What is krack Lack and fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Damp Valley coming
at you with another offseason outlook. We are on to the Houston Rockets,
who are quite topical after they made the decision to hire email your Doka on
a four year deal worth seven plus million annually. I think it starts under
seven million, but it's worth over twenty eight million. I believe I brought
on my good friend and peer. He covered anyway. He covers the Houston
Rockets for Red Nation Hoops. Subscribe to a sub stack, great podcast,
great writer, Salmon Ali. Follow him on Twitter at Salmon Ali MBA.
That's at s A L M A n A l I NBA as the National
Basketball Association. The most important question of this podcast, because we are allot
to get to it, is the it was an important one, Salomon,
How are you doing okay? Man, I've been okay. It's been a
long week, but I think it's I think I think I think it's been
worthwhile. I think it's been worthwhile. A big week for Rockets content too
with and look, so I went on and I did retweet and quote tweeted
it. Go check out his podcast. If we have nobody to describe.
What's that? Did you quote? Oh you didn't bump my quote tweet?
You're terrible, But I didn't see it. I didn't see that. We
talked about the Email Udoka hire at length, and so we won't try and
cause we spent like thirty five minutes on just the higher So I'm not going
to rehash all of that here. But I have basically need to hit three
levels of it. And the first one is before we get to the off
court stuff, is were you surprised by not even just the decision, but
how quickly it came together? Yes, yes, I thought. I mean,
for for a minute it seemed like Nick Nurse was the leader in the
clubhouse. Right now, I'm I can't I can't imagine that I was the
only person who felt that way, or that Rockets fans were the only people
that felt that way, right Like, I feel like our national level,
it really felt like there was a there's some momentum towards Houston being the landing
spot for Nurse, and then they just randomly, like I don't want to
say randomly. It turns out that Emailudoka was the favorite the entire time,
and nobody knew. Uh hey, that's that's just how it how it goes
down. But I mean it seems like early on the process the Rockets Udoko
interviewed really well. That that's that's seems to be all the reporting seems to
indicate that he impressed or Felstone, he impressed him with Rota, impressed Patrick
Fritita, really got along with the the top guys, and it seemed like
what the Rockets were looking for in this search was someone that would establish a
culture of accountability that they really wanted with Steven Salas. And you know,
it always becomes clear what what what the organization is looking for in their coach
when the coach gets hired, So it always becomes obvious after the fact.
But I couldn't think of a of a more clear scenario of that than this.
The introductory press conference was not the least bit illuminating on his suspension with
the Boston Celtics, where he was suspended and then eventually dismissed after going to
the NBA Finals, mind you, And so you think it's serious enough for
having an improper relationship with a subordinate staffer, also would I think it's reporting
multiple times but would did come out and report it once the made a dooka
hire came through that there were text messages and language used that was deemed too
inappropriate, and I guess just decided the organization thought that it was too far
gone to bring him back or have a reasonable reconciliation. I will start on
this because I hate putting the onus on the guest when it's the sensitive topics
like this. I found the quotes that came out of the intro presser to
be mostly bullshit. I didn't like the way that he framed it as his
overcoming adversity. I do believe in redemption. I do believe in atonement.
He did say that he feels even more remorse. Now. I'm still just
trying to grapple with these feelings of what was said specific not that we needed
the actual language, but what happened that the Celtics felt that they needed to
get rid of someone who just coached them to the NBA Finals versus a team
that came out and said, oh, the word woe used was there's nothing
that was disqualifying when it came to his candidacy, and there's just such a
gap in the way this matter then was viewed. Is it simply because so
much time passed, And the other two elements that are hard to grapple with
is it wasn't just him or even his family that was impacted by this,
or even just the female staffer that was impacted by this. It was the
Celtics organizations stable of female staffers because of all the fuck shits who fancied themselves
social media salutes, who went on and tried to identify who the female staffer
was, resulted in all this sort of online harassment with even just photos being
shared if not if people weren't being tagged, it was absolutely grotesque. And
then you have like if I'm a fan, or if I'm a female staffer
in the NBA, if I'm just a female who likes basketball like this,
just all this shit rings hollow to me, And I don't actually know what
the perfect response would have been. It wasn't timn for Tita basically scolding anyone
for saying, if you don't believe in second chances, shame on them.
It's not that people don't believe in second chances. I just still feel that
these big organizations don't get to come out and say trust us, we did
the due diligence, it's fine, we're moving forward. That's just not enough
for me, And I don't know, I guess what would have been enough,
which then makes me a hypocrite. But framing this as the weights for
Tita did to me felt a little dismissive. And then I'm just not a
big fan of, you know, spinning this as adversity for Udoka, which
okay, it is, but it was a bigger form of adversity for you
know, the subort he has a relationship with, or even more so,
the parties that weren't directly involved, because these female staffers faced whatever, harassment
or just having their pictures and names out there on social media in the aftermath.
And so that's where I landed on all this. And I'm just wondering
how you're feeling now that the introductory presser is in the rear view. Yeah,
I guess the best way to talk about this is to discuss like how
I was consuming everything, Right, So when before you make out the job,
when Emay was talked about as a canidate for this job, I said,
listen, if he's going to be the guy, you better a damn
will investigate what the hell happened? Figure ensure that it's not going to happen
again. Talk to Emay, talk to the Celtics, talk to the League
office, do whatever you do whatever you can to get as much information as
you can, and then be ready to explain yourself right at the introductor your
press conference, because the question was going to get asked. So when he
May gets the job, I'm like, all right, listen, if you
think he's the best guy and you did your due diligence, now you're gonna
have to explain, right, And so we get we get also report reporting
before the press conference about how the Rockets went to the League Office and they
they were able to acquire the Boston Celtics report that they conducted through that Lard
party law firm, and Adam Silver basically gave every team that was interested in
Emay the green light to pursue him, Like, we're not going to step
in the way because we think from the information that we've gathered that one year
suspension was sufficient. So that you know that comes out whatever, right,
I'm okay, you still got to explain it, man, Like you still
have to explain, like why him brist everybody else why why, why this
isn't gonna happen again. Sure, he is Emay remorseful. He hasn't spoken
to the media since this all went down last year. This is the first
time he had an appearance. So the press conference arts as anyone could have
predicted. It's the first question, and Emay answers it, I would say,
as well as you could in his circumstances, right, because I I
we had we podcasted yesterday or the day before yesterday, and we talked about
how listen, you can't disclose everything that happened because this has this involves other
people, right, So with that being said, with that in mind,
I mean, he did a pretty decent job of like not getting defensive himself,
not not saying like hey, trust trust me, like that you don't
know the situation, Like he didn't do any of that. He basically took
accountability upon himself. He took ownership of it. He talked about what he's
done since then, Like he took sensitivity training, got counseling. I didn't
know that, you know, that's new information. Yeah, that was good
to hear and to just interroject really clearly, my criticism is more directed than
the organization. We'll get their Yeah, we'll get there well. And like
so Tilman, he has these prepared remarks, and I thought those prepared remarks
were decent and right. Ruffel talks about the reason the due dildence that they
did with the League office and like they were largely in the clear for the
first thirty minutes. It's like the first thirty minutes of that press conference went
about as smoothly as you can. That question that Tilman gets asked is the
last question, and it felt like a blown layup because it's like, dude,
you couldn't just land this plane. Like all you had to do was
just continue on with the tone that you guys were taking before. Instead you
take on this preachy tone about shame on you if you're not giving people second
chances. It's like, dude, no, it's not about that. It's
not about that. The question that was asked to you was what what do
you have to say to people that feel like Emay doesn't deserve this job or
are looking at the rockets and criticizing them because they made this higher instead of
some other higher And all you had to do, you and it's not about
the Christian thing it's not about bringing up a religion, because I'm getting blown
up on Twitter about about how like, oh, are you just upset about
the Christian thing? No, No, you could. You could. There's
actually a way to make a more coherent faith based argument than than you did.
Right, if you were to say the Christian who Christian? Anything?
You could? You could? You could have attacked it from a million different
angles. Hey, Like I believe in forgiveness, like I'm, I'm that's
that's what my faith teaches me. Uh, I understand if how people feel.
