What is Krakoac Bellow thermonuclear afors. I am at Hampton Valley coming at you
with another very quick intro. I'm going to be posting an episode that I
did with Salomon Ali of Red Nation Hoops where we went into a deeper dive
on the Rockets. We actually recorded it. It was for Red Nation Hoops,
so go check them out. I'll include our shame out. I'll include
a link to his uh, you know, sub stack and is what the
YouTube channel in the podcast and YouTube description. We did talk about it before
they went on their three game losing streak. Watched their game against the Warriors
on Monday. I thought they put up a hell of a fight, really
considering they were on the second end of a back to back. We did
talk about some of the micro stuff with them, but it was mostly big
picture stuff. So I decided that I'm going to post it anyway. And
they are, you know, the Rocks, the TIMBERWOLVESLS are probably like the
two most surprising teams in the league thus far when you're looking at maybe pleasant
surprises. So I think it moves us to, you know, listen to
someone like Solomon who covers them on a daily basis really gives a lot of
thought to them, and so I think you'll enjoy this episode. These are
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Grant and I really do appreciate all of your support that you continue to
show us on YouTube, across the audio version of the podcast, on the
shorts that we've been posting in the tiktoks. So once again, and as
always, thank you all, and I hope you enjoy this episode with Salmon
Ali of a Nation Hoops about a deep dive into the short term, but
more importantly, the long term outlook of the Houston Rockets. What's up,
guys gonna this podcast? My name is solmn Elite at so on the NBA
on Twitter, he drum by Dan Favalley Bleacher Report Dan, How you doing?
I am doing well, so i'mon how are how are you doing now
that you're covering a team that's apparently the best franchise in NBA history. Yeah,
I was just talking to you about this before before we started recording,
Like people just only want to talk when the Rockets are like good or interesting,
Like no, no one ever wants to just say what's up? Or
hello or happy birthday? Right like or no, no, no, no,
I mean, but like you can send me something if you know it's
my birthday, like you know what, send me something else? Like hey,
can you come on in two hours? Hey can you like to or
tomorrow? Are you free at X time? It's like like why why when
the Rockets are good? Like how about when they're not a story? How
about like I can talk about basketball, we can talk about other stuff.
And now you know how I feel after Christmas where it's like radio producers will
remember that you exist, Marina, just like after a busy period where it's
like oh, the trade deadline or the draft, just the busy the finals,
like there's always your innundated, And I try to be understanding because it's
hard to convey tone and emails and text messages, and I understand that like
producing sport, I mean, it's we both do it. But like I
try to be super courteous to my guests and like ask how they're doing.
It's just there's not there's no there's no preamble there. It's just And so
I do get I try to. I don't let it affect whose shows I
go on. But yeah, I hear I hear you on that. Yeah,
And I remember this summer. We're super off topic, but I don't
care. So I remember this summer. Like there was a period like after
it came back from vacation where people suddenly realized that the rockets had a ton
of cap space, Like they didn't realize it before the summer started. It's
like, oh, Houston has how much money to spend? Oh they're going
after who? So so the endless right, It's just like like people,
I guess it's like you know, you don't know until until it's time.
Uh. But whatever the case, I'm happy to do it. Uh.
But I'm glad I get to do my own today. I'm glad I got
to do my own show today. Uh Dan, let me ask you this,
on a scale of one to ten, how surprised are you by the
Rocket so far? Wow, that's not the first question I thought you were.
I saw you going off or listen to you not go off. But
you did a the pockast you did. I can't remember who was with,
but five observations you each did on the Rocket season and you called out Alfrinshangun
Downers and thought, I thought you were just bringing me on to dump.
We're gonna get there, We're gonna get I did to be fair much lower
on him than you were, but I was, at least like I saw
the vision, just didn't think they would ever get there with him. But
there's no defense. There's just this team has shocked and awed me in so
many different ways. And it's not it's not even the ways that are unsustainable.
But you know, Dylan Brooks is not going to continue to hit threes
like this. If he does, I'll be absolutely you know, my mind
will melt. But the stuff that they've done defensively, some of the stuff
like that they're doing with Alprin Shang Gun, how they're they're really able,
like the attention that Fred van Fleet is able to utilize even when he's not
being able to finish that well inside the arc. This team, you watch
them and there is a rhyme and reason to everything they're doing, and they
look the part. There are numbers that you look at and you know some
of those are gonna curtail. They've gotten a little bit lucky on opponent three
point shooting as like you know, with just one of those popular in season
ones. But they look like they're actually really good. And this mind you
was with Jalen Green only just started turning a corner after a pretty bad start
from him, and so to be in this position is just sort of it's
it's sort of wild. No, yeah, and for sure, And like
that was actually gonna be by the way, I stole that question for a
podcast, so I was on earlier today. I was like, that's a
great question. I'm gonna use that with Dan today House Surprise. Are you
okay? I'm gonna do that. But like this does lead to my next
question, which is like how real their record is? And I kind of
wrote about this today, which is like I don't want to, you know,
throw a lot a bunch of cold water on the Rockets fans to be
as happy as you guys want to be, right like, like, the
Rockets are much more competitive this year. They are a better basketball team than
they were last year. There's no doubt about it, right that that that's
like, no, you're not gonna find anybody that's gonna dispute that. But
they have played seven of their first nine games at home. They have They
have played a Charlotte team without Miles Bridges, a Kings team without Deern Fox
twice. They played the Lakers without Anthony Davis. They played Okay, I'm
the Nuggets without Jamal Murray right like, like that's a win. That's still
a caps off being the Nuggets. It is a big win. It is
a big win. And and they the Kings win. It's not like they
just won that game. They demolished the Sacramento Kings like they there is a
rocket sized crater in Sacramento right now, because the like what the Rockets did
to them was embarrassing. The game was over by halftime twice like like that,
that's how decisive those victories were. So I'm not here, I'm not
here to pour a bunch of cold water on it. I'm just saying that
there is some real stuff that we need to acknowledge. Is gonna go back
to normal. Like their opponents are shooting like thirty three percent from three on
them, that's like second in the NBA. They're shooting like thirty seven percent
from three. That's ninth in the NBA. Right, Like yn't run,
It's not crazy, Yeah, it's not crazy. But like more specifically,
like Dylan Brooks is shooting like fifty percent from three, right, Jay Sean
Tate is shooting like fifty percent from three. Uh, I think Tarr Easton's
shooting like forty two percent, like jay Jalen Green shooting forty percent. Like
a lot of these percentages are insane, right, Like some of these are
gonna come back home a little bit. Jalen maybe not as much, like
maybe that goes from forty to maybe thirty seven. But like Dylan is not
gonna shoot fifty percent from three. That's not gonna happen, all right,
I'm just just not gonna happen. We're due for a cold stretch there,
We're due for a cold stretch with Jayshaunte. But more specifically, like they're
gonna they're gonna get on the road here pretty soon. Uh, and they're
and they're gonna test their metal against some other teams. And I am excited
to see what happens. But listen after that Denver Nuggets game, Like,
you're not gonna get an argument for me about whether whether or not they're better.
They're better. There's something serious going on here as far as like how
real their record is. We can get into that at a later time.
