Speaker 1: Rockets fans, Welcome to The Rockets Launch Pod, an exclusive
Speaker 1: podcast from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven
Speaker 1: ninety Red Nation. Get Ready, Ready, Get Ready. The Rockets
Speaker 1: Launch Pod starts now.
Speaker 2: Welcome aboard, Welcome back to another new episode of The
Speaker 2: Rockets Launch Pod, presented by Clutch Fans. I'm Benjubo's He's
Speaker 2: Pollo Olves, We're your host, and let's get right to it.
Speaker 2: Off the top. This is going to be a little
Speaker 2: bit of a downer because your Houston Rockets are now
Speaker 2: down two games to none to the shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers,
Speaker 2: missing their two leading scorers in Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves.
Speaker 2: With the series shifting back to Houston this weekend, this
Speaker 2: has gone as poorly as it reasonably could. This was
Speaker 2: a matchup where, if you listen to our previous pod,
Speaker 2: we were excited about it. The Rockets were excited about it,
Speaker 2: drawing the Lakers instead of the Nuggets, particularly given the
Speaker 2: Lakers' injuries, but even without them, the Rockets and most
Speaker 2: people around the NBA viewed the Lakers as their most
Speaker 2: friendly potential matchup among the realistic options. The Nuggets and
Speaker 2: Minnesota Timberwolves were also in there, and so even if
Speaker 2: all teams were at full strength, I think the Rockets
Speaker 2: would have preferred this matchup. And now you take out Luca,
Speaker 2: you take out Reeves. Certainly, there was a lot of
Speaker 2: excitement inside the building the final day of the regular
Speaker 2: season when the Nuggets inexplicably beat the Spurs and kept
Speaker 2: the Lakers at four. There was a lot of excitement
Speaker 2: from us on the pod. And then to go out
Speaker 2: to La and lose not one, but two bulks. The
Speaker 2: Rockets are the clear underdogs in this series, even if
Speaker 2: they have a talent advantage. Historically, teams that go up
Speaker 2: two OHO in a best of seven series win more
Speaker 2: than ninety percent of the time. So even if you
Speaker 2: don't think the Lakers are truly above ninety percent in
Speaker 2: terms of their series win probability, at this point, it's
Speaker 2: far better than fifty to fifty, that's just being real.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Lron is thirty two and to zero and
Speaker 3: he's up to oh in a series.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's been excellent. You do have to tip
Speaker 2: your hat to him. But I just think the way
Speaker 2: it's happened, if it was just Game one with Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant not playing because of the bruce knee he suffered
Speaker 2: at practice last week. It would be a little disconcerting
Speaker 2: in that long term. How does it make you feel
Speaker 2: that you're this dependent on a thirty seven year old
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant. I could see if the Rockets bounced back
Speaker 2: in Game two, just chalking up Game one to hatchtag
Speaker 2: Houston Sports, some really bad luck happened with Katie in
Speaker 2: practice after he was healthy all season, and you move
Speaker 2: on and you get back to the form you were
Speaker 2: in to close the regular season, when the Rockets finished
Speaker 2: nine and won their last ten games to get back
Speaker 2: to fifty two and thirty, same record as a year ago.
Speaker 2: The pallot Kat came back in Game two, and they
Speaker 2: were just as bad, if not worse. The shooting didn't
Speaker 2: get any better other than KD, who did make his shots.
Speaker 2: The turnovers were worse because kat was not prepared to
Speaker 2: attack the double teams that the Lakers sent to him
Speaker 2: and in both of these games. Follow The story is offense.
Speaker 2: The Rockets have not broken one hundred points in a
Speaker 2: game this series. To put that in perspective, the lowest
Speaker 2: two scoring offenses in the entire NBA. This season, the
Speaker 2: Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks averaged about one hundred and
Speaker 2: six and one hundred and ten points per game. The
Speaker 2: Rockets have yet to reach a hundred in this series.
Speaker 2: So we can talk all day about the Lakers missing
Speaker 2: Luca and Reeves and not being as high powered as
Speaker 2: they usually are. If you're not scoring one hundred points,
Speaker 2: you're probably not beating anybody. And the Rockets aren't scoring
Speaker 2: one hundred points. I think they're averaging ninety six or
Speaker 2: something close to that. So you can, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: we will today quibble over exactly where the blame should go.
Speaker 2: How much of it falls on em Ujoka in terms
Speaker 2: of the rotation choices and the tactical strategies the Rockets
Speaker 2: are employing. How much of it goes to the players
Speaker 2: simply not executing Katie with the turnovers all per inch,
Speaker 2: Shingoon reach Shepherd, not making shots at a nearly high
Speaker 2: enough level for what they're capable of. You can point
Speaker 2: the finger at rafel Stone from a roster construction perspective.
Speaker 2: Do they have enough ball handling? Do they have enough shooting?
Speaker 2: There are different areas of blame, and reasonable people can
Speaker 2: disagree over what percentage goes to what entity? But I
Speaker 2: think the bottom line what we should acknowledge off the top,
Speaker 2: this is the type of series if it continues down
Speaker 2: this path to where not only the Rockets lose at
Speaker 2: this point, it's just as likely if they could lose
Speaker 2: in four or five games somehow, then they actually win
Speaker 2: the series. If it continues down this path, this is
Speaker 2: the kind of result that can change careers. And I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, is it players on the team,
Speaker 2: is it coaches, is it executives? I personally think executives
Speaker 2: are the least likely, but you know, reasonable people can
Speaker 2: disagree same principle as a signing blame. But when you
Speaker 2: get this matchup, this can change a lot of things
Speaker 2: in the big picture. Because I think for most of
Speaker 2: the second half of this season, and especially when the
Speaker 2: Rockets closed the regular season strong got back to fifty
Speaker 2: two and thirty, we had sort of coalesced powlow around
Speaker 2: the idea that hey, the Rockets have shown enough and
Speaker 2: they did show some mental fortitude. Maybe they'll do that
Speaker 2: again the next few days. We can't rule it out,
Speaker 2: but I think we had seen enough to where we
Speaker 2: would have largely been okay even if it was underwhelming,
Speaker 2: largely running it back and hoping that Fred van Fleet,
Speaker 2: Steven Adams, maybe a return to hell for Dorian Finny Smith,
Speaker 2: some moves around the margins and basically have next year
Speaker 2: being a more complete version of this year's team. Well,
Speaker 2: things change when you drew the Lakers last pod. They
Speaker 2: changed in a good way because we were talking about,
Speaker 2: you know, the higher expectations that hopefully the Rockets could
Speaker 2: at least win around in the postseason for the first
Speaker 2: time since twenty twenty. But with those expectations comes a
Speaker 2: downside risk and if you fall short, especially if you
Speaker 2: fall short in an embarrassing way, which losing in a
Speaker 2: sweep or gentleman's sweep would be. I mean, that's the
Speaker 2: kind of, you know, perfect storm scenario where all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, some bigger pick sure changes, be it the players,
Speaker 2: the coach, whoever, are suddenly back in play. So I
Speaker 2: just want to acknowledge that off the top, I feel
Speaker 2: like the last couple of months hollow me and you,
Speaker 2: we've sort of downplayed the idea that the Rockets have
Speaker 2: to do anything drastic this offseason. This is the perfect
Speaker 2: storm where they might, like if they had drawn the
Speaker 2: Denver Nuggets and gone out in four or five games.
Speaker 2: It would have been very frustrating, but I think it
Speaker 2: would have been easier to sort of just tip your
Speaker 2: hat and say they're just better. That's a really good team.
Speaker 2: No disrespect to the Lakers, but they should not be winning.
Speaker 2: And it's not just that they're winning, they're winning with ease.
Speaker 2: The Rockets have led for I feel like a couple
Speaker 2: of minutes at most in the second halves of both
Speaker 2: Game one and Game two, the Lakers have clearly been
Speaker 2: in the advantage position. So it's not like the Rockets
Speaker 2: are doing something catastrophically wrong. No, the Lakers are just
Speaker 2: clearly the better team to this point in the series.
Speaker 2: JJ Riddick has his team more prepared than email Udoka,
Speaker 2: at least it looks like that to me. So this
Speaker 2: is the kind of result when comparing the rosters, when
Speaker 2: comparing you know, when looking back at the optimism that
Speaker 2: we all had, including the two of us a week ago,
Speaker 2: this is the kind of result where, if it continues,
Speaker 2: it can change a lot, not just now but into
Speaker 2: the coming months.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm one hundred percent there with you. I think
Speaker 3: people are typically used to us being a little bit
Speaker 3: more moderate in our commentary. I think this this podcast
Speaker 3: might surprise a few people as we move forward. This
Speaker 3: series has just been a disaster from every angle you
Speaker 3: could possibly analyze it from, and it's not looking up
Speaker 3: for it to get better, because I think after two
Speaker 3: games it's established that at the very least these teams
Speaker 3: as currently constructed are on even footing even with the
Speaker 3: injuries it's seeing, and the Lakers do still have home
Speaker 3: court advantage. Even if you do win the next two games,
Speaker 3: you're then facing a sceneverywhere you have to win one
Speaker 3: away and you weren't able to win one away when
Speaker 3: Wuka and Reds aren't there. Lucas doesn't seem to be
Speaker 3: coming back, But how are you gonna win with Beeves
Speaker 3: there in a game, in a game seven, or in
Speaker 3: a game five, because you do have to steal a
Speaker 3: win and the Rockets are a lot better at home,
Speaker 3: and they might be able to level the series, but
Speaker 3: even then, what would possibly needed to be confident that
Speaker 3: they would be able to pull an up set when
Speaker 3: they weren't, when the Lakers would a lot weaker, And
Speaker 3: then when you think about it, just just looking at
Speaker 3: the teams right, let's forget the huge talent discrepancy, and
Speaker 3: we'll care about why the talent discrepancy doesn't show as much.