I just know that we would not have compromised or the women that work
in this organization if we felt this wasn't the right higher like there was,
you could have made a faith based argument. Right, So, even the
tack that he took could have been taken better. It just felt like a
blown layup. And it's unfortunate because I do believe for that. For the
ninety percent of the presser, I thought it was smooth. And then that's
here's the thing with something like this. If you fuck up that badly,
that quote is going to make all the headlines from the presser. Nobody cares
about that. Like, I guarantee you there are people listening to this podcast
that didn't know that those first thirty minutes went smoothly. They just know about
that quote because it was so god awful. I mean, it was beyond
strange and like like I don't know like why it made no sense to say
in that moment other than just frustration. He got frustrated and he said that,
and it's like, no, dude, like you probably should not never
talk to the media again unless you're you're required too, because it's like like
you have to be You're like he's like a loose dog, like like he
can't control himself, like he even like so the Rockets. The Rockets were
building this this brand new stay of the art, seventy million dollars practice facility
in the Galleria of Houston. It's like the really really nice area, right,
It's where all the players staying when they coming down. I'm excited.
I'm excited about it, by the way, But they're building this used to
and we had heard whispers of it, but it was mostly just rumors and
speculation, and nobody really had concrete evidence that this was happening. And one
could suspect that the reason that we weren't getting that is because that the Rockets
wanted to report this themselves and make a real like a nice easy again,
a layup of a positive news cycle for themselves. Tilman, for Tita,
gets asked about his spending habits with the team, and he gets so defensive
that he's like, we're building a seventy million dollars a practice facility. It's
like in his speel of things, right, it's like, oh, we
we fly on seven thirty seven's. It's like like, dude, like you
don't. I don't know, man, there's just no discipline in him.
And I say that and and this is gonna be hard to believe. He's
actually gotten better from where he was a few years ago, which is which
tells you how bad he was before. Right, Like I'm telling you as
someone who observed him before. Every other answer was terrible, right. Every
other answers like what is he saying? Has he ever spoken to people before,
much less the media the people? Has he ever had human interactions?
Does he know how some of this stuff's gonna come off? And it's like,
I guess he just needs more seasoning, or I don't I don't know
what I honestly, some of this is just ingrained and I don't I don't
know. I think he handled that question about as poorly as you can.
And again he answered. Tilman himself was asked like six different variations of this
question and he and five of those variations he asked, he answered responsibly,
right, and then the sixth one, It's like, dude, like like
I can't even check Twitter right now because I'm I'm, I mean, I'm
we can't talk about it if you want, but like I've become a Rockets
fan this year again, right, I've become a full on fan. And
when that quote when I was when I heard that quote, it's like the
media part of my brain picked up. It's like, fuck, I know
this is gonna go. I know this is the quote that's gonna stick out
from this presser. And I'm so shameful to check Twitter right now for how
that quote's coming off. Like I don't know, I don't know how people
are reacting. I can just I just know how how the media is,
right, I just know, I mean, I just know that this is
something if I were covering the r if I were watching this press conference,
this is something that I would pick up on and I would tweet and I
would criticize the rockets for because it's terrible. Why would you say that?
Why would it makes no sense. I didn't look and I saw your the
reply, some of the replies to your final tweet of the day, I
believe, and I don't understand the people that are making this about anti Christianity
at this point. I think they didn't see that. They didn't hear the
quote. That's my guess. I look, I didn't even hear the quote.
Like it was one of those things where it's like I saw everything that
was that. I wasn't around for the presser. I saw everything after the
fact. But like to your point, because that quote came out and I
don't think it was presented based off how many different outlets like framed it,
I don't think it was. I didn't see the press. I don't think
it was presented unfairly out of content, but so many people it was terrible
when it came out. It was everybody in that room groaned because it's like
they all knew, like these are all journalists, they know how the news
works, like they knew that's gonna that's a terrible thing to say, and
the story Look the story led with that too, where it's the stuff about
Udoka talking about how he went through sensitivity training counseling with his son to better
their relationship. I think some people would say, well was he using it
as deflection? But like that stuff was so far near the bottom of a
lot of the stories. It's you know, that quote hijacked the entire press
conference, which look, when you compare it to the last one of these
that we had with Chauncey Billups in Portland, this was going so well just
relative to that, And I don't want to make it a competition because of
the sense debi of the topic. However, from a basketball perspective, and
we did get into this a little bit, have you gained any insight either
from that press or as to what to expect that Judoka brings to this team
or just thinking about it since the higher what do you expect or going to
watch for with how he handles this team? With a caveat that, there
is a pretty good chance it looks a lot different before next season. Well,
this is what sucks, right, It's because like I talked about how
I've become a fan again and I was listening to press conference, like enthralled.
There's so much basketball stuff going on. Emay was talking about how he
wants to he wants to tell the players, like listen, young, isn't
an excuse, right, like to for any of the mistakes that you're gonna
make. Accountability is going to be my biggest priority here. So okay,
that's a solid tangible thing that we learned at the press conference. We learned
that he watched a lot of Rockets before the interview process, and he you
know, Mari spit Junior was a prospect that he really really liked. Specifically,
he pointed out specific teams. Kevin Porter Junior was a guy he got
to watch at USC, right He Kevin Boord Junior came in during the press
conference and there was like a little light, lighthearted moment there and no one's
gonna see it, right like, and like he talked about like, oh,
the Rockets had sixty million dollars in cap space, and that was one
of the reasons that he wanted the job, right, that was the reason
he chose the Rockets over some of the other openings that were available, Like
the cap space was a big part of it, and that he wanted to
go get shooters for this team. It's like, oh, like that's something
I didn't know, right, Like there was so much we learned here,
and I would love to talk about those other things, but I can't because
Tilman said that, you know, he said that reflections on this right,
I mean, like, I want to get into so bad. I want
to talk to you about players more than just the off season. But like
that is just that season look ahead stuff and I hope that you will come
back on for the Rockets season ahead. But I wanted to talk to you
about some of the players who who would identify as core players right now and
what you learned about them or just thinking about coming out of the season.
And I think we should start with Jalen Smith. Uh comes off probably not
the best up Jalen Smith. Oh, Jalen Green, I apologize, I'm
getting Jabari and jalons well. First of all, Jaln Smith's a real person
too, but yeah, jearim probinding names here. Jalen Green doesn't have the
cleanest follow up campaign to his rookie season. It feels like the dial is
always turned to eleven out of ten with him. What are you? What
are just your thoughts coming out of his sophomore campaign. What are you thinking
about with regards to him moving forward? I'm not worried. It's not I
mean, you see this all the time in the NBA, right, Like,
it's not uncommon for a player to flatline their second season, right because
how many times have we heard development is not linear? You know, Like
I think it's not. It's not you know, unheard of that he would
have a season where it was kind of a little bit down from the season
before, right. I think it did kind of you know, I watching
the preseason, watching the other green the preseason, I was like, oh,
this guy might be like much better than I projected him out to be.
Like, this guy might be like he was playing like a superstar in
the preseason, right. So, so it quickly squashed that for me,
right Like, like so I'm not thinking I'm no longer thinking of Jalen like
that anymore for the time being. But I think he did make some strides
getting to the free throw line. That was a tangible stride, Like he
even the nights where he wasn't the threes weren't going in, he was getting
to the line, which he wasn't last year. And I thought that was
a big development for him. Strength increasing I think was huge. Yeah,
absolutely absolutely, And like just the passing was was slightly better, right,
It was like it was a big surprise in the first place that he had
like an instinct to pass when he got into the lane, right, Like
for me, it was because I watched him in the G League. He
wasn't doing that, and so it got a little bit better in that he
was he wasn't just like passing when he got into langa. He was like
looking to make the extra pass this year, which I thought was encouraging.
I thought, you know, his floaters, which was it was like a
nice little like it's nice to see, you know, some variation in the
offensive set, right, And I thought, more specifically like him just reading
his teammates, like Alprince Shanguon, the chemistry he developed with him was very
optimistic for me, Like I came away with that very enthused, and I'm
I want to see how that pairing works together next year with a real NBA
head coach, right, Like, I think it's gonna be really exciting to
see how this roster gets unlocked under Emay. And you know, I think
some things some disappointments, the defense still worrisome, the shooting still not like
he's not like a guaranteed going to this season. He's gonna be thirty six
percent. He's not there yet, right. I think once once he gets
there, we're talking about unlocking some real, really exciting stuff. The mid
Ran shooting, obviously that was already there. I think I think it was
more of a kind of more of the same for Jail. And to be
honest, I thought this was a down year because of his shooting splits,
but he improved in some areas and I just want to see how he does
next year with some more structure, and I think it's there's a real possibility
that, you know, we look at what he does next season. It's
like we look and we come back to this scene. It's like, this
was such a wasted opportunity. That's how if you're gonna ask me about the
rest of the roster, by the way, it's gonna be a consistent theme
like wasted opportunity. Like that's how I feel about the development of most of
these young guys this year. It really was. If you're reading and because
Green, you look at, Okay, the level of difficulty on some of
his shots. I think that can explain a little bit of the efficiency dips.
But then it's also you know, his catch and shoot numbers were down.
