Game Day: Rockets (25-34) @ Suns (35-24), Sat 3/2/24

[Split T]

Ya the turnovers are the big thing for me. Booker was turning it over yesterday and when that happens it’s especially bad.

Right now this team only works if Booker is a top 5 level player. He needs to take the brunt of the defensive focus. KD is still very very good, but he obviously struggles against aggressive physical coverage. Book needs to be good enough that teams will suffer if they play that defense on KD. Getting Beal going is obviously key as well.


Also just take Eubanks out of the rotation. Let’s get Thad comfortable with our guys in that small ball 5 spot. That or the Bol-KD frontline needs to be our focus.

Also we might’ve missed EG more than we thought. He’s not the type to be flustered by a few missed 3s. Grayson is struggling right now and he seems a little gun shy. Royce kept on firing which is good. Bol also seemed to get gun shy when he was missing.

[Superbone]

Considering our firepower to start the season, it has been very disappointing thus far. To me the defensive effort and rebounding effort has been the most disappointing. It's so frustrating when the opposing team gets two or three chances many times down the court. I'm just going to try to keep my expectations in check and hope that Ishbia/Jones fix our weaknesses in future years. Nobody here expects us to go far this year based on what we've seen. We'd be lucky to get out of the first round. Heck, we might not even make the playoffs. Tough upcoming schedule starting tonight and we couldn't even take care of business at home against a sub 500 team that had struggled for road wins. We're just getting plain outworked and there is no excuse for that.

[Superbone]

Ya the turnovers are the big thing for me. Booker was turning it over yesterday and when that happens it’s especially bad.

Right now this team only works if Booker is a top 5 level player. He needs to take the brunt of the defensive focus. KD is still very very good, but he obviously struggles against aggressive physical coverage. Book needs to be good enough that teams will suffer if they play that defense on KD. Getting Beal going is obviously key as well.


Also just take Eubanks out of the rotation. Let’s get Thad comfortable with our guys in that small ball 5 spot. That or the Bol-KD frontline needs to be our focus.

Also we might’ve missed EG more than we thought. He’s not the type to be flustered by a few missed 3s. Grayson is struggling right now and he seems a little gun shy. Royce kept on firing which is good. Bol also seemed to get gun shy when he was missing.

KD trying to force the ball to Young last night was frustrating. Two attempts, two turnovers.

[SunsSince92]

This team is a cautionary tale in general management and roster construction. Among the valuable lessons everyone should learn from this team:

- Don't mortgage a decade's worth of assets to go "all in" on one year's team.
- Don't over-focus on a "big 2" or "big 3" to the detriment of the rest of your roster.
- Make sure just about everyone on your roster can defend well at their position.
- Make sure your starting lineup and bench both have facilitators, guys who run an offense, not just scorers.
- Don't trade young for old. Don't trade a ton of picks for a 35-year-old player.
- Don't hire a coach who is incapable of pushing your talent to do what they need to do to succeed.
- Don't let your players drive your roster construction.

What did I miss?

You missed make sure you have the best player in the nba on your roster.

I don’t think we should make any sort of hard and fast rules like this. We traded young for old when we acquired CP3, was that bad? We are also on year 2 of the all-in team. We also have the key figures locked up…this was mortgaging 4 1sts for a 4 year all-in run.

Do people wish we could take back the KD trade? I still think it’s an absolute must do. The team we had was not winning anything either. We definitely upped our chances by acquiring KD. Did we improve enough to give up the 27 and 29 1sts when KD is gone? I think so…if we hadn’t made the trade we’d probably be in basically the same position record wise and everyone would be clamoring for a big move to lift the ceiling of the roster.

Only 1 team wins the title. Is it better to not win but have false hope for the future because you have some crappy late 1sts or to not win and have no hope for the future because you don’t have a couple crappy late 1sts?

I’d rather take the route that might actually win, even if it’s still unlikely.

I don’t think this team is winning anything, but I’m not as down on them as some of you are. The pieces are there, they need to stay healthy, get comfortable together, and stop turning the ball over(this and defensive rebounding is our biggest issue imo). Booker turning back into Jordan for the playoffs would be nice as well.