I think it's fine to just enjoy this if you're a fan. Yeah,
I mean even you someone who has been incredibly high oper in Schenguin, would
you have come in to this season and said there's gonna be games early on
in the year where he just thoroughly outplays Domasa Bonis. That's is that just
like, that's not something that I think you could have reasonably predicted, even
if you thought he had that ceiling, because when you have the type of
agency that he's actually gotten this year, that's what it is. Yeah,
I think that is one what it is. Right, It's like I had
no It's not that I didn't trust in shanng Goon. It's like I didn't
trust in the rockets, right, like the ability for them to gauge shan
Gun as a talent, right, Like I think they've so mishandled him up
until this point. And May comes in and he says off the bat in
his press conference, like listen, all rolls are out for grabs, all
these starting spots are up for grabs, all usage all tell everything's up for
grabs. Like you guys have to come and earn it, and you're gonna
get it by how you play on the floor. And it's like that rang
a little hollow for me, right because they did go after brook Lopez.
I'm like, you really, you're really gonna give this guy a fair shake?
Right? And then they they start the season those after those first three
games where they were they lost all first three, those first three games,
I'm like, we're not debating this anymore, Like the best player on the
team is Alprin Shangun. I did a podcast after they went on and three.
I'm like, I don't care what happens from here on out until the
Rockets acknowledged that fact they're gonna keep losing games. They're gonna keep losing games.
It's so obvious at this point, like those first three games it like
those the only moments that they were good were when Shan Gun had the ball,
right, It's like until they lean into that, you're gonna keep getting
similar results to this. And they leaned into it, Like that's good coaching.
That's adjusting to your roster on the fly. Like I think you know,
this organization's made some mistakes, right, like in terms of how they've
handled him right, but like this is also how they're handling them him right,
Like this is this is also they're doing the hiring e May and Fred
van Vliet. By the way, probably the biggest reason Shangun's having the season
that he's having because he comes in with like he's a point guard's point guard,
and he he plays very much like Chris Paul, like he when he
sees something is working, he's gonna keep going and going and going to it.
He doesn't care who it is, where it's coming from, He's gonna
keep doing it. And when he saw that Shangun was producing at the rate
that he was producing, he kept running picket roll and dribble, hand off
and cuts everything he could with Shangun, and the rest of the Rockets just
kind of followed along, like followed his lead, like, Okay, this
is our guy. We're just gonna have to rally around him and run the
entire offense through him. And that's the that's the Rockets. Skick deserves some
credit for that, man, Like I think they do. They really do
deserve some credit for bringing in guys that would identify Shangun. Yeah, I
mean, and also I think it was easy. He's gotten a little bit
better, but like Fred van Fleet shooting like thirty three or thirty five percent
on drive. Still, the attention though, that he commands and the organization
that you're able to just kind of foment off of that is so huge for
what the Rockets are doing too. Like it's I would argue his three and
look, the relative to the difficulty on his threes is three point percentages fine,
howling right around league gaarverage. But I would argue that just the attention
that he's drawing is probably gonna hurt some of his efficiency stats. But it's
not just Shang Gooon. It's like everyone who's on the floor with him kind
of just benefits from that. And then even having the look, the three
point percentage isn't gonna stick, but to have two guys on the court at
the same time, and Dylan Brooks and Fred van Fleet like being able to
defend. That's been a huge part of this team too. I also think
it's been a big reason why, like Alprin, Shangun has looked probably the
best he's ever looked defensively for this team, and so I am very curious
to see how it sort of holds up. You've pointed out the schedule concerns.
We've talked about some of the numbers that are going there, but when
you look at how many difference makers are just in a vacuum on this roster
now, and that the Rockets are kind of discovering, like, oh,
how we can use Shanguon and it's not I've always wondered if part of the
problem was an or one, if this could be a limitation of his but
two, was it a limitation of the Rockets thought process behind him? Are
you trying to use him in too specific of a way to where I think
when you look at I don't want to keep bringing it back to sabonus,
but you look at some of these other bigs that you can run offense through
who are not your kitch. They have to be. It's like, oh,
like we need to create separation for them where there needs to be like
some sort of dribble handoff action and or need the ball needs to get to
the post, or they need to be used in the pick and pop,
or they need to roll. Shane Gutin can do basically everything, and it's
just like he can jump start the offense on the run from a standstill half
court transition. And I do think this is anecdotally because I haven't looked up
numbers on this. His heightened aggression is kind of like a score when he
does have his like when he gets near the basket. I do know he
shooting like sixty percent on like cook shots or whatever. It is like having
that where it doesn't feel like he's actively looking to make these risky passes every
time he gets the ball that's still ingrained into him, but he feels like
more of a threat as a scorer, not just off the where he's finishing.
It's like the frum scratch scoring feels like it's at an all time eye
for him. That has opened up a ton of other things. And my
biggest concern with the Rockets start actually was well is Jalen Green going to kind
of figure out how to adapt and adjust to this, and I think in
recent games you can speak to this more than I can. It feels like
he has found more of that happy medium. Yeah, I see my thing
with Jalen. I guess we can talk about this for a second before we
get back to Shanhun. People went into this year with kind of ridiculous expectations
for him, right, third year leap, third year leap, third year
leap. I am tired of that phrase. That phrase holds very little with
me. When you look at like one and done prospects, specifically of Jalen's
mold, Zach Lavine, Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, like whoever you want
to like, those types of shooting guard prospects don't typically have third year leaps
like they have fourth, fifth, six year leaps. Right. It takes
them a little bit longer. If you're not a high level processor coming into
the NBA, it just takes some time for you to get used to the
NBA game, right, Like Jalen is a great example of this. It's
gonna take some time, Jabbari, It is gonna take some time. But
if you look at the high level processor. It doesn't usually take that Chris
Paul Luka, Doncic, Madgic Johnson, Lebron James like it does. If
you're like a high thinker of basketball, the game is not as fast for
you. Right with Jalen, the game the game is still in the process
of slowing down. And I think when once you get to the next season,
that's when you're gonna That's when I'm expecting the leap. I think he's
gonna get better this year. I think some of his numbers are gonna go
up, But in terms of that capitol l leap into like stardom, I'm
expecting that more next year, right, I think that's kind of the year
to look for it. And this idea that you can't play these two like
like like together and they can't be awesome together. Like first of all,
their games don't conflict with each other. They compliment each other, like I've
always people on Rockets Twitter have been trying to pit these two against each other,
and it's like, why can't you just have both like they they're like
Shang Gun is a great is great at finding guys off the ball, and
Green guess what great off the ball. Right. You saw him in the
g Leigue was constantly moving off the ball, right, That's one of his
strengths, so why not use it? And Jalen's getting better as a pick
and roll operator, right, shang Gun is getting better as a roller and
a short roll passer, and all that stuff is complimentary to shang Gun learning
how to be a pick and roll ball handler. So, like, these
guys are gonna play a ton of minutes together as the years go on.
Right now, the Rockets are doing this thing where Jaen's kind of going out
there by himself for long stretches. Uh, And I kind of want to
see more of them together. But like, eventually they're gonna get to a
point where they're playing a ton of minutes together. And I don't know why
you can't have like why does it have to be a one or the other
thing? I guess. I guess a lot of people had this idea that
Jalen's gonna be the guy, So they were threatened by this idea of Shangoon
being the guy, right, And it's like, you you can still be
an awesome you can still be a guy, right, you can still be
a guy. There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, And I actually was
gonna ask you, is there does that factor into why they're staggering them the
way they do, Because the thing I've noticed that they feel like they kind
of tether Fred van Vleet and Alperin Shanggun at the hip where it's like you
haven't seen a lot of Fred van Vleet without Alpern Shangun, but you've seen
more of Is that. Are they viewing that as they think that's the best
way to build the roster? Is it? Oh? We want to make
sure that Jalen Green is gonna have as much license over the offense as more
of a sort of featured option rather than as you mentioned, like trying to
get him to play off shang Gun Moor. Which, by the way,
if you go back and look at like game one or two of this team,
I bet to now game whatever they're in, you know, the last
you know, the games against the game, the game against the Nuggets,
how much more in tune the players around Shangun are just moving off of him
too. That's a that's a that's a huge difference. I wouldn't expect to
go anywhere, but I am curious is to why does it feel like unless
you disagree, but it feels like they've kind of tethered FEV to Shangoon more
than Jalen Green. No that I have noticed that, And and and it's
not you know, it was something that I was I was kind of raising
my eyebrow and it's like, why aren't these guys staggering? Right? More
like what why why are you taking one both of them at the floor off
the floor at the same time when they're like your two best facilitators. And
I kind of went back to em Udoka's uh comments at media day in training
camp. It's like they want Jalen to be a more complete player, right.
