October 7, 2025 • 29 mins
In a “ClutchFans Live” postgame show, Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty recap Houston’s victory over Atlanta to open the 2025-26 preseason. Topics include strong performances by Alperen Sengun and JD Davison, as well as a somewhat underwhelming showing by Reed Sheppard as the starting point guard. The episode can be viewed in video form on YouTube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb8ImorC0To
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Alrighty, well, we are here on live on YouTube. I'm
gonna I'll share this link here just in a second. Ben,
this is our first time to go live on YouTube.
I'm here with Ben Dubos, you know, and from USA
Today from Clutch Fans, longtime reporter covering the Rockets. We're
going to talk a little bit about the Rockets preseason
opener win. They take this game one two to one
(00:25):
thirteen against the Atlanta Hawks. A lot to discuss about
this game. Ben, First of all, how you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Doing doing well? And Dave?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I think the biggest takeaway for me relatives when we
last saw the Rockets play a home game at Toyota Center,
which was early May, so that's been what five months.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I think.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The guard number four looks a lot better than he
did five months ago.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
That was funny, you know. I was out there and
we're talking about JD.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Davison and it was really interesting to me with the hair,
it looked like Cam Whitmore was wearing Jaya in Green's jersey,
but I kept seeing Jalen Green. I guess, you know,
it kind of reminds me of PJ. Tucker and Mario
Ellie a little bit. But I was seeing Jalen Green.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, times out.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
There well, and I'm very surprised that more people aren't
talking about him because it's not easy to be MVP
of the G League. Get twenty two years old, and
in terms of why didn't he play if he's that good,
look at the Boston Celtics roster the last two seasons.
It was loaded, So it is perfectly understandable as to
(01:30):
why he didn't play. He was just twenty two years
old last year, so it's not like he's super old
and was just doing it because he's a man amongst boys. No,
he's still in his developmental range. It's not like he's
a nobody prospect. This was a second round pick in
twenty two, played high level college basketball at Alabama. He's
got the size. He can handle the ball. He's six
foot three, he's pretty thick, two fifteen. I guess the
(01:53):
one critique you could have if you look at his
G League numbers, he shot forty eight percent overall, which
is quite good for a guard. I think he was
just thirty three thirty four percent from three, and he
was sort of a volume guy. But again, if you're
the star of your team, which he basically is for
the main Celtics, you're going to be asked to do
a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
The point is that's.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Nitpicking when you look at the macro and a guy
who's putting up those numbers at twenty two years old
and the only reason he's not playing in the G
League is because the Celtics are stacked. I'm not saying
you should expect him to necessarily be a rotation player
day one. That might be a little bit aggressive for
a two way guy, But I don't know why more
people aren't talking about him like this is a guy who,
if it wasn't the Rockets, I.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Would be genuinely extrud Like if I was doing.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
A fantasy basketball league this year and some team that
let's say bottom third of the league didn't have a
clear path too minutes or minutes that we knew were
spoken for signed JD Davison, a guy who put up
those numbers in the G League and was simply blocked
by a loaded Boston team, especially in the back court.
I think this is a guy that I would bet
on that has a chance to go out at least
(02:53):
statistically have a good year. And you know statistics are
one thing. But then you listen to Imo Udoka, who
just wrapped up his post game he may talked about
and he said this when I asked him at training
camp on Saturday. He makes all the right decisions referring
to JD, and that they trust him on the pick
and roll. He manipulates the defense. And this is a
Rockets team that without Fred van Fleet has a clear
void there with Reed Shepherd and men Thompson. There's still
(03:14):
steps they need to take. Very much a work in
progress there, and I'm sure we'll get into that. You know,
I'm not saying, based on one preseason game that you
should all of a sudden go out and do custom JD.
Davison jerseys. I think for now you can just duct
tape Davison over the green from last year's Jalen Jerseys.
But I think it's fair to have to have sub optimism.
(03:35):
I definitely want to see him more.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Yeah, and just to break down his game.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Seventeen points today, I believe he was six and nine
from the field, dis double checking your five of seven
from three, which was really a shock. I think he
was thirty three percent from three point range.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And I want to say he'd look up the turnovers.
I think he had just one and he played twenty
two minutes. In contrast to I looked up red and
the men had three each in about twenty minutes. So
again net picking, no Kevin Durant, but JD being able
to have the fources control the ball in addition to
making the threes. I just thought it was a very
you know, steady game in which he played very high
(04:11):
i Q basketball.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Absolutely, this is as you pointed out, over twenty five
points a game. Was the G League MVP seven to
eight assists a game. What really stuck out to me today,
even though I think the most notable thing was the
threes five of seven, but like he would make solid reads,
like he could see the floor and find the open guy.
(04:33):
And I was I was really impressed with him today.
Like I said, I don't know if he was like
the number one story. Certainly Jabari stepped up at the
very first quarter. Shehn Gun really dominated the second. We'll
talk about those things, but Davison really impressed me. I mean,
I think he makes this team. I think he's uh
And what was also notable, Ben is he came in
in the first quarter like with two three minutes left
(04:56):
in the game or excuse me, left in the quarter.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Yeah, and that to me really suck out as well.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Granted, you know, I know friends out, you know, Kadi's out,
Dorian Finney Smith is out, but still was notable. I mean,
this is a guy I think that email Udoka can
probably lean on.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I think it was JD and Joshua Kogie that were
the first non steven guys off the bench in the
first quarter and that and that's what volumes. I mean,
josh is a guy I think people have talked about
more because everybody knows his level of defense and how
that can fit with an Emai Udoka team. And I
think Jayshon Tate was resting today in addition to Kevin Durant,
so that made it all the easier to slide a
(05:34):
Koge up. And so a Kogi's been on the radar
a little bit because obviously the defense is there, and
he did shoot thirty five percent from three last year,
so if that continues, then obviously there's a path two
minutes there. But I think there's a path two minutes
for JD as well. And I guess you know, we
can go into the rest of the roster because I
do think that what we saw from JD it's an
(05:54):
interesting juxtaposition when you look at some of the struggles
they had early in the game, because I thought the
first half, and really, you know, the first half was
when both teams were at the closest to full strength.
Other than Katie, the Rockets had most of their guys.
I think the Hawks played pretty much everybody, right, Yeah,
I'm missing they played Trade, they played for Zingis, they
(06:16):
they played Dyson Daniels.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I think they had everybody.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, yep, absolutely, yeah, And so you know, it was
an interesting half in that the Rockets got very sticky
in the first quarter, and then the second quarter. You know,
Shangoon was incredible. I mean, that's not very the lead anymore.
Shinegoon looked like, quite frankly, better than an All Star,
which is what he was last year. His touch seems
(06:40):
to be back. He made both of his threes. I
think both were from the top right, which was really from.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The top of the key, and he looked very comfortable
doing it.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I think made all of his free throws too.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
By the way, yes, you know, the box kept changing.