How long do they need to get comfortable together though? I get we've had a lot of injuries but these guys are all experienced players that are used to being traded to new teams and adapting to different players. It feels like that excuse is getting more than a little thin with 22 games left of the regular season to play.

[Shabazz]

This ankle injury could cost Book all-NBA.

[Split T]

Ya the turnovers are the big thing for me. Booker was turning it over yesterday and when that happens it’s especially bad.

Right now this team only works if Booker is a top 5 level player. He needs to take the brunt of the defensive focus. KD is still very very good, but he obviously struggles against aggressive physical coverage. Book needs to be good enough that teams will suffer if they play that defense on KD. Getting Beal going is obviously key as well.


Also just take Eubanks out of the rotation. Let’s get Thad comfortable with our guys in that small ball 5 spot. That or the Bol-KD frontline needs to be our focus.

Also we might’ve missed EG more than we thought. He’s not the type to be flustered by a few missed 3s. Grayson is struggling right now and he seems a little gun shy. Royce kept on firing which is good. Bol also seemed to get gun shy when he was missing.

KD trying to force the ball to Young last night was frustrating. Two attempts, two turnovers.

Ya they clearly weren’t on the same page

[Split T]

This team is a cautionary tale in general management and roster construction. Among the valuable lessons everyone should learn from this team:

- Don't mortgage a decade's worth of assets to go "all in" on one year's team.
- Don't over-focus on a "big 2" or "big 3" to the detriment of the rest of your roster.
- Make sure just about everyone on your roster can defend well at their position.
- Make sure your starting lineup and bench both have facilitators, guys who run an offense, not just scorers.
- Don't trade young for old. Don't trade a ton of picks for a 35-year-old player.
- Don't hire a coach who is incapable of pushing your talent to do what they need to do to succeed.
- Don't let your players drive your roster construction.

What did I miss?

You missed make sure you have the best player in the nba on your roster.

I don’t think we should make any sort of hard and fast rules like this. We traded young for old when we acquired CP3, was that bad? We are also on year 2 of the all-in team. We also have the key figures locked up…this was mortgaging 4 1sts for a 4 year all-in run.

Do people wish we could take back the KD trade? I still think it’s an absolute must do. The team we had was not winning anything either. We definitely upped our chances by acquiring KD. Did we improve enough to give up the 27 and 29 1sts when KD is gone? I think so…if we hadn’t made the trade we’d probably be in basically the same position record wise and everyone would be clamoring for a big move to lift the ceiling of the roster.

Only 1 team wins the title. Is it better to not win but have false hope for the future because you have some crappy late 1sts or to not win and have no hope for the future because you don’t have a couple crappy late 1sts?

I’d rather take the route that might actually win, even if it’s still unlikely.

I don’t think this team is winning anything, but I’m not as down on them as some of you are. The pieces are there, they need to stay healthy, get comfortable together, and stop turning the ball over(this and defensive rebounding is our biggest issue imo). Booker turning back into Jordan for the playoffs would be nice as well.

How long do they need to get comfortable together though? I get we've had a lot of injuries but these guys are all experienced players that are used to being traded to new teams and adapting to different players. It feels like that excuse is getting more than a little thin with 22 games left of the regular season to play.

Well the record with the big 3 all playing is good. Most of our bad stretches have come when one of them is out. Plus we’ve added Thad and Royce in the last month. Not to mention Bol is joining the rotation. It is frustrating that they haven’t been able to consistently look good, but most of that has happened when we aren’t healthy. You’d expect the team to not falter so easily with 1 guy out though.

And for the record, I’m not excusing their play. They absolutely need to be better and it shouldn’t have taken them this long to get comfortable with eachother. They absolutely should have a better plan for what to do when certain players are out. Like when KD has to run the offense and gets blitzed…it’s like an automatic turnover. No reason to not have a better plan.

[Split T]

This ankle injury could cost Book all-NBA.

He’s gonna be right on the line. He’s played 50, but one won’t count because of his ejection. So he needs to play 16 of the final 22. He can miss 6 games and the first one is tonight. So he’ll be down to 5 left.