And when they said that, they were alluding to two things, his
defense and his passing, his playmaking, Like they knew he was They knew
he could score, right, they they kneed like no one never doubted Jalen's
ability to score, even coming out of the draft. I never doubted that.
But my doubts with him like the reason I had Mobia room. It's
like, I'm not sure about this guy as a pick and roll operator.
I'm not sure about this guy as a defenser defensive player, right, And
my guess is that they're giving him these long reps by himself so he can
develop as a pick and operator, so he can develop as a ball handler
and a threat like on that kind of level. That's what that's my that's
theory number one. Theory number two is just VanVleet and Changun are just so
good with each other. It's just hard to separate the two, right,
they play really good off of each other. Yeah, it's sort of like
the Jamal Murray Nikola Jokic conundrum where you just want to have those two on
the court together as much as possible. So and I think, look,
it could be beneficial to just Green development to you know, have those stagger
it like that. But I think when you look at the long term viability
of this team as good as and much of a breath of fresh air as
Fred van Fleet has been, Jalen Green and Shangon are one and two,
like or yeah, Shanggun is one, Jalen Green is two. Now it's
like they're the most important players, so you would like them develop to develop
sort of a chemistry together. It's also probably though when you separate them,
it's easier to insulate both defensively, and so there has to be an element
of that to it. But man, I you know what it reminds me
of? Go ahead, I don't. Yeah, So you know what it
reminds me of, Like, do you remember those first few years where Devin
Booker was like by himself without the Chris Paul there, and he kind of
had to get those reps a playmaker by himself, like out of necessity,
right, Like it's almost like the Rockets are trying to do that with like
the playmaker already on the roster. It's like, oh, we just got
to separate the playmaker from him, right, get all the playmakers off the
floor, get it by himself, right, so he can like so he
has no crutch, right, So yeah, so he has to learn the
stuff by himself. That that's kind of like what goes through my head when
I watched, Like is that kind of what they're doing? I don't.
These are theories they're winning those minutes, by the way, too, which
is just sort of wild the green with no shang gun. I didn't know
that. Yeah, Okay, so there are plus like five or plus four
points per one hundred posessions with an above average offensive rating, and so again
it's early, but I would have. When I was looking at that,
I was expecting it to be not necessarily a but like and even just the
way that the offense is played. And I know a lot of those minutes
you've had, you know, I think this speaks to like sometimes, yeah,
very rarely, Fred Vanvleiet has been on a court in those stints,
and so that's obviously gonna help. But like Aaron Holliday has given them some
steadiness in certain stretches. But I was surprised to see, like, what
the like, they're not turning the ball over like a crap ton like during
those stretches either, And so maybe that's proof of growth from from Green.
Maybe it's more about, Okay, if you're gonna play him with Jabbari and
Tate and Landale, Okay, like you have guys that are just gonna be
sound and rock solid defensively, and so you're you're allowing your defense to get
set with those guys, and if you're just scoring enough because Jalen Green's on
the floor, I was just surprised that those minutes were as productive as they
were. I don't know that I've seen Jalen Green to me to make any
of these like mega strides as a playmaker. But it has to be nothing
if not encouraging that when you're going to separate him from shanng gooon, that
you've now won these minutes through the first You know, why do I keep
forgetting how many games? We're nine games into their season? Yeah, and
we'll see how those minutes go. And like I I think it's it's obviously
gonna look better at the towards the end of the season then it will,
you know, at the beginning right now. Uh, But I do hope
that they get to a point where you know, there's a healthy medium there
right that they're not he's not just playing all by himself. Like I want
to see him with more Shangun uh and and Vampley kind of off the four
actually, frankly, I want to see them play off of each other a
little bit more, and Shanghu not have that crutch of vamble I want to
have. I want to see him out there with with with Jalen by himself,
and like those guys actually like each other a lot, and they like
playing with each other a lot. You see that, So there's no reason
why I can't work right, Like that. That's why I like when I
would see people just being like in one camp or the other, It's like,
it doesn't have to be that way. I honestly know that was a
thing. Oh yeah, I mean, I just I never viewed, I
guess one, as someone who didn't think that Albert was this franchise cornerstone.
And look by the way the Rockets are at least partially to blame for that
that I was not more exposed to like Alprin, Shangun is the featured the
featured hub. So I'm gonna blame Houston for that and just reflect criticism for
doubting Shanggun during the first couple of seasons of his career. I just ever
viewed Jalen Green specifically as there was a player that you couldn't there, because
there was even some rumblings where it's like, yeah, I didn't want to
see him play with James Harden. We disagreed on on that a little bit,
but like the Fred van Fleet stuff with him coming in like it just
never I never viewed Jalen Green as someone who couldn't operate as some sort of
like a running mate to another ball dominant or not even ball dominant, but
just like featured weapon or two. And I'm surprised that people framed the Shang
Gun Green discussion and I would have been looked Frankly, I feel like I
would have been a little bit more worried about the Green Amen Thompson, like
long term, because what does Amen Thompson do, Like how does he sort
of develop away from the ball. Does that mean that he needs to have
it too much in his hands to where then that's infringing upon what Jalen Green
does. Whereas Alprin Shang Gun and Fred van Vleet are both you know,
if you don't want to say excellent for Shang Jun, just like they're good
and serviceable off off ball players. Yeah, And it's not so much that
people didn't think they could play with with each other. It's more so like
there was a nastiness there from like the Jalen Green folks, who are they're
like like towards Shang Gun. Like there was like a dismissive attitude there.
It's like, oh, it's like the Green's the guy. Green's the guy,
Like what do you guys even talking about with this this fucking clown right?