I don't know if he was seven of seven or
nine of nine, but still yeah, he uh. I think
that is what sticks out to me. You know, in
the first quarter he was he was pretty good. He
didn't dominate or anything. They put Reeseche on him in
the second and he just feasted on him. But for
him to hit threes, that's different. Like we already know,
(07:10):
Shengun will have games where he'll take advantage, he'll he's
good in the post and.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Different things like that.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
The other thing about shn Gun in this game, obviously
we don't have Fred van Vliet at all this year,
but right out it, right from the beginning, first couple
of possessions Shgoon top of the key, face up creation
that to me was notable, Like they're going to be
running that more. And I'm not talking about Shen hubb
out of the post, you know, get a double team
(07:36):
kick it out to three, but Shngoon running it as
almost like a point forward. And you know, we saw
him do that in EuroBasket and I think we'll probably
see that a lot more this year, especially with some
of the struggles playmaking.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Right now that the young players and reader and showing.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And what I thought was interesting is that you know,
Shoon really got going, it felt like the floor opened
up for him a little bit more when they went
with the double Big. We saw the lobby had to
Clint Capella, which was really nice. He had some really
strong minutes with Steven as well, which I think.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
We're used to.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But it felt a little bit like last year's team,
which shouldn't be shocking without Kevin Durant because if there's
no OKD. Really it's not that different than last year's
team in that the Double Big, more than anything, was.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
A move to boost the offense.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
You know, a lot of people think of the double
Big being, you know, defensive because you have all these
big bodies and theoretically you can control the paint rebound, YadA, YadA.
But where it really helps is on the offensive end,
because obviously you're able to crush the offensive class, but
it's also the screen setting. It's, in the case of
Clint Capella, now a lob threat and so it's able
(08:45):
to sort of unlock more layers or it makes the
opposing defense have to account for more things as opposed
to if they played traditionally without Kevin Durant or whatever
they had last year. They're so limited on the perimeter
that things on the likes of Shangoon get squeezed a
little bit. And so I think that's what we saw tonight,
(09:07):
is that when they went to the double big, the
floor opened up a little bit more for Shaangoon. I
know that sounds counterintuitive because you think going double big
it's going to be a floor spacing nightmare. Well it's
sort of the opposite, and that because there's more things
the defense has to account for, the game tends to
open up a little bit. Now, the flip side to
that is that they really struggled defensively for a stretch
in there, and it may not be their fault. I mean,
(09:28):
it's the preseason. Nobody's going all out defensively anyway. And secondly,
like Atlanta has a lot of guys who can shoot threes,
and so that's the one thing, especially if you don't
have KD, so you're not as long as you would
be otherwise in that zone.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You're gott to give up some looks from three.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Atlanta was hitting them at a pretty high clip, and
so that was sort of the trade off. They looked
really good on offense in the second quarter, the defense
slipped the first quarter.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Sort of the reverse.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They played really well defensively, but they couldn't get the
offense going. And so I think, at least without KD,
that's sort of the push and pull is that you
know that double big can really unlock some things offensively
and mitigate the weakness in terms of the playmaking, but
then you are going to have some challenges defensively. And
I think that's basically what we saw, because you know,
(10:13):
the first quarter they looked pretty good. You know, they
started without Kevin. It was Read Tari, a Men, Jabbari,
and Shengoon, and I thought they functioned pretty well defensively.
Read was a little too handsy, got in foul trouble.
But other than that, I mean, as you would expect
with Red, Tari and Jabari all out there, they defended
really well. It's just they really struggled to this year
(10:36):
at offense. I thought they took way too long to
get into their sets, sometimes without a point guard.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Maybe there were some nerves.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Both a Men and Reid weren't quite as crisps with
their handle as I would have liked. Now, the asterisk
that you have to put on that is that when
Kevin plays, the idea is that you know the gravity
the attention that he draws will hopefully make it a
little bit easier for guys like and Read to create.
So that's the one nitpick. And you know, that's where
(11:04):
Jad Davison comes into play, is that within the confines
of that specific weakness, JD is better right now, at
least with what the Rockets ran on the court Monday night.
Now maybe it's different when Kevin is out there. I
hope that's the case. But to me, as things were tonight,
that's the balance that I think they're trying to find,
is that you can go to the double big and
things look really crisp offensively, but then you have the
(11:26):
obvious defensive challenges. Offensively, Shangoon is going to be great
no matter what, but the floor gets a little bit sticky,
especially if those other guys like Reid aren't doing a
whole lot, and at some point you're gonna have to
look at some other options if he's not producing. Again,
not trying to get too panicked after one game, but
(11:47):
I think that's sort of what we.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Saw, you know, overall, just big picture. I mean, I'm
excited about what we saw today for sure. I think,
you know, Shangoon just to highlight those numbers. He had
nineteen points in short order seventeen to eighteen minutes. Fifteen
of those points came in the second quarter when he
kind of exploded and he was creating. He had a
couple of nice blocks coming up from behind as well.
But again, to me, the most notable thing with those
(12:10):
two threes because he's very comfortable taking him Shangun doesn't
have to be a forty percent three point shooter. He
just needs to be comfortable taking them in that. If
that's the case, players have to come out on him
and then he's effective going to the basket. It just
kind of open things up tremendously what I've wanted to
see from him forever. So I'm hoping that this is
real because we saw it certainly in EuroBasket. I do
(12:33):
worry a little bit because you lost Fred, who is
you know, for all his strengths and weaknesses, it's the
low turnovers that Fred is so good at his experience
and everything. I think with shng gun Men and Reed
doing a lot of that creation, you're gonna have to
be a little bit more efficient offensively overall, because I
do think you're gonna have more turnovers this year that
(12:53):
both or excuse me, all three of them are fairly
inexperienced as far as you know, running it as a
point necessarily, they're all good in different ways.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
But I think that's going to be something to watch
for this year.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Also, one other guy that I was a little bit
underwhelmed by. I mentioned JD having some positives relative to Read.
I also thought JD had some positives relative to Joshua
Koge when you look at some of the breakdowns they had.
I thought a Kogi was overly aggressive and he got
beaten back door, especially in that first.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Half a few times, and so JD.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
You would think a guy that's trying to get real
NBA minutes for the first time might be trying to
do too much. But on both ends of the court,
he seemed to play within himself. That's something you heard
from me may Joka that you know, not only offensively,
did like the control that he plays with, but defensively
because of his body, because of how thick he is
in the upper body, he's able to guard twos as well,
and so I thought that stood out as well, Like
(13:48):
I did think JD was a better defender than Red,
which you would expect given that reads a little bit light,
and he's still trying to figure out, you know, when
he can get those steals too often Niety had his
hands in the cookie jar, and just you know, offensive
players in the NBA are just too smart. I think
Reid can adjust back, but for a guy as young
as Reid is and without much experience, I thought they
took advantage of him. They did for large stretches of
(14:10):
last year as well in the limited minutes that he got.
But I thought JD looked better than Joshua Koge and
the defensive end as well, which sort of surprised me.
