you have to wonder if they are going to sustain that but both of those teams highlight how important depth is. Take the Rockets starting 5 vs Kings
Fox > Fred
Kev < Green
Deebo > Brooks
Keegan > Smith Jr
Sabonis > Sengun.
we have easily the best player and are better than them at 4 of the 5 starting positions but they are 12-5 and we are 8-8.
We are going to need defensive stoppers, energy guys, great shooters from the rest of the cast. A trade or two is going to be needed and we are going to need to find a way to get Carter into the rotation when he returns. Until then we have to figure out how to play better earlier in games and stop digging holes we spend all game trying to climb out of
Fox better than FVV but Fred is better team passer (meaning assists) and better 3 point shooter.
Brooks is better than DDR in defense and again a better 3pt shooter.
Keegan, Jabari is hard to tell because both of them are really unstable especially this season in the offensive part.
Sabonis is better than Sengun overall, but Sengun has a "bigger bag" in offense or how is the term?
Now the big difference between us and Rockets is the bench productivity not only in points but also in defense, stops, rebounds etc. Eason and Amen Thompson are phenomenal, bringing energy from the bench in the "wings" sector that is our weakest point by far this season having only Lyles as a reliable (and not always) solution behind DeMar and Keegan.
Overall they play better defense, they have a coach that has made them to "die on the court" and ok he might look like a vilain in a movie, but last season we couldn't match their physicality and I doubt can do it this year either the way we have been playing in most of the matches. It's admirable that they have achieved to be so competitive but i don't really like how hard they play sometimes (maybe too hard, with Brooks having this Draymond role often) wanting to be the Bad Boys 30+ years later than the authentic ones at Detroit.