An exciting season opener pairing two teams from the West who most NBA followers have in their top four teams in the entire league. Houston will need to acquire a point guard to replace Fred van Fleet though if they truly aspire to beat OKC, Denver, Minnesota, and perhaps even Golden State in the West.
Reed Sheppard is a player I would put somewhat in the equivalency of maybe an Isaiah Joe type. I don’t want to be overly harsh on him, but for Houston to hold the O’Brien Trophy at the end of the day… the Rockets will need more from a real two-way point guard in the goal acheiving portion of April, May, and June.
Coach Ime Udoka says, ” We’ll handle the point guard sitiation by committee. MJ says, ” I don’t think so.”
Amen Thompson is a virtual star, but his job is shutting the best offensive players in the league down… as he did last night versus Shai until he got in foul trouble.
Kevin Durant is too old and last night in his senility called a timeout which his team didn’t have left and it should have cost his team the game right there and then. But I never boo Kevin… ever. If anything, KD should get a retroactive Nobel Peace Prize for playing alongside Russell Westbrook for eight seasons and not strangling Russell to death for his irresponsible-reckless point guard play. Kevin was prescient in his determination that Russell would never win a championship. You Thunder fans still booing… “Stop it—you look foolish a decade later.”
Jabari Smith… could maybe play some point guard here and there as a change of pace when the matchups might be in their favor. But in reality…Houston will need to pick up a solid veteran two-way point guard sometime this season.
Otherwise…the Rockets are legit and basically loaded. Alperin Segun is a DUDE and a burgeoning star who should be getting more talk from the national basketball people.
Who does he remind me of?
Maybe a more physical version of Pau Gasol. BTW…I think Pau would have played in this version of culturally purple Oklahoma City alongside of Shai and JDub.
I need to think some more on that one. He has size, toughness, smarts, the offensive instincts, and a three point shot improving as we witness the transformation of his game. Isaiah can’t handle this guy on the blocks, and neither can Chet. Maybe in a series it would need to be JDub.
Houston Rockets…four words–GET A POINT GUARD. It doesn’t need to be a star. Just someone solid.
I wrote before the game last night, ” Shai is Superman. That’s what MJ wrote. And lo and behold as Amen Thompson got to his fourth and fifth fouls…we witnessed Shai take control of the game and gently lead his teammates to victory on one of those nights when none of them really pulled their collective links on the chain minus perhaps Ajay Mitchell and at sporadic intervals.
Chet who is now on a max contract.Shai needs more from Chet. Sam Presti needs more from Chet. Chet’s max contract is the one part of the Thunder’s ‘open window’ current payroll construction which makes MJ a little nervous.
The Thunder are at Indiana on Thursday evening. I want see how the rest of the team minus Shai shoots the ball on the road without JDub in the lineup. I’m looking for guys like Lu, Caruso, Wiggins, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay, and maybe JWill and Isaiah Joe to knock down some threes and take the offensive pressure off of Shai.
Chet be a star, buddy. Be a maxlevel star. Play like a max guy both halves. Professional consistency is where your game nees to travel to take it to the next level. You don’t need to be Superman. Shai has that covered. But don’t play like a Rudy Gobert-like slug out there either.
I never watch much of the news anymore. It depresses me too much.
So excuse the SNL updates, but I need to try and keep smiling–one way or the other.
Peace.
MJ