Speaker 3: But let's just look at the reasons the Rockets offense
Speaker 3: doesn't work, and we'll get into overarching moving into the
Speaker 3: future talk, you know, in a little bit, but just
Speaker 3: for now, for strengthly, for this series itself, seems like
Speaker 3: a big part of the problem is that the Rockets
Speaker 3: can't shoot, and a lot part and the big part
Speaker 3: of the problem why the spacing isn't there is because
Speaker 3: an open Chinglund both can't shoot. And then the other
Speaker 3: big part of the problem, at least talking point wise,
Speaker 3: is oh, read can shoot, but he can't defend at all,
Speaker 3: so you can't play a meter. And let's look at
Speaker 3: the mirror side of this with the Lakers. The Lakers
Speaker 3: are playing Carrot Vanderfield who can't shoot. De andrei Aiden
Speaker 3: can't shoot. That doesn't seem to all of Usdden will
Speaker 3: make their offense completely dysfunctional. And let's not pretend like
Speaker 3: le Bruns who mismatch and he's scoring forty a nineties
Speaker 3: not And then the mirror side for Redcap but the
Speaker 3: hook and Art's getting plenty of minutes. How are the
Speaker 3: rocket not able to exploit that on the offensive? Vent
Speaker 3: how is the luc And art playable? So even if
Speaker 3: you even if you want to, you know, get a
Speaker 3: little bit to the nitty grittyo things, and most people
Speaker 3: will point out that the biggest issues with the Rockets
Speaker 3: are that well their shooters mainly read can't defend, and
Speaker 3: that two of their star pieces or at least two
Speaker 3: pieces of the rotation can't shoot, and therefore you can't
Speaker 3: build an offense that works because those two guys can't shoot.
Speaker 3: And then I'm not going to argue at that point
Speaker 3: that's once again talked for later on in the poll,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to make some overarching takes on on
Speaker 3: on tim building and how this roster moves forward. But
Speaker 3: you can't say that the things that are ailing the
Speaker 3: Rockets don't quite just as well as much for the Lakers.
Speaker 3: It just, at the end of the day, comes down
Speaker 3: to first problem. You don't have a guy that can
Speaker 3: just create offense out of nothing besides Kevin the Red.
Speaker 3: But the Lakers also have just one guy that can
Speaker 3: do that in Lebron And it doesn't seem like applying
Speaker 3: the Rockets strategy, the Lakers strategy with kad to Laurno
Speaker 3: the Lakers that that doesn't seem to work. And yes,
Speaker 3: Lebron is a much better passer than kat Is, but
Speaker 3: once you're double teams, you know, getting out of it
Speaker 3: is not you know, doesn't require some insane playmaking jobs.
Speaker 3: It's mostly a team based thing. Right for your team
Speaker 3: to be able to punish when that's happened, then then
Speaker 3: you will even defensively at the rest of the Laker
Speaker 3: Steve Vendor builds a good defender, I'm not gonna take
Speaker 3: it away from him. Well, Bronn at this age is
Speaker 3: not a great defender. Reaction Moore is not a great defender.
Speaker 3: DeAndre Aiden himself is not a good defender, like that
Speaker 3: was legitimately the reason why he was considered the toxic
Speaker 3: ascid as a Max guy because he's not a good defender,
Speaker 3: and then obviously Luca Nard's not a good defender. It
Speaker 3: just it doesn't make sense for anybody looking at this
Speaker 3: series for it to be playing out the way that
Speaker 3: it is. And as you said, and if you want,
Speaker 3: if we want to use this to kind of segue
Speaker 3: into some broader discussion topics, this is the type of
Speaker 3: embarrassment that changes and that forces major changes in a franchise,
Speaker 3: whether that be strategy from the front office perspective or
Speaker 3: new people there, or coaching or and and and there's
Speaker 3: levels to it, right, there's no office level. There's pressure
Speaker 3: in the front office to be more I guess decisive, yeah,
Speaker 3: or bold. I was gonna go with bold. And there's
Speaker 3: changing people with DIF from office. You know, there's scales
Speaker 3: to it. Right at the lower level, you pressure them
Speaker 3: into being bolder. At the higher level you you you
Speaker 3: change people. And then at coaching there's two sides of it.
Speaker 3: There's firing Meyudoka, or there's bringing a guy in to
Speaker 3: be an offensive coordinate and have full control over what
Speaker 3: the offense looks like. And from the players respectively, there's
Speaker 3: levels to it. There's just there's you know, hoping Thread
Speaker 3: and Stig can change it and I nothing that's gonna
Speaker 3: cut it anymore. Beyond that, there's spending pigs on a
Speaker 3: superstar trade, or there's straining guys that you thought were
Speaker 3: untradeable of to this point, like alpurn Chingun for example.
Speaker 3: We're gonna get into that later. But this level of
Speaker 3: embarrassment I hope, and my fandom will be in question
Speaker 3: if it doesn't. Because I've said plenty of times before
Speaker 3: in this podcast, the only thing that could possibly make
Speaker 3: that could possib will lose me as a fan is
Speaker 3: not having faith in in Afron office. Because if you
Speaker 3: don't have faith in the people making the decisions and
Speaker 3: you don't have a path, then to me, there's no
Speaker 3: point in watching sports. That's why I could never be
Speaker 3: a fan of a team Michael Kings for example, not
Speaker 3: necessarily because of the success, but because of the having
Speaker 3: a qual path forward like the Sabona Saliburton trail, which
Speaker 3: I'm sure will get into later. Like that, as a
Speaker 3: fan will drive minuts. It drove minutes in the moment,
Speaker 3: just that there's no path. So if Rockets don't make
Speaker 3: a practic move, if this series ends as it seems
Speaker 3: like it's going to end, then I will start bringing
Speaker 3: that into question as well. It's just if something like
Speaker 3: that happens, like this is the type of thing that
Speaker 3: will make your organize Like that will make your organization
Speaker 3: lose respect around the week. This is the type of
Speaker 3: thing that players will be talking about years down the line.
Speaker 3: You know how the John Wall, This HiT's ass quotes
Speaker 3: is all over everywhere. And then there's him appearing on
Speaker 3: podcasts talking about how this functional the team was back then.
Speaker 3: And obviously he has some personal motives to say stuff
Speaker 3: like that. Obviously he wasn't for the same thing, and
Speaker 3: maybe that's how he copes with it. But I can
Speaker 3: very easily see KD, for example, in three four years,
Speaker 3: going on a podcast after retiring and saying, hey, remember
Speaker 3: that Houston team, Remember that burner stuff. Now that I
Speaker 3: can talk about it, Yeah, it was real, and you
Speaker 3: can see that the stuff I was saying I was
Speaker 3: actually right about in bad just bad mounting the organization
Speaker 3: or decisions made or on court decisions made, or players
Speaker 3: back on this team like this would be the type
Speaker 3: of the backle that hurts the perception of the team
Speaker 3: around the league, which is terrible. The Rockets are predu
Speaker 3: respect the franchise all in all, and it's the type
Speaker 3: of thing that will become kind of NBA folklore or
Speaker 3: if you want to call it like that. Remember the
Speaker 3: time the Rockets lost to the Lakers while missing seventy
Speaker 3: percent not seventy like sixty percent of their gap. The
Speaker 3: one time Lebron forty like you'll be've known as the
Speaker 3: team forty one year old Lebron carried a bunch of
Speaker 3: scrubs over in this forty one year like all time
Speaker 3: go to the Baits. We'll mention the Rockets in this
Speaker 3: light like this is a massive, massive, scandalous embarrassment of
Speaker 3: a performance if it does happen, if it doesn't happen,
Speaker 3: which is it's looking very likely that it will. And
Speaker 3: so you know, I'll use this to set up bens
Speaker 3: Rent a little bit, which is.
Speaker 2: Well, wait, wait a minute on that. So I want
Speaker 2: to address very quickly the next two games and stick
Speaker 2: with the micro because I really don't think a major
Speaker 2: adjustment is coming. I think it's pretty clear what we
Speaker 2: should remind people. The Rockets and the Lakers haven't just
Speaker 2: played twice. They have played four times in barely over
Speaker 2: a month. They had the two games on March sixteenth
Speaker 2: and eighteenth in Houston. Now they had Luca the Lakers
Speaker 2: that is, and they had Reeves as well, but those
Speaker 2: are not defensive difference makers. And in those games, especially
Speaker 2: the first one, it felt very similar to these two
Speaker 2: playoff games, and that the Rockets looked hopeless down the stretch,
Speaker 2: they couldn't figure out what they wanted to do out
Speaker 2: of the Kevin Durant double teams. KD also had some
Speaker 2: baffling turnover so he deserves some blame as well, even
Speaker 2: if he's scoring at an efficient level. And so with
Speaker 2: that in mind, like the Lakers are a different team
Speaker 2: on offense without Luca and Reeves, but defensively they might
Speaker 2: even be a little bit better. So in terms of
Speaker 2: how the Rockets are finally going to get the offense
Speaker 2: on track, I don't think there's going to be any
Speaker 2: radical changes in terms of, you know, team strategy. I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty clear that they have a certain way
Speaker 2: that they think this offense and these players can run,
Speaker 2: and if they have done it in a sample of
Speaker 2: four games within the last month, I don't know that
Speaker 2: one practice on Thursday before Friday night's Game three is
Speaker 2: going to lead to some radical changes in terms of
Speaker 2: how they play. Now, maybe they make some rotation tweaks,
Speaker 2: maybe Read Shepherd plays more, and the Rockets choose to
Speaker 2: just live with the defense. I don't know. It should
Speaker 2: be noted by the way that Reid has not shot
Speaker 2: the ball well offensively at all. So for all of
Speaker 2: those discussions. He needs to make the open shots that
Speaker 2: he's getting, although they have been limited to this point,
Speaker 2: Like there are things you can do around the margins
Speaker 2: like that. But I don't think you're going to see
Speaker 2: the Rockets from a tactical x's and o's perspective do
Speaker 2: something radically different. I think at this point they're attacking
Speaker 2: the JJ Reddick defenses the way they're going to attack
Speaker 2: them moving forward. And if there's any source for hope,
Speaker 2: I guess you can point to, you know, the old
Speaker 2: NBA adage that role players shoot better at home. The
Speaker 2: Rockets have shot terribly, the Lakers have shot pretty well.