He would just like to see him in a better and then his furnishing
around the rim just by getting into the line that was dramatically down. But
I'd like to see him with better spacing around him, more of an offensive
steward next to him than a KPJ or any of the other guards that Houston
ran out this year, really and I think that could benefit him. I
also think, you know, giving more agency, and we did see it
as the season went on. I think to Alperren, Jane Gun, who's
your boy and the next player I'm going to ask you about that can go
a long way too and any over like and he look, I was lower
on him than you, and I look I still am. But coming into
this season, he definitely exceeded my expectations. And there's just a very fluid,
high IQ nature to his game. It's not just the passing he can
you know, he can work and score from the post. He has the
turnaround shot going. He has like he can throw up some floaters or pushes.
So this is a guy who has a bunch of utility on the offensive
end. What are your just your thoughts coming out of his sophomore campaign.
Yeah, I mean I was impressed that he was still producing despite the constraints
that were put are put on him, honestly, Like and I realized that's
like the biggest ship I could possibly say about him. But I mean he
really was. Like he starts the season on the bench because Bruno Fernando,
I mean, you can't, you can't hold back. Never as long as
Alfernchen, who's in the NBA, like that anecdote is never going to die.
I mean, it's as long as Steven Salace is a head coach,
it's never gonna die. I mean it's it was, Yeah, I mean,
he starts the season on the bench, coming off the bench. H
he is playing consistently like five to ten minutes UH per game, less than
the rest of his start the starters, and it's like it shows a real,
you know, lack of confidence in his abilities. Players get hurt.
His his usage rate stays exactly the same, like exactly the same. The
only thing that changes are like his it goes up. But like that's kind
of shocking, Like the fact that Kevin Porter Junior went down for a stretch
and like, you're still giving Jalen Green. I mean, you're you're still
just you're still giving Alper and Changun Like, oh, here's your like fifteen
percent, right, Like you're you're you're exactly where you were offensively before and
and he produced, he still produced. I think, uh, what I
liked from him, especially this season was his his reading of his of his
teammates. Like, I think the chemistry developed with Jalen We talked about that
earlier, but it's not just Jalen, Like, I think he developed chemistry
with a lot of the guys in the roster, even when Data and developed
chemistry with him. And I'll explain what I'm talking about. Like, so,
like, I don't think Kevin Porter Junior was always looking for Alper and
Changun. I still don't think, you know, towards the end of the
season he was looking for him, But Kate Shangun was always looking for Kevin
Porter Jr. Right, And like, I think that kind of stuff is
so encouraging, right, Like the fact that you don't get discouraged by someone
not passing the ball to you. But you're still going to give it back,
You're still looking for the best opportunities for for your teammates. I think
that was that was good, but again, like I still can't go I
can't. I can't help but feel like this was a wasted opportunity for the
for him. If anybody resonates with this theme more than anybody on the roster,
it's him. I thought this was a guy that was going to average
like eighteen and nine this year, right, Like I really did. I
I thought this was this was a guy that was going to clearly show himself
to be the best offensive talent on this team. And you know, he
might be the best offensive talent on this team. But because he was playing
like ten minutes per like five minutes per game less than the rest of the
roster, he can't prove it. He can't never had the opportunity to prove
it. He never had the opportunity to prove his own head coach wrong.
Right, And I don't know, like he got better, which is surprising
because he was so good that rookie year. But I don't think this was
this was as good as he could have been, Like, I really don't.
I thought this was This was a real opportunity for him to show that
the organization should have played him more last year, and because the organization continued
to play him less, he couldn't prove that same theory wrong, which was
made me really want to pull my hair out. I'm interested to see if
they can get just better space he and cutters for him too, And I
think that's why KPJ was someone that he linked up with or looked for,
because that was someone who was like, can score in motion and would move
without Jon was another one of those guys. Yeah. Uh, Jabarr Smith
Jr. Is the player on this roster right now that I remain highest on
long term. I might be reading too much into a strong close to the
season where we saw that he is more offensively than just this play finisher had
some turnarounds going. He shot an incredible clip on pull up jumpers over its
final twenty games during that span. Actually, I was double checking his before
he went on. Over his final twenty games, out of everyone who attempted
as many pull up jumpers as Jabari Smith Jr. Only Steph and Tyres Maxie
had higher effective field goal percentages. And so I think that that is a
good harboring jury for the next iteration of the Rockets. But what are your
thoughts and impressions coming out of his his rookie campaign, Like, okay,
so I was lower on on Jabari than I think a lot of people.
Right, I didn't have a number one I had him. I don't think.
I don't even think clearly the Magic didn't even have No. I don't
know who had him. I guess a lot of people out of number one,
the people had him number one before. There was still one of wildest
just sort of fake outs leading into the draft where it was oh, Jabari
Orlando, Jabario Orlando. In the last thirty six hours, it's oh no,
it's palap Yeah. But but even among the consensus media guys like he
was number one and yeah, you're right, you're right. I'm just it's
there so much distance between it and Palo was so good that I can't even
fathom having him number one movie. You're right, you're right. Yeah,
And like I remember like reading all that stuff, and I was like,
am I seeing am I not seeing something that everybody else is? Like I
just Polo is so much better than him as as someone who projects to be
a star, right, Jabbar could eventually become like a star, but it's
going to require a lot more from where he's starting than where Polo was starting,
and from more chets starting right, And I thought, this is somebody
who is going to require a lot of player development from the ball haidling standpoint.
And in that respect, he actually did impress me. I thought this
year he was a better ball handler then then I remember watching at Auburn,
right, And perhaps that's because he got more ball like some more ball handling
opportunity than he did at Auburn. But like, it really was, it
really was something that I was worried about this year. And you know that's
not to say that he's something exactly magic Johnson right now, Right, he's
not right, He's he's someone that's going it's still very raw on that end
of the floor. He's still he still has a lot of work to do
as a shot creator. But as a defensive player. I see it,
man, like the tools are there, the motor is there, the rebounding
is there, the blocks are there, the steels are there, the will
to do it is there. It's just gonna take some some structure. It's
gonna take someone that you know is in his ear telling him where he needs
to be when he needs to be there, because sometimes he thinks he's exactly
where he needs to be when he's not right, Like he's, uh,
he's a little over confident in his defense right now, I'm noticing. And
that's probably because he was such a highly touted defender as a prospect, right
and I'm kind of looking forward to Emay coming in and knocking him down a
peg a little bit, and health probably gonna be You mentioned structure before,
there's gonna be way more structure too. What Houston felt like, this is
the way I framed it. And you watch more of them than I did.
They felt like they had an ultra conservative approach without any aims, like
not any angles in that yeah, when watching them on defense, But for
some reason, Jabari didn't have that same conservatism, right, like he had
a little bit more rain to do what to do kind of what he wanted
offensively, like he he got he got the ball a lot, like he
was given the opportunity to really score for the Rockets, and specifically about defense,
they were completely ungoverned on the offensive end, like they were completely just
yeah, well most of them were right, Like most of them were were
pretty I wish some I wish all of them were uncomforted, but most of
them were. But getting back to Jabari, like, it's hard not to
look at the three point shooting and be like, huh, you know,
like I'm not saying it's it's a red flag yet, but it's definitely huh.
This was this is like you were like the highest, like one of
the greatest three point shooting big prospects. That's some of these some of these
you know, these value ators that ever seen. Right, So it's it's
not great when you come into the league and you're shooting less than thirty one
percent from three. I think I think it's something that works that merits more
monitoring next season. You know, I think he needs to really shoot,
Like he really needs to aim to shoot like thirty four thirty five percent next
year at the minimum, at the minimum. Right, Like, he was
not a good shooter this year, and I think part of it was because
I think, you know, you mentioned the pull up threes. I actually
feel like he took too many long threes. Like in Auburn, he loved
shooting those above the RC threes, Right, And if you looked up the
distance on an NBA above the above the break three versus a college above the
Barry three. The difference is like five feet and I feel like the three
point line was two far from him for him. And you notice his percentages
went up pretty drastically when he stuck to the corners. And it's like that
might be something that is worth being pointed out to him, right, Like
if maybe you start your NBA career shooting more corner threes versus what you were
comfort comfortable shooting at Auburn. I know that's what you wanted to shoot when
you got to the NBA, but this is clearly too far for you.
And you see his percentages dipped down as he takes a step, as he
takes a further step away from the basket, Like it's progressive in that way,
right, And I feel like that's I think that's kind of an obvious
like he's not used to the three point line, the NBA three point line,
And to some extent, we probably should have saw some of this going
coming because before his for his rookie year at Auburn, he was a mid
range shooter as a high school prospect, like he was a knockdown, like
drag out mid range shooter, right, and he shot threes, but his
specialty was as a mid range shooter, like he he was like LaMarcus Aldridge.