So we'll see how much they adjust between games. But
I really thought, you know, outside of the core guys,
you know, JD was the biggest bright spot. Keeping with
the theme of the first half, it was a really
(14:31):
good start to the game for Gavari Smith Junior. And
then you know, you look at the overall box score,
nine point six rebounds, I think three of eight from
the field, two of four from three, and so a
lot of the at least statistically a production, came very
early in the game. But I thought this was a
really good game for him. I thought he got to
his spots quite frankly, I think he looked much more
(14:52):
comfortable getting to exactly where he wanted to go and
going up and rising and firing.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
He just missed the shots.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
It wasn't like too often in his first three years
when for one reason or another he maybe he's been
a little bit too light, or it's the handle's a
little clunky, and so it just doesn't look no to me.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
It looked very fluid tonight.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
It looked real, And there's a world where if he
hits a couple of those middies, we're talking about him being,
you know, other than Shangun the start of the game,
because he puts up fifteen or thirteen points on good efficiency.
So I know the stat line has sort of hit
or miss. Obviously small sample size because nobody played more
than you know, twenty twenty five minutes in a preseason game.
But I thought this was a really encouraging game for Jabari.
(15:34):
He had some good shots that didn't go in, but
other than that, I feel like I'm both into the floor.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
He was where he needed to be.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, I just want Jabari to find his spots, you know,
and take his get his shots within the flow of
the offense.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I thought early on.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
You know, Shan Gun or very the beginning of the game,
read the double team perfectly. I think portzingis closed out
on closed on him, left Jabari open in the corner.
That's the first besket the Rockets made, was that Jabari
or three? I do want to play this clip. I've
never done this. We're going to get tested out real quick,
but I want to play this clip of Jabari the
move that I'm sure you know was coming, but that
(16:08):
when he went past Canar and then threw this dunk down.
Hopefully the audio isn't too loud, but I'll just play
it and just get your thoughts on it real quick.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Huge an acquisition, and you know, until Finney Smith gets back,
he's got a real opportunity for minutes at excellent training camp.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
See this to me. You know, we'll wait till the audio.
I don't know if the audio, like I said, is
playing or not, but we'll find out.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You know, okay, good. I had asted the volume, but
when I tested earlier, I didn't know if it like
just cranks it up regardless. But you know, like it's
against Canar, this is not like the greatest defender, but
he brought the ball up the entire way. You know,
worked as the ball basically there to the left, went
right around him basically with a little bit of a
fake move. You know, Jabari is not the greatest ballhander,
(16:56):
but you can tell from where he was as a
rookie he has to developed a bit. You've heard the
same things. I've heard the same things. This guy really
busted in the offseason.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
He's not alone.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Read amn shngoon all had great off seasons, but they
really have raved about what Jabari Smith Junior has done. Yeah,
he had that strong first quarter eight points. I don't
think he scored the rest of the game. I could
be wrong. He took a few shots that I liked,
but just like you said, miss them. I'm just liking
what I'm seeing from Jabari so far. We'll see how
(17:27):
this plays out, but I think we're going to see
it improved this year.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, I think that's a safe bet. And I also
like in the second half what we saw from Tari.
I mean if and again, it's so tough to sort
of project out besides the obvious one exhibition, the caveats
you can throw out with sample size, and people not
really going all out by any stretch of the imagination.
I do want to see a little bit more from
Tari as a creator, because I actually thought he was
(17:53):
the guy who seemed to have the most craft on
his finishes tonight, especially in the second half. He some
drives that I thought looked really encouraging, and so you know,
we've heard throughout camp all this talk that he wants
more minutes, more of an opportunity, more plays run for him,
and the first half, for whatever reason, I thought he
was a little bit timid. It wasn't that he looked bad.
(18:14):
You know, I thought, you know, Reid and a men
looked a little bit indecisive at times. With the men,
it looked to me sometimes like you know, he would
go up with a plan to kick it to the corner,
and sometimes those defenders for the for the Hawks sort
of read his intention and so he would think when
he went up that, you know, A Reid was going
(18:35):
to be there, and then ultimately it wasn't because they
anticipated that he wasn't really looking for that shot on
the drive. Maybe that changes in the regular season when
he's more willing to sort of throw his body around
and absorb contact. You can certainly hope for that for
whatever reason, I thought Tari was a little unassertive in
the first half. I thought that changed in the six
or so minutes that he played to start the third quarter,
(18:57):
and I thought he looked pretty good. And so that's
what I like to see more. I think this is
a you know, potentially a contract preseason for Tari. I mean,
this is the last time that he can, you know,
make a case to rafel Stone in the front office
to get an extension before that deadline two weeks from
today Monday, the twentieth, I believe is the deadline, or
he goes into restricted free agency next summer. So I
would like to see Tari have a big preseason. I
(19:19):
think he would like to as well. I thought what
little I think, what little we saw from him today
looked good. Just for whatever reason, he wasn't very I
didn't think he was all that assertive. That surprised me
a little bit. I would suspect it changes over the
next couple of games.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And we're not going to see Tari and Adams for
the next game, right I think they're sitting at that.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's what they said.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
However, I am sort of keeping an eye open because
they also said that Kevin Durant would be available for
all four.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Games, and then he wasn't. So I think.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I think the only things that are set in stone
are that the two games next week will be the
dress rehearsals, because those are the closest to the regular season,
They've had a little bit more time to build guides up.
I think every this week is sort of touch and go,
and that they see how everybody plays or everybody feels
going into you know, practice or shoot around whatever it
(20:10):
is on a given day, and then adjust accordingly. So
I know they said Tarri and Stephen wouldn't be available,
I take that with a little bit of a grain
of salt. At least with Tarry now with Steven at
his age and mileage, yeah, I think that's a safe bet.
But if Tari bounces back well and he wants to
prove that he's no longer restricted, it wouldn't shock me
if he ended up playing Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, I was a.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Little frustrated about Katie not playing. I mean, it's not
a big deal. I'm I'm not losing my mind. I know,
like David wien Er, beam a thug, was at the game.
He was all pumped up of seeing KT play, you know,
getting tickets for this particular game, but you know, it
is what it is. You got to be careful. He
just turned thirty seven years old. It's an important year.
You're you're a contender now, and so you do have
to be careful. I just expected that first game, you know,
(20:51):
him to come out and show us something. Hopefully we'll
see him here for the next one. You know, I
know you talked a little bit about Reid. I want
to ask you about him that there was a there
were some nice plays from reading the game, there was
one in the second quarter where you know, he was
bringing the ball back up I think around the nail
area and kind of jumped without knowing where he was
passing to throw it out of bounds. I think that
(21:12):
there's going to still be some of those growing pains
with him. He still feels like I think he's going
to be good. So I'm not in any way knocking read.
I just think that he's just being put in a
situation that I don't know if he's quite ready for you.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
And I will say, and I'm sure you will agree.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Rockets have been consistent about how good he looks, and
they they've been saying it since they before they drafted him,
when they drafted him last year. This year, they love
Read Shepherd, they believe in him highly. So I trust
the Rockets they felt this way about him and Thompson,
and I believe they've been proven right so far. I
want to believe him on Read Shepherd as well. So
(21:50):
it's early. I think we're just going to see some
of that stuff, which is tough for a contender. You're
going to probably see some turnovers this year that you don't.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Like, Yeah, and he's going to get into foul trouble
d defensively, it just is what it is because at
his height and weight, for him to be impactful defensively,
he has to get some seals and blocks. Well, if
you're trying to get steals and blocks at his lack
of experience, you're going to get some fouls too. It
just is what it is, especially with bigger defenders trying
to hunt him in the post. And the hope is
(22:18):
that he wins enough to where you just live with
the foul trouble that he gets himself into on occasion.