Speaker 2: Maybe that changes in Houston. The Rockets are thirty and
Speaker 2: eleven at home this season. But I mean, even if
Speaker 2: it does change, number one, it's ridiculous that it takes
Speaker 2: that against an under man Lakers team. Secondly, even if
Speaker 2: you win both of these games this weekend, you still
Speaker 2: have to win either a Game five or a Game
Speaker 2: seven in LA at least one of them to win
Speaker 2: the series. So even if the shot luck does turn
Speaker 2: around at home, and you know, maybe you know the
Speaker 2: one bit of good offense the Rockets have had in
Speaker 2: fourth quarters against the Lakers. I would say that second
Speaker 2: game in March, Shinoon came back from injury and played
Speaker 2: pretty well. And in these two games, I think Shinoon's
Speaker 2: been a little timid because he hasn't had the touch
Speaker 2: near the rim. Maybe if Shangoon has more shots go
Speaker 2: in early in the game, he becomes more aggressive, decisive
Speaker 2: and clinical in fourth quarter situations as the lead guy
Speaker 2: out of the four on threes that Durant generates. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's the hope, but I don't think there's going to
Speaker 2: be any sort of radical change. I know there's some
Speaker 2: frustrations with the Rockets sort of allowing the double to
Speaker 2: come at KD as opposed to you in him off ball.
Speaker 2: I mean, at this point, we've seen it for a
Speaker 2: lot of this season, and we've seen it four times
Speaker 2: against the Lakers. All of those games have been competitive
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter. We've sent it four times and
Speaker 2: barely over a month. So be it for you know,
Speaker 2: limitations of the roster choices from the coaching staff, roster construction,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to attribute it to. I don't think
Speaker 2: there's going to be anything that radically changes this weekend.
Speaker 2: I think in terms of you know, the Rockets somehow
Speaker 2: winning a couple of games, so you got to win
Speaker 2: one just to send the series back to LA and
Speaker 2: hopefully both to tie the series and make it a
Speaker 2: best of three. I think you just got to hope
Speaker 2: that that the shots go in, certainly from three point range,
Speaker 2: but also Shingoon making more shots near the rim, getting
Speaker 2: more confident, Maybe a men gets a friendlier whistle on
Speaker 2: his drives. I don't know, Like that's all I can
Speaker 2: point to Paolo in the micro, Like I know you
Speaker 2: want to talk macro and I do as well in
Speaker 2: terms of team building what it means moving forward, But
Speaker 2: I just think in terms of the micro, I would
Speaker 2: not expect any radical changes. I think you've just got
Speaker 2: to hope that some of the shots that didn't go
Speaker 2: in in LA do go in for you in Houston, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent that you know, some of it
Speaker 3: comes down to the dog that's not being able to
Speaker 3: shoot the end, some magnet wall, especially in Game one
Speaker 3: from the Lakers typically, and there's a bunch of starts
Speaker 3: out there if you want to look them up. A
Speaker 3: team winning the possession, you know, the possession battle by
Speaker 3: forty something possessions over two games, typically is not gonna
Speaker 3: lose the game if they can make shots. But at
Speaker 3: the same time, it doesn't feel like the Rockets are
Speaker 3: generating great looks and just missing. I just don't see
Speaker 3: like I was the guy that was that predicted for
Speaker 3: and oh and that's not an l on me. I
Speaker 3: don't see this team, if they didn't do it up
Speaker 3: to this point, being able to take a game of
Speaker 3: the Lakers in Game five or Game seven while holding
Speaker 3: all of the home games. I think it's pretty I
Speaker 3: think I'm actually confident that they'll hold the home games,
Speaker 3: just because they we play much better at home. But
Speaker 3: I don't think they'll be able to take one on
Speaker 3: the road against the Lakers, especially because it's only going
Speaker 3: to get tougher with the Reefs coming back and potentially
Speaker 3: we look all that it's looking unlikely and even then,
Speaker 3: like this cannot be missed within the discussion. Even then,
Speaker 3: even if the Rockets lose in seven and it's a
Speaker 3: your respectable loss, I guess it's not a gentleman's sweep.
Speaker 3: That's not a respectable loss, your massive favorites going to
Speaker 3: the series. This is a heavily injured Lakers team. There's
Speaker 3: no coming back from this unless you win the series.
Speaker 3: The only way to wash this all away is winning
Speaker 3: the series, and to me, that just looks like insanely unlikely.
Speaker 3: You know, you you you said you talked about the percentages,
Speaker 3: the ninety percent teams going up to and oh, I
Speaker 3: talked about you know, it's that. Plus it's a Lebron team.
Speaker 3: They're not going to relax, and so I just don't
Speaker 3: see that happening. And with that not happen, even if,
Speaker 3: for example, even if Katie stayed hurt, that still would
Speaker 3: not be an excuse.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It's a massive indictment on the Young Care that even
Speaker 3: without Katie they're not able to beat this Lakers team.
Speaker 3: And it throws me back to last season where a
Speaker 3: lot of the time we were heavily relying on Dylan
Speaker 3: Brooks's hero ball to win games and to and to score,
Speaker 3: and it turns out that Dylan Brooks offense was actually
Speaker 3: somehow masking how bad our offense actually was as well.
Speaker 3: So this just signals heavy problems with the Young Care
Speaker 3: And we'll get into it in a way that barely
Speaker 3: losing or if Katie didn't play a single more game
Speaker 3: in this series and we lost that still wouldn't against
Speaker 3: mellow it out. It's a catastrophic, franchise altering event to
Speaker 3: lose the series, especially the way it is. We talked
Speaker 3: about last week that the Rockets got a massive break
Speaker 3: and that the fact that we're likely going to win
Speaker 3: against the Lakers could mask some hard decisions that might
Speaker 3: have been able, that might have been needed to be made.
Speaker 3: Have they done the nuggets and just lost in round one?
Speaker 3: Well it turns out that, you know, there's the other
Speaker 3: edge of that knife, which is, well, if you do
Speaker 3: lose a free series, what everybody held was a free series,
Speaker 3: then that slammed them, determines that you need to make
Speaker 3: major changes. And it's and you can't. You can't go
Speaker 3: the let's hold out and keep flexibility an optionality route
Speaker 3: any longer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and let's turn our attention to the macro because
Speaker 2: if this series ends, as I think we're both increasingly
Speaker 2: resigned to think that it will, there's going to be
Speaker 2: at least one major change, and maybe major changes plural.
Speaker 2: I just can't can't see the Rockets running it back
Speaker 2: if they go out in four or five games, held
Speaker 2: maybe even six or seven to this version of the Lakers,
Speaker 2: when you consider the excitement they had at drawing this
Speaker 2: team in the playoffs, I'm sure they won't commit to it.
Speaker 2: In the press conference after the series. They'll say they
Speaker 2: want to keep their options open and they'll evaluate well.
Speaker 2: Just as last offseason, there was a lot of lip
Speaker 2: service about Jalen Green after that Warrior series, and we
Speaker 2: saw what happened a month later when the market opportunity
Speaker 2: magically came about. I think the same could be true
Speaker 2: this year. Now. My personal opinion, if I had to
Speaker 2: rank in order of you know, what's most likely to
Speaker 2: happen and what's least, I would say a major change
Speaker 2: to the roster is most likely. In between would be
Speaker 2: the coaching staff, at least to the head coach. Now
Speaker 2: maybe you know the staff beneath the may Udoka, maybe
Speaker 2: that would go you know, one A, one B along
Speaker 2: with the roster. And then least likely would be the
Speaker 2: front office. At least in terms of Rafelstone and Eli Whitis.
Speaker 2: I think you're least likely to see major movement on
Speaker 2: that front. And one thing I want to address off
Speaker 2: the top on emai Udoka, because I do think some
Speaker 2: of the arguments have been mischaracterized and We've addressed this
Speaker 2: point in previous pods. So there's some talk out there
Speaker 2: that Udoka is safe because of the contract extension. That
Speaker 2: might be true, but I think it's less about the money,
Speaker 2: and Paolo, you made this point a few weeks ago.
Speaker 2: It's less about the money in the contract and more
Speaker 2: about what the contract represents, and I think that's important
Speaker 2: to understand because I think we can both agree. Emay
Speaker 2: Udoka has been underwhelming this season, and I think at
Speaker 2: the end of this playoff run, whether it ends in
Speaker 2: a few days or somehow goes on to at least
Speaker 2: the second round, barring something crazy, we're going to look
Speaker 2: back at this season and say, even with the injuries,
Speaker 2: emay Udoka left us wanting more. And that's the most
Speaker 2: generous and reportation I can give. Relative to the first
Speaker 2: two seasons, where Eme clearly did more right than wrong,
Speaker 2: this year doesn't feel that way. There are understandable reasons
Speaker 2: for the frustration, and so a lot of the pushback nationally.