And to see him kind of try, I mean, to see him
expanding into three point shooting in college was encouraging. But perhaps we shouldn't have
We shouldn't have had him shooting like seven threes a game his workie year.
Perhaps it would have been better if he shot like four threes a game,
and perhaps three of those should have came from the corners. I would be
with you to simplify his outside attempts and a lot of the damage he did
in the pull up stuff that I'm citing, like that was happening inside the
arc, and so like him getting more comfortable in that role I do think
is somewhat important. Though I think you can quibble and you kind of alluded
to this about his shot selection. Who is more to keep things moving important
to this team long term, Tarry Easton or Kevin Porter Jr. I guess
it, really this is kind of a cop out. It depends on two
things. Depends on what happens this offseason, and it depends on what happens.
I guess it depends on what happens as offseason, and it depends basically
on what the Rockets are able to get lucky with, you know, like
if if they if they if they get James Harden this offseason, then it's
clearly tar Eason. If they get Fred Van Vliet, I don't know,
or if they get if they get someone like kil Bridges, I think it's
the ob obvious answer is gonna KPJ is more valuable to you, right,
it really depends on what the Rockets, you know, if if they get
Scoot Henderson in the draft, you know, like I think I'm tempted to
say Tary Easton is more important than the long term, but KPJ is so
far and away the better player right now. But that being said, Tary
Easton was like their best rookie this year, and I don't think it was
close, Like it was like yeah, and and I I predicted this before
the scene, like let's pay attention to this man, like guys like three
years older than uh than Jabari Smith Junior. So there's there's a possible there's
an outside shot that he has a better rookie year. Let's keep an eye
on that and it happened man like, and you know, his rookie year
really reminded me of Shan goosberokie year, and like, the guy should have
gotten like way more minutes. Right, the guy should have been starting,
honestly, in all honestly, he should have been the starting power forward.
Right, but Jabari Smith Junior be the number one. I'm number three overall,
pick got had seniority there. And I listen, he was really really
good offensively, and that's what that's what was impressive. It's not it's not
we knew what he was bringing defensively, right, we knew what he could
potentially bring defensively. But it's the offense. It's the fact that he's finishing
at the rim at the rate that he's finishing. It's the fact that he
actually can drive into the rim over some of these trees. Right. He
can't go right yet, right, but he still has an avenue to get
to the basket and finish there, which is impressive for a twenty one year
old. I will say, and you know, I'm not a KPJ guy.
He looked a lot more scalable offensively this year, sort of just plugging
player, like if you did get a hardened or if you get another league
guard or you know, scoot where someone's gonna have the ball in their hands
a ton and if you're gonna just up Shane Goon's license over the offense in
addition while leaning on Green and then whoever you draft, I think KPJ is
a much cleaner fit now than I would have said if you told me this,
you know or whatever. Objectively, the best rocket this year was Kevin
Bodj. Objectively he was They need more guy I mean, like when you
talk about they had in Theory Garrison Matthews on the roster for most of the
season, Like KPJ is like the guy that could score off motion away from
the ball and keep defenses on tilt with his his movement. They need more
guys like that no matter what they do. Are there any other players on
this roster that you would like to like? Do you have like an to
us monte Ruba that you would like to mar Man kJ Martin like that guy
became a starter this year after demanding a trade this summer and getting laughed at
the laughed out the building, Like he demanded a trade this summer and like
fuck is this guy? Well, he's demanding a trade like the second round
pick, like it makes no sense to anybody, and he as soon as
Air Gordon's traded, Bam. The decision's easy. It's easy. Everybody knows
it's kJ Martin because he had played that well up until that moment. And
I mean, he is so far and away outperforming where he was drafted relative
to the rest of the Rockets, Like he was the fifty second pick in
the twenty nineteen draft and he is playing like the twentieth pick right now.
I mean, at bare minimum, he is playing really, really above where
most people expected. He wasn't even mocked in those people's top sixty in twenty
nineteen or twenty twenty. Excuse me, he wasn't mocked there. I looked,
and that's why I was surprised. Like I had to do some last
minute research for the draft. kJ Martin wasn't even on my radar because it's
like the guy was like eighty one hundred on some lists, right, and
he is freak athlete, potential potentially could become a good defender one day.
His three point shooting where do you shoot? This year? He was at
thirty one plus percent around okay, but for his career he's like thirty four,
right, Yeah, he's around there. Yeah, So I mean that
that that's a really like tantalizing prospect there that you get that they pulled out
up in air. They paid money for that draft pick, so you know
that, you know, that's the kind of stuff that helps you win trades
down the line. It helps you put together packages. Like kJ Martin will
never highlight a trade package, but he's the kind of guy that if you
throw them in, could put you over the finish line. That's a great
point. And you talk about off ball movement specifically, and that's someone who
that's another that's like him and KPJ were like basically it who could at least
do it effectively? And I think kJ Martin was at like almost one point
five points per possession off cuts in the half court, which is just huge
when you look at kind of the space. Saying he needed to navigate at
points for the Rockets this offseason is just we talked about they have like an
easy pathway to fifty eight plus million dollars in cap space. There are so
many things that could inform their direction and so I want to start with this,
is that, whether you're looking at the draft or free agency, before
we get into actual moves players, how aggressive they'll be. What is that
you can pick one? What is the single biggest need that this organization,
this roster has to has to has to make a focus to fill over the
summer playmaking. It's kind of easy, but yeah, you need you need
some one that's gonna get everybody involved, even Jalen Like, I'm not sure
if you got to read that reporting from Shams and Kelly Echo about how the
Rockets Jalen Green went went to Rockets coaching staff and said, like, listen,
I can't be having the ball in my hand as much as I as
much as I do. Like that's that to me was like, you know,
that was meant to be like a throw into the reporting, like hey,
Steven Sauce has like no control of his coaching staff. They're coming to
him and telling him what they want. And to me, I read that,
I'm like, man, that's really mature, man like for someone in
his second year who would in theory want Yeah, like that, Yeah,
that's that's incredible. Yeah, And I'm like, yeah, you're you're right,
and like it's So it's gonna make read, it's gonna make building the
team so much easier on the Rockets that they have that information in mind,
that he's willing to be, that he wants to be off the ball,
that he recognizes that's his best role. And I love Jalen Green. I
think he can become an All Star one day. I think he's likely to
become an All Star one day. Excuse me. And I think if building
around him, you're gonna you're still gonna need someone to do that can stir
the drink here, right, that's gonna that's gonna facilitate and get get everybody
involved. There's a possibility that you know, there was a guy on the
roster and they never gave that guy the opportunity. But the reality is the
Rockets have to go into the off season as if that guy is not on
the roster. They have to they have they have to at every opportunity,
they have to look for guys who can really dynamically shift their offense. Right.
So that's why James Arn's being mentioned. That's why Scoot Henderson would be
awesome for the Rockets. That's why there are some Rockets fans that don't even
want the number one overall pick. I think those Rockets fans are out of
their mind. But it's happening, you know, and I can see why
they feel that way after watching this team. I did not know there was
a subset of Rockets fans that did not want that. They're Weben Yama,
I, we have to get in the hard and stuff. We talked about
it at length. It's serious, but not What's interesting is if they wind
up with Scoot, do you think it makes it less likely that they would
make a play for James Harden or even maybe another advantage creator or do you
think that there may be so invested in making this big leap it's justin James
Harden is healthy and wants to come to Houston. Like we're gonna make that
a focus. So I'm not sure like what your draft philosophy is, right,
like when you when you're when you're you know, making these mock drafts,
these these big boards, right, I've just started doing this stuff like
two years ago, right, But like the way I see it is you
do tears, right, you tear out, you tear off your big board,
and then within that, with within your tears, you pick the guys
that best fit your team, right. So like, if two guys are
in the same tier, you pick the guy that's a better fit for your
team, right. So I think Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson are in the
same tier. I have Scoot Henderson a hedge a hair better. Right.
Now, what's different about the Rockets is they can't do that because they have
sixty million dollars in cap space and their team might look drastically different. So
they kind of have to draft with how their team looks and how it could
look. They have to draft off intel. So I think when the Rockets
get to the point where they're actually selecting, they have to kind of go
off their intel and kind of make an educated guest, which is scary.