So I will say with Reid, it wasn't a great
game by any means, but I do think you need
to wait on Kevin Durant before you form any substantive
conclusions because what they asked reed to do tonight, we
know he's a a He's at a disadvantage on defense
(22:41):
for obvious reasons. Offensively, I think for someone of his profile,
you generally want one of two things. So ideally you'd
bring him off the bench and you're going up against backups.
Obviously that's not happening right now with the friend injury.
We'll see what they decide with the starting lineup and
opening night, and if it's not against backups, then you
want at least him to have several other top shelf
(23:04):
playmakers next to him so that he's maybe getting the
weakest defender on the other team. And that really wasn't
the case tonight without Kevin Durant. And I think, you know,
a men had a little bit of an underwhelming game
on offense. Although the more I think about it with
the men, it's like what I said a few minutes ago,
I think a lot of a men's game is sort
(23:25):
of conditional on being able to, you know, absorb contact
and finish through awkward angles at the rim, and you're
not really going to want to put your body through
that that type of pounding in a in a preseason game.
And so in some ways it sort of reminds me
of how you remember at the end of last season
when Jalen Green would be absolutely terrible in these, you know,
(23:47):
these playing out the string games late in seasons. I
think it's sort of the same the same deal with
the men, and that when you're talking about a guy
who's so dependent on using that burst and you know,
twisting his body to finish through NBA level bigs at
or near the rim, A lot of that depends on
being willing to absorb contact and you're not actually gonna
(24:09):
want to do that in a game where nothing matters
and you just want to make sure that nothing bad
happens from an jury perspective. So I think that's a
little bit of what happened with the men tonight. I
mentioned on some of the drives it looked like, you know,
the defenders or the Hawks were sort of anticipating they
wouldn't try to finish and so trying to read him
for the pass. But where that plays in to read
is that if Shangoon is really the only high level
(24:31):
playmaker out there, then Reid's not going to have the
advantage of drawing the weakest defender. And so if he's
going up against NBA level starters, and this is a
good Atlanta team that I think, I think they're probably
going to make the playoffs in the East if they're
agree yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good team. And
so I think with Read being as young as he
is and having the you know, deficiencies in terms of
(24:53):
size and defense, you need to give him some some
training wheels in some way. And ideally the training wheels
would have been coming off the bend sort of just
gradually building him up the way a lot of young
players are sort of handled around the NBA. That may
not be a luxury the Rockets can afford this year,
depending on what their other options are for the starting lineup.
(25:13):
But if not that, then I think the hope is that, hey,
when you have KD. Shulgoon and a men all clicking,
then that's going to draw up attention to where Reid
can can get going.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Out of some really advantaged scenarios.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
So for people down on Reid, I see someone in
the comment saying, Read, ain't it I get it. It
wasn't a great game, but I would wait to see
how he looks when the Rockets are closer to full strength,
because I think the idea is that he should look
better once they have other guys that can draw more attention.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Absolutely, you know, before we wrap up, I know Tony
had asked this question just on YouTube, say, this is
something you're going to be doing throughout the season, and yeah,
Ben and I hope to do some of these after games,
certainly just to sort of, you know, recap what we saw.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
We've been doing playback.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And you guys are certainly very familiar with that and
see how that goes. But I just want to be
able to do a little bit more analysis and things
that we saw and noticed, you know, taking those throughout
the game and stuff.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
So well, yeah, we'll see how this goes this year.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
We're still looking forward to Katie's first game with the Rockets,
and you know, the Rockets looked pretty good offensively today
and missing probably their best, you know, most efficient score,
let's say. So, you know, I'm really looking forward to
this season. I think it's going to be fun. There's
a lot to like about the Rockets. It's unfortunate about Fred,
(26:30):
I don't you know, they're they're holding out hope he
could come back at the end of the year, but
you know I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I'm not too well, yeah, optimistic about that exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
But you know, they still have a team that, in
my opinion is top four worthy in the West, and
that's a great place to be as strong as the
West is, if not a little bit higher.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
And by the way, I will say, if Fred doesn't
come back, so you know, there's two scenarios, the one
where he beats the odds and somehow he's backed by April.
If he's not, I think is his extremely likely that
he will opt in and use his player option. I
don't think he'll want to enter free agency coming off
an aclchair and without having any production on his ledger
in a year, especially because last year was sort of
(27:12):
a down year for him statistically that there were reasons
for that. He had the bad ankle sprain, YadA, YadA.
But I don't think Fred would decline a one year,
twenty five million dollar deal, especially because we all know
he wants to be here coming off an ACL taar.
So one way or another, Fred is going to be back,
and so that's why. I also think Fred or Reid
(27:33):
excuse me, is going to get a little bit of
a longer leash because in a perfect world, I do
think they would want to run lineups with more long
term sustainability. So obviously they hope Read develops into a
starting level point guard in the NBA. I think they
view Fred as already being one, and he should be
back next year. If he doesn't come back this year,
I think it's very likely he'll come back next year
(27:53):
because he'll opt in for that player option, And so
I do think if it's close with regards to the lineups,
might see the mirror on the side of something a
little more traditional, simply because they are eventually going to
have a more prototypical point guard out there, be it
Read or Front.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, you know, and and we'll save this particular conversation
for another time. But the Fred, But was Fred is
such an important player to this team, kind of irreplaceable
for what he does? I mean, Reid could is certainly
being groomed for that position down the line playing not
ready right now.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
But it's it's he was sort of irreplaceable.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
And then now there's that question of whether is he
a contract to be traded. Like I said, we could
save that conversation for.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Another time because I think that's conditional on how they
play in the first you know, forty to fifty games.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
And yeah, there's.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Absolutely a world where it could happen. And yeah, to
the question about doing this, Yeah, we'll do this after
some games. Maybe not after the West Coast games that
are over at uh yeah, you know, God there's some
ten pm starts this year, they'll be over at like
one am.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
But yeah, we'll do it after some games.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And like we could also you know, we'll see what
you know, schedules allow for. But you know we can
also do it on a day between games and and
you know, go live on a you know, on an
off day responding to you know, maybe there's interesting stuff
at practice. Maybe it's you know, a big week for
discussions amongst the fan base, and so you guys can
pop in in the chat and ask us, or you know,
(29:14):
maybe there's a way you can have other people hop on.
I mean, there's lots of options. But yeah, the bottom line,
I think we both want to be more interactive this year.
There should be a season that I mean not should be,
it is a season that is more anticipated than any
and sometimes so yeah, we definitely want to be a
part of it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Absolutely going to be a really fun year. Ben, appreciate
you doing this, and everybody in the chat and watching live.
