June 28, 2024 • 9 mins
Rick Kamla, host on SiriusXM NBA Radio, joins Next Up to recap the 2024 NBA Draft that saw the Houston Rockets select Reed Sheppard, a guard from the University of Kentucky, with the No. 3 overall pick. "I love Houston's roster" and they walked away with the "best shooter in this draft," Kamla said. When asked whether the Rockets should have drafted Donovan Clingan, a center from UConn, instead of Sheppard, Kamla says Houston has "Steven Adams for a year" behind Alperen Şengün. The Rockets finished five games back from the final spot in the Play-In Tournament last season. "The West is so tough" but with this roster and players taking a next step in their development, the Rockets "definitely could make it into the Play-In Tournament." Kamla also discusses the Kevin Durant trade rumors and the Los Angeles Lakers drafting Bronny James, son of LeBron James, with the 55th pick where they could become the first father-son duo to play in the league at the same time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Friend of mine, former cowork ofmine at ninety two nine in the game
in Atlanta. Currently you hear RickKamla Sirius XM NBA. He's also on
Mad Dog's show as well on MadDoc's station as well. Cam, I
call him NBA Cam. Good morningto you on a Friday. But I
appreciate you and I call you Fleet. What's up? Man? How you
doing everything good in usage? Yeah? Yeah, life is good. Life
(00:22):
is good, man. I wantto ask you about read Shepherd here just
a little bit. I know youCamus in the NBA landscape and talking explicitly
about the draft. But before Ido nepotism, NBA you got an issue
with with braun flex and his musclehere. I most definitely do not.
We we can't act like nepotism isan NBA thing. Okay. How about
(00:47):
you know an attorney that comes upand he's very successful. What does his
son or daughter you know, typicallydo I don't know a lot of times
they become attorneys and they join thefamily business, okay, or doctors or
you know, whatever the profession maybe. And and if you're an industry,
you know you're you're a CEO.Who are you more likely to hire
you know, some random dude orlady from Harvard or your son who graduated
(01:11):
from Princeton. Okay, look,it's family. Why why why should we
be butt herd or mad about familywanting to hook up family? Okay,
you look at the ownership groups aroundthe NBA. Okay, Mickey Errison owns
the Miami Heat, his son isone of their top executives. The whole
family owns the San Antonio Spurs.Uh and uh and I forget his first
(01:34):
name right now, but the sonof the you know, original Holt now
basically runs the team. Okay,So we have it here in Houston.
We got it here in Houston.Patrick and Tim and Fatita's the day of
Patrick the Sun. We have ithere. So there you go. And
I mean, uh, you know, Danny Aingel's son is probably in his
front office out in Utah. Okay, why wouldn't he be. He's been
(01:55):
an NBA guy his whole life,all this kind of stuff, So I
don't have any problem with it atall. I don't have any problem with
Rich Paul calling agents and telling youknow, gms that if you drap Brownie,
he's going to Australia. I don'thave any problem with it, okay,
because and Bob Meyer said that onESPN, because what is Rich Paul's
job. His job is to hookup his clients. And this is more
(02:16):
than just a agent client relationship.Rich Paul's family. He's not blood,
but he's family at the James Gang, Okay, goes way back with Lebron.
He's a brother to him, andobviously he's a family member. Okay,
he's probably uncle Rich or whatever theycall, you know. And so
what is he supposed to do.He's supposed to put love on them and
(02:37):
hook them up, and he did. And I think it's a great story.
I don't, you know, knowif in hockey or something has happened,
but I it makes me think ofKen Griffy Senior and Ken Griffy Junior,
who played together with the Seattle Mayriorsback in nineteen ninety. And this
is the first time in NBA historythat a father and son have played on
(02:58):
the same team at the same time. So I think it's pretty cool,
no doubt about it. Let's pivotspeaking of the Rockets. Obviously, Wednesday
night we get Reed Shepherd University ofKentucky. You know how I feel about
Big Blue Nation. Your thoughts overallon Ree Shepherd putting on the Rockets uniform
or would you have done something differentlyDonovan Clinton? Perhaps, Yeah, it
(03:19):
would be between those two guys.My thing is fleet, let's unpack a
lot of stuff here. And Isaid this on NBA Radio yesterday and the
day before. The only way thePhoenix Suns can get better is to trade
Kevin Durant. Okay, so youthink of it, They're jammed up.