Speaker 2: As we know, the Rockets aren't going to make a
Speaker 2: coach and change because they gave Emy this big contract
Speaker 2: last offseason. It's not that Tilman Fertita is going to
Speaker 2: stick with a coach he doesn't believe in, simply because
Speaker 2: he doesn't want to eat the contract and be paying
Speaker 2: two coaches for the next few seasons. I don't think
Speaker 2: it's that. If the Fertitas clearly see a coach out
Speaker 2: there that they believe in more and that they think
Speaker 2: could unlock more from this roster, it's possible, especially if
Speaker 2: the Rockets go out sad to the Lakers. Like I've
Speaker 2: dismissed all that talk in the past, I still think
Speaker 2: it's very unlikely, but anything is on the table if
Speaker 2: you go out the way things have looked the last
Speaker 2: few games, this is sort of the perfect storm scenario.
Speaker 2: With that said, the reason go ahead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just wanted to point out before you move
Speaker 3: on from Utoka that there's something to be said for
Speaker 3: the fact that email Udoka's success, both early on with
Speaker 3: the Rockets and with the Celtics came from having top
Speaker 3: tier coaching staffs. With that produced you know, head coaching
Speaker 3: candidates later on. Back with the Celtics, obviously, Will Hardy,
Speaker 3: obviously Missoula just start coaching staff back then now with
Speaker 3: now with the Rockets for the past few seasons, obviously,
Speaker 3: Ben Sullivan was highly regarded Royal Ivy as you know,
Speaker 3: highly sought after. And you know Thiago Splitter, who is
Speaker 3: right now the head coach, interim but head coach of
Speaker 3: the Port pontoreyal Blazers, who took a team that was
Speaker 3: shaken by a huge gambling scandal and you know, turned
Speaker 3: that young team into now a playing team that's one
Speaker 3: to one in Thai one one in a series with
Speaker 3: the Spurs, regardless of whether Wenby had to go out
Speaker 3: intern or not. So maybe he may Doka is a
Speaker 3: good tip of the spear type of guy, good leader,
Speaker 3: but needs you know, the coaching staff to enable him
Speaker 3: to be that guy and not be lackluster in other
Speaker 3: parts of whether it be player development, whether it be
Speaker 3: offensive coaching, and even defensively this season it's it seemed
Speaker 3: like a Rockets don't have the same power they had
Speaker 3: last season defensively. Offer some of that personnel. But just
Speaker 3: to say, you know, argument to be made that as
Speaker 3: you were saying, it's not just about the contract, it's
Speaker 3: also about well, you're not going to make a move
Speaker 3: for the sake of making a move. You've got to
Speaker 3: have a guy out there that you believe would be
Speaker 3: better than Udoka right, and and then and you could think, hey,
Speaker 3: it might make more sense if it's not a better
Speaker 3: candidate out there that's yer than Udoka, it might make
Speaker 3: might make more sense still an invest in getting an
Speaker 3: offensive coordinator type, because Imidoka has been very successful when
Speaker 3: he's had stacked cooking styles.
Speaker 2: And where I was going with the contractual angle, it's
Speaker 2: not the money in a vacuum, it's what the decision represents.
Speaker 2: They did not have to give him that contract extension
Speaker 2: last offseason. He was two years into the original four
Speaker 2: year deal. They easily could have waited until this off season.
Speaker 2: They did it early because that's how much they believe
Speaker 2: in him. There was confirmed interest from the New York Knicks,
Speaker 2: one of the glamour franchises in the NBA, in hiring
Speaker 2: e May for their open position. The Rockets could have
Speaker 2: not only gotten out of the contract, they could have
Speaker 2: gotten additional compensation, be it financially draft picks. The Knicks
Speaker 2: were after Imo Udoka. It was widely reported at the
Speaker 2: time the Rockets rebuffed them. So I just have a
Speaker 2: tough time seeing in under a year the Rockets going
Speaker 2: from not only believing in ema Udoka, but committing to
Speaker 2: him long term when they didn't have to rejecting assets
Speaker 2: from another team, and the opportunity to, you know, start
Speaker 2: fresh if that's what they wanted to then being ready
Speaker 2: to part ways. This season has been bad, don't get
Speaker 2: me wrong, at least relative to expectations. I don't think
Speaker 2: even with the loss to the Lakers, it gets quite
Speaker 2: to that level, especially when and now let's look at
Speaker 2: the bigger picture, there are some intenuating circumstances like I'm
Speaker 2: not going to tell you how much blame should go
Speaker 2: to each entity in terms of players versus coaches versus
Speaker 2: front office. I think reasonable people can disagree, but I
Speaker 2: think where there should be some agreement is the idea
Speaker 2: that there is blame to go around at every level.
Speaker 2: It's not one hundred percent on the coaching staff, or
Speaker 2: the players or the front office. And so when you
Speaker 2: look at how we got to where we are, and
Speaker 2: I put up a thread on Blue Sky where my
Speaker 2: handle is at Benjubo's on Wednesday morning, my initial thoughts
Speaker 2: sleep deprive thoughts. After Tuesday's Game two, I talked about
Speaker 2: how just at a high level we talk about the
Speaker 2: struggles offensively, it's really tough when two of your three
Speaker 2: best players in the modern NBA both can't shoot, and
Speaker 2: that's the case with Aman Thompson and all par Esion
Speaker 2: Goon and in Game one where there's no Kevin Durant,
Speaker 2: literally your two best players defensively, We've talked about this
Speaker 2: at nauseum, all par Eension Goon and Reed Shepherd. That's
Speaker 2: a tough fit for any coach to make that pairing
Speaker 2: work on the defensive end, especially with Reid and you're
Speaker 2: two at twenty one years old. Stylistically, for ima Udoka,
Speaker 2: I think there's a case to be made, at least
Speaker 2: based on what we saw from him his first couple
Speaker 2: of years in Houston and certainly in Boston, Shingoon and
Speaker 2: especially Read. It's a little bit of an odd mix
Speaker 2: for how he usually wants to play like. This is
Speaker 2: not a loaded roster and it's not necessarily an emy
Speaker 2: Udoka roster. You know, e May was a guy who
Speaker 2: his first season in Houston, I think he would love
Speaker 2: to spam three pointers. It's just this roster doesn't lend
Speaker 2: itself to that. Defensively, I think he would love to
Speaker 2: be more physical and to switch more. This roster doesn't
Speaker 2: lend itself to that, and then with Shingoon specifically, You've
Speaker 2: talked about it a lot Pawlow. There's been a huge
Speaker 2: shop off defensively between last season and this season. The
Speaker 2: data shows it. It's not exclusive to the playoffs. It
Speaker 2: didn't randomly happen. It's been going on for months. So
Speaker 2: the roster isn't perfect in terms of what Rafelstone gave
Speaker 2: emy Udoka to work with, and then the players themselves
Speaker 2: just in terms of executing and winning their matchups all perin,
Speaker 2: Shinoon as an All Star is not delivering on both
Speaker 2: ends of the court at the level that he did
Speaker 2: a year ago, and so that's not to absolve may
Speaker 2: a blame, Like you can maybe argue that, for example, offensively,
Speaker 2: Shoin Goon and Reed are just so talented that you
Speaker 2: know the trade offs defensively are worth it, and maybe
Speaker 2: if you commit to playing read what he gives you
Speaker 2: a from a spacing and a ball handling perspective can
Speaker 2: offset some of the issues that you have with the
Speaker 2: men and Shoin Gooon together. I don't know that, but
Speaker 2: maybe he may should be more open to experimenting along
Speaker 2: those lines. But it's a maybe, Like there are no
Speaker 2: answers that you can point to and say this is
Speaker 2: a silver bullet solution. And so one of my frustrations
Speaker 2: with the front office, and I'm you know, I could
Speaker 2: go on for hours and I won't do that here.
Speaker 2: I'll try and be concise. It doesn't feel like there's
Speaker 2: been a ton of conviction the last couple of seasons.
Speaker 2: Like you had a tweet I saw after Game one
Speaker 2: Polo when it looked like a men was probably the
Speaker 2: Rocket's best player. Why don't the Rockets just do five
Speaker 2: out spacing and give Amn Thompson the room he needs
Speaker 2: to get downhill and attack the basket. The Rockets love
Speaker 2: himn Thompson. Every conversation I've had with the front office.
Speaker 2: They want to get him more involved offensively. They want
Speaker 2: to see him more aggressive, especially laid in games. Well,
Speaker 2: it's difficult to do that when the court is cramped.
Speaker 2: If you really believe in Amend to that level, should
Speaker 2: you not be building your roster around him? Or if
Speaker 2: you think that Shinoon and Reed are just that special
Speaker 2: as offensive players, maybe you just play them no matter
Speaker 2: what and live with the defensive trade off. You just
Speaker 2: give them every opportunity to get you know, more seasoning,
Speaker 2: and maybe you're in a better position to live with
Speaker 2: their defensive works by the playoffs because clearly they didn't
Speaker 2: get a ton of exposure in the regular season. It
Speaker 2: feels like the Rockets have sort of split the difference
Speaker 2: in a lot of their decision making with the current roster,
Speaker 2: and it hasn't always been that way. Like I want
Speaker 2: to say, it's a huge indictment of Patrick Furtida and
Speaker 2: raphel Stone because, you know, to start off this rebuild,
Speaker 2: they talked about pain tolerance. During the tanking years, they
Speaker 2: had more pain tolerance than a lot of organizations. They
Speaker 2: did some unconventional things, and lately, with James Harden playing
Speaker 2: well in the playoffs with the Cavaliers, there's been a
Speaker 2: lot of revisiting the Fredenfleet over James Harden decision in
Speaker 2: the summer of twenty twenty three, that initial free agency
Speaker 2: with ima Udoka. I mean that that was a bold
Speaker 2: move to go with Fred, who's clearly a lesser player
Speaker 2: than James if you just look at them one on one,
Speaker 2: because you believed in the bigger picture blueprint with Fred,
Speaker 2: the overall puzzle that you're trying to put together, like
Speaker 2: that took a lot of conviction, and I'm not saying
Speaker 2: that they're right, but I can respect what they were
Speaker 2: trying to do. It feels like the last couple of
Speaker 2: years there's been a lot of half measures to sort of,
Speaker 2: you know, do the best they can to keep this
Speaker 2: group together and just hope that the talent wins out.