Appreciate all of you you know, for supporting and we'll
be back soon. Rockets want to zero in the preseason
and moving on to the next game and we'll hopefully
see Kevin Durant make his preseason Rockets debut here for
Game two.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Thanks everybody, have a great night.
Alrighty, well, we are here on live on YouTube. I'm
gonna I'll share this link here just in a second. Ben,
this is our first time to go live on YouTube.
I'm here with Ben Dubos, you know, and from USA
Today from Clutch Fans, longtime reporter covering the Rockets. We're
going to talk a little bit about the Rockets preseason
opener win. They take this game one two to one
(00:25):
thirteen against the Atlanta Hawks. A lot to discuss about
this game. Ben, First of all, how you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Doing doing well? And Dave?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I think the biggest takeaway for me relatives when we
last saw the Rockets play a home game at Toyota Center,
which was early May, so that's been what five months.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I think.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The guard number four looks a lot better than he
did five months ago.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
That was funny, you know. I was out there and
we're talking about JD.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Davison and it was really interesting to me with the hair,
it looked like Cam Whitmore was wearing Jaya in Green's jersey,
but I kept seeing Jalen Green. I guess, you know,
it kind of reminds me of PJ. Tucker and Mario
Ellie a little bit. But I was seeing Jalen Green.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, times out.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
There well, and I'm very surprised that more people aren't
talking about him because it's not easy to be MVP
of the G League. Get twenty two years old, and
in terms of why didn't he play if he's that good,
look at the Boston Celtics roster the last two seasons.
It was loaded, So it is perfectly understandable as to
(01:30):
why he didn't play. He was just twenty two years
old last year, so it's not like he's super old
and was just doing it because he's a man amongst boys. No,
he's still in his developmental range. It's not like he's
a nobody prospect. This was a second round pick in
twenty two, played high level college basketball at Alabama. He's
got the size. He can handle the ball. He's six
foot three, he's pretty thick, two fifteen. I guess the
(01:53):
one critique you could have if you look at his
G League numbers, he shot forty eight percent overall, which
is quite good for a guard. I think he was
just thirty three thirty four percent from three, and he
was sort of a volume guy. But again, if you're
the star of your team, which he basically is for
the main Celtics, you're going to be asked to do
a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
The point is that's.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Nitpicking when you look at the macro and a guy
who's putting up those numbers at twenty two years old
and the only reason he's not playing in the G
League is because the Celtics are stacked. I'm not saying
you should expect him to necessarily be a rotation player
day one. That might be a little bit aggressive for
a two way guy, But I don't know why more
people aren't talking about him like this is a guy who,
if it wasn't the Rockets, I.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Would be genuinely extrud Like if I was doing.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
A fantasy basketball league this year and some team that
let's say bottom third of the league didn't have a
clear path too minutes or minutes that we knew were
spoken for signed JD Davison, a guy who put up
those numbers in the G League and was simply blocked
by a loaded Boston team, especially in the back court.
I think this is a guy that I would bet
on that has a chance to go out at least
(02:53):
statistically have a good year. And you know statistics are
one thing. But then you listen to Imo Udoka, who
just wrapped up his post game he may talked about
and he said this when I asked him at training
camp on Saturday. He makes all the right decisions referring
to JD, and that they trust him on the pick
and roll. He manipulates the defense. And this is a
Rockets team that without Fred van Fleet has a clear
void there with Reed Shepherd and men Thompson. There's still
(03:14):
steps they need to take. Very much a work in
progress there, and I'm sure we'll get into that. You know,
I'm not saying, based on one preseason game that you
should all of a sudden go out and do custom JD.
Davison jerseys. I think for now you can just duct
tape Davison over the green from last year's Jalen Jerseys.
But I think it's fair to have to have sub optimism.
(03:35):
I definitely want to see him more.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Yeah, and just to break down his game.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Seventeen points today, I believe he was six and nine
from the field, dis double checking your five of seven
from three, which was really a shock. I think he
was thirty three percent from three point range.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And I want to say he'd look up the turnovers.
I think he had just one and he played twenty
two minutes. In contrast to I looked up red and
the men had three each in about twenty minutes. So
again net picking, no Kevin Durant, but JD being able
to have the fources control the ball in addition to
making the threes. I just thought it was a very
you know, steady game in which he played very high
(04:11):
i Q basketball.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Absolutely, this is as you pointed out, over twenty five
points a game. Was the G League MVP seven to
eight assists a game. What really stuck out to me today,
even though I think the most notable thing was the
threes five of seven, but like he would make solid reads,
like he could see the floor and find the open guy.
(04:33):
And I was I was really impressed with him today.
Like I said, I don't know if he was like
the number one story. Certainly Jabari stepped up at the
very first quarter. Shehn Gun really dominated the second. We'll
talk about those things, but Davison really impressed me. I mean,
I think he makes this team. I think he's uh
And what was also notable, Ben is he came in
in the first quarter like with two three minutes left
(04:56):
in the game or excuse me, left in the quarter.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Yeah, and that to me really suck out as well.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Granted, you know, I know friends out, you know, Kadi's out,
Dorian Finney Smith is out, but still was notable. I mean,
this is a guy I think that email Udoka can
probably lean on.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I think it was JD and Joshua Kogie that were
the first non steven guys off the bench in the
first quarter and that and that's what volumes. I mean,
josh is a guy I think people have talked about
more because everybody knows his level of defense and how
that can fit with an Emai Udoka team. And I
think Jayshon Tate was resting today in addition to Kevin Durant,
so that made it all the easier to slide a
(05:34):
Koge up. And so a Kogi's been on the radar
a little bit because obviously the defense is there, and
he did shoot thirty five percent from three last year,
so if that continues, then obviously there's a path two
minutes there. But I think there's a path two minutes
for JD as well. And I guess you know, we
can go into the rest of the roster because I
do think that what we saw from JD it's an
(05:54):
interesting juxtaposition when you look at some of the struggles
they had early in the game, because I thought the
first half, and really, you know, the first half was
when both teams were at the closest to full strength.
Other than Katie, the Rockets had most of their guys.
I think the Hawks played pretty much everybody, right, Yeah,
I'm missing they played Trade, they played for Zingis, they
(06:16):
they played Dyson Daniels.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I think they had everybody.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, yep, absolutely, yeah, And so you know, it was
an interesting half in that the Rockets got very sticky
in the first quarter, and then the second quarter. You know,
Shangoon was incredible. I mean, that's not very the lead anymore.
Shinegoon looked like, quite frankly, better than an All Star,
which is what he was last year. His touch seems
(06:40):
to be back. He made both of his threes. I
think both were from the top right, which was really from.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The top of the key, and he looked very comfortable
doing it.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I think made all of his free throws too.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
By the way, yes, you know, the box kept changing.
