October 15, 2025 • 31 mins
Tuesday’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show features reaction from Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty to Houston’s 130-128 exhibition victory over New Orleans. The Rockets are now 3-0 in preseason play.
Topics include a big night for Jabari Smith Jr.; the implications of starting a “double big” lineup with Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams; and whether defensive concerns are warranted.
The episode can be viewed in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng5u1_5sSYM
Topics include a big night for Jabari Smith Jr.; the implications of starting a “double big” lineup with Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams; and whether defensive concerns are warranted.
The episode can be viewed in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng5u1_5sSYM
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome in. Rockets are three to zero in the preseason.
We just watched the Rockets beat the Pelicans in Birmingham, Alabama,
one thirty to one twenty eight, a game that probably
wasn't as close as the final score would suggest, but
Aaron Holliday puts in the game winner with one point
eight seconds left and Rockets moved to three and oh
(00:22):
in the preseason. We've got a lot of things to
discuss for this one because we saw some changes, and
I want to introduce my co host Ben Debos. Ben,
good to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, absolutely, it's three down and ninety nine to go, right,
because you got one more preseason game, eighty two in
the regular season and then sixteen in the postseason.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, and this was you know, it's interesting. The game
was one point game at halftime, sixty to fifty nine
after Kevin Durant hit that shot basically just before the
final horn. And there's a lot to discuss in there.
There were some good things, some bad things, but it
starts with the starting lineup change for sure, and that's
(01:04):
the Rockets went big. This looks more like a final
dress rehearsal. Reeed Shepherd is out restarted the first two
preseason games, Steven Adams was in what was what did
you see in the switch to the big lineup?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, we were talking offline before we started recording, and
I thought Steven, even though he had just two points,
was the story of the game because he was plus
twenty six and twenty four minutes, which is just ridiculous.
And I went and looked back. This is only the
second time, including preseason, regular season, and postseason, that all
for in Ching Goon and Steven Adams have started together.
(01:37):
You know what the first time was? It was against
the Oklahoma City Thunder last April when the Rockets won
by fourteen at home. And who did the Rockets open
with next Tuesday? The Oklahoma City Thunder, who will most
likely be starting Chuck Hungren and Isaiah Hartenstein. So it's
a friendly matchup for the double Big. It's a difficult matchup,
so he might have to go outside the box. So
(01:58):
I don't know if it's necessarily a long term choice,
but at least for opening night. The more you dig
into the opponent the matchup, it makes a lot of
sense for the Rockets to potentially start with the double big.
And I also wonder after watching this game tonight, if
Steven Adams might be, in a very convoluted way, the
(02:19):
perfect replacement for Fred bintleyt And obviously they are wildly
different as players in terms of you know, one's the
smallest guy on the court and one is probably the biggest,
but they are both very high iq very high floor,
and when your other four guys are as high upside
as Certainly the big three of Kevin, Durant, Aman Thompson
(02:39):
all per inching goon, but Javari Smith Junior, who had
an excellent scoring night tonight, clearly has a ton of
upside that fifth spot. It may be less about the
ceiling and more about the floor, and Fred and Stephen
do it in very different ways. But Stephen with certainly
the screen setting, the offensive rebounding, the presence or the rim,
(03:01):
He's never gonna be a zero. He's always going to
make contributions and the plus minus doesn't lie in that regard.