They're not winning anything with the castthat they have right now. You've got
(03:42):
Grayson Allen and Kevin Durant and DevinBooker and Bradley Beal and use of Nurkic.
Okay, you've got a solid five. You have no bench. And
I did like the Gun pick inthe draft, but I mean, come
on, the West is so badass. They're not gonna be cut into the
Denvers, the ok Sees, theMinnesota's, the Lakers are coming. You
know. You know, Dallas wasin the finals, all this kind of
(04:03):
stuff. So I look at themas in the middle, Okay, like
maybe they're at six, probably atseven or eight winning out of the play
and turn them losing in the firstround. They have to make a trade
to me, and the only chipthat they can trade is Kevin Durant.
Nobody wants Bradley Veal, worst contractin the sport, not trading Booker.
Nobody wants use of Nurkic And soyou have to trade Kevin Durant. And
(04:24):
if you trade Kevin Durant, Houston, who is the perfect dance partner for
the Phoenix Suns. I love Houston'sroster. I would not do this if
I were Houston, Okay, butapparently they want to go big game hunting
here and cashing some of the youngassets. I love shn Goon. I
don't love Jabari Smith yet, butobviously he's very covered up with a lot
(04:46):
of other guys, right, wereally don't know even what he is yet.
Dylan Brooks is a stud. JalenGreen is a stud. Fran Van
Vliet is a stud. And thenwe go to your bitch. Okay.
I love Tara Easton. I freakinglove Tarr Easton. I love them in
Okay, I love Cam Whitmore.You guys just traded for aj Griffin.
He projects to me as a thirdstringer on this team and read Shepherd Okay,
(05:08):
in a regular draft, would youhave gone through it overall? Heck?
No? All right, but he'sthe best. He's the best shooter
in this draft. Arguably the bestpoint guard in this draft. He's a
good defender, all right. Ican't call him great, but he was
a good defender. He everags twoand a half steals per game of Kentucky.
All right. He's got a fortytwo inch vertical and he's really good
at like knifing into passing lanes andgetting that jab out, you know,
(05:30):
stealing in that runout for you know, a dunk or a layup. So
I do, like read Shepherd Manand and so I think the move is
for Houston to just chill and waitfor Phoenix to offer Kevin Durant. They're
they're able to offer him a oneyear extension on the two years left on
his deal. If and when KevinDurant says no to that extension, boom,
(05:53):
then you count because Phoenix would beidiotic to go into this upcoming season
with Kevin Durant ONYX and then he'sgot two years left on his deal,
and then the summer of twenty twentyfive, he's in a walk year okay,
And at that point they have totrade him. You're gonna get more
for Kevin Durant at thirty six.Now, if you're Phoenix, then if
you wait until he's got one yearleft on his deal. So if I
(06:15):
were Houston, I would just waitthat out. I'm okay with the Reed
Shepherd pick because do we know necessarilythat i'm in Thompson is a point guard.
I think he can be a pointguard. But Reach Shepherd is clearly
a point guard, all right,And i'm in is a very versatile guy,
and he's a wing And in termsof the clinging thing, you have
Steven Adams for a year, andand I like Donovan clinging. I do,
(06:38):
I don't. I don't like loveDonovan Klingon. I like Donovan Klingon.
So I was okay with Houston takingRead Shepherd at number three, last
one on the way out. Let'ssay they you know they're gonna re sign
Jeff Green and Landale and who elsethey are they want to keep Tari saying,
of course, and Jayshaon Tate wasthe other one, all right,
So they basically run this back.Steven Adams is ready to go, and
(06:59):
the draft re Shepherd. Is thata playoff team in the West, You
guys are gonna be right there.The West is so tough. Is Sack
gonna come back to the pack alittle bit? Is Golden Stak going to
come back to the pack a littlebit? I think both of those things
could happen. Are the Clippers goingto come back to the pack a little
bit? You know, if theylose a Paul George, maybe Hardin goes
(07:21):
elsewhere. Maybe Steve Balmer moves intothe end too. It thomen he doesn't
have a rock star team. Heprobably will, but maybe he doesn't.
