After signing a maximum-salary contract with the Rockets last summer, Fred VanVleet averaged 17.4 points per game – his lowest scoring mark since 2018/19 – while handing out a career-high 8.1 assists per contest. In his second season in Houston, the team wouldn’t mind seeing VanVleet turn some of those assists into points, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required).
As Feigen observes, the Rockets should have more ball-handling options this season, with rookie Reed Sheppard capable of handling those duties and second-year guard Amen Thompson growing into that role. That will allow the club to have VanVleet operate off the ball a little more often, opening up catch-and-shoot opportunities. He made 38.7% of his three-point tries last season.
“As we’ve seen with Fred in the past, he can play off ball. That’s one of his strengths,” head coach Ime Udoka said. “To play with (DeMar) DeRozan, Kawhi Leonard, (Pascal) Siakam, all these guys that really handle it quite a bit, he’s been the recipient. I think he’s been more so in practices and preseason games of getting some off-ball shots. That speaks to the comfort of other guys to handle it, make plays. … He can take plays off, be off the ball some, and be the recipient of some assists instead of making them.”
Udoka expressed confidence in Sheppard and Thompson as options to initiate the offense and also pointed to Jalen Green as someone who can bring the ball up the court. Besides letting VanVleet play off the ball more, those other ball-handlers should also put the Rockets in position to reduce the veteran point guard’s minutes after he averaged 36.8 MPG last season.
“Not a specific number, but way less than that, obviously,” Udoka said when asked about a target for VanVleet’s minutes. “That was the second-highest of his career. But he’s a guy that played heavy minutes in Toronto in the past. He took that on himself last year to really help us grow in those areas. It was another coach on the floor. But we’d like to drop that, for sure.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Pelicans point guard Dejounte Murray is looking forward to reclaiming what he considers his “real position” this season in New Orleans after spending two seasons playing alongside Trae Young with the Hawks, according to Christian Clark of NOLA.com. “In Atlanta, I was in the corner and on the wings, and I made the best of it,” Murray said. “Here, they are allowing me to play my real position. Playing point guard. Keeping everything organized. And making dudes better. And doing what I do best.”
- The Pelicans intend to operate without a traditional center on the court for significant chunks of games this season. Head coach Willie Green believes the strategy can work, since those units should provide more versatility on both ends of the court despite giving up some rim protection and rebounding, but he stressed it will require a commitment from the players in those small-ball lineups. “When those units are on the floor, they have to have an understanding that they have to be tougher,” Green said (story via Clark at NOLA.com). “They have to play harder. We have to compete at a higher level. We have to rebound at a higher level in order for those types of groups to work.” Daniel Theis, who has spent most of his career as a backup, and rookie Yves Missi are New Orleans’ top two traditional centers, but forward Herbert Jones may open the season as the team’s de facto five.
- Camp invitee Jazian Gortman impressed the Mavericks this fall not just with his play on the court but with his work ethic off it, according to Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal (Substack link), who notes that the guard spent plenty of time watching film before games and getting extra reps after practices. Gortman, who believes his decision-making and his three-point shot have both improved since Summer League, was promoted to a two-way contract on Friday. “He impressed not just me but the organization as a whole,” head coach Jason Kidd said. “Everyone who watched camp felt he was impressive, and we knew he was someone we needed to take a closer look at.”
Rockets will be dangerous this season. Very young, but very deep.
The Rockets will be the most dangerous 12th seed in the league.
Hey Pelicans, we know you’re cash constrained but a guy named Jonas Valunciunas of the Washington Wizards has a $10M salary and is on the trading block.
Valunciunas wasn’t a fit for the Pels and it showed every second he was on the floor. Not a bad player, but he was never a match for their system or the players in front of him on the MPG chart. A negative rim protector doesn’t work for them.
Not to say Jones is a better fit, because he’s not built to play the 5 at all, but JV is not the answer for any question other than “which player from last year’s team was the worst fit on the roster?”
Its not about who you write C next to its about which guy gets targeted in pick and roll on defense over and over again. That will be Zion and CJ and they will break Zion if they try and make him hold up against bigger bodies at the rim and in pick and roll coverage.
EON , I agree that JV was not an ideal fit, but the Pels have failed to fill the important role he filled. The Pels let JV go only because they assumed that an acceptable C would become available. The loss of Larry Nance compounds the problem.
It’s well-known that the Pels have since tried, and failed, several times to acquire a starting C. Jones is the C only because current options are exhausted. The situation is an embarrassment to the Pels front office.
It’s not just that Jones is too small. It’s about Zion. Griffin has often said that having a true big is critical to protecting Zion, both from expending his limited energy and from injury. Consider the scenario where Zion gets injured while playing small-ball C. The blame will go to Griffin.
If that’s the case, you want JV even less. He’s one of the worst enforcers/rim protectors in the entire league. His whole value is on offense, be that screens, P&R, posting up on smaller guys, or limited shooting. He couldn’t protect a cat flap, let alone another NBA player. Enes Kanter would be a better bet, and he’s the worst defensive big the NBA ever had since Kevin Duckworth.
The bigger issue is their inability to accept anything but the best possible trade packages. They’re hyper-focused on trading Ingram and getting back a haul, which was never going to happen. The Pelicans needed to make a fit trade and accept a lesser return than they could get in absolute terms, because they aren’t willing to dangle their actually attractive trade pieces. They weren’t even willing to get anyone for the league minimum to just fill the hole! Even someone like Bismack Biyombo or JaVale McGee would be better than the situation they currently have, and also better than trying to reacquire a guy like JV, or trade for Marvin Bagley, for example.