Like like that was kind of like the attitude there right, like and
and people are listing this and they're gonna dispute it like shut up, like
you know that was there, Like people on Rockets Twitter were definitely like this
right uh and so yeah that was kind of it was more so like a
dismissiveness there. And like even the the shn gun folks sometimes they felt like
they had to like become like anti green. It's like I I never got
to that point, right, Like I like I was like more of like
a I think Shangun's better. But I think these guys play well, play
well off of each other. I think there are games in theory at their
highest levels fit next to each other really well. So I think they should
be together. But yeah, I don't know. It's just it's just fun
to me to watch Shangun just like freeze defenses like like like it's not even
like just like that he's a great scorer. It's that his passing is like
the defenses don't know what to do because like he starts off the game just
like facilitating like crazy, right, And it's like okay, so so defense
is when he gets the ball, everyone runs home to the shooters and almost
there's like almost an overreaction sometimes. Like there was a play when they were
playing I think it was the Warriors. No, it wasn't the Worris,
it was the Kinks. It was the Kinks. They're playing the Kings and
Harrison Barnes was guarding Shan Gun and Shangun got the ball in that mid post
area and there was an open three point shooter, but Harrison Barnes still had
the green not the green assignment, the Shangun assignment, So he just ran
to the open shooter, and Shanngun had an open dunk. Like they like
that. He's just freezing these guys. He like people don't know, like
by that time that third quarter comes, he's like paralyzed you into like okay,
so we have to close out hard, we can't, like we're then
you forget like, oh he can score too, right, he can score
too, so he's gonna beat you both ways. I don't know. Like
that that was always my vision with him, right as an offensive player,
he always felt very complete to me. Other than three point shooting. That's
still a developing thing, but like that, most areas of his game he
just excelled at and like that's kind of why I always thought this is like
the most complete offensive player on the team. Now, I remember when we
were doing our prospect rankings, right, and you know, you see you
start off put him. I don't even remember. I remember. I went
back and looked at it because because because of this podcast today, Uh,
you said that I wasn't gonna do what I told you so, and you're
kind of right, like, I'm not gonna do that for the most part,
but like I do want to say this. I went back and I
looked at like when I was going through my rankings, and I said,
Jalen Green is my second best prospect on the Rockets. You're you started laughing
like hysterically, like because you knew what that meant because I had run through
everybody but Shangun right, and you're like, oh, so so he's gonna
go Shangu number one, right, And I went to I went back,
I looked at your list and you had I can't remember who you had won
through three, but it was it was the top their topics, right,
So it was Jalen a men In Jabbari in some order in the top three.
And then you had you had uh shanghun At number four. So I
guess my question to you is, if you were to revise that ranking,
is shang Gun still four? No, I'm that's a that's a miss having
him, so I will say, And I don't want I try to own
my missus. The listeners of hardware and noves will know this. I don't
want to defend myself too much. I do feel like the Jabbari Smith one
is the only ranking that feels inexplicable based off the time right now, because
we haven't seen an enough of amen. It's just why would I even go
with someone who doesn't have that NBA sample size. It's Alprin Shangun like this
is And I'm not gonna pretend to have been ahead on this or earlier on
time. I'm late on this, but he is like, this is someone
you can build an entire direction around, and it's it's just he's doing so
many different things offensively. So no, he would still he would not be
number four on my list. I wouldn't be curious, like where would Rockets
fans have had him? I'm like Jalen Green would have been I'm assuming one
for the Vasty he would have been. Yeah, yeah, I like you
that's where he would have been. He would have been number two. He
would he would have been number two or three. I think maybe there was
maybe some folks would have had Jabbari or men, but like once you did
the polls or whatever, he would have probably been number two, right,
Like more people would have a number two, uh than anybody else. Right.
And I think listen, like like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna come
here. I'm not I'm not here to just just say I told you so
to people. No, let me do it. It's it's it's over right,
Like there's nothing left to say, right, Like it's like, what
is their left to talk about? Right now? I want to I want
to talk big picture now. I want to talk big picture now. So
when Morey was here, the Rockets were kind of, like the more one
of the more respected franchises in all of basketball, right because they were forward
thinking and they were sharp as a front office. And I know it's only
been nine games, but this front office has been here for almost three years,
right, And I'm my question to you is have they regained some of
that respect in your eyes? Yeah? I mean I think they gained a
lot of it back. I think for me, with the off season that
they had, where I wasn't a fan, I wasn't where I wasn't advocating
for Dylan Brooks, but I loved the Fred Vanfleet acquisition and it felt like,
look, we're trying to get better without infringing upon development or necessarily accelerating
our timeline too much. And I think the big thing here is I don't
know what they entered this season th the pecking order was going to look like.
But as you mentioned at the top, to kind of watch the first
game, maybe the first couple of games and decide there's gonna be a wholesale
shift in how this offense is run and who's the most important that like making
those adjustments we make fun of, you know, I think people made fun
of Adrian Griffin for saying that he had moved brook Lopez out of Drop and
then the players came in and so they wanted him back in more so he
did it. When you look at information, when you're getting information where you're
getting feedback on the quarter from your players and you react to it, that's
something that deserves to be commended. And look, the other thing I'll say
is, no, I was pretty vocal on my podcast that I thought the
Grizzlies scapegoaded Dylan Brooks. That was just like, I'm not a dial I
was not a Dylan Brooks guy. I want to make that clear. I
thought he was maybe the single most damaging offensive player in the league. But
the way that they kind of were just like, oh, we're getting rid
of him, that I was vocal about, but I did not love the
signing in Houston. Then he comes in and he is playing so differently.
That's another way that you're going to regain respect, because he's like he's cut
his pull up jumpers by like two thirds. He took like six last year
per game. He's down to under two this year or whatever it is.
And maybe it's because he's gotten paid, maybe it's because there's that relationship with
Imey Udoka, but like they have changed the way that Dylan Brooks is functioning
on offense overnight. And it's probably because the Grizzlies I think needed him to
do more than the Rockets have ever done. But now they've proven that Dylan
Brooks can exist. No, he won't shoot fifty five plus percent or three
forever, but he can exist in kind of this smaller compact, complimentary offensive
role. So that's another kind of feather in the Rockets cap. And you
did fine. You recognize the value in alper in Shangoon when you went out
and got him on draft night. That counts. I think Jalen Green is
still I'm very excited about the long term of Jalen Green. When you kind
of look at how when him and Shangun are playing together and he can get
out and fan out on the wing around him in transition it's you said they
like playing together. I look at it and I'm just like, Okay,
he knows how to play around Shangun and like that's someone that he's okay playing
off of. And so the fact that if he actively likes it, not
just understands it, that's going to be huge. I will admit I still
can't get a great feel for Jabari Smith Junior, who have been up and
down on all over the place, but like they that was when you look
at where they picked, like that was just the pick. That was the
only Like they weren't gonna make a different pick. And there's there's a lot
of I still think defensive malleability there that you have to be sort of tapped.
I'm very interesting what his offensive role look like looks like on this team
long term. But yeah, I specifically with the additions that they've made,
some of the developments and the way that it's panning out on the floor,
right, I mean, tar Easan's just development. He comes back and it's
just like, oh, like this guy just yeah, he's only shooting like
thirty three percent on twos, but he's knocking down all his threes basically even
just like you know, this is I'm not trying to go too far in
the weeds, but I can't remember which game it was in Garberg's time,
like having Jens and Williams come in and like that guy's like, oh,
that's like kind of interesting when you're looking at just like his zero to sixty
speed in the half court. I think they have regained some of that trust,
and I think what would I don't know if there's like another level that
they still need to prove it. I am curious to see how they react
to this success if it's if it sustains, though, Like, is this
gonna be a team that's gonna rush to consolidate or will they take kind of
the more gradual Oklahoma City approach, even though they're not built around just homegrown
players. Now that Dylan Brooks and Fred VanVleet are there, do they kind
of just let this play out and see where the they sort of lay throughout
the course of the season. It's a ridiculous thing to think about, probably
nine games into the season, but this success is you know, you mentioned
all the caveats at the top, like they beat the Nuggets, like they
beat the Nugget Like that's like with Yolkic on the court. I don't care,
Like that's a real thing. Yeah, I mean it's it's a it's
a really really compelling start to the season. And you know, real quick
on Dylan Brooks, like I wrote before the season, like I was like
the one guy in Houston media defending that contract, like everybody was fervently against
it, right like. And the reason I was, I was like okay
with it. I wasn't like saying it was great. I thought it was
fine. And the reason I thought it was fine because I went back and
I looked with what did with Marcus Marcus people don't remember Marcus Smart Predo.