Speaker 2: The problem with that is that the talent just isn't
Speaker 2: that overwhelming. You know. The Rockets unfortunately didn't come out
Speaker 2: of the rebuild with a Victor Winmbanyama or a Kid
Speaker 2: Cunningham or even a Cooper Flag level prospect. Like, there
Speaker 2: are limits to just how high this group's ceiling is.
Speaker 2: And if you're trying to be the last team standing
Speaker 2: out of thirty, like, if you can't do it by
Speaker 2: having if you weren't lucky enough to draft a player
Speaker 2: that's just that transcendent and can potentially lift you almost
Speaker 2: by himself, then you've got to be more cutthroat, more
Speaker 2: clinical with how the rest of the roster fits together.
Speaker 2: We've talked about that in recent pods. You've got to,
Speaker 2: you know, put more of a priority on chemistry and
Speaker 2: fit and how all the pieces work together. And you
Speaker 2: look at this roster. It just doesn't feel like that
Speaker 2: from an organizational perspective, that that's what happened. In fact,
Speaker 2: I know I've had conversations with people inside the building.
Speaker 2: They they see the limitations with especially Shingoon and read
Speaker 2: defensively and what that means for, you know, the offensive
Speaker 2: into the court when you can't optimize your system on
Speaker 2: that end because you're afraid of the trade op defensively.
Speaker 2: I mean they see that stuff as well. So that's
Speaker 2: why I struggle to put all of it on emai
Speaker 2: Udoka is because clearly I don't think it's a perfect roster.
Speaker 2: I don't think it fits. I don't think Shangoon is
Speaker 2: playing nearly as well as he did a year ago.
Speaker 2: And so you combine all of that with the knowledge
Speaker 2: that less than a year ago the rockets were extremely
Speaker 2: high on ema Udoka. I just struggle to see them
Speaker 2: saying that this year alone is enough to move them
Speaker 2: for being all in on email to all out. I
Speaker 2: could see this year, you know, moving them, you know,
Speaker 2: a little in the opposite direction to where maybe a
Speaker 2: year or two from now they're more ready to make
Speaker 2: that move. I could certainly see this year being alarming
Speaker 2: enough to where they say, hey, we need to change
Speaker 2: the roster that we give to Emay. We need to
Speaker 2: work on fit to give him a better chance to succeed,
Speaker 2: and or maybe we need to give him a top
Speaker 2: shelf offensive coordinator, the same way with Mike D'Antoni you
Speaker 2: need to give him a top shelf defensive coordinator a
Speaker 2: few years ago, and Jeff Bestella, I could see something
Speaker 2: like that, but I just don't think that this situation
Speaker 2: is so clearly top shelf. And I don't think you're
Speaker 2: going to see them move from one extreme to the
Speaker 2: other on email Udoka this quickly, especially when objectively there
Speaker 2: is a lot of blame to go around. I can't
Speaker 2: give you an exact number in terms of the percentage,
Speaker 2: but no, I don't think this roster is optimized from
Speaker 2: both a talent and a fit perspective. I don't think
Speaker 2: the piece is no matter who the coach is, would
Speaker 2: be easy to work the way, at least at a
Speaker 2: championship level the Rockets are trying to with Kevin Durant,
Speaker 2: like I do sympathize a little bit with you know,
Speaker 2: Rafelstone and the not our year comments, like I'm understanding
Speaker 2: of why they didn't go after a Kobe White type
Speaker 2: of player at the trade deadline because I don't think
Speaker 2: that you know the types of moves that are needed
Speaker 2: to transform this situation. I don't think the guys who
Speaker 2: were available would do a whole heck of a lot.
Speaker 2: Maybe they help you steal a game from the Lakers,
Speaker 2: but are they really needle movers in the grand scheme. No.
Speaker 2: I think the bigger problem, and the front office does
Speaker 2: have blame, is that, you know, the talent isn't overwhelming
Speaker 2: and the fit isn't ideal, and so they have blame.
Speaker 2: The players underachieving has blame. You know, I talked about
Speaker 2: Shangoon regressing defensively. Look, Reed Shepherd, I know he's here too,
Speaker 2: but Stepan Castle is here too, picked right after him,
Speaker 2: and he's going out and having a fantastic season for
Speaker 2: a sixty plus one Spurs juggernaut. I know they have Wemby,
Speaker 2: but Castle's been damn good. He's been better than Reid.
Speaker 2: Let's give him his fowers. At some point, you need
Speaker 2: to go out and execute. And you know, people can
Speaker 2: make the case in this series for playing Reach Shepherd more,
Speaker 2: and maybe they should, but Reached Shepherd's shooting terribly well
Speaker 2: thirty percent overall, and from three he's gotten good looks,
Speaker 2: he's just not making them. So at some point the
Speaker 2: players have to go execute. And that's why I just
Speaker 2: I'm not saying you mean Udoka is blameless. It's been
Speaker 2: an underwhelming year, but I think there's a there are
Speaker 2: enough sources of blame to where I just struggle to
Speaker 2: see rafel Stone and Patrick Fertitta going from as all
Speaker 2: in as they were as recently as last summer to saying, yeah,
Speaker 2: we want to do a total reboot and restart with
Speaker 2: a new coach, new system, start from scratch. That's why
Speaker 2: I tend to think that the players and the staff,
Speaker 2: those are the areas you're more likely to see changed,
Speaker 2: at least this offseason, and maybe with Udoka, maybe it
Speaker 2: lays the groundwork for something a year from now. Like
Speaker 2: you know, going into this season, there was no way
Speaker 2: in hell that em was going to get fired based
Speaker 2: on his track record going into the year, and I
Speaker 2: still feel that way. But coming off this year, if
Speaker 2: next year is underwhelming, yeah, maybe at least the groundwork
Speaker 2: for that. But with this particular year, I just think
Speaker 2: both in terms of players and for an office. There
Speaker 2: are enough other reasons for the substandard play that I
Speaker 2: don't think ahead coaching changes in the cards.
Speaker 3: I do think Ioka deserves a fair bit of the
Speaker 3: point given very limited tools. JJ Reddick has coach circles around.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: As I said before, let's not like the others are underperforming, right,
Speaker 3: and you can blame that I'm on the players. However,
Speaker 3: you can blame on the coat that he's not getting
Speaker 3: the performance out of underperforming players that are out of
Speaker 3: the quality of flair that he has that JJ Reddick
Speaker 3: is doing with a lot less. And I do think
Speaker 3: that it's been clear as day that you know they
Speaker 3: are the Lakers are generating points against what we think
Speaker 3: it was an underperforming for the whole year defense, but
Speaker 3: the stats say was the sixth best defense in the
Speaker 3: league or whatever it may be. Without like with Lebron
Speaker 3: and a bunch of you know, lol euro players, he's
Speaker 3: manufacturing offense. And it's not just Lebron going Euro Mode
Speaker 3: every possession and then on and on defense. He's managed
Speaker 3: to create a system or to make it up enough
Speaker 3: that Rockets just can't produce offense against even though he
Speaker 3: doesn't have good defensive players to work with. So he's
Speaker 3: been thoroughly out coached this year. I don't think that's
Speaker 3: arguable in any stretch. I think what's arguable is that
Speaker 3: he's he was given the pieces to build a better
Speaker 3: team throughout the entire season. I think it's possible that
Speaker 3: he did the best with what he had or not
Speaker 3: the best, but he did good what he had and
Speaker 3: at the same time, once the playoffs reached, he was
Speaker 3: thoroughly outgot by a better coach, which is what he
Speaker 3: Reddick has win this these playoffs or at least you know.
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of facets to coaching, right there's
Speaker 3: the management of the group leadership, where's x'es and o's.
Speaker 3: J Redick is very clearly an x's and o's guy,
Speaker 3: and so I think that's that as far as far
Speaker 3: as coaching goes. Ideally, even when Udoka game in remember
Speaker 3: way back when I think we already have this spot going,
Speaker 3: we talked about the ideal thing would be Udoka and
Speaker 3: Jim's Barrego at the time.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and to close the loop on the email angle,
Speaker 2: I just think a lot of those those xes and
Speaker 2: knows concerns on offense, So for starters, the playoffs are
Speaker 2: usually a situation where you're only as strong as your
Speaker 2: weakest link. And during the regular season, the Rockets had
Speaker 2: all those baffling losses, the late game collapses where things
Speaker 2: just went horribly wrong at the worst possible time, And
Speaker 2: I think what happened there During the regular season, it's
Speaker 2: just not realistic for teams to go all out and
Speaker 2: be super dialed in for forty eight minutes every single game,
Speaker 2: eighty two times in a period of six or so months.
Speaker 2: So they have to pick and choose their spots. But
Speaker 2: then when it matters most, which in the regular season
Speaker 2: is the fourth quarter, especially in spotlight type games, everybody
Speaker 2: hones in. And then the fact that the Rockets deficiencies
Speaker 2: are just so glaring and so weak compared to other teams.