I don't know if he was seven of seven or
nine of nine, but still yeah, he uh. I think
that is what sticks out to me. You know, in
the first quarter he was he was pretty good. He
didn't dominate or anything. They put Reeseche on him in
the second and he just feasted on him. But for
him to hit threes, that's different. Like we already know,
(07:10):
Shengun will have games where he'll take advantage, he'll he's
good in the post and.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Different things like that.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
The other thing about shn Gun in this game, obviously
we don't have Fred van Vliet at all this year,
but right out it, right from the beginning, first couple
of possessions Shgoon top of the key, face up creation
that to me was notable, Like they're going to be
running that more. And I'm not talking about Shen hubb
out of the post, you know, get a double team
(07:36):
kick it out to three, but Shngoon running it as
almost like a point forward. And you know, we saw
him do that in EuroBasket and I think we'll probably
see that a lot more this year, especially with some
of the struggles playmaking.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Right now that the young players and reader and showing.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And what I thought was interesting is that you know,
Shoon really got going, it felt like the floor opened
up for him a little bit more when they went
with the double Big. We saw the lobby had to
Clint Capella, which was really nice. He had some really
strong minutes with Steven as well, which I think.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
We're used to.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But it felt a little bit like last year's team,
which shouldn't be shocking without Kevin Durant because if there's
no OKD. Really it's not that different than last year's
team in that the Double Big, more than anything, was.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
A move to boost the offense.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
You know, a lot of people think of the double
Big being, you know, defensive because you have all these
big bodies and theoretically you can control the paint rebound, YadA, YadA.
But where it really helps is on the offensive end,
because obviously you're able to crush the offensive class, but
it's also the screen setting. It's, in the case of
Clint Capella, now a lob threat and so it's able
(08:45):
to sort of unlock more layers or it makes the
opposing defense have to account for more things as opposed
to if they played traditionally without Kevin Durant or whatever
they had last year. They're so limited on the perimeter
that things on the likes of Shangoon get squeezed a
little bit. And so I think that's what we saw tonight,
(09:07):
is that when they went to the double big, the
floor opened up a little bit more for Shaangoon. I
know that sounds counterintuitive because you think going double big
it's going to be a floor spacing nightmare. Well it's
sort of the opposite, and that because there's more things
the defense has to account for, the game tends to
open up a little bit. Now, the flip side to
that is that they really struggled defensively for a stretch
in there, and it may not be their fault. I mean,
(09:28):
it's the preseason. Nobody's going all out defensively anyway. And secondly,
like Atlanta has a lot of guys who can shoot threes,
and so that's the one thing, especially if you don't
have KD, so you're not as long as you would
be otherwise in that zone.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You're gott to give up some looks from three.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Atlanta was hitting them at a pretty high clip, and
so that was sort of the trade off. They looked
really good on offense in the second quarter, the defense
slipped the first quarter.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Sort of the reverse.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They played really well defensively, but they couldn't get the
offense going. And so I think, at least without KD,
that's sort of the push and pull is that you
know that double big can really unlock some things offensively
and mitigate the weakness in terms of the playmaking, but
then you are going to have some challenges defensively. And
I think that's basically what we saw, because you know,
(10:13):
the first quarter they looked pretty good. You know, they
started without Kevin. It was Read Tari, a Men, Jabbari,
and Shengoon, and I thought they functioned pretty well defensively.
Read was a little too handsy, got in foul trouble.
But other than that, I mean, as you would expect
with Red, Tari and Jabari all out there, they defended
really well. It's just they really struggled to this year
(10:36):
at offense. I thought they took way too long to
get into their sets, sometimes without a point guard.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Maybe there were some nerves.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Both a Men and Reid weren't quite as crisps with
their handle as I would have liked. Now, the asterisk
that you have to put on that is that when
Kevin plays, the idea is that you know the gravity
the attention that he draws will hopefully make it a
little bit easier for guys like and Read to create.
So that's the one nitpick. And you know, that's where
(11:04):
Jad Davison comes into play, is that within the confines
of that specific weakness, JD is better right now, at
least with what the Rockets ran on the court Monday night.
Now maybe it's different when Kevin is out there. I
hope that's the case. But to me, as things were tonight,
that's the balance that I think they're trying to find,
is that you can go to the double big and
things look really crisp offensively, but then you have the
(11:26):
obvious defensive challenges. Offensively, Shangoon is going to be great
no matter what, but the floor gets a little bit sticky,
especially if those other guys like Reid aren't doing a
whole lot, and at some point you're gonna have to
look at some other options if he's not producing. Again,
not trying to get too panicked after one game, but
(11:47):
I think that's sort of what we.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Saw, you know, overall, just big picture. I mean, I'm
excited about what we saw today for sure. I think,
you know, Shangoon just to highlight those numbers. He had
nineteen points in short order seventeen to eighteen minutes. Fifteen
of those points came in the second quarter when he
kind of exploded and he was creating. He had a
couple of nice blocks coming up from behind as well.
But again, to me, the most notable thing with those
(12:10):
two threes because he's very comfortable taking him Shangun doesn't
have to be a forty percent three point shooter. He
just needs to be comfortable taking them in that. If
that's the case, players have to come out on him
and then he's effective going to the basket. It just
kind of open things up tremendously what I've wanted to
see from him forever. So I'm hoping that this is
real because we saw it certainly in EuroBasket. I do
(12:33):
worry a little bit because you lost Fred, who is
you know, for all his strengths and weaknesses, it's the
low turnovers that Fred is so good at his experience
and everything. I think with shng gun Men and Reed
doing a lot of that creation, you're gonna have to
be a little bit more efficient offensively overall, because I
do think you're gonna have more turnovers this year that
(12:53):
both or excuse me, all three of them are fairly
inexperienced as far as you know, running it as a
point necessarily, they're all good in different ways.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
But I think that's going to be something to watch
for this year.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Also, one other guy that I was a little bit
underwhelmed by. I mentioned JD having some positives relative to Read.
I also thought JD had some positives relative to Joshua
Koge when you look at some of the breakdowns they had.
I thought a Kogi was overly aggressive and he got
beaten back door, especially in that first.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Half a few times, and so JD.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
You would think a guy that's trying to get real
NBA minutes for the first time might be trying to
do too much. But on both ends of the court,
he seemed to play within himself. That's something you heard
from me may Joka that you know, not only offensively,
did like the control that he plays with, but defensively
because of his body, because of how thick he is
in the upper body, he's able to guard twos as well,
and so I thought that stood out as well, Like
(13:48):
I did think JD was a better defender than Red,
which you would expect given that reads a little bit light,
and he's still trying to figure out, you know, when
he can get those steals too often Niety had his
hands in the cookie jar, and just you know, offensive
players in the NBA are just too smart. I think
Reid can adjust back, but for a guy as young
as Reid is and without much experience, I thought they
took advantage of him. They did for large stretches of
(14:10):
last year as well in the limited minutes that he got.
But I thought JD looked better than Joshua Koge and
the defensive end as well, which sort of surprised me.