The guy was a chucker for the especially with the pull up threes. Specifically,
Udoka comes in this season, by the way, and he's injured.
Now, so I don't mean to I don't mean to speak ill of the
injured, but right ill of the injured. Okay, all right, uh
no, So like he Udoka comes in and he has Marcus Smart's pull up
threes, Like he takes half as much pull up threes per game, uh
under Udoka. And it's like that's a drastic, you know, shift man
like like the fact that he had that kind of an impact on on that
kind of a player, It's like I was optimistic that he could have a
similar impact on Dylan Brooks. And I was optimistic when you looked at you
know, his shot Diet that they're like, I didn't think he was that
bad of a shooter. I just think he took the wrong shots, right,
I just thought he took the wrong shots. I thought he was a
fine catch and shoot player. I just thought he didn't take that many catch
and shoots. And I thought a coach that could get through to him would
make him fine, would make him not a damaging offensive player. And defensively,
we all know what he is. So I and and you looked at
where the salary cap was headed like I kind of thought that, you know,
this is gonna be fine by year two or three of this contract,
Like this is going to be a decent deal, I don't think. And
it's a declining deal too, right, So it's like you got both of
those things going in your favor. So you know, I I don Brooks,
like I'm not I'm not gonna pretend like I saw this right, Like
he's taking like seven attempts shot attempts per game or something or nine or something
low, right, something really low, not not double digits at one point
nine pull up jumpers per game, which is he was at five point eight
last year. I think, no, Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah,
that that that is crazy, And that's probably where his regression is gonna comes.
He's gonna start taking more pull up jumpers and that's gonna, uh you
know, because he's confident now, right, he's making his threes, He's
gonna start taking pull up jumpers and then that's where that's where the regression comes.
Right. But yeah, I think, yeah, I thought I thought
that was I was a solid signing signing. And you also Jayshawn Tate,
by the way, another guy they found off the scrap heat right, Like,
this is a guy they found in Australia, right, and was by
all accounts like a really heady offensive talent actually, right, like that's what
he was doing in Australia. He was like he was leading uh I think
the Sydney Kings, I can't remember which which team it was, he was
leading their offense, right, and he and he comes in the Rockets recognize
the kind of defensive potential he has and he starts in preseason game number one
under Steven Saalas, which is like it's a new coach is always gonna favor
Vets and for someone to come in like that and just grab a starting spot
was super impressive. And I thought he was awesome. Uh so they've regained
some of that with me too. I'm not sure if I'm where where I
was with Maury right because I thought Maury I still think Maury's one of the
best general managers in basketball, maybe in sports, right, Like I I
think I think he's really really good as Chop or maybe we disagree there.
I think he's awesome, right, But Rafel's I think I think he's he's
pretty good, right, Like, so I want to get this off my
chest because I'm I'm seeing a lot of this sentiment on Twitter. And as
frustrating as some of his decisions have been, you just can't take away credit
from Rafel's Stone for putting this team together. You just can't. Nobody in
this Rockets media space was a bigger proponent of Shango than I was. Right,
like, you're not gonna find it. Like before he played his first
NBA game, I had multiple articles up about him, like I did.
I did a profile about him from day one. That's a I was a
big guy. I was a big sham. So like I say that to
say, I understand more than anyone the frustration that that folks have with the
organization for kind of undercutting him at seemingly every turn. Right, But st
Stone did trade for the guy, as you said, he traded for the
guy. He gave up two first rounders. I don't care if it was
his idea or not. And frankly, I don't know, and I'm not
gonna pretend like I do. Like some people out there, not no one
knows whose idea was to take Shanhun. Most of the stuff that's out there
is pure speculation, and even if it wasn't his idea, Let's just say
for a second it wasn't his idea. Well, he had the presence of
mind to act on that idea, right, he had the presence of mine
to execute on it, right, Like the same thing with the Fred van
Vliet over James Harden thing. Right, Like he may have preferred James Harden,
but he took im Udoka's idea of going after Van Vliet. Right.
When you listen to smart people, that says a lot about you. Yeah,
right, it just does. You don't get to take this stuff away
from him. He certainly hasn't been perfect, but for the most part,
I my opinion, I think he's done a pretty good job of putting this
core together. And I don't want to hear this bullshit about how Stone was
this naive bystander through all the bad, through all the good decisions, while
also being the driving force, uh through behind all their ill advised decisions,
Like you can't have it both ways, you can't, Like he's the GM.
Everything the organization does from a basketball ops perspective goes on his resume,
Like say, the same thing with the with the Maury Westbrook trade, Like
Moury has to own that. That goes on his resume. He even went
on the record with that on his resume. I don't care where it came
from. That was that goes on that It's on him, right, You
You are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make. And I I that that
narrative just kind of bothered me. I'm sorry, I that wasn't more so
a question. I just need to get that off my chest. Well,
there's like you can't be perfect, and I feel like people, you know,
let's look at Denver with Michael Malone as their head coach, where he
has he got unprecedented time and they were there excuses to explain away their struggles
injuries, mostly things that happen to them. And but you're ridiculed if you
stick with one thing for too long rather than being celebrated if you see something's
not working, and even if it takes you too long to get away from
it Steven Silas for example, or even if it takes you too long to
get to Alpha and Shangun, the fact that you still ended up here.
It's not something everyone could have done. And I think what really does help
Stone is not all of this stuff is just sort of revelatory where that the
Shane Gun thing. Yes, it was maddening from your perspective to not see
them focus on him more until now, But it's not really a coincidence that
you finally make the coaching change and then this gets on earthed. To my
point, though, that was a weird like detour there, tar Resan Jayshan
Tee, like all these guys were just like they were already fines and even
just Jalen Green, as you know, you quibble over like, well,
what is this ceiling going to be? Like that's going to be a legitimate
NBA player. And so even though you if you haven't liked the process,
what was unfolding on the court, a lot of the stuff that was happening
when you're looking at how their roster was built, setting themselves up for the
cap space that they had this past summer, when it's a unique weapon in
the sense that free agency is not what it used to be. But if
you have money to throw around and are willing to spend it, look at
what you can do. You almost he was probably just using them as leverage,
but like, okay, you didn't want to see him coming and take
minutes away from out printing goople like Brook Lopez was talking to you like that
got you into a conversation that you otherwise wouldn't have been where you use as
a stocking horse. I don't know, do you want to troll Raphael Stone
and co. Because they had shang Gun and they were still looking at Lopez.
Lopez is one of the best room protectors of like the decade, and
so like I understand from a theory perspective what they were were trying to do.
So yeah, it's just interesting how I mean, it comes back to
people remember your misses more than your hits, and so it's just easier to
focus on and I think that is probably a big reason why. And a
lot of times it's sort of like Superstar syndrome, where it's if player X
loses, it's, oh did they not have enough help? And if they
win, it's like, oh, they were the driving force. It's it's
that type of analysis. Not everyone follows it, but like you're in the
question that simplify things down or make everything binary, and then just I think
we live in a world, as I already mentioned, where it's it's so
much easier to one maybe not forgive the misses, but you're going to accentuate
and spotlight the failures and just kind of forget about what you were right about.
Whereas, look, if you came, no one's gonna remember that you
were early on Shangon, But if he had kind of flamed out of the
league, everyone would remember that you were like going to the hill for this
guy. So last year, I picked the Nuggets to win the title in
the preseason and no one else was doing that. I was told I was
crazy. It wasn't like no one remembers that I picked the Nuggets, But
if they like flamed out in the first round, everyone would have remembered that
I picked the Nuggets to win the title. Yeah, and I'm that asshole
that's gonna remind you all the time, right, Like, but I couldn't
do it. I can't. I took one victory lap and it just like
wasn't it was a tweet. It just wasn't really that satisfying for me.