Speaker 2: And a lot of this is from a roster construction perspective,
Speaker 2: when you look at the men in shoinggoons facing issues
Speaker 2: and offense, the Shaoon and red pairing defensively, and then
Speaker 2: if you try and help out the spacing issues by
Speaker 2: playing red, then that leads to the defensive issues. There's
Speaker 2: just always something for opposing teams to exploit. And then,
Speaker 2: in contrast to the regular season where teams are picking
Speaker 2: and choosing their spots, and it feels like suddenly the
Speaker 2: Rockets offense grounds gets grounded to a halt when the
Speaker 2: opposing team lots in and the playoffs, teams are more
Speaker 2: willing and able to lock in for the full forty
Speaker 2: eight minutes because the games are way more important, and
Speaker 2: also in the first round there's more time between games,
Speaker 2: and so I think that's why we're seeing the Rockets
Speaker 2: offense consistently look bad against the Lakers, whereas during the
Speaker 2: regular season it was just at sporadic moments when teams
Speaker 2: would really dial it up defensively. And then we should
Speaker 2: also point out the ATO data or after timeouts, which
Speaker 2: we've referenced before on this spot. So the Rockets continue
Speaker 2: to be really good at generating offense when they're organized,
Speaker 2: I coming out of a timeout where they've got a
Speaker 2: clear plan and structure for what they want to do.
Speaker 2: I think we've seen elements of that this series, with
Speaker 2: the Rockets starting off the first and third quarters relatively well.
Speaker 2: By far, their best offense overall has come in the
Speaker 2: first quarter, and then they've at least briefly taken leads
Speaker 2: early in the third quarter. Of both Game one and
Speaker 2: Game two when they're able to map out a plan
Speaker 2: coming out of halftime, But then what seems to happen
Speaker 2: after that the defense makes them adjustments. And then with
Speaker 2: the Rockets not having a true point guard or a
Speaker 2: floor general without fred Than Fleet, that's another super obvious weeklink.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't seem like the Rockets are able to
Speaker 2: adjust to the adjustments or adjust on the fly, whatever
Speaker 2: you want to call it. But then, just looking more
Speaker 2: broadly in terms of e May and the concerns over
Speaker 2: how his teams execute on offense, we knew this going in,
Speaker 2: Like every coach has strengths and weaknesses, and so we
Speaker 2: knew when i May took the job based on his
Speaker 2: track record in Boston, based on his conversations with the team,
Speaker 2: There's areas that he's more proven in. There's areas where
Speaker 2: he needs improvement. Even the last couple of years, offense
Speaker 2: has been an issue that at least at times in
Speaker 2: half court has been an issue for this team, even
Speaker 2: when they had fred En Fleet, a so called point guard.
Speaker 2: So I just think a lot of that was baked in.
Speaker 2: That's not to absolve ima Udoka. That's just me sort
Speaker 2: of explaining why. I think a lot of those those
Speaker 2: warts were known when they redoubled their commitment to have
Speaker 2: as recently as June of twenty five, and so I
Speaker 2: think there are areas of concern, but I don't think
Speaker 2: anything has changed so traumatically from this time a year
Speaker 2: ago that you would fire the guy, at least not
Speaker 2: right now. That's my point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was mostly talking about from the dilusion of
Speaker 3: the blame standpoint me to my next Yeah, sure, which
Speaker 3: leads me to my next point to me, and then
Speaker 3: I can you know, I can say this with all
Speaker 3: of the letters, I don't think going forward and this
Speaker 3: this is you know, this is not based on two games.
Speaker 3: This is based on what we've seen offensively throughout the
Speaker 3: last two seasons. I do not think it is possible
Speaker 3: to build a contender in which you have a man
Speaker 3: thoumbing an opera and chang Un with the with their
Speaker 3: current with their current skill sets, to build an elites.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's possible. It's regression from Opera and
Speaker 3: chang Un. It's lack of progression from a man shooting wise.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna focus this primarily on shang Un because Kadi
Speaker 3: said this, and it seems like very bare bones and analysis,
Speaker 3: but it got me thinking, and it is true. That
Speaker 3: is not a single and I asked plenty. I asked
Speaker 3: a few people if they could name me one that
Speaker 3: is not a good, positive impact role player, let a
Speaker 3: room star that is both a bad defender and a
Speaker 3: battery puncture. There is none in the league. The last
Speaker 3: one people could bring to me was actually a star
Speaker 3: was Russell Westbrook and his impact was arguable the entire
Speaker 3: zime because of how inefficient he was and how he
Speaker 3: restricted the way you build built a team around him, right,
Speaker 3: And so to me, this is just a massive indictment
Speaker 3: on Hinghung and last season it seemed like Shingun had
Speaker 3: taken a massive step forward defensively. Turns out that's not
Speaker 3: all happened. Turns out part of it was efforts, yes,
Speaker 3: but a big part of it was also that he
Speaker 3: just had the perfect tools fit around him to build
Speaker 3: the defense that they build. And along with that that
Speaker 3: was a change in refereeing, the least calling morephiles not
Speaker 3: they allowed more physicality last season, which I think helped
Speaker 3: defense in general as well. And so knowing that and
Speaker 3: knowing that you have to make a decision. To me,
Speaker 3: you have to make a decision this offseason between the
Speaker 3: man Thompson and apron Chingu and man Thompson has a
Speaker 3: lot of problems, but he's also got more upside, is
Speaker 3: more athletic, and is already elites at one thing. Defense
Speaker 3: in this moment, at this moment in time, Shingun is
Speaker 3: not a good defender at this moment in time. Chengun
Speaker 3: is not a good spacing thread or spacing thread from
Speaker 3: three point line at all at this moment in time,
Speaker 3: Opernshingun is not an efficient scorer at anything on a
Speaker 3: basketball court, especially in the playoffs, over the past two seasons.
Speaker 3: And you can separate those two seasons individually, so you
Speaker 3: don't say that the sample is polluted by the last season.
Speaker 3: Chengun has been below average at his position as a scorer,
Speaker 3: not just from three point shooting as a whole. He
Speaker 3: has not been efficient inside the arc either. A lot
Speaker 3: of the craft that we saw him have in his
Speaker 3: early years, a lot of that magic he seems to
Speaker 3: have cut down, streamlined his process to scoring and still
Speaker 3: is not a number of average efficiency player. Because teams
Speaker 3: are studied him because he's under the scarting orport whatever
Speaker 3: it may be, because of the spacing as well, I'm sure,
Speaker 3: but at this moment in time, opernaching Gun is not
Speaker 3: a positive defender. He's not a positive outside shunting thread.
Speaker 3: He's not a positive inside shooting thread either. He's very
Speaker 3: average for his position. And I'll make the argument, and
Speaker 3: I think the argument can be very easily made that
Speaker 3: he is not an efficient playmaker. When you look at
Speaker 3: the NBA as a whole, he has barely got I
Speaker 3: don't even know if he still has a two to
Speaker 3: one assists two turnover ration. In the playoffs, it's been
Speaker 3: even worse. And this season we talked about it throughout
Speaker 3: the entire season. Playmaking like turnovers have been a very
Speaker 3: real issue with him as well. And so, right now,
Speaker 3: you tell me what am I getting from albrin shan Gun.
Speaker 3: Right now, the negatives vastly, vastly, vastly outplayed positives. And
Speaker 3: he's twenty three, and he can grow, and he's from
Speaker 3: fashions in the past, but it's now been two season
Speaker 3: where two seasons where he's not been a good offensive
Speaker 3: player and one season where he's not being a good
Speaker 3: defensive player either, And so and beyond that, he's not
Speaker 3: compatible with your next best or best depending on who
Speaker 3: you ask young player, which is a mental and highest
Speaker 3: up side by far. And so it's what you said,
Speaker 3: it's what you talked about. There are no half measures anymore.
Speaker 3: You don't have the luxury anymore. The Rockets have been conservative.
Speaker 3: They have largely picked the expected picks in there when
Speaker 3: they had to make picks in the draft. There was
Speaker 3: never any huge surprise moments except for perhaps you know,
Speaker 3: training it for opranching good, no bold moves, always the
Speaker 3: expected guy. You can argue that they that they got
Speaker 3: unlucky and they didn't really have that much of a
Speaker 3: realistic chance to draft a corner a true cornerstone, tip
Speaker 3: of the spear, you know, shot creator efficient tipe because
Speaker 3: you know, for most people, taking Jalen Williams earlier would
Speaker 3: have been a reach. Reaching for well ever more we
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been. But it's also not that much of
Speaker 3: a structrade. But Scottie Barnes for example, those would have
Speaker 3: been reaches at the spots that Rockets had the draft picks.
Speaker 3: It's a combination of what it's a combination of also
Speaker 3: lack of that boldness that you talk about lack of
Speaker 3: you know, their boldest move was likely the move where
Speaker 3: they traded they said earlier in the Pot the move
Speaker 3: where they're trade the Brooklyn picks for the Sun's picks,
Speaker 3: and the way that in flux of draft capital by
Speaker 3: a year or to perhaps reach more reached more upside
Speaker 3: with it as well. But beyond that, they've been for
Speaker 3: the most part, and we've heard this and we've talked
Speaker 3: about this for a really long time, and we thought
Speaker 3: it was the correct approach. They've been flexibility first, because
Speaker 3: they have been waiting for someone to break out as
Speaker 3: their true star before committing to a true Hey, this
Speaker 3: is who we're building around. Let's get the perfect role
Speaker 3: players to fit around these guys, or get the start
Speaker 3: that fits with the KB is a one size fits
Speaker 3: all start. He fits with anybody. Three and d row
Speaker 3: players like Dylan Brooks, like Dornin Finney Smith, they fit
Speaker 3: with everybody, even Frevanvliz, someone who will fit with any team.
Speaker 3: They were they have been targeting brook Oop as with
Speaker 3: someone who would largely fit with any tea in construct.
