Why Houston Rockets Playoffs Are MAKE Or BREAK | Will Jalen Green & Alperen Sengun RISE or FALL?
Why Houston Rockets Playoffs Are MAKE Or BREAK | Will Jalen Green & Alperen Sengun RISE or FALL?
Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) is joined by special guest Dave Hardisty (@clutchfans) aka “ClutchFans” to dissect the Rockets playoff prospects and future roster decisions. They discuss Fred VanVleet’s role, the potential of Amen Thompson, and the long-term outlook for Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun. The conversation also touches on the Oklahoma City Thunder’s strategic moves and the importance of young players proving themselves under pressure.
#Rockets #NBA #JalenGreen #AlperenSengun #FredVanVleet
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38 Comments
Amen should be the closer.
Sengun nor Jalen are dogs. Age doesn't determine that. The fact that everyone is still asking the same question is the answer. Build around Amen.
So if they struggle this post season there’s no need to move on from Sengun or Jalen man . They are 22-23 years old not 30-33 . Haven’t anyone learned from Boston With Tatum and brown ? They were in so many trade rumors and thought they couldn’t Co-exist and now they are champions …. Relax
there is no grow without failure. this team will grow and learn to become a potencial championship team. they have all the ingredients. all the doubters will see. indiviualy everybody of the young core has allstar even superstar potencial. as a team they will learn to become s superstar team. even this year its possible. mainly its mentally in my opinion. just play ur own game, ur own style, enforce ur own style to ur opponent. act as team, dont overreact what the enemy is doing.
Alpi is tradable. The Rockets should look at drafting kharman malauch to be their starting center,with N’faly Dante as the back up center. Malauch would fit well with Amen and Jalen much more than Alpi bcos of his rim running, Pick n roll and lob threat.
Hope jalen plays bad in playoff and traded next season i tired of ime not trusting him like he trust fred even with bad game ,and ime not trusting jalen as the closer of this team when jalen had save rockets many times in close game how many times fred and dillon take to many shoots in closing seconds the bucks game when dillon play hero ball two shots ilwhen jalen had it going in that 4th qtr i hate ime not benching fred and dillon when they had bad games what a coach a favoritism coach so ime you make this team a fred and dillon and trade jalen and alpi coz you still bench them while not dillon and fred play to many minutes while playing bad game ime is the only coach that bench the no.1 and 2 scorer
We’d be talking about trading amen if he was drafted when Jalen was during the Silas era . We don’t need to make any trades. Pump the brakes and let these guys grow together. Curry was drafted in 09 and didn’t win the first chip until 16. Plenty of examples to name. Relax.
Thank you Jackson for finally having a honest conversation, these Sengun fan-boys needed to hear that
Make or break after there first playoff run?
I agree with Amen being the best player soon.
I do not agree with Cam do not get mention. I believe the Rockets will make their first mistake not giving him opportunity. Fred should come back on a team friendly contact. We gave him to 40 million dollars season. He is not worth that amount. I see the Rockets team of the near future.
I do not see why nobody else can see it. Our starting lineup Amen, Jalen, Tari, Jabari, Sengun. Bench: Cam, Reed, Dillion, and Fred?
Next year, all the other teams will be healthier and stronger than this year, so if you can't become champions this year, (let alone strengthen it and fill in the gaps) you won't even be able to keep this roaster..!
Rockets cannot and should not have any goal other than conference and league championships, any other result means failure and the team's 4th year is lost for an unreliable and sloopy player like Jalen…
Jalen and Fred are the weakest pieces of this team, you can't win no game against any team with these guys on starting 5 on the playoffs..! Play Amen, Dillon or even Alperen at guard position, but never both Fred and Jalen ..!
dave hardistiy , your mama is tradable, her ass is bigger than usa
I think we need to give Reed Sheppard more playing time so he can develop and become the PG.
Ime needs to utilize CAM if Jalen and Alpi both struggling on offense.
People are missing out about the Rockets. They do not want to depend on one player. Harden never won a NBA CHAMPIONSHIP DURING HIS ERA. THEY WANT A BALANCE SCORING. I BELIEVE HC NEEDS TO HIRE OC, SO THE OFFENSIVE CAN BE BETTER
Been watching you for several years now Jackson – I can honestly see a lot of improvement in your work. Appreciate your approach and ability to be careful on sensitive topics, but also not avoiding difficult conversations. Good stuff man
Sadly Break 😢
Stone better add an Offensive Coach to Ime's Coaching Staff instead of his Damn Cronies I'm Effing tired of his ass getting " OutCoached
How many times are you going to say the word consolidating before you realize there are no reasons to consolidate. The salary cap is projected to increase by 10% each of the following seasons because of the new CBA. Jalen and Sengun are already on good value contracts. And Jabari, Tari, Cam, and Reed aren’t going to get their kind of money. Dillion and Fred will be off the books by the time we really pay players. None of this makes sense. It’s so tiring.