But you absolutely should, especially on this where it's like it wasn't just that
people weren't watching the Rockets enough, it was that the Rockets didn't even seem
like they were in tune with who they had yeah, I remember I wrote
this was like midway through his first season, right, I wrote this article
about how like they should trade Christian Wood at some point and just kind of
go with this guy, right like like this this suld this should be like
they're like they're building block this this kind of looks like a building block piece
here, Like I feel like more people should pay attention to this, And
like I got destroyed in the comments of that tweet, like where I tweeted
the article where I was like like people were just like not ready to just
trade Christian Wood, which is like I didn't understand it. I was like,
to me, at that point, it was obvious that Christian Would had
to go. Do you remember that I got we don't have to go too
far. I do remember that one time I proposed trading Christian Would with three
for round picks, and it was like a ninety nine percent no, Like
from man, I don't I know. This is a localized podcast, and
you know, I have all the respect in the world for team specific pods,
but the way that we're able to curate our content to only hear what
we want to hear is broken fandom in so many ways to where it's like
you think Christian Wood as a fan of like three first round picks isn't enough?
Like that is just like that's a weird silo to live in because like
Zach Levine's gonna get trade I don't even know if he's going to get for
three first round picks. And in fairness, it was like Christian Wood and
PJ Tucker right, like I threw PJ. Tucker in the trade, right,
but like still like that's not enough, like three first rounders like that,
I don't know whatever, whatever the case. I say that to say,
like we're here now, and you said earlier in the podcast that you
think that Shengon can kind of be your driver moving forward. Now when you
say driver, what do you mean, Like that is your poll star where
it's okay? So he can be the best player on a championship team,
Like do you see that potential? I would say, yes, there's still
some defensive concerns I have, and like they have not necessarily when they've opponents
have gotten to the rim, they have not held up too well. But
I also see that he he is better. I personally think that he's been
better defensively, and I think part of that is his role has been or
not simplified, but he's not as exposed enough when you look at what they
have going on up top, where it's Jay Shaun Tate is healthy, you
have Fred Vanfleet, you have Dylan Brooks aman Thompson. Before he gets he
gets injured. And so if you can surround him with the right personnel,
can you look like, could it be more of an equitable split where it's
like that he has a one B or something, but he can absolutely be
the best offensive player on a championship team. I think that is what we're
discovering when you look at it's not just the numbers he's putting up right now.
I keep coming back to the methods by which they're coming, which is
in this comprehensive package where it's just so many different ways that he's able to
punish you. And I believe, and I would probably include myself in this.
We might just be more open to now recognizing that and saying, yeah,
this can be someone who is you know, it's still too early in
the sense that this is year three for him, and so I was like,
let's kind of pump the brakes and see. But when you look at
the outlines of what he can do, because now Jokic is won a title
where a lot of people kind of framed it this way as he can't be
the best player on championship team. I do think Shang Gun's a different player.
He's not anywhere near the shooter that Nikol Jokich is when you look at
kind of the floater and the fadeaways and just even the you know, the
three pointer that Nikole Jokic has, but the passing, the vision, the
different ways he's able to score inside the arc once he gets moving downhill.
I look at him and if I don't want to the best player our championship
team is so tough because that's like, yeah, players in the league.
I'll frame it this way. He is good enough to me to direct everything
you do from here on until proven otherwise to where it's when you're looking,
if we're moving past the point where they're gonna be drafting super high, you're
looking for guys that can come in fit with him, cover up for his
weaknesses, optimize his strengths. I think he is the lens through which you
look like through your future and it's you know again, because Jalen Green is
there it feels like it could be more of an acurate like if if you
view those guys as the two. But when it comes down to it in
Denver, there's that clear separation between Jokic and Murray. I wouldn't say I
don't think the gap will ultimately be as big between Shang Gun and Green.
I'm that high on Green and Yokic is one of the best players of all
time and sort of predict that for Shangun. It's just is wild. But
I think that's the best way to put it. Is like you have found
until proven otherwise, like this is the this is your north star. Yeah,
it's like I think he can be like like we've passed the point where
so this thing was always a spectrum, right with Shenggun, Like it was
like starting center Star are like the Sabonis tier of All Star, and then
the was this is gonna anger a lot of people. This ceiling is way
higher than Domas bonuses. Yeah, I'm saying that was like that was like
the middle right, Like at the end of that spectrum was like Jokic,
right, which is like you know, people were shy to say it,
but we got acknowledged like that that's the ceiling, right, that's like it
has to be there. So I think he's somewhere between Sobonis and Yolkic now
right, we're just like, you know, there's like Pallgasov's there. I
would say Palagasa is kind of in that middle Yoki of Yokicchen Sabonis, Right.
I think I think I'm comfortable talking about him as a Gasaw type player
now right, and like Palagasaw at his peak, I mean I think he
was he was good enough to drive a franchise. I don't think people remember
how good Palagasau was those a couple of Lakers Lakers title teams there was he
was clearly the second best player in there probably moments where he was we don't
want to have that discussion where he might have been like Panels m v P.
Yeah, I might have to revisit that two thousand and nine one.
Uh no, no, you're you're right listen, I I I yeah,
that that's what he was. That that that's exactly what he was. And
the Rockets were at one point considering trading for him before you know, uh,
the NBA came in and canceled that trade whatever, right, like because
they thought that he could be the building block piece, and it's ironic like
now that they have someone who could be conceivably the second coming of that kind
of guy, and I I'm wondering, like, would we would would this
be more obvious if he was like two inches taller or if he was the
sixth overall pick in the draft versus the sixteenth overall pick in the draft?
Right, like, because we are kind of adjusting to this data on the
fly, right, this is this is all basically new data for us.
How long did it take for us to get there with Shang with not Shan
Gun with k right, like probably his first MVP season, it's like,
oh, he could be the best player on the championship team. That's probably
that probably people thought it still didn't even believe it then, and so it's
yeah, but I would say, like that's probably when we first, Like
I think with Shanng gouon, we probably have to get to a point where
it's where it's like a reasonable thing to say this maybe it's first All Star
game, right because like now that we have the outline of Jokic, you
don't have to go for the MVP, you don't have to wait till that
point. Maybe when Shang Gun makes his first All Star game, we can
start talking about it more like openly. But I'm with you, man,
Like I'm totally with you. I think I think he should be their north
star as of right now, right like, until someone takes it from him.
He's he's the he's the guy, and you don't have any viable path
to getting another top pick unless Brooklyn craters, right, which it doesn't seem
like they're going to be. It seems like they're gonna fight that at every
cause, right so, like I think as of right now, I would
be considering like they're right right now they have Oladipa owned house right and they
have that contract ready to trade. It seems like they're they want to make
a move. And I think the reason and they're doing that is because they
want another contract that they can acquire that's that's signed to multiple years, not
just this year, next year, so that if when when the trade becomes
available, when the star trade becomes available, they want to be ready,
right like, because like kind of where they were with KPg when they had
that contract in house, right, they want to be able to flip a
depot for like a Malcolm Brogden or something like that. And then when you
know, let's say this summer or next trade deadline, if a star that
you feel can fit into your core becomes available, you're you're ready, You're
ready to pounce on it. I think that's kind of where the Rockets go
at this trade deadline. I think they're going to move all the depot and
like two second rounders or maybe even a first I don't know if they're willing
to touch those brook and if those Brooklyn first, but maybe the two second
rounders. I think they're going to go after like a Malcolm Brogden type.