Speaker 3: What doesn't fit together is their own players, the guys
Speaker 3: that they're hoping hit that upside, and so to me
Speaker 3: going into the off season, my belief right now is
Speaker 3: that they should move on from Opera and Chang Gun.
Speaker 3: It might not be selling high on him, but I
Speaker 3: just I don't see. I don't see a path forward
Speaker 3: with both Shang Gun and the men, and I think
Speaker 3: the more time you spend trying to make that happen,
Speaker 3: the more you're wasting both of their potentials. Because you
Speaker 3: could if you truly believe a man's the guy, you
Speaker 3: go ahead, you get you get five out spacing, or
Speaker 3: you get pickn roll bit and through spacing around that,
Speaker 3: and you try to make that work. If you want
Speaker 3: to somehow believe opening Hoom's the ends, then perhaps and
Speaker 3: he doesn't need that. I like a man fumps from
Speaker 3: to be viable defensively or possible defensively, then perhaps if
Speaker 3: you want to make that move, I wouldn't support it,
Speaker 3: but you go ahead and make that move, But yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll pas it off to you, because I don't want
Speaker 3: to go on for too long. To me right now,
Speaker 3: the move is to move on from all Open Singgoon,
Speaker 3: and I can elaborate on the ways you could do
Speaker 3: that and what you could look for and for it back,
Speaker 3: but before I want to give you attempt to talk
Speaker 3: about the players in zero.
Speaker 2: I tend to agree, and I want to wind down
Speaker 2: the pod because we're already over an hour and we
Speaker 2: can revisit this more when the season ends, and at
Speaker 2: the moment it looks like that'll bit sooner rather than later,
Speaker 2: so we can table some of this for a week
Speaker 2: or two from now. But in addition to the points
Speaker 2: you raised about the awkward ft and at a high level,
Speaker 2: I do think that a men in Shinoon, you know,
Speaker 2: it's something that especially since that the Spurs games in
Speaker 2: January and March, when we saw how one of your
Speaker 2: biggest rivals was able to exploit the limitations there, it's
Speaker 2: been something that I think is a nagging fear in
Speaker 2: the back of all of our minds. And combine that
Speaker 2: with what we're now seeing in the playoffs, and I
Speaker 2: think it's going to only become a greater talking point
Speaker 2: if the Rockets do in fact go out sad. So
Speaker 2: I don't really have too much else to say about
Speaker 2: the players. I would just also point out that if
Speaker 2: in fact this is the summer that the Rockets look
Speaker 2: to move on from all perin Shangoon and get a
Speaker 2: better fit next to Amn Thompson. You could also criticize
Speaker 2: the part office for being arguably a year or too late,
Speaker 2: because I do think that Shingoon would have had greater
Speaker 2: value in twenty twenty five than he will in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six. He won't have bad value, like he's still
Speaker 2: a two time All Star, He's still a good player.
Speaker 2: Let's not get crazy, but the defensive limitations are real,
Speaker 2: and I think people around the league, in addition to
Speaker 2: seeing the regression from last year to this year, also
Speaker 2: know that the Rockets are a little more desperate, and
Speaker 2: so desperate teams don't always get the best value deals.
Speaker 2: Something needs to change here, and so you can argue
Speaker 2: that the Rockets, maybe if they were truly being clinical,
Speaker 2: should have so high on Shingoon a year ago when
Speaker 2: he looked much more passable defensively with Jalen Green, you
Speaker 2: could argue that he might have had more value coming
Speaker 2: off that incredible run at the end of the twenty
Speaker 2: three to twenty four season if you moved on from
Speaker 2: him in the twenty twenty four off season, as opposed
Speaker 2: to waiting until twenty twenty five. I know he was
Speaker 2: a part of the Kevin Durant trade, but number one
Speaker 2: KD was thirty seven. And secondly, Jalen was in there
Speaker 2: largely as a salary match piece. I don't think he
Speaker 2: was a key part of the trade, at least not
Speaker 2: super high level from an asset perspective. So you can
Speaker 2: argue that the Rockets, in addition to the fit questions
Speaker 2: being there for a while, have also been a little
Speaker 2: slow to act. You know, fans have noted a lot
Speaker 2: of these concerns. I've heard a lot of them behind
Speaker 2: the scenes as well, Like they're not blind. They see
Speaker 2: many of the same issues that we're talking about on
Speaker 2: this show and other friends of ours are talking about
Speaker 2: on their Rockets podcast. It's just when is the time
Speaker 2: to actually make the move and to take action. You
Speaker 2: can argue that in some cases, and perhaps all for
Speaker 2: in Shangoon, they've been a little bit late, and that
Speaker 2: affects the value you bring in and thus the product
Speaker 2: available for Emaudoka to work with and to try and mold.
Speaker 2: That's not to absolve the Emyudoka he as you pointed out,
Speaker 2: Paolo has has plenty of blame. It's just I think
Speaker 2: it's important context to remind folks that this is far
Speaker 2: from a perfect situation. It would be a lot easier
Speaker 2: if it was, you know, a one size fits all
Speaker 2: and the Rockets could just change the head coach and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, everything is fixed and they're right
Speaker 2: back at the level they were a year ago with
Speaker 2: they were number two seed in the West, and we
Speaker 2: thought they were at least comparable to the San Antonio
Speaker 2: Spurs at least in the short term, and now they're
Speaker 2: a tier behind at least. So that's why I bring
Speaker 2: up the backstory. It's not to Pylon and it's not
Speaker 2: to you know, scapegoat or Felsoe in the front office,
Speaker 2: because I think by and large he's still done a
Speaker 2: very good job. I think they're wonderful with contracts. I'm
Speaker 2: not expecting anything on that front, and I don't think
Speaker 2: they should do anything on that front. I just bring
Speaker 2: up all of that to, you know, explain how we
Speaker 2: got here and also why the problems run a lot
Speaker 2: deeper than just ima Udoka, and some of it is
Speaker 2: simply the players need to go out and win their
Speaker 2: matchups and execute better. It's a complicated problem. It would
Speaker 2: be easy if there was a one size fits all
Speaker 2: solution that could you know, overnight gets you back to
Speaker 2: the level that that you thought you were entering this season.
Speaker 2: I just don't think that's going to be there, at
Speaker 2: least from a coaching perspective. I don't think that's realistic.
Speaker 2: And so that's not meant to give em a pass.
Speaker 2: It's not meant to pile on with Rafel in the
Speaker 2: front office. It's just a reminder of the context and
Speaker 2: why my bet is between the you know, the coaching
Speaker 2: staff beneath emay maybe investing a little bit more, switching
Speaker 2: some things out, and certainly the roster, Like you know
Speaker 2: I mentioned in the span of a year, it's unlikely
Speaker 2: for them to go from one extreme to the other
Speaker 2: on ima Udoka in terms of their belief in him
Speaker 2: long term, because with a coach, you're ideally picking a
Speaker 2: guy that you want to run your team for five, ten,
Speaker 2: fifteen years, like you want that guy to be in
Speaker 2: alignment with your front office ownership. He is the steward.
Speaker 2: He is the guy that you trust on a daily
Speaker 2: basis to run your program. And so in a perfect world,
Speaker 2: you're not gonna or anything close to a perfect world,
Speaker 2: you're not gonna do a one point eighty in a
Speaker 2: span of a few months. Any change in terms of
Speaker 2: is he the guy or not there is likely to
Speaker 2: be more gradual with the players. That's where, yeah, you
Speaker 2: can have one season sort of change, especially because some
Speaker 2: of these guys, you know, Shingoon's a home run of
Speaker 2: a pick at sixteen. Overall, no matter what happens, that's
Speaker 2: still a win for fell Stone. But the fit was
Speaker 2: always a little flawed. Like he's still the right pick
Speaker 2: because he's BPA, But sometimes like you just take BPA
Speaker 2: and you worry about the rest later. Like views of
Speaker 2: individual players can can be shaped by what happens in
Speaker 2: a given season, they can be shaped by the surrounding roster.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, like it's reasonable in a year to
Speaker 2: go from you know, maybe being in on Shinggoon to
Speaker 2: being out, or a year ago being in on Jalen
Speaker 2: to being out. That stuff can evolve With a head coach,
Speaker 2: it's typically more gradual. Now there can be you know,
Speaker 2: a tipping point where you go from being on the
Speaker 2: fence and saying, Okay, it's not going to work out
Speaker 2: with this guy, but I just don't think the rockets
Speaker 2: with e may because of all this context will have
Speaker 2: gone from all in believing that he's the guy wanting
Speaker 2: to and not just wanting to doubling down on their
Speaker 2: investment last offseason, to all of a sudden going to
Speaker 2: the complete opposite extreme when all these other things are
Speaker 2: wrong as well. I just think there's a lot more
Speaker 2: It's a lot more complex of a problem, which is
Speaker 2: unfortunate because more complex problem, it's a little bit more
Speaker 2: difficult to fix. But I just think that's where we're at,
Speaker 2: and that's all I really have to say. There's there's
Speaker 2: more we can talk about from a roster perspective, but
Speaker 2: I'll table that until the series and the season is over. Pallo,
Speaker 2: before we shut off. Is there anything else you wanted
Speaker 2: to say for today?
Speaker 3: Yeah, as you said, I'll table you know, specific moves
Speaker 3: of specific avenues to move forward, and I'll just same
Speaker 3: something more high level, at least in perhaps a little
Speaker 3: bit more emotional, like I think me, you, and a
Speaker 3: lot of Rockets fans are trying or are tired of
Speaker 3: pretending like what's obvious fundamental to any basketball fan effort
Speaker 3: is actually going to change in cope with it, right,
Speaker 3: We've been hoping and praying that Alperning is going to
Speaker 3: be a good defender. For a really long time, we've
Speaker 3: been hoping and praying that someone on this team would
Speaker 3: be a one A superstar level talent. Right. We have
Speaker 3: been hoping that Kaylan Green would turn out start being consistent.