Which is scary. At the number two, you're sort of saying you're number
two, and you see them go Brandon Miller, You're like, fuck,
the James Hard noise is real. Yeah, I would say so, I
would say so, yeah, Or I mean, who knows, maybe maybe
maybe the Rockets don't view it the way we do. Maybe they have Brandon
Miller above Scooty Henderson. But I don't, right, you know, like
I don't I have I have Henderson above. I still think most people are
at there at the point where Henderson is above, right. I think there
are some, but those people are are outliers right right. And not to
say that's that's like a incredulous thing to say. I think if I didn't
think it was possible, I wouldn't have him in the same tier. But
again, that's what's different about the Rockets. They have to go off of
what they're hearing, what they feel, what they what they feel is likely.
And at the end of the day, if if if they're not getting
good intel, I would I would pick Scoot Henderson, you know, I
just I would just go with with Scoot Henderson and figure it out later.
James Harden is in his because I'm overarching offseason questions about them still, But
James Hardnes is sort of in his own tier of that. What do you
make of I think we both agree that it's serious. The James Harney Houston
nois is serious. You're from a Rockets perspective, if you were controlling this
front office, is that someone that you would be this legitimately interested in,
not just as like his fit on the court or what he does to either
elevate the players around, the youngsters around him, or you know, increase
the emergency behind your timeline, but also just as an investment because he's older
and what it's gonna cost, I mean, his max salary can start at
forty six nine. I don't think he gets it. But if they like,
just where do you land on this this issue? Because you both agree
it's serious. I'm just curious whether you're pro doing it or you think it's
a little bit the words not I don't want to say stupid, but just
a little haphazard. My dad is one of those people that think it's a
little it's a little haphazard. Right. He is scared to death about giving
James Harden that contract. And what I what I tell him whenever he brings
us up with me is who would you rather give the money to? Who
would you rather give the money to? If you can, if you can
incredibly stame somebody that is a better use of all that money that you're giving
to James Harden, or name a few guys that are a better use of
money, Like if it's not just one guy, let's just say this,
one or two guys you're using their scars spending that money on. Is that
collection of players better than a James Harden investment. I think the answer at
this point is likely no. So yeah, I'm I'm pro hardened, and
I recognize it's an easy thing to say because I am I did watch the
guy for like ten years, and I am a fan of his, and
like I think, I think it's hard not to feel some sentimentality about it.
But from an objective standpoint, you and I just agree that the best
the thing that they're most lacking is playmaking. James Harden is one of the
best players on the best playmakers on the planet. And I think you look
at what the Rockets need long term at the point guard position. I can't
think of anybody I'd rather have other than maybe someone who's a better a little
bit better defender and maybe a little bit younger. But you can't. This
isn't a candy shop, right, Like Darryl Moore used to say this,
right, It's like like people think that superstars could just be had like at
a store. You just go and like, I want that one, but
I want I want like one. Let's like a little bit like I want
that, I want that but in yellow it's like, no, like,
you don't get that optionality. Man. You have to kind of take them
how they come and then figure out the rest of the roster around them to
plug in holes. And that's kind of how I would do it. The
two things that concern me, and there's just no out. I could feel
completely differently about the situation depending on what the contract looks like. If it's
a four year max he turns thirty four in August, I'm gonna have some
issues with that decision, even if you think there's no one that can spend
the money on this year and that they're not gonna have as much caspased moving
forward as these players that they already have get more expensive. The other thing,
though, James Harden's not coming to Houston alone, correct, Do you
see a scenario on which he comes to Houston, they basically keep the roster
intact, bring in this year's draft picks plural, and go from there where
I know you would sort of like introduce the notion of, well, maybe
they'll give it six months or something. But I view it as if James
Harden's coming into the Rockets, it'll be more of Lebron going back to Cleveland
situation where that move is made instant, almost instantly before the season starts.
It's either gonna be Lebron Cleveland or Lebron La Right, That's the way I
view it. It's either gonna be Lebron going back to Cleveland where everything happens
right away, or Lebron. That's important to say because either way, it
means this roster is going to look a lot different by next year's trade deadline.
If Jacks an inevitability, if you're getting harded, it's an inevitability,
right, I think you should approach it that way. If the Rockets are
realistically trying to pursue Harden, they should be looking at this roster and thinking
about who's expendable, right, or thinking about who's the most expendable, because
their chances are they're gonna trade someone that's gonna end up looking a lot better
than they thought they were gonna be, right, That's just how these things
work. I'm sure you look at when Dan win Dan Gilbert traded Andrew Wiggins.
I'm sure he didn't think that he'd become like a serious part of a
championship team one day, right, Or at least he hoped he wouldn't,
right, he was the number one over I can't say he never saw the
possibility of that happening, but like, I'm sure you're you're rooting against that
possibility, but you have to accept it because guess what, you don't trade
him, you don't win a championship in twenty sixteen. That's just how this
works, right. You have to sacrifice long term to gain short term.
And I think it's better for your franchise overall, because if you're not trying
to win the title, what the fuck are you doing this for? What
is this all about? Why are you owning? Why are you why do
you own a sports team? Right? I think about this all the time
with the Phoenix Suns right before they shade it for Kevin Durant, right,
like when they were like cost cutting on the on the on the fringes,
right, it's like what are we doing? Like are you guys, are
you guys trying to win this thing or not? Like you're you're you're scared
off by going to the luxury tax for Eric Gordon really like is this is
this not your goal or not? So? I think if you're an NBA
owner and you're trying to plan out this offseason for the Rockets. I think
it's irresponsible to not view everything in this We're trying to win a championship someday,
whether that's today or later, that's the goal. So yeah, it
might it's it's less fun to press fast forward, maybe, but it's still
the right, the most responsible move. Let's say James Harden doesn't go to
the Rockets, they still owe it's top four protected, but they owe their
twenty twenty four pick to the Okasee Thunder. They also owe their twenty twenty
six pick that's also top four protected to the ok Thunder, and then I
think okay See has the right to swap with them in twenty twenty five.
Correct, So it's their next three draft picks are essentially controlled by the Thunder.
Knowing that, do you still expect them again, no, James Harden.
Do you still expect them to be ultra aggressive in getting better now?
Both on the free agency and trade markets. They were talking about they've been
talking about it pretty openly for the last month or two, like they even
talk about it, like I know they've been talking about it openly, but
I mean more like they're not looking at the free agents who might fit their
timeline where it's yeah, right, like those are the guys that they will
circle. Well, here's the thing, Like I was surprised that they were
talking that Rafel would come out and be as open like, hey, we
don't own our own pic next year, we have every incentive to be good.
Normally gms don't say that. You know, they say that that that
that pick is going to be a Sun cost right, and we all know
that's bullshit, But they say that, right, and they're if they're talking
about it, you got a figure. Internally, there's some real pressure not
only on Emay to turn this thing around, but Raffel, Right, So
I think I think there's there's some pressure there to build out the roster.
And I think it's healthy pressure because I think they do need to really go
out, go out. I think again, last year they went backwards like
they should have by not taking a step forward, they took a step backwards.
They should have been a team that won like thirty games right this year,
they should be a team that's expected to make a jump into the playoffs
this and instead they're they're a team that wants to get to thirty wins,
which is strange, Right, you should want to now get to that point
where you're you're realistically a playing team and trying to get to the next set,
the next stage. And Tilman talked about today at the press conference.
He's like, hey, we're no longer at phase one, right, We're
no longer trying to lose anymore and get top draft picks. Again, saying
this all openly. I don't know if he's gonna get fined, but he
said it. He said, like, we're no longer at that stage,
but we're at stage two. We're AT's trying to make the playoffs stage.
That's what he said. He said, we're trying to make the playoffs.
So it's like, I, you don't try to make the playoffs by going
out on the free agent market and trying not to get the best possible players.
You know you you don't. You don't make trades like what they were
Pockets did formally for Kem Borry Jr. Right, You're not. You're done
making those trades. Right at this point, you're trying to make trades for
guys like mckail Bridges. You're trying to make signings for guys like Cam Johnson,
you're trying to get top to your free agent meetings with guys like it
sucks to say this guy, Kyrie Irving. I just know that's it's gonna
eventually gonna happen. There's gonna be some report out there that the Rockets are
interested in Kyrie Irving. Even though I disagree with it that I don't think
they should do it. I just know that this is they're very cold and
calculating, and they're like star star stars. I feel like they're gonna try
and go after all the top guys, and I think it's gonna be very,
very very fun. To be honest, it's gonna be very fun for
me to see to read that stuff. Even if I don't agree with some
of the players that they're going after, it's still very exciting. Are there
any free agents other than James Harden that you like particularly well for this team?
And there's the I'll tell you a scenario that I had thought about,
and I don't hate it if they end up just splitting most of their cap
space between or all of it between, like Fred van Fleet and Draymond Green,
just as either they're willing to play for the Rockets because maybe they're not
getting thirty eight million dollars a year from any other teams, including the Raptors.