And that may not sound that exciting to you, but it is exciting in
that once you get that Brogden type in house, you'll have Brogden, you'll
have Londale, you'll have Jeff Green, you'll have Tait. And that's enough.
That's enough to go get That's enough money to go get the star right
along with your pit capital from Brooklyn. Perhaps maybe you gotta trade you know,
maybe a cam Whitmore in there, maybe a Jabari Smith in there or
whatever you're willing to move, right, you gotta that that might be enough
to get the Star Star player trade moving right, Like I think I think
that's kind of where I'm at, Like organizationally, I'm viewing Shane Gun as
the north star, and I'm not I'm willing to sacrifice assets if it helps
me get to a place where I can build around him. I do wonder
though, like just because of the infrastructure that's already in place where you know,
I'm and Thompson when he's healthy, the pick equity they have invested in
him. I'm not so worry about Jabari Smith Junior looking at the offense,
but the equity they have in Jalen Green and now you have brought Red van
Fleet into the fold, does that cap like how much you're gonna steer into
the Shangun experience? On all, He's averaging fewer touches per game this year
than last year, more minutes overall, Like I know, the effectiveness is
just there, and so I'm curious if that not inhibits what they're able to
do, but changes the way that they're gonna build out the rest of this
roster. Because when you're when I'm just naming all those guys, if Shanggun
is your north star, like who is what is then the ideal star that
you're looking to go out and get. And then because of the quote unquote
good talent or like high prospects they already have in place, it's invariably then
going to replace one or two of those guys. If you're saying Shangun's off
limits and you have Aman Thompson, you have Jabari Smith Jr. And you
have Jalen Green, Like there's only one other spot technically on a five man
lineup, and like you still have Tar Easton here in Fred van Fleet and
Dylan Brooks. It's like, what is the type of player? And I
know we have this discussion over the offseason, but now that we know Shang
Gun is this good? But now that you also know what the Rockets are
capable of so far, how does that impact the type archetype of player or
even not not even star, but player that you're gonna go after. Yeah,
I mean I think we ended that podcast where we're ranking guys like who's
gonna go? I want someone to go grab the mantle this year? Right,
it feels like Shang Gun's done that, right, Like he did that
pretty damn quickly, but like that goal has been accomplished. For the Rockets
this season, Right, So I think it is productive to have this conversation
about, like, you know, how the Rockets choose to go about building
around him, if de if he's the guy, Listen, I think the
only two untouchables for me are are Jalen and Shenghu, Right, And I
know what that means, right, And people I'll be like, you're really
willing to put on men Thompson on table? Yeah, I think I am.
You will We're really willing to put Jabbari? Yeah, I think I
am. Look, and I mean this might be a whole separate discussions,
like how does what's happening right now impact the way that they're gonna use Aman
Thompson once he comes back, Like they're gonna be a little bit worried about
giving a rookie X amount of reps is going to hurt what they're doing.
Like there were some promising lineups they rolled him out in that were just they
were kind of defensive monsters at one point, so they could still lean into
that. But like, if you have a chance as a Rockets team,
if like if we fast forward two to three weeks and they're still at this
pace, you know, not to the point where they're just not losing any
games, but they're still in the thick of things. And you look,
if you had the opportunity, this might be a good because you mentioned Brooklyn,
you're sending them back Aman Thompson, maybe some of their picks and getting
McHale Bridges. Like if Brooklyn decided to pull the plug, they have the
Ben Simmons injury, they're dealing with Nick Claxton's gonna be a free agent.
He had already missed some time this year. It doesn't seem like they're headed
down that path. Like, that's a player who makes so much sense alongside
not just alphrinshanggud and Jalen Green, but if you're gonna end up keeping Fred
van Fleet as part of that and even Dylan Brooks, like mcal Bridges,
makes all the sense in the world. Yeah, I think that's kind of
the type of player you would chase right the wing, the wingy guy,
right like, because you you have your guard, you have your big I
think you go for the wing. I think I think that's the kind of
mckel bridges. Maybe you're O g Annob like I don't. I think Annoby
might be a little bit like low low on the spectrum where I'm not gonna
trade like a high end asset for You're quite sure like you could give up
what it? Yeah, but like in terms of player equity, I wouldn't.
Yeah, yeah, I mean he is interesting in Houston just because he
might want to dribble a lot, but with the players that they have and
the spacing that they can apparently create right now, like they don't need him
to dribble a lot. But I'm with you in a sense that, especially
with free agency coming up, I'm not you know, i'd be even I
mean, this is just Galaxy bringing it, but I'd be a little bit
reluctant to give up Tarry Eastan for him knowing what oj Anoby's gonna make his
next contract. No, I'm with you. I'm at that point right where
it's like I would I would be very selective on the guy I would trade
for, right because I have the luxury now, I have the luxury to
be selective. Good point, And I don't know, like it's tough because
there isn't like a young, like a young ish awesome wing out there right
like that that teams willing to trade right, Scotty Barnes is out there,
but they're not trainings, right like right, like, just don't it's always
the like you're entering the Damian Lillard phase of your maybe a little bit earlier
than that. Even Anthony Davis was sort of like an anomaly where it's like
twenty six twenty seven is like when there might become available, and even by
standards like there's not that there doesn't appear to be that wing out there right
now. Maybe Pascal Pascal, but like Pascal is an expiring contract, right
so I'm not trying to interesting, Yeah, I mean that, But then
but then you're you're pretty much talking about giving up Jabari right like that at
that point, and then you're writing Fred van Fleet and Siakam, which is
in the end of the world. But that might be something to explore in
the off season when you can sign him to a multi year deal, right
like assign and trade multi year deal type thing, right with the Raptors,
that that might be something explore at that point. But in general, like
I'm looking like Giddy, like I don't think Giddy is someone you want to
go trade for, right like, he's not. He doesn't exactly make a
lot of sense here, like it's it's tough, it's tough. I'm I'm
like Ingram, like I don't know, I don't know. The ball has
been sticking with him in New Orleans this year, So I wouldn't want that
on. I mean, he'd be in theory if you look, if he
mayod can get him to, you know, sort of change the way that
he plays a little bit on offense, that that'd be an interesting flyer.
But he doesn't seem like a caliber of player because it's those weird where it's
like I could see Ojanaobe being traded in a package that doesn't cost you the
farm, like maybe it cost you a bunch of pick equity. But brand
Ingram feels like the type of player that along the Zack Lavine lines where it's
gonna cost you too much real stuff to justify it for a team where Zach
Lavine or brand Ingram wouldn't necessarily just be the finishing piece. I just thought
of the guy. I can't believe he didn't talk Jalen Brown. Yeah,
I mean the relationship with Amyodoga with that contract and just it is, it's
a rough contract, but that gives some leverage maybe you don't have to give
us much premium stuff up. I think what gets awkward there is because Boston
is not gonna trade you. There be a third team involved because or Boston,
I guess immediately playing on taking the Assett Houstons, giving them and rerouting
it for someone else. Because if you were to move Jayalen Green h which
he can't be even be moved this season, but if you ever got to
that point, you're still gonna have Jason Tatum and probably at least one of
Christop's or Drew Holliday, and so your timeline is still is still now.