So we'll see how much they adjust between games. But
I really thought, you know, outside of the core guys,
you know, JD was the biggest bright spot. Keeping with
the theme of the first half, it was a really
(14:31):
good start to the game for Gavari Smith Junior. And
then you know, you look at the overall box score,
nine point six rebounds, I think three of eight from
the field, two of four from three, and so a
lot of the at least statistically a production, came very
early in the game. But I thought this was a
really good game for him. I thought he got to
his spots quite frankly, I think he looked much more
(14:52):
comfortable getting to exactly where he wanted to go and
going up and rising and firing.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
He just missed the shots.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
It wasn't like too often in his first three years
when for one reason or another he maybe he's been
a little bit too light, or it's the handle's a
little clunky, and so it just doesn't look no to me.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
It looked very fluid tonight.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
It looked real, And there's a world where if he
hits a couple of those middies, we're talking about him being,
you know, other than Shangun the start of the game,
because he puts up fifteen or thirteen points on good efficiency.
So I know the stat line has sort of hit
or miss. Obviously small sample size because nobody played more
than you know, twenty twenty five minutes in a preseason game.
But I thought this was a really encouraging game for Jabari.
(15:34):
He had some good shots that didn't go in, but
other than that, I feel like I'm both into the floor.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
He was where he needed to be.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, I just want Jabari to find his spots, you know,
and take his get his shots within the flow of
the offense.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I thought early on.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
You know, Shan Gun or very the beginning of the game,
read the double team perfectly. I think portzingis closed out
on closed on him, left Jabari open in the corner.
That's the first besket the Rockets made, was that Jabari
or three? I do want to play this clip. I've
never done this. We're going to get tested out real quick,
but I want to play this clip of Jabari the
move that I'm sure you know was coming, but that
(16:08):
when he went past Canar and then threw this dunk down.
Hopefully the audio isn't too loud, but I'll just play
it and just get your thoughts on it real quick.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Huge an acquisition, and you know, until Finney Smith gets back,
he's got a real opportunity for minutes at excellent training camp.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
See this to me. You know, we'll wait till the audio.
I don't know if the audio, like I said, is
playing or not, but we'll find out.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You know, okay, good. I had asted the volume, but
when I tested earlier, I didn't know if it like
just cranks it up regardless. But you know, like it's
against Canar, this is not like the greatest defender, but
he brought the ball up the entire way. You know,
worked as the ball basically there to the left, went
right around him basically with a little bit of a
fake move. You know, Jabari is not the greatest ballhander,
(16:56):
but you can tell from where he was as a
rookie he has to developed a bit. You've heard the
same things. I've heard the same things. This guy really
busted in the offseason.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
He's not alone.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Read amn shngoon all had great off seasons, but they
really have raved about what Jabari Smith Junior has done. Yeah,
he had that strong first quarter eight points. I don't
think he scored the rest of the game. I could
be wrong. He took a few shots that I liked,
but just like you said, miss them. I'm just liking
what I'm seeing from Jabari so far. We'll see how
(17:27):
this plays out, but I think we're going to see
it improved this year.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, I think that's a safe bet. And I also
like in the second half what we saw from Tari.
I mean if and again, it's so tough to sort
of project out besides the obvious one exhibition, the caveats
you can throw out with sample size, and people not
really going all out by any stretch of the imagination.
I do want to see a little bit more from
Tari as a creator, because I actually thought he was
(17:53):
the guy who seemed to have the most craft on
his finishes tonight, especially in the second half. He some
drives that I thought looked really encouraging, and so you know,
we've heard throughout camp all this talk that he wants
more minutes, more of an opportunity, more plays run for him,
and the first half, for whatever reason, I thought he
was a little bit timid. It wasn't that he looked bad.
(18:14):
You know, I thought, you know, Reid and a men
looked a little bit indecisive at times. With the men,
it looked to me sometimes like you know, he would
go up with a plan to kick it to the corner,
and sometimes those defenders for the for the Hawks sort
of read his intention and so he would think when
he went up that, you know, A Reid was going
(18:35):
to be there, and then ultimately it wasn't because they
anticipated that he wasn't really looking for that shot on
the drive. Maybe that changes in the regular season when
he's more willing to sort of throw his body around
and absorb contact. You can certainly hope for that for
whatever reason, I thought Tari was a little unassertive in
the first half. I thought that changed in the six
or so minutes that he played to start the third quarter,
(18:57):
and I thought he looked pretty good. And so that's
what I like to see more. I think this is
a you know, potentially a contract preseason for Tari. I mean,
this is the last time that he can, you know,
make a case to rafel Stone in the front office
to get an extension before that deadline two weeks from
today Monday, the twentieth, I believe is the deadline, or
he goes into restricted free agency next summer. So I
would like to see Tari have a big preseason. I
(19:19):
think he would like to as well. I thought what
little I think, what little we saw from him today
looked good. Just for whatever reason, he wasn't very I
didn't think he was all that assertive. That surprised me
a little bit. I would suspect it changes over the
next couple of games.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And we're not going to see Tari and Adams for
the next game, right I think they're sitting at that.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's what they said.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
However, I am sort of keeping an eye open because
they also said that Kevin Durant would be available for
all four.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Games, and then he wasn't. So I think.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I think the only things that are set in stone
are that the two games next week will be the
dress rehearsals, because those are the closest to the regular season,
They've had a little bit more time to build guides up.
I think every this week is sort of touch and go,
and that they see how everybody plays or everybody feels
going into you know, practice or shoot around whatever it
(20:10):
is on a given day, and then adjust accordingly. So
I know they said Tarri and Stephen wouldn't be available,
I take that with a little bit of a grain
of salt. At least with Tarry now with Steven at
his age and mileage, yeah, I think that's a safe bet.
But if Tari bounces back well and he wants to
prove that he's no longer restricted, it wouldn't shock me
if he ended up playing Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, I was a.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Little frustrated about Katie not playing. I mean, it's not
a big deal. I'm I'm not losing my mind. I know,
like David wien Er, beam a thug, was at the game.
He was all pumped up of seeing KT play, you know,
getting tickets for this particular game, but you know, it
is what it is. You got to be careful. He
just turned thirty seven years old. It's an important year.
You're you're a contender now, and so you do have
to be careful. I just expected that first game, you know,
(20:51):
him to come out and show us something. Hopefully we'll
see him here for the next one. You know, I
know you talked a little bit about Reid. I want
to ask you about him that there was a there
were some nice plays from reading the game, there was
one in the second quarter where you know, he was
bringing the ball back up I think around the nail
area and kind of jumped without knowing where he was
passing to throw it out of bounds. I think that
(21:12):
there's going to still be some of those growing pains
with him. He still feels like I think he's going
to be good. So I'm not in any way knocking read.
I just think that he's just being put in a
situation that I don't know if he's quite ready for you.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
And I will say, and I'm sure you will agree.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Rockets have been consistent about how good he looks, and
they they've been saying it since they before they drafted him,
when they drafted him last year. This year, they love
Read Shepherd, they believe in him highly. So I trust
the Rockets they felt this way about him and Thompson,
and I believe they've been proven right so far. I
want to believe him on Read Shepherd as well. So
(21:50):
it's early. I think we're just going to see some
of that stuff, which is tough for a contender. You're
going to probably see some turnovers this year that you don't.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Like, Yeah, and he's going to get into foul trouble
d defensively, it just is what it is because at
his height and weight, for him to be impactful defensively,
he has to get some seals and blocks. Well, if
you're trying to get steals and blocks at his lack
of experience, you're going to get some fouls too. It
just is what it is, especially with bigger defenders trying
to hunt him in the post. And the hope is
(22:18):
that he wins enough to where you just live with
the foul trouble that he gets himself into on occasion.