But you gotta think about something here. Memphis is gonna and I know you
know this Fleet. Memphis is gonnabe a lot better this year, and
they're gonna be in the mix.And I would put them above the Rockets
as a non top ten team lastyear that would move into the top ten
(07:43):
this year. The second team inthat bottom five would be Houston for me,
Okay, I really liked I watchedHouston a lot, Fleet because,
like I said, I think youguys have a rock star I just love
your team, I really really do. Is it ready to win big right
now? Is not? But II mean, we went through the construction
of your team. I love allthese guys. I literally love all of
(08:05):
your players, Okay, So yes, Houston, Houston fans should be really
psyched about the upcoming season. You'renot gonna make it to the top six,
but you definitely could make it tothe Playing Tournament and then you just
chop wood from there and make yourlittle steps from there. Oklahoma City was
in the Playing Tournament two years ago, okay, and they shot up to
number one in the West. Andyou're kind of doing this on an OKC
(08:26):
tip, right, that's what youngguys. Yeah, you're doing it organically.
I know you went out and yougot a Dylan Brooks. You went
out and you got a Van Vleet, But I'm okay with that. They're
not in the way of progress fromthese other guys, and you do need
some email. Udoka wants to winnow, and SODA's Stone and so does
Bertida, and so look, I'mreally digging what Houston has. I put
(08:46):
them on the play in Tournament Bubblethough. That's the best I got for
you, realistically, Fleet, ButI'll let you know when I'm in my
lab watching on League Pass. I'mkind of low. I'm kind of low
key cheering for these guys. Iwould like to see Houston rise up and
make the playing tournament. Of course, as a flagship and as a former
employee of the Rockets, I wouldas well. That is the voice of
a very busy Rick Kamler of Seriousxm NBA as well as Mad Dog Radio.
(09:11):
You can catch this show while hearlocally from noon to three when you're
not listening to the Matt Thomas Show. Of course, follow him on social,
won't you at Rick Kamler ka ml A. Rick Kamler Sports cam
Man, I appreciate you, hey, Fleet, appreciate you too, man
stand touch right you well, we'lldo all right. It's my homeboy,
Rick Kamler Serious XM NBA. Clearlyhe's a fan of what the Rockets are
(09:35):
doing. In the addition of ReedShepherd and I would say the same thing.
If healthy, these Rockets should bein the postseason and then it's just
about matchups and can they play theirway into an actual playoff series.
Friend of mine, former cowork ofmine at ninety two nine in the game
in Atlanta. Currently you hear RickKamla Sirius XM NBA. He's also on
Mad Dog's show as well on MadDoc's station as well. Cam, I
call him NBA Cam. Good morningto you on a Friday. But I
appreciate you and I call you Fleet. What's up? Man? How you
doing everything good in usage? Yeah? Yeah, life is good. Life
(00:22):
is good, man. I wantto ask you about read Shepherd here just
a little bit. I know youCamus in the NBA landscape and talking explicitly
about the draft. But before Ido nepotism, NBA you got an issue
with with braun flex and his musclehere. I most definitely do not.
We we can't act like nepotism isan NBA thing. Okay. How about
(00:47):
you know an attorney that comes upand he's very successful. What does his
son or daughter you know, typicallydo I don't know a lot of times
they become attorneys and they join thefamily business, okay, or doctors or
you know, whatever the profession maybe. And and if you're an industry,
you know you're you're a CEO.Who are you more likely to hire
you know, some random dude orlady from Harvard or your son who graduated
(01:11):
from Princeton. Okay, look,it's family. Why why why should we
be butt herd or mad about familywanting to hook up family? Okay,
you look at the ownership groups aroundthe NBA. Okay, Mickey Errison owns
the Miami Heat, his son isone of their top executives. The whole
family owns the San Antonio Spurs.Uh and uh and I forget his first
(01:34):
name right now, but the sonof the you know, original Holt now
basically runs the team. Okay,So we have it here in Houston.