So that's why I wonder if maybe it's not in
every game thing, and certainly at thirty two, you're gonna
need to load manage him throughout the season, but when
the games are most meaningful, and especially if it's an
advantage matchup like the Thunder if maybe it's to your
(03:23):
benefits to start Steven Adams, because whoever you start is
gonna at least have a floor of I would say
twenty to twenty two minutes per game, because whoever you start,
unless there's like insane foul trouble, they're gonna play the
first six minutes of the first and third quarters. That's
twelve right there, and they're going to come back for
at least one brief stint otherwise four or five minutes,
(03:43):
probably more than that, but at least I would say
one more four or five minutes stint perhaps, So you're
looking at twenty to twenty two at a minimum, and
then if they're any good at all, obviously you can
go from twenty to twenty two to somewhere in the
range of twenty eight to thirty very easily, as opposed
to if you're coming out the bit, sure you're gonna
play at least probably twelve minutes per game, but your
(04:04):
role can be it's much easier to slide it up
or down. And so if you're looking at guys who
maybe your higher ceiling but also have lower floors, like
a reed shepherd, like Atari Ethan. Then sure, if they're hot,
you can play the hot hand and reward them. But
if they don't have it going on a given night,
then you can maybe play them twelve to fifteen minutes
(04:24):
and it's not that big of a deal. And so
if your starting lineup already has a ton of upside
between KD, shoon Amen and now Jabbari, it might make
sense to play the higher floor guy. So, you know,
I did a lot of thinking tonight because the first
couple of games I sort of looked at Reid as
the drop in replacement because from an archetype standpoint, he's
(04:46):
the closest to Fred and that's something that people around
the team have pointed out. But then in terms of
how the whole unit functions, what I was thinking after tonight,
maybe it makes sense just to go with the higher
floor guy, because you know, you have enough upside between
those other four and so rather than you know, take
the risk of Reed or Tarre having a really bad
night with Steven, He's never going to be a negative.
(05:07):
He's always going to be at least a neutral, usually
a slightly positive. So maybe, you know, I don't want
to say it's in every game thing, because the double
big isn't without its challenges. But I guess my biggest
takeaway after tonight the double Big with Steven Adams has
a very high floor. I don't want to say a
double big because I did think there were some some
rough minutes when it was Capella out there and not
(05:29):
Steven Adams. Those didn't necessarily go that well. But if
Steven Adams is part of the double Big, the floor
is really high. And maybe the floor is what we
should be looking at in the absence of Frond beIN Fleet.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, you know, Steven Adams to me is like it's
just like evidence that the buck score can lie, you know,
because this guy is so impactful. Yet you look and
he's one for four from the field, really not giving
you much else. So you look at the rebounds, six
offensive rebounds, just second chance opportunity after second chance opportunity.
He's done this everywhere he's been. He is a major
(06:02):
impact player in what he does for you know, box
plus minus, and you know, it's been a luxury to
have him. He's a starting level center just about anywhere,
so and I think that's what he is going to
be doing now. Shangoon's probably going to be you know,
I don't know about positions anymore, but Shanguon's probably switching
to the four sort of speak and whatever you want
to call it in this double Big lineup. And yeah,
(06:24):
he's just tremendous. Like you said, the plus minus today showed,
and you know, I think that I don't know if
it's not so much that Read lost the opportunity. Maybe
they just wanted to give him that experience. Maybe this
was the plan all along for Emay, but I think
this is where they're going. I think they're going to
start the double BIB.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
That's just my guess, especially with the Thunder.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah. Absolutely, and the.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Pistons are pretty physical too, so I would say that
whole first week sort of sets up for the Double Big.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, you know. And speaking of going big, today,
we got to talk a little bit about Jabari Smith
Junior because this guy was so aggressive today. I mean
I barely recognized him. I always believed in Jabari obviously,
but you know, he was so aggressive with his shot.
I don't know if this was the game plan necessarily
(07:09):
because he did have Jordan Pool on him. I would assume,
knowing e May, that their plan was to basically attack,
you know, Jordan Poole, but there was several instances where
he didn't hesitate in the slightest, was very comfortable getting
into his spots, you know, took a lot of catch
and shoot opportunities, but also created posted up you know, drove.
(07:33):
At times, he just looks like a different player. He
looks more confident. I don't I don't know so much
if it's the physical nature, you know, physical improvements as
much as just he looks comfortable out there. And it
showed today he had twenty four points in less than
twenty minutes and there was just I want to play
this one play. It really wasn't anything special, but you
had pointed out before that Jabbari and KD were bringing
(07:56):
the ball up a lot, and you can see him
bringing up here and immediately they go right into the
post up and you know, with Pool on him and
he takes him. He doesn't score here, but he draws
the file and gets to the line. That's what we're
seeing more of from Jabari. And when you are going
with such a big lineup, Jabari's gonna have players that
sometimes there are six five, six, six, six, you know, seven
(08:20):
guarding him. I can't believe he says sixty seven, My
daughter's gonna flip out. But still, you know that's what's
gonna happen. You're gonna have some mismatches with Jabari, and
I think we saw that today.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, and he may talk to in training camp about
one of the advantages just starting Jabari alongside that big
three was that you could give it to him and
he could take advantage of some of the weaker defenders
who would inevitably be put on him at times. And
I know in this configuration it's not that Steven is
a dynamic offensive player, but Steven is so big you're
gonna have to cover him with a big someone that
can at least provide something of a presence near the
(08:52):
rim to help box out. So yeah, when someone like
a Jordan Poole is on Jabari, it makes all the
sense to milk him. But yeah, I thought it was
noteworthy the way they were initiating sets with Jabari and
KD because you know, they would have a men bring
the ball up the court in the back court just
in case someone wanted to press them, but as soon
as it got to half court, it felt like they
(09:13):
were confident in Kad and Jabari to make the right decisions.