That would be the ultimate. I'd have questions maybe about some of the
spacing with Green there, but that would be the ultimate. Like, let's
bring in guys who aren't going to torpedo develop the development of the people we
have in told, but we're gonna get measurably better immediately. Those are just
two names that I've used, legitimate flight risks that I would have circled for
them. Yeah, I don't want Draymond anywhere near I can keep his fists
away from my team, please, I don't want that. I don't.
I don't want any of that so transformative defensively, and I'm a downhill passer,
but a very strong player, very strong player. I don't, I'm
not. I'm I still. I'm one of those guys who's always questioned how
much success he could find outside that Gold State Warriors ecosystem, who disagre reason
with that. I've always felt like this is such a tailor made team for
him. I wonder if he doesn't have as much high level shooting around him,
if he doesn't have as much playmaking responsibility. If he still thrives in
that same level, I think he's still be a good player. I'm not
sure. I question if he'd ever reached those goal and state heights ever.
Again, Now, the Fred vanvlee thing, you and I have probably spent
like an hour combined podcasting time talking about trying to get Fred Vanvleeed on the
Rockets, Like it's it's such a perfect fit, it's such a no brainer,
Like if you can't get hardened, you got you have to go after
someone like that because he's he's good defensively, so he can make up for
what Jalen Green isn't. Uh, he is advanced beyond what the Rockets are
at at a point from playmaking, he's not. He's not James Harden Like,
don't get any don't get me wrong, but he is better than Jalen
Green as a passer. He's conceivably better than everybody in the roster right now.
And he also like allows you to still do the Shan Goon stuff right
Like, he's not gonna take away from like if you if you want next
year, if you want to do let's give Jailing, Let's give al Pryn
shangun Like fifteen touches a game in the post, right, you can still
do that, like like like James Harden comes in, you're not gonna do
that. Chances are James Harden comes in, you're trading al Prin jenuon right,
because it doesn't make sense defensively or offensively anymore. But I think if
you bring in someone like Fred VanVleet, who can just be a complimentary guard,
you can still do that kind of stuff. And Jailing gets to reach
it. Yeah, Jailing gets to reach those high levels, and you can
at that point, I wouldn't go after Jail. I wouldn't go have a
Draymond. I would try to trade someone into my remaining cap space right,
or trade someone into the raining cap space slash, put together contracts, you
know whatever, Like I would. I would try and make a trade for
the next star. Right. But let's be clear, if you're not getting
if you're not getting James Harden, you have to try and go big fish
hunting in some way, shape or form. You just you just do because
you're not gonna get an opportunity again to do this because Jalen's extension comes up,
and after Jalen's extension comes up, you got the extensions of potentially Upper
Shingon potentially you know, kJ Martin's gonna get a big deal this summer,
So like you have to, you have to be very delicate about making these
decisions about how they like they should have one more year of this because the
jail and Green extension, who will be like the first wave of guys to
get paid, that'll kick in in twenty five twenty six, and so they
have another summer if they want to holster it. But the idea is,
if you can do it, and we're looking at their draft pick situation,
you do it immediately. It's just the free agency class, isn't that we
just named all the best like the other The only other name I can throw
out because I don't like the Kyrie signing either. You could convince me it
could happen, just because I feel like anything's on the table for the Rockets
this summer. I don't mean that as an insult. The name that could
remotely be intriguing, and I just don't know if you go after him before
you have. The guy in place would be Chris Middleton, who's also very
scalable. Yeah, but he's about to turn thirty two, and he has
looked he's looked rough at times during these playoffs and especially defensively when he's been
healthy. And that does lead me to my next question though, because you
mention mentioned trades, we talked loosely about does Jalen Brown become a main fixture
of the Rockets discussions because of his really good relationship with Ema Yudoka. And
he probably won't make all MBA, I don't think so. He won't be
super Max eligible, but that might not stop the Celtics and him from trying
to confront their future this this offseason ahead of his free agency in twenty twenty
four. And by the way, we we should mention if you're a Rockets
fan, you should root for him not to make all NBA, right because
then well you're you're you're you're offering the same per year capital as the Celtics
are offering. What's interesting there is like if you if he does make all
MBA, they'll at least you get the clean Okay, if he accepts his
extension, that's it's over with. But if he says no, then you
know it's def Con one and that you need to get in there. But
I get what you're saying, where if you want to keep the possibility open
and not have it totally shut that you don't want him to make call him
me I hope only don't think he will. But what is the level of
player if you're the Because now let's like, if James Harden is coming,
you can say, all right, yeah, go get a mccale Bridges and
it just be like an afterthought because you're not looking at him as you're lifeline.
But if you don't get James Harden, what is the level are you
willing to I think Jaylen Brown? Yes, I guess I would say,
I don't know, But like, are you still willing to give up the
assets it will take to get a Jalen Brown or a mccale Bridges or does
it need to be like this even higher end player than that, Because again,
I think the decision gets more complicated if James Harden, or even if
Fred van Fleet isn't coming in free agency, because then you're kind of looking
at this as your crowning acquisition of the summer, and with what you already
have in place, maybe you believe that Jalen Brown mcal Bridges can be sort
of this you know, guiding north Star for the future. But I don't
think any of those guys profile as I don't want to lift the sales up,
right, Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. My answer to this question is gonna be a little annoying to you.
Where are they landing in the lottery in the situation right, because if
you get Victor, yeah, James Harden doesn't need to come right right like
like because he might be Victor, might be that guy. It's so that's
why on some of them, it's so fucking stupid to have this conversation before
the draft lottery. But look, I can't pump out stuff on all thirty
teams, right, yeah, this is why I hate. I hate that
the NBA and lottery exists. No other I think the NHL does this,
and no no other real like professional sports league in America does this. Right,
It's like it's it's it's them in the NHL like every other every other
league does reverse order. And for some reason, the NBA is so sative
to comments about tanking that they're gonna be like, oh, we have to
like appease these talking heads by seeing, hey, look there's there's not that
much incentive to take because we have a lottery system and these other teams,
these other leagues have a reverse order system and it's so dumb, but they
teams still take every year and people still get mad about it. So the
NBA should stopped trying to appease these people, Like stop, people are gonna
tak It's always gonna be a viable strategy. But whatever, yeah, is
I would agree, I just I wish they would do it earlier, Like
we know the lottery like which the lottery teams are when you're doing the coin
flips to break the ties, Like why don't we have to do it in
the middle of the second round of the playoffs or the conference finals or whatever
it ends up being. Is what I'm not a fan of because you know
why, right, because it's like you're doing it in the middle of like
a conference finals game, and that lottery is gonna get really juiced up ratings,
right, and also at that point there are so few teams playing that
you're trying to appeal to it. I get I do understand why they do
it. I just wish they didn't do it that way. Yeah, So
if if they don't have Wemby. Are you still going the route of if
they don't have Wemby or Hardened? Are you still going the route of,
yeah, we would trade for Michael Bridges, or we should go after Jalen
Brown they become available. Are you of the mind how Elses? If Damian
Lillard becomes available, is that a name that you have circled? If you
don't have James Harden? Because he does bring a lot of what you need,
but he's also another guy where it's okay, like what else is we
need to have other pieces in place with him? So like I'm just you
don't have wem but you don't have Hardened? How do you proceed if you're
this team. I don't know how you've always felt about Dame, but I've
always felt like Dame is is not the guy you build everything around because he
doesn't, you know. I think, in my opinion, you need two
of three qualities right to be like a build everything around you type of player,
right, you need two of these three. You need to be a
super novous scorer, which Dame is right. You need to be like an
elite passer, which Dame isn't. And you need to be an elite defender.
Right, So two of those three qualities, you have a superstar that
you can build a franchise around, right, and Dame is not does not
possess some of the skill that you need playmaking, and he doesn't have that.
You need defense next to Jalen Green. If you're not gonna get the
playmaking, he doesn't have that. So I don't I think going after him
as a little counterintuitive. But the Rocketmen still do it because God knows what
they're gonna do this summer. But some of the other targets around the league
I would look at, like you know, I mentioned the Clippers. I
mean Kawai kwais towards Meniscus, so that's kind of been blown up. I
think that's actually more likely now that they're gonna blow it up since that's happened.
But Paul George might be a name. Pascal Siakam might be a name.
We talked about this yesterday. Is someone not so much Paul George,
maybe because he's too close to free agency. Siakam is someone I could see
them. They don't get anyone else, but they still go after Siakam.
That feels like someone who would make a large enough difference. Yeah, and
he's he's certainly good enough to make a difference the one guy, and I
hope he doesn't demand a trade, and I hope he doesn't leave that.
I've kind of been circling as someone that could eventually grow to scrod disgruntled.
And this might surprise you because it's so early and it's so he's so young.