We got it here in Houston.Patrick and Tim and Fatita's the day of
Patrick the Sun. We have ithere. So there you go. And
I mean, uh, you know, Danny Aingel's son is probably in his
front office out in Utah. Okay, why wouldn't he be. He's been
(01:55):
an NBA guy his whole life,all this kind of stuff, So I
don't have any problem with it atall. I don't have any problem with
Rich Paul calling agents and telling youknow, gms that if you drap Brownie,
he's going to Australia. I don'thave any problem with it, okay,
because and Bob Meyer said that onESPN, because what is Rich Paul's
job. His job is to hookup his clients. And this is more
(02:16):
than just a agent client relationship.Rich Paul's family. He's not blood,
but he's family at the James Gang, Okay, goes way back with Lebron.
He's a brother to him, andobviously he's a family member. Okay,
he's probably uncle Rich or whatever theycall, you know. And so
what is he supposed to do.He's supposed to put love on them and
(02:37):
hook them up, and he did. And I think it's a great story.
I don't, you know, knowif in hockey or something has happened,
but I it makes me think ofKen Griffy Senior and Ken Griffy Junior,
who played together with the Seattle Mayriorsback in nineteen ninety. And this
is the first time in NBA historythat a father and son have played on
(02:58):
the same team at the same time. So I think it's pretty cool,
no doubt about it. Let's pivotspeaking of the Rockets. Obviously, Wednesday
night we get Reed Shepherd University ofKentucky. You know how I feel about
Big Blue Nation. Your thoughts overallon Ree Shepherd putting on the Rockets uniform
or would you have done something differentlyDonovan Clinton? Perhaps, Yeah, it
(03:19):
would be between those two guys.My thing is fleet, let's unpack a
lot of stuff here. And Isaid this on NBA Radio yesterday and the
day before. The only way thePhoenix Suns can get better is to trade
Kevin Durant. Okay, so youthink of it, They're jammed up.
They're not winning anything with the castthat they have right now. You've got
(03:42):
Grayson Allen and Kevin Durant and DevinBooker and Bradley Beal and use of Nurkic.
Okay, you've got a solid five. You have no bench. And
I did like the Gun pick inthe draft, but I mean, come
on, the West is so badass. They're not gonna be cut into the
Denvers, the ok Sees, theMinnesota's, the Lakers are coming. You
know. You know, Dallas wasin the finals, all this kind of
(04:03):
stuff. So I look at themas in the middle, Okay, like
maybe they're at six, probably atseven or eight winning out of the play
and turn them losing in the firstround. They have to make a trade
to me, and the only chipthat they can trade is Kevin Durant.
Nobody wants Bradley Veal, worst contractin the sport, not trading Booker.
Nobody wants use of Nurkic And soyou have to trade Kevin Durant. And
(04:24):
if you trade Kevin Durant, Houston, who is the perfect dance partner for
the Phoenix Suns. I love Houston'sroster. I would not do this if
I were Houston, Okay, butapparently they want to go big game hunting
here and cashing some of the youngassets. I love shn Goon. I
don't love Jabari Smith yet, butobviously he's very covered up with a lot
(04:46):
of other guys, right, wereally don't know even what he is yet.
Dylan Brooks is a stud. JalenGreen is a stud. Fran Van
Vliet is a stud. And thenwe go to your bitch. Okay.
I love Tara Easton. I freakinglove Tarr Easton. I love them in
Okay, I love Cam Whitmore.You guys just traded for aj Griffin.
He projects to me as a thirdstringer on this team and read Shepherd Okay,
(05:08):
in a regular draft, would youhave gone through it overall? Heck?
No? All right, but he'sthe best. He's the best shooter
in this draft. Arguably the bestpoint guard in this draft. He's a
good defender, all right. Ican't call him great, but he was
a good defender. He everags twoand a half steals per game of Kentucky.