So I will say with Reid, it wasn't a great
game by any means, but I do think you need
to wait on Kevin Durant before you form any substantive
conclusions because what they asked reed to do tonight, we
know he's a a He's at a disadvantage on defense
(22:41):
for obvious reasons. Offensively, I think for someone of his profile,
you generally want one of two things. So ideally you'd
bring him off the bench and you're going up against backups.
Obviously that's not happening right now with the friend injury.
We'll see what they decide with the starting lineup and
opening night, and if it's not against backups, then you
want at least him to have several other top shelf
(23:04):
playmakers next to him so that he's maybe getting the
weakest defender on the other team. And that really wasn't
the case tonight without Kevin Durant. And I think, you know,
a men had a little bit of an underwhelming game
on offense. Although the more I think about it with
the men, it's like what I said a few minutes ago,
I think a lot of a men's game is sort
(23:25):
of conditional on being able to, you know, absorb contact
and finish through awkward angles at the rim, and you're
not really going to want to put your body through
that that type of pounding in a in a preseason game.
And so in some ways it sort of reminds me
of how you remember at the end of last season
when Jalen Green would be absolutely terrible in these, you know,
(23:47):
these playing out the string games late in seasons. I
think it's sort of the same the same deal with
the men, and that when you're talking about a guy
who's so dependent on using that burst and you know,
twisting his body to finish through NBA level bigs at
or near the rim, A lot of that depends on
being willing to absorb contact and you're not actually gonna
(24:09):
want to do that in a game where nothing matters
and you just want to make sure that nothing bad
happens from an jury perspective. So I think that's a
little bit of what happened with the men tonight. I
mentioned on some of the drives it looked like, you know,
the defenders or the Hawks were sort of anticipating they
wouldn't try to finish and so trying to read him
for the pass. But where that plays in to read
is that if Shangoon is really the only high level
(24:31):
playmaker out there, then Reid's not going to have the
advantage of drawing the weakest defender. And so if he's
going up against NBA level starters, and this is a
good Atlanta team that I think, I think they're probably
going to make the playoffs in the East if they're
agree yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good team. And
so I think with Read being as young as he
is and having the you know, deficiencies in terms of
(24:53):
size and defense, you need to give him some some
training wheels in some way. And ideally the training wheels
would have been coming off the bend sort of just
gradually building him up the way a lot of young
players are sort of handled around the NBA. That may
not be a luxury the Rockets can afford this year,
depending on what their other options are for the starting lineup.
(25:13):
But if not that, then I think the hope is that, hey,
when you have KD. Shulgoon and a men all clicking,
then that's going to draw up attention to where Reid
can can get going.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Out of some really advantaged scenarios.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
So for people down on Reid, I see someone in
the comment saying, Read, ain't it I get it. It
wasn't a great game, but I would wait to see
how he looks when the Rockets are closer to full strength,
because I think the idea is that he should look
better once they have other guys that can draw more attention.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Absolutely, you know, before we wrap up, I know Tony
had asked this question just on YouTube, say, this is
something you're going to be doing throughout the season, and yeah,
Ben and I hope to do some of these after games,
certainly just to sort of, you know, recap what we saw.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
We've been doing playback.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And you guys are certainly very familiar with that and
see how that goes. But I just want to be
able to do a little bit more analysis and things
that we saw and noticed, you know, taking those throughout
the game and stuff.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
So well, yeah, we'll see how this goes this year.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
We're still looking forward to Katie's first game with the Rockets,
and you know, the Rockets looked pretty good offensively today
and missing probably their best, you know, most efficient score,
let's say. So, you know, I'm really looking forward to
this season. I think it's going to be fun. There's
a lot to like about the Rockets. It's unfortunate about Fred,
(26:30):
I don't you know, they're they're holding out hope he
could come back at the end of the year, but
you know I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I'm not too well, yeah, optimistic about that exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
But you know, they still have a team that, in
my opinion is top four worthy in the West, and
that's a great place to be as strong as the
West is, if not a little bit higher.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
And by the way, I will say, if Fred doesn't
come back, so you know, there's two scenarios, the one
where he beats the odds and somehow he's backed by April.
If he's not, I think is his extremely likely that
he will opt in and use his player option. I
don't think he'll want to enter free agency coming off
an aclchair and without having any production on his ledger
in a year, especially because last year was sort of
(27:12):
a down year for him statistically that there were reasons
for that. He had the bad ankle sprain, YadA, YadA.
But I don't think Fred would decline a one year,
twenty five million dollar deal, especially because we all know
he wants to be here coming off an ACL taar.
So one way or another, Fred is going to be back,
and so that's why. I also think Fred or Reid
(27:33):
excuse me, is going to get a little bit of
a longer leash because in a perfect world, I do
think they would want to run lineups with more long
term sustainability. So obviously they hope Read develops into a
starting level point guard in the NBA. I think they
view Fred as already being one, and he should be
back next year. If he doesn't come back this year,
I think it's very likely he'll come back next year
(27:53):
because he'll opt in for that player option, And so
I do think if it's close with regards to the lineups,
might see the mirror on the side of something a
little more traditional, simply because they are eventually going to
have a more prototypical point guard out there, be it
Read or Front.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, you know, and and we'll save this particular conversation
for another time. But the Fred, But was Fred is
such an important player to this team, kind of irreplaceable
for what he does? I mean, Reid could is certainly
being groomed for that position down the line playing not
ready right now.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
But it's it's he was sort of irreplaceable.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
And then now there's that question of whether is he
a contract to be traded. Like I said, we could
save that conversation for.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Another time because I think that's conditional on how they
play in the first you know, forty to fifty games.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
And yeah, there's.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Absolutely a world where it could happen. And yeah, to
the question about doing this, Yeah, we'll do this after
some games. Maybe not after the West Coast games that
are over at uh yeah, you know, God there's some
ten pm starts this year, they'll be over at like
one am.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
But yeah, we'll do it after some games.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And like we could also you know, we'll see what
you know, schedules allow for. But you know we can
also do it on a day between games and and
you know, go live on a you know, on an
off day responding to you know, maybe there's interesting stuff
at practice. Maybe it's you know, a big week for
discussions amongst the fan base, and so you guys can
pop in in the chat and ask us, or you know,
(29:14):
maybe there's a way you can have other people hop on.
I mean, there's lots of options. But yeah, the bottom line,
I think we both want to be more interactive this year.
There should be a season that I mean not should be,
it is a season that is more anticipated than any
and sometimes so yeah, we definitely want to be a
part of it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Absolutely going to be a really fun year. Ben, appreciate
you doing this, and everybody in the chat and watching live.
Appreciate all of you you know, for supporting and we'll
be back soon. Rockets want to zero in the preseason
and moving on to the next game and we'll hopefully
see Kevin Durant make his preseason Rockets debut here for
Game two.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Thanks everybody, have a great night.
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