I hope Trey Young doesn't grow to scruntled. I hope he doesn't because
I mean the Hawks basically had to fire their coach and replace them immediately mid
season to appease him, which is never a good sign, right because usually
you put in the interim guy and then you do the coaching search in the
offseason. But the fact that they felt pressure to go after the guy right
away kind of indicates that, oh, like there's some real trays kind of
bridget breathing now their their neck a little bit about building a winner around him.
That's a guy I think it is worth pursuing. I'm not sure if
Houston has has the goods to get it done, but I would I would
take a strong look around the league as some of these young players and take
gambles. You know, chances are you're not going to get them, but
take gambles right, Anthony Davis. He's actually a guy that I think could
become available if the Lakers didn't owe all their freaking draft picks right in the
coming future. And that that that's that's the issue, right. So some
of these teams just need to stay good so they can't tear it down,
right, so they need these draft picks. So like, I don't know,
I would take a hard look around the league. I would try my
best to go after these guys that I mentioned. I would try to go
for Pascal, try to go for a d try to go for Trey even
though I don't think he's going to become available anytime soon, but it's possible
that he becomes available through other people. Think I would try to go for
like all these targets, like Carl Towns. I would even try to go
after like. I would try to go after all these guys, and I
would settle for like the mckel bridges. I would settle for like the Cam
Johnson. But like you have to have bottom line, you have to spend
the money. You have to spend the money, in my opinion, and
if you're not going to get the start of this summer, spend the money
prudently, don't spend too much of the money on one player, because the
hope is that they're spending the money some where that you can trade again to
go after the star leader. And that was gonna be my final question for
you. What should the contingency look like with this team? Where? Because
look, I think free agency. If it's not gonna be James Harden or
Fred van Fleet, I just feel like it's unlikely that they make it.
There's also not a ton of huge names out there, and so then you're
very reliant on what's happening in the trade market and in some regard, even
when teams are giving up really good players. Yeah, the fact that Houston
can have all that cap space to make it easier is great. Like you're
normally still sending contracts out anyway, you're gonna need to spend a huge chunk
of your money and free especially now I don't want to use the word punitive,
but how different the salary cap floor rules are in the new CBA.
Does the contingency look at Well, we're just gonna try and maybe they're on
inflated deals, but we want to bring in like high character guys who make
us better immediately. Where it's like, you know, Josh Hard has his
player options, you try to overpay him to come out of New York nas
read get him. Don't do this like they can't do this. I recognize
that they're not short term deals, though, is my point. A lot
of these guys are gonna want to get back in the market, I think
soon, and so if you're looking at two year deals, that's what I'm
talking about with contingencies, because you're talking about you need to spend the money
somewhere. If you can't get one of the most coveted restricted free agents,
if you can't get one of the bigger names that are out there, do
you look at signing these inflated shorter term deals with high character and higher quality
veterans, or even taking a swing on someone like an Io dassun Move who's
gonna be you know, coming out of or in Austin Reeves, Like if
you can inflate his deal enough on the back end to make the Lakers be
twitchy about it, or if it comes to a point where hey, we're
not going to get any of just like the biggest names in free agency or
even on the trade market. We're giving out all one year placeholder contracts.
That's that, and we'll move forward. Yeah, I hear what you're saying.
This is strictly contingency, and this is strictly like short term deals.
But these overpays, they get you to a point where you're like the Blazers,
right, you're just middling. You're at risk of becoming a middling team,
and you don't want to do that, right. You want to keep
your upside as high as you possibly can, and that's why you spend prudently,
and that's why you keep you signed contracts that can be moved later on.
That's why you signed contracts that you don't need to attach stuff to to
move right, Like, I think that's kind of why I think you go
if you first, if you don't get the free agents, go trade,
go go go on the trade market. If you don't get the trade,
if you're not lucky on the trade market, I would I would try and
keep some powder dry. And what I mean by keeping powder dry, I
mean cat flexibility in the way of contracts. And you know, like like
Middleton's a great guy to go after, but I don't even view him as
a contingency. But I just think he's a really very like strong player that
I think would be a decent use of resources. No, yeah, I'm
talking not like Josh mart Yeah, I don't know where I land on that.
But if they're not willing because I assume they're not willing to in this
market has been pretty cold, arctic cold for a while. But like the
way of well, then we'll take back some unwanted money from teams if they're
going to attach other prospects or equities. Because if you miss, if you
if you swing and miss this summer. I think what's tough on both the
trade and free ency markets is you don't know what's going to develop leading into
the deadline, and so that's why you might want to have those placeholder deals
or even again, I think players who are still good but maybe they're on
those two year contracts. It was what the Knicks effectively did. I think
they signed a bunch of the wrong players, but it's what they did in
anticipation the Donovan Mitchell move. They just ultimately weren't willing to pony up the
price tag. I think that's the route you ultimately have to go. It's
not let's just pivot into the end. Look, I would be if I'm
not getting hardened or if I'm not trading for a star. I'm not.
I'm not signing Chris Middleton. Quite frankly, I'm not. I'm honestly not
giving up the equity for a Jalen Brown or Michael Bridges, probably unless I
know I have another guy that I'm acquiring, or that if I know if
I signed Van Fleet. It's different when you're looking at Jalen Brown or Michael
Bridges. And so I think that they're going to end up trying to straddle
a very fine line, and I'm interested to just see. I'm not saying
they can't do it. I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just interested to
see what the end result is. Yeah, this conversation makes me very nervous,
like see, like, but we need to have it because there's a
possibility that none of these things happen for them. There's a possibility they get
the fifth pick in the draft. There's a possibility they get instead of James
Harden, they end up with with nobody, right, Like, they end
up with none of the big names, right And in that situation, you
kind of have to pivot very quickly because if you don't pivot quickly, you
lose optionality. And I don't know, are those trades still available? You
think you think, you think trades like you know, offshooting people in a
cap place. Are those moves still available? Because I look at these teams,
I'm like, who still has picks to do that anymore? These these
teams trade picks I candy. Now, Well, that was my point as
to why that market has been fairly cold. I'm just thinking if it's a
team that maybe in theory, wants to you're talking small time things where maybe
it's the Magic They don't want to pay the partial guarantee on Jonathan Isaacs deal,
but they're trying to get rid of him and they'll give you something to
take him. Or maybe they're trying to they want to maximize their cap space,
but they're not trying to get rid of certain guys where it's oh,
or are you willing to take on? This isn't even a bad deal,
it's just are you willing to take on a Gary Harris? Or if the
Knicks maybe they need a third party as part of another trade they're making are
you willing to take back Evan Fournier on his expiring deal for some kind of
compensation. I think those types of moves might still exist, but it's not.
We're past the point of, you know, five or six years ago
where it's, hey, we'll give you this first round pick. You need
to take back this bad contract. We're releasing out your cap space essentially,
one because so many of the teams that would spend in free agency are just
so far away over the cap anyway. And two, we just went through
it with the names, like the level of talent moving around it, Like
thinking about Jalen Brunson was the best player to just leave in free agency?
And how long a couple of years at least, I'm trying to think of
who the like the was it was it since Kauai in two thousand nine?
When did Lebron go to LA? Lebron went to LA in twenty twenty nineteen?
Yeah, twenty eighteen twenteen. Yeah, So like it was it since
Kauhai left Toronto for like just outright left? I guess, like because that
was the same Kyrie and Katie and Brooklyn that happened before that as well.
I mean everything's been going through trades, like draw Day got trade to the
Bucks via trade, Like I like, like I think I'm taking off the
top of my head, like maybe DeMar de Rosen, I don't know,
Like I guess if you want to count those Bulls guys that's that switched teams,
Like I don't know, It's it's very like in twenty during the pandemic,
these these top end players got really nervous for some reason and signed these
multi year extensions right like I'm talking during twenty twenty, twenty twenty one,
they all signed extensions, and as a Rockets fan looking at that, I
was like, I was getting very nervous. It's like what if, what
if the Rockets have to pivot to a rebuild soon, none of these guys
are gonna become available, Like they're all gonna be like the Rockets gonna be
are gonna be stuck with their pretty crappy foraging class low and behold, here
we are in twenty twenty three, and we're stuck with a pretty bad free
agent class because all these guys signed extensions. So yeah, I mean,
it's been a it's been a minute since we've had we've had a big start
and change teams. But I guess that's kind of what Harden's supposed to be,
right, That's kind of what the theory of Harden is. I don't
know. I just you know, Draymond is someone I have you as like
a contingency in that way, right, Like, I am not someone who
would be enthusiastic about it even doing that, because I think even that would
be a hard contract to move. So you can do stuff like that,
I would I would tend to avoid it and try and keep those books as
clean as you possibly can, So I would even let the space. I'd
be willing to let the space, uh, not be taken up, not
be absorbed if you should, because there's always two and twenty four, like
they'll still have jail and Green will be on the final year of his rookie
scale, and so you're not you know, you still have all these other
just you know, the most expensive player on your roster as a right now
in twenty four twenty five is Kevin Porter Junior. His salary is partially guaranteed.