All right. He's got a fortytwo inch vertical and he's really good
at like knifing into passing lanes andgetting that jab out, you know,
(05:30):
stealing in that runout for you know, a dunk or a layup. So
I do, like read Shepherd Manand and so I think the move is
for Houston to just chill and waitfor Phoenix to offer Kevin Durant. They're
they're able to offer him a oneyear extension on the two years left on
his deal. If and when KevinDurant says no to that extension, boom,
(05:53):
then you count because Phoenix would beidiotic to go into this upcoming season
with Kevin Durant ONYX and then he'sgot two years left on his deal,
and then the summer of twenty twentyfive, he's in a walk year okay,
And at that point they have totrade him. You're gonna get more
for Kevin Durant at thirty six.Now, if you're Phoenix, then if
you wait until he's got one yearleft on his deal. So if I
(06:15):
were Houston, I would just waitthat out. I'm okay with the Reed
Shepherd pick because do we know necessarilythat i'm in Thompson is a point guard.
I think he can be a pointguard. But Reach Shepherd is clearly
a point guard, all right,And i'm in is a very versatile guy,
and he's a wing And in termsof the clinging thing, you have
Steven Adams for a year, andand I like Donovan clinging. I do,
(06:38):
I don't. I don't like loveDonovan Klingon. I like Donovan Klingon.
So I was okay with Houston takingRead Shepherd at number three, last
one on the way out. Let'ssay they you know they're gonna re sign
Jeff Green and Landale and who elsethey are they want to keep Tari saying,
of course, and Jayshaon Tate wasthe other one, all right,
So they basically run this back.Steven Adams is ready to go, and
(06:59):
the draft re Shepherd. Is thata playoff team in the West, You
guys are gonna be right there.The West is so tough. Is Sack
gonna come back to the pack alittle bit? Is Golden Stak going to
come back to the pack a littlebit? I think both of those things
could happen. Are the Clippers goingto come back to the pack a little
bit? You know, if theylose a Paul George, maybe Hardin goes
(07:21):
elsewhere. Maybe Steve Balmer moves intothe end too. It thomen he doesn't
have a rock star team. Heprobably will, but maybe he doesn't.
But you gotta think about something here. Memphis is gonna and I know you
know this Fleet. Memphis is gonnabe a lot better this year, and
they're gonna be in the mix.And I would put them above the Rockets
as a non top ten team lastyear that would move into the top ten
(07:43):
this year. The second team inthat bottom five would be Houston for me,
Okay, I really liked I watchedHouston a lot, Fleet because,
like I said, I think youguys have a rock star I just love
your team, I really really do. Is it ready to win big right
now? Is not? But II mean, we went through the construction
of your team. I love allthese guys. I literally love all of
(08:05):
your players, Okay, So yes, Houston, Houston fans should be really
psyched about the upcoming season. You'renot gonna make it to the top six,
but you definitely could make it tothe Playing Tournament and then you just
chop wood from there and make yourlittle steps from there. Oklahoma City was
in the Playing Tournament two years ago, okay, and they shot up to
number one in the West. Andyou're kind of doing this on an OKC
(08:26):
tip, right, that's what youngguys. Yeah, you're doing it organically.
I know you went out and yougot a Dylan Brooks. You went
out and you got a Van Vleet, But I'm okay with that. They're
not in the way of progress fromthese other guys, and you do need
some email. Udoka wants to winnow, and SODA's Stone and so does
Bertida, and so look, I'mreally digging what Houston has. I put
(08:46):
them on the play in Tournament Bubblethough. That's the best I got for
you, realistically, Fleet, ButI'll let you know when I'm in my
lab watching on League Pass. I'mkind of low. I'm kind of low
key cheering for these guys. Iwould like to see Houston rise up and
make the playing tournament. Of course, as a flagship and as a former
employee of the Rockets, I wouldas well. That is the voice of
a very busy Rick Kamler of Seriousxm NBA as well as Mad Dog Radio.
(09:11):
You can catch this show while hearlocally from noon to three when you're
not listening to the Matt Thomas Show. Of course, follow him on social,
won't you at Rick Kamler ka ml A. Rick Kamler Sports cam
Man, I appreciate you, hey, Fleet, appreciate you too, man
stand touch right you well, we'lldo all right. It's my homeboy,
Rick Kamler Serious XM NBA. Clearlyhe's a fan of what the Rockets are
(09:35):
doing. In the addition of ReedShepherd and I would say the same thing.
If healthy, these Rockets should bein the postseason and then it's just
about matchups and can they play theirway into an actual playoff series.
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