Yeah, it's it's a little funky. There's also door number two, which
we can end on, like, hold on, let me let me read
this out. Paul George want to request out from the Clippers because he's not
gonna get the ball enough Al Prince Shengoon, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Tarry
and Thompson cam Wittmore. Is there a viable path? There were just keeping
like mean, you're not gonna you're not gonna be financially, you're not gonna
be to keep all those guys right, You're gonna have to pick and choose.
But just staying the path. Is there a viable Do you think that's
a smart way to go about it? I don't know. I just I
don't. I feel like we don't have nearly enough. We definitely don't have
enough information on cam More, but we don't have nearly enough information to me
on Jabari Smith or Aman Thompson. It's only playing a couple of games this
year, and so I think I probably wouldn't go that route. I think
you get to a point where it becomes so hard, where you're reaching a
stage where all these guys will eventually need new contracts. It's not just about
affording them, it's about them wanting to We've seen the look at what happened
with the Warriors, like with Kaminga wanting to stand out because he knew that
he was gonna be extension aledgeable after this year. What even happened with Jordan
Poole, even after he got paid. And so it's like when you're at
that early stage of your career, it's just so much harder, it feels
like to develop off of one another into like hitting your full ceiling. And
maybe I mean that would be very Oklahoma City of them, but Oklahoma City
is mostly the exception. Like these teams they always have one or two homegrown
players, but even the Nuggets, like you, eventually you start to pick
and choose, like they chose between use of Nurkic and Jokic and they started
breaking up players where it was, you know, Will Barton used to be
good and Gary Harris was really important to them, but they included him in
the Aaron Gordon trade. Anyway, it feels like at some point off the
track towards that decision, and I just again, this might be a bad
answer, just because if we knew what aman Thompson's ceiling was gonna be in
this league, you could probably make a call, well, then maybe it
makes sense to stay together. But my bet would be like the fact that,
like if you might be good now because you went out and got these
other veterans already in Dylan Brooks and Jeff Green and Fred van Fleet, and
because Tari Eastan's been around for a minute, you already knew he was good,
and Alphrin shang Gun's this good already, it might put you on a
faster timeline to where looking at Jabbari Smith and aman Thompson specifically are you moving
too fast for them to help you in the way that you need them to
help you, or for you to be patient enough for them to help you
in the way they need to help you. Also, Dylan Brooks gives you
some leverage, right because like some when some of these guys comes that come
up, right, like specifically the wings like Jabbari Tari, when they come
up, it's like, yeah, I'm only walk away because like I have
Dyling Brooks locked up for four year contract, right or three more years of
the next time, you know, at this point this summer, right,
It's like it gives you some wiggle room. It's like this is this is
kind of our our our cheap option, right, just staying with Doling dying
Brooks and letting this guy walk away, right, Like there's also like just
door number just kicking the can down the road, right just like you know,
right now, it's just fun. Let's just let's just let it be
fun for a little bit. Yeah, I mean there's they definitely don't need
to do anything this season, like you could just see where this pans out.
Yeah, they're probably gonna do something this season just to keep that option
open. Just the O deep because they want to be a mid level exception
team. They want to be an over the cap team, and to do
that they need to get a contracts extended the next summer, and the only
way to do that is basically trading old depot. So what they do there
with the kind of player they get there, I'm guessing like Brogden just makes
so much sense for them, right Like, just like not only as like
a contract, it's just like as a player to fill in the holes for
them off the bench, Like he makes a lot of sense to me as
a player to go target. But someone like that, just like another shooter,
another defender, like someone like that off the bench, Uh, that
can just plug in some holes for you and also be that contract. I
think that's kind of what I'm expecting Moose for them this season. I know
you have a hard art. I will say, you know what name you
could keep an eye on, sure, and it would be I think this
is an after this season thing and he'd be super interesting here. And I
guess it does mean you're punting on your Bari. But Jaron Jackson Jr.
Yeah, the guy that he gets compared to a lot, right, That's
that that is an interesting name, especially if Memphis. I hope, I
hope it doesn't go this way because I do know some people in Memphis,
and I want them to have their fun team, right, But like like
if they can't get their stuff together soon, like are you gonna pay?
Like what if Jaron Jackson Junior qualifies for the Super Max and it's like you've
already paid John Rant, you paid Desmond Baine. He's gonna win Defensive Player
of the Year, right, a third team All NBA or something. Yeah,
I mean it's I mean, he already won Defensive Player of the Year,
so it's not outs. I mean, this year's not happening because their
defense has been not great. Yeah, so that would just be like he
already qualifies then yeah, yeah, I'm not sure because you I think he
needs to do in like two of the three season. I'm not sure if
the extension goals changed, like he could absolutely make an All NBA team,
So like that's that's something that I mean, I guess they got rid of
positions, but again, it could just come to where it's the Grizzlies are
kind of looking at their future and if this season goes off the rails,
it's okay. You know, Jaron Jackson Junior has two guaranteed years left on
his deal. That's when you're gonna have to start thinking about these things,
these next contracts. And so that was just the name, like just some
just something someone I would I would monitor. No, it's it's definitely someone
to monitor. Uh. I think the Brown one is uh is something that's
probably like if I were to rank this in terms of likelihood, like the
Brown one just seems like it's, oh, of course it's gonna happen,
right, But I don't. I don't know like if Boston wants to go
there anytime soon. But like we're like how many years in digit in Tatum
Brown? Are we like four? Three or four? Uh? And that's
kind of the point where like if you're not gonna win a title or like
you know, make make the make the finals and like keep everyone happy,
like and in the next one or two years, it's it's probably gonna get
shaken up. Not maybe not broken up, but shaken up. Yeah,
I mean seven years into the Brown Tatum pairings. My god, So I've
been watching basketball, man, it's it's it's and also just with the new
rules and you know, maybe it's not an immediate thing, but like,
let's let's say the off season of twenty twenty five, where it's okay,
now we're really reconciling having all these big deals in our books as Boston.
That's where the Jalen Brown stuff could become more of a like even more.
I'm not ruling it out like in the forthcoming summer. Really a lot just
depends on the Celtics have look great buying marg Jalen Brown has probably struggled relative
to the rest of that team. But uh yeah, I mean he feels
like the no brainer one. I just kind of feel like, I don't
know, it's a lot of money. It's a lot of a lot of
money for a player where I feel like he's a very good player. I
don't know if there's the upside for him to be more than he is now.
And so when you're kind of looking at how limited he can be as
a playmaker, or the the predictability that he can sometimes give you on drives,
not as a score but as a passer, and then the turnovers and
the handle stuff, it just that's I'm not i'd still I mean, you
look into it if he became available, but that's also just so far down
the road no percent. Like uh, and and and Jalen would have to
be a much better Jaalleen would basically have to becoing point guard right at that
point, he'd have to be the lead ball handler. And that's gonna take
a lot long time. And maybe by twenty twenty five, two things happen,
like Jalen Brown becomes the cheap option because your roster's so expensive, and
and and Jalen Green is like, uh, it's like a point guard at
that point, you know, like like maybe maybe though both those things happen
by twenty twenty five, we'll see. Uh. In any case, it
was fun talking through some of this stuff with you. Uh, We're a
new world with the Rockets. Finally, I'm excited, Uh the Rocket.
Watching the Rockets no longer feels like homework. It feels like fun. It
feels like watching like basketball, which is great. Uh. Can tell the
people where we can follow you on social media and find your work. Yeah,
they can follow me my name basically ever at Dan Favalley FA V A
l E. And they can also find me at Bleacher Report and the Hardware
Ox podcast of exactly as it sounds. We cover the entire NBA at large,
including this this fun team. Yeah, thanks so much for coming on, Dre