They traded Giddey and then paid Caruso a 4 year 80 mil contract. So what’s this whole thing about not being able to pay players.
Fox was 26 when they made it to the playoffs. With a worse record than we currently have. It’s like you’re purposely using information without context.
Idk who you talk to Jackson, but you should stop talking to them.
Ä°f a team cant give a good pass to the Center from the guards,is it the problem of your Center or your guards??? Ä°f your Center is way better passer than your star guard the problem with the team is here …i am watching OKC and Hartenstein is getting quality passes from SGA near the rim , its how its supposed to be ,guards give quality passes to Centers not Centers to guards …so Alperen is the gifted player in this team, he has to create his own shots away from the rim because of bad passes from star guards in Houston
I wouldn’t trade anyone in this roster.. they are still young let them grow together.
Go Rockets!
I would trade the 2025 phoenix pick
Fred,Brooks,Reed and the rest of the other draft picks for curry or Giannis
I think the rockets window will be open a lot longer than we think. People act like we have to rush to trade anyone. Only barrier will be money, so we should wait until that is a barrier. If tari and bari want serious money, talk trades.
But we are 2nd in the west right now. A rushed move is exactly what will set us back.
I get it a lot of us are frustrated from the rebuilding era, but great teams are not built overnight.
I say give the kids 2-3 years in the playoffs and if you don’t see what you want to see, talk trades.
OKC is so good because they have so many shotmakers surrounding SGA. it makes everything work
No team is gonna respect Amen's jumpshot. You cant build around that
Dave is a certified Sengun hater. Don't feature him again please.
Fit is an interesting concept – there are many ways to "fit". I think the most important "fit" deals with the concept of team play. The rockets have that type of fit, and it should always come first. Second, you are talking about offensive fit, how about defensive fit? I think this team has good "fit" defensively – I think this mostly intentional. We have some draft capital to help develop the offensive fit. The trick is to not disrupt the defensive fit and definitely DO NOT mess with team fit. I do not think we are ready to move on from Fred, he stays if I'm in charge. I am not worried about the team unless they look bad in the playoffs. They should win at least one series in the playoffs and should at least look competitive in the second. If they do that I'm not changing much. If they lose in the first round you probably have to make some kind of change. I've decided that I was expecting too much offensively earlier in the year. I think Udoka is having to go slow on the offensive side of things because they are so young. The defense is solid so now Udoka can slowly implement a legit offense, but it may take a couple of seasons to really get going.
Jalen Green is no bueno closer when he becomes one dimensional + passive. Udoka sat him down in clutch time for a reson.
Defense wins championships and Rockets is hell of a defensive team. They only lack 3pt shooting which Sengun, Amen and Green will eventually sort out. Then just fake and bake the opposing defenses. Maybe not this year but soon Rockets will be a contender.
Trade for Zion in offseason for legit 1A.
Jackson finally said the quiet part out loud; the Rockets don't have a real closer, but Jalen is the only real best option right now. I still believe however, that eventually, some one player or combination of players will emerge as an offensive closer.
In the playoffs you need somebody who can shoot at a high percentage. Jabari might be the guy. If teams load up on Jabari he can still get a good look. He can play with his back to the basket and also shoot 3s. Or get the ball on the elbow. Segun and Jalen are not that versatile as Jabari. Jabari just need the keys to get efficient at that role. 15 to 20 shots a game
You can trade your way into mediocrity, just ask Phoenix, Sacramento, Milwaukee etc…Rockets should just be patient
This team won less than 30 games 2 years ago and suddenly you’re looking and asking for a closer. In my opinion this team still has at least 3 years to become a very guaranteed contender. Pump the brakes with your takes enjoy the bumpy ride and in 3 years time may be a conference finals appearance and hopefully a chip afterwards.
Did you genius to see what happened with Fred Van Vleet left the Rockets with injury? Like it or not they need him wake up expert.
Normally up and coming young teams have to take a few playoff series losses before breaking through.
Jackson, this may be your best show in a couple of months! Really good analysis.