I think it's like what six million dollars and that's or is it one
million? And I can't remember what his deal is just the way it structures
is so weird that you still have another summer to get a bide at the
Apple at this I don't know the way the new CBA set up with caps
moving and some of the penalties that are out there. I feel like they
who effectively killed free agency a little bit. But you still do have another
summer to try and go big game hunting, and so I would be with
you where you preserve the powder. But you're also again your pick is owed
to Oklahoma City, and so I think there will be some urgency to materially
improve this roster no matter what, especially after spending three straight seasons at the
bottom of the Western Conference. Do you think that the Rockets are like scheming,
be have the scenes, not not just like planning, but like legitimately
Like like do you think if they're in contact with Hardened through a third party
or whatever, do you think they're trying to get Harden to like talk to
some of these other players. Hey? Yeah, First of all, Harden's
gonna want to talk to these other players because if he just comes back to
Houston. I don't mean this as an insult to their young core. He's
just he's thirty four. He doesn't care about Jalen Greener, j Barr Smith
Junior or Shangon or whoever they're drafting. You're absolutely talking to Look, he
might be able to talk to Jalen Brown in the next series when Billy plays
Boston. Probably it's like, you're absolutely talking to these players. And Look,
I will say, if they can land somebody, like if it's a
hard nerve, it's van fleet. It does make the steps of their process
so like one of the dot Like it's even if you get once you know
where you are in The lottery helps out a ton as well. But if
you know you're gonna end up with Scoot, Brandon Miller or Wemby, that
informs so much of what you should be doing. And that's we're working with
a lack of clarity on that respect. But even after the draft lottery,
there's so many questions and so many different scenarios that could play out. We're
waiting not only for the lottery. I think it matters how the playoffs end
that will determine. I think not only some part of James Harden's future,
but what's going on with Jalen Brown, maybe what's going on with Trey Young,
that's somebody you mentioned. Maybe even going on in Golden State with not
only Draymond Green, but like Klay Thompson is talking about getting a Max deal
moving forward, So Rockets fans of have going his name around and I'm like,
I don't, I don't know, I don't. This is the one
team where I'm like, I think they're actually going to try and keep these
guys together until they retire, right, I think they're actually gonna try and
do that, except for maybe Draymond. Draymond he might have punched his way
out of that, out of that dream, but like everybody else, I
feel like might still be there until you know it's time to wrap it up.
You know, it's interesting. You really do have to monitor this stuff,
and some of some of the stuff's gonna develop faster than we think it's.
It's developing, but it's actually going on beyond the scenes. Right.
It's when you get the it's when the player picks the new team. It's
like the story comes out from his Market's like this has been going on for
a while, honey, how that works? Yeah, And the final thing
I'll say before they goes, they're not if the Rockets end up not doing
anything super splashy. It'll look bad if they convey this incredible pick to Okay,
see, they're not in this barren position. We've talked a lot about
free agent seeing trades. They have a baseline here. They have going to
be another top lottery pick in this year. If you if you fall to
five or whatever is yeah, that's borderline is astrous. But they're not working
with a blank slate of talent. They're working with a very flexible financial slate.
And now, while there was a lack of progress, I think on
a collective level this year, you've made the move a head coach, and
it's like you have at least you're not working with nothing, is my point,
And so I think a lot of active to some of these players.
Do you think I think, I mean, taxes make them attractive, like
being in that market, and I think Houston's always been a market that's been
involved. Coach. Is he someone that can pull in a free agent?
I think the and I actually think you mentioned this on your podcast. I
think that coaches are overrated when it comes to free agent draws. But he
does seem to have very good relationship with all the Celtics players. It's like
Janalen Brown and Jason Tatum, So not those guys specifically, but yeah,
I think if you look at it and maybe you see if you're on the
fence and you're like, why don't want to just take the money from Houston,
but you have confidence that they'll go out and get another guy they have
a coach, if plenty of other trade assets. I think it helps it
certainly. I think he helps more than I don't know if Nick Nurse I
felt the same secue like I. It feels like they picked the guy who
can most help in the accomplish that goal. But that doesn't mean that he's
going to help accomplish that goal because it's very hard for coaches to actually do
that. Right, It's like it's really gonna like this is part of why
this year was, Like you mentioned, it was a lack of progress.
It was also like a wasted opportunity for yourself to become more attractive to these
for agents. Right, if you had won more games and if some of
these guys looked even better than they looked this year, it's like, oh,
one thing I go down going down there in Houston. Right, It's
like like like some of these players might like want to go play with these
guys, but because they showed so little this year, it's like there's all
there's a bunch of negative stories in the press about them. Is there anything
else that you think we need to discuss before I let you go? Roughly
forty five minutes later than or thirty five minutes later than I wanted to keep
you. No, I guess I can plug my substack Grendas news dot com.
Uh is a sub stack. It's a podcast. It's gonna be free
all summer. If you're a Rockets fan and you listen to this podcast,
be sure to follow me there social media. As saw them all the NBA.
Yeah, I mean, I don't have much to say until the lottery.
The lottery is really going to be what changes everything. Yeah, that
or do the Sixers get eliminated before then might be the moment that changes everything.
Yeah, And I don't know if we talked about this yesterday, I
don't know which way that cuts, like, yeah, like do the Sixers
need to be successful for Harden to want to leave or the or the opposite,
right, I don't know, Like I feel like externally, there's more
pressure on Harden to stay if if they don't win, right Whereas internally he
may want to leave, but everybody's gonna look at the guy like, really,
man, you're gonna leave again? Like Whereas if he wins a title,
it's the story is easier to sell, like, Okay, he got
the job, job done, Philly. Now he wants to go home.
It's easier to figure forgive him for leaving a title contender. It would be
really funny he leaves for Houston, Joe Elmbid requests a trade, and then
Houston just sitting there with all that assets and maybe run it back with those
two Horns just happier in Houston. I see what you're saying, and I
think I agree. But also if they win, I think Philly might be
more inclined to give him just whatever he wants and free agency, because then
it's okay, we even if it doesn't pan out, we want a title
with this group. So that would be an obstacle the Rockets can overcome.
But I can't stress enough how serious and significant the ties Harden has to Houston
are. And I think that's just an element that even regardless of what happens
with the sixers that probably isn't being talked about enough. All of it's about,
well, let's see how the sixer season ends, or what they offer
him in free agency. I think there's just a real pull to the Houston
market and community and franchise itself that even despite all this noise is still being
severely underweighted. I still see hardened shirts every day. Every day. I
see people wearing hardened shirts. I see people there's artwork of hardened around the
city. The guy owned it part of the city, like he really did.
Like he was like a larger than life figure. And it helped actually
that he was so hated around the rest of the league because they came around
him, like in a very stimular way to like how Oklahoma City fans like
came around Russ Right, Like when people when he was such a polarizing player
that that kind of stuff, like defending a guy for eight years, eight
or nine years, it really does build a bond that it's hard to describe.
And you when you see Rockets fans the way that they are, people
always complain about them, and it really stems from that relationship that they have
had with this guy for a decade, right and it's hard to it's hard
to explain and unless you're here, really mean, and I think you understand
it because we talk about it all the time. But like I think it's
it's it's one. It's something that people shouldn't have been surprised when that thing
came out on Christmas. They shouldn't have. I we were talking about it
because we thought it was a possibility. Hard and even tinted there was a
possibility in his press release to Houston, right, Like he wrote an ad
out on the Chronicle and he hinted that, hey, I might want to
come down and come back here one day, right, And like he didn't
say it like that, but it was might as well have said like that,
Like this kind of stuff, I don't know, Like his his ties
the city are real. I think it's gonna be very, very interesting if
he does return. I personally am rooting for it, not only on a
story level as a fan, because I told you I'm a Rockets fan through
and through. Again. Feels great, It feels great to look at this
team like that. Again. It feels great to kind of root for an
exciting summer. I'm gonna I'm gonna look I'm gonna look through all these rumors
like a pig and slop like I'm gonna be all over it. Like I
really am very very excited for what's gonna happen this summer. Salomon, this
was great as always. Thank you so much for coming on and being so
generous with your time. As you know by now, I'll be pestoring you
again in the future, but thank you so much for now. Yeah,
for sure I'm gonna talk to you, Donline. Yeah,