Speaker 3: We have been hoping for a man specific, that he'd
Speaker 3: be a better shooter. He's I mean, I don't. I
Speaker 3: don't even feel it's fair to include them and in
Speaker 3: this because he's been he's made great progress from season
Speaker 3: to season, so I'll exclude him. But we have been
Speaker 3: hoping that things would work out in the best way.
Speaker 3: And then we have been hoping that two non shooters
Speaker 3: at the center and the point guard position would work together.
Speaker 3: We have been hoping all we have been hoping that
Speaker 3: the offense would get better. We have been hoping even
Speaker 3: this year, even defensively, that the defense would get better.
Speaker 3: When our eyes have been in our basketball principles have
Speaker 3: been telling us all along that these things typically don't.
Speaker 3: We try to make all of the mental gymnastics around
Speaker 3: him that perhaps Open can be a defender like all
Speaker 3: Horford and not have to have that athleticism and just
Speaker 3: be really smart about where he is and have quick
Speaker 3: hands and you know, impact the game in that defensively
Speaker 3: in that way. That's not real. We have been hoping
Speaker 3: that Alpernchingen and man Thompson could space the floor in
Speaker 3: with vertical spacing and then and then passing gravity and
Speaker 3: you know, opening cutting wings because then is a good passer. Listen,
Speaker 3: let's stop coping the way you space in the NBA. Fundamentally,
Speaker 3: the hardest thing to exploit is with three point shooting.
Speaker 3: You don't you have to your two main guys can't shoot.
Speaker 3: That's an issue. One of your main guys, the center
Speaker 3: that you know, call me old fashioned. The center has
Speaker 3: to be a good defender, or at least a smart defender,
Speaker 3: or at least a passable defender. If he is a
Speaker 3: top an all time guy like Jokics for example, that's
Speaker 3: an etcetera. Shangun is not Yoki. Shangun's not going to
Speaker 3: be Yokic. Let's stop coping. Let's stop pretending like Shangun
Speaker 3: can be Yokic and a man can be Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 3: and that's how those two fit. Like it was the
Speaker 3: projection back then. That's just not the case. Shan Gun
Speaker 3: is not as good as Yokic, and so he can't
Speaker 3: get away with a lot of the stuff Yokiic can
Speaker 3: get away with on the defensive end, and Yokiic can
Speaker 3: shoot a man. Thompson right now is not as good
Speaker 3: as a shooters as Aaron Gordon. So even though he
Speaker 3: has a lot of the Thame characteristics, you can't put
Speaker 3: that together and pretend that that's how it's going to work.
Speaker 3: I'm just tired of being fooled by lightning in a
Speaker 3: borrel moments. I'm tired hoping that stuff that historically seems
Speaker 3: unlikely is going to be is going to happen for
Speaker 3: us in specific. I'm tired of pretending like this is
Speaker 3: a new wage NBA where you can get away with
Speaker 3: different types of archetypes and you can get away with
Speaker 3: different types of team construction. I'm tired of all of that.
Speaker 3: I want to get back to my basketball principles. I
Speaker 3: learned basketball through their own Maurice era. What you get,
Speaker 3: you get a guy that can generate advantages consistently, and
Speaker 3: you get shooting and defense around them. If you want
Speaker 3: to be heliocentric, if you have a guy that good.
Speaker 3: If you don't have a guy that good, you get
Speaker 3: two guys that can fit together, get into actions together
Speaker 3: and play that at the same time ideally, and you
Speaker 3: surround those guys with shooting and defense. You can't have
Speaker 3: more than one non shooter on a team. That's insanely
Speaker 3: hard to pull off. All of the good teams don't
Speaker 3: have that. Let's stop trying to take these one off
Speaker 3: exceptional things that happened because these teams have exceptional players
Speaker 3: and hope that that one in a thousand Champs is
Speaker 3: going to be what happens for us, because I feel
Speaker 3: like that that's what we've been doing the entire time.
Speaker 3: We've been the entire the entire rebel that has been
Speaker 3: seeing a flash and hoping that that turns out to
Speaker 3: be the reality. And I'm tired of pretending like that's
Speaker 3: what's going to happen for us. We have to be
Speaker 3: pragmatic at some point. Cheng Gun is not Yogur, a
Speaker 3: man function for the foreseeable future. Is not going to
Speaker 3: be a passable shooter, and even when he does, he'll
Speaker 3: likely start with catch and shoot before he can be
Speaker 3: a point guard and pull up. That might be even longer.
Speaker 3: So let's not rest or put all of the hopes
Speaker 3: of this team being functional offensively on guys developing things
Speaker 3: that would be absolute outliers for them to develop. That's
Speaker 3: my main takeaway from this life. Let's stop selling ourselves
Speaker 3: on on things to happen to have a very slim
Speaker 3: chance of happening, or that only happen to all time grades,
Speaker 3: because not every prospect you draft is going to be
Speaker 3: the all time grid projection that they've got on them
Speaker 3: from very early on. So I think it's time to
Speaker 3: be pragmatic, and we'll talk about what that might mean
Speaker 3: in actual moves in the next spot. But in the meantime,
Speaker 3: I think it's just important that the fan base has
Speaker 3: this reality shock or reality shock sorry, and that bubble
Speaker 3: is burst that Shengun's not going to be Yokic. That
Speaker 3: went mostly in specific. If Jalen Green was still here,
Speaker 3: I would have said the same thing about him. He's
Speaker 3: not going to be MJ or Kobe or even Anthony
Speaker 3: Edwards most likely. So it was good to hope that
Speaker 3: that would happen and have those really high heighths when
Speaker 3: it looked like it might. It's just not. So let's
Speaker 3: be pragmatic and build a team that works and doesn't
Speaker 3: rely on one in a thousand chances to obey to
Speaker 3: the very basic principles of modern basketball, like spacing, like
Speaker 3: switching and defense. Let's stop living in this pretend world.
Speaker 2: Largely agree, and I'll just point out in closing there
Speaker 2: are multiple paths the Rockets can go down like people
Speaker 2: will link them to Yiachtis, and I understand why. I
Speaker 2: think the point of dispute would be the picks premium.
Speaker 2: In addition to all parent sho goon to go that route.
Speaker 2: But you also have the ability to, at least in
Speaker 2: the short term, to take a step back if you
Speaker 2: feel that you need to. The bar is super high
Speaker 2: right now. The Rockets clearly aren't at that top tier.
Speaker 2: Even though they have Kevin Durant. It was not an
Speaker 2: all in move. As we explain numerous times. They don't
Speaker 2: view him as that foundational in the grand scheme. They
Speaker 2: don't think he's been well, I guess the last couple
Speaker 2: of games he's been foundational. But they see him as
Speaker 2: a very good but even this season, still a flawed
Speaker 2: player when you look at especially the propensity for turnovers.
Speaker 2: They could take a step back. Then they have all
Speaker 2: these picks coming in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty nine, the two ones from Phoenix, the Brooklyn swap.
Speaker 2: Next year, we'll see what the revised lottery odds mean
Speaker 2: for the outlook on those. You could acquire more picks
Speaker 2: and that window and do something of a gap year
Speaker 2: if you feel you need it. You could also try
Speaker 2: to thread the needle. You could, I don't know, look
Speaker 2: for someone like an Anthony Davis who isn't a fit
Speaker 2: in Washington, and maybe it's a short term upgrade if
Speaker 2: he's healthy, but because of the age and the contract,
Speaker 2: you also get a couple of draft picks that allow
Speaker 2: you to feel better about that longer term window as well.
Speaker 2: So you're trying to both bolster the short term with
Speaker 2: whatever's left of the Kevin Durant era, while also giving
Speaker 2: you a better chance down the road. That goes back
Speaker 2: to trading, not necessarily for a short term upgrade the
Speaker 2: superstar acquisition of a Giannis, but maybe for a better
Speaker 2: roster fit or picks that you can utilize down the line,
Speaker 2: either for trades or to bring in players that are
Speaker 2: in better fit with the other surrounding pieces. So I'm
Speaker 2: in agreement with you, and we don't need to go
Speaker 2: too far down the road of hypotheticals today. That's just
Speaker 2: my own usings. But I think there are more options
Speaker 2: available to the Rockets than people around the league will think.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's going to be as simple as oh,
Speaker 2: they're all in for you, honest and that's the only path,
Speaker 2: because they're pot committed with a thirty seven year old
Speaker 2: come into rent. I don't think you can rule it out,
Speaker 2: but I also don't think it's something that they feel
Speaker 2: they have to do by any means. All Right, with that,
Speaker 2: we're done for today. For Polo, I'm Ben. If you
Speaker 2: want to hear from us before our next episode, the
Speaker 2: best place to do that is on social media. My
Speaker 2: handle is at Ben Dubo's, Polo is at Pallo ALVE's NBA.
Speaker 2: This show is the Rockets Launch Pod presented by Clutch Fans.
Speaker 2: If you go to launch POD's seven ninety on Twitter
Speaker 2: slash x, you have to link tree that's got all
Speaker 2: the links you need to friends, partners, sponsors of the program.
Speaker 2: And as far as the next episode, it'll be next week,
Speaker 2: we hope, with the series still going on against the Lakers,
Speaker 2: but if not, it could be over as early as Sunday.
Speaker 2: If the Rockets get swept, then we'll be back early
Speaker 2: next week to wrap up or the most disappointing playoff
Speaker 2: ex hits in the history of the use in rockets,
Speaker 2: and even on down days like today, we appreciate you
Speaker 2: all so much for listening and please come back soon.
Speaker 2: From Yeah