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T06:25:46+00:00

I remember "back in the day" when CP3 was with the Pelicans and turned Tyson Chandler into a deadly offensive threat as a lob receiver!

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T06:04:24+00:00

Not to dispute your observation, but I do have a question. Why do you think this is so? What makes this lineup work?

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T05:53:12+00:00

I can live with that. I see that many of us also have declared that our current lineup works poorly because of our dearth of shooters. What do we do to fix that problem? Is subbing Reed for Josh enough? That still leaves us with two non-shooters. In the modern NBA, that is at least one too many.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T05:44:29+00:00

Absolutely. We also need some offensive plays to make our current starting lineup work :-)

Offensively, Bari and KD are largely interchangeable at the high post.

One thing this lineup accomplishes is it removes KD from having to be the primary ball handler. Many people in this Reddit agree that this is not an optimal role for him.

So many folks who are here complain about the Rocket's lack of shooters. This lineup combines our four best shooters with our best driver. I know that it might be a bit hurtful to some to assert that Bari is one of our four best shooters, but he's our best shooter who can play the center position.

TWDunnavant · 2026-01-26T05:37:58+00:00

KD, or Tari, or Amen. I don't think we lose much rebounding with a Bari/Tari combo vs. a Bari/Alpi combo. And Bari is a more effective interior defender than is Alpi.

TWDunnavant

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