Obviously they want to take advantage of what a men
can do off the ball, and so yeah, it felt
like in the first and third quarters there was a
lot of initiation through either KD drawing something close to
a double and then having a four on three type
of situation, or just trusting Jabari to go out and
(09:34):
put the ball on the floor if that's what the
situation calls for. And that's why you focus on the
overall skills development. At twenty two years old, it's too
soon to consider him just a three and D type
of player. No, there's more to his game, especially if
he's going to be in this type of starting lineup
where there's going to be so much gravity drawn by
three players that he's playing alongside. Then yeah, that's why
you work on the handle and doing other things. Be
(09:56):
able to put the ball on the floor, to pass
and create at times. And I thought you saw that tonight.
It was really really encouraging, not just any made shots,
but the overall totality of his game, the way he
was able to make plays in so many different areas. Yeah,
it sets up to me this season should be a
clear leap forward for him. I don't know if it
(10:17):
will be statistically just because I don't know how many
shots they are going to be. There's so many mouths
to feed, especially when you get to the regular season.
But in terms of efficiency impact on winning, he is
set up to thrive, and I thought tonight in the
dress rehearsal he did exactly that. Now, I do want
acknowledge the elephant in the room. I did think that,
you know, defensively in the third quarter, it was very
(10:40):
good and that's where they largely put the game away. Now,
I know they had to win it on the Aaron
Holliday buzzer beater or close to a buzzer beater with
like a second and a half left, But it was
a weird game in that, you know, they were elite
offensively pretty much the entire time they were playing their
big guns. They really really struggled defensively in the second quarter.
(11:01):
That's what allowed the Pelicans to briefly get a lead
before that KD near a buzzer beater at the half.
Then it felt like sort of the vintage Warriors. The
Rockets in the third quarter came out sort of annoyed
and said, yeah, let's put this game away, and they
pretty much did, even if the backups largely let that
get away in the fourth quarter with Jabari starting alongside
(11:21):
Steven and Alpi, and this triple big if you will shoot,
you can call it quadruple big because it's basically a
men Jari, kd Stephen and Shingoon. The dribble penetration stopping it,
I mean, is going to be an issue. Like they
just don't have the lateral quickness, and I think you
know that's the one thing. You know, Javari is a
very switchable defender, but it's not realistic to expect him
(11:45):
to stop six foot guys that are uber quick and
able to put the ball on the floor. He can
deter them, and certainly his length in the zone can
make some things happen, but he's not at the level
of really Amn Thompson, and I guess you know you
can seek a few minutes for Tarry Easton there, but
he's not a perimeter stopper. And certainly Steven Adams and
(12:08):
all Princh and Goon are nowhere close, and Kevin Durant
at thirty seven is very limited as well. So offensively,
this is going to flow really well, and it did. Defensively,
it was a mixed bag at best. You know, the
silver lining you can point to in the third quarter
when they really wanted to put the game away, they
were able to, and so that's a good sign. But
(12:29):
I do think that what it shows you is that
this configuration, if they do go double big for long
stretches this year with Steven Adams, they're going to be
very dependent on how much gas they have in the tank.
And over eighty two regular season games, it's easy for
us to sit here and say, yeah, they should go
all out every game. I don't think that's realistic, especially
with as veteran laden as they are right now. So
(12:53):
the silver lining, once you get to the playoffs, these
guys will have more time between games. They'll go all out,
and so if if they crash the glass, if they're
super active like defending the passing lanes, they had the
overall length of physicality to overcome some of the issues
with dribble penetration. But I do worry a little bit
that during the regular season, you know, last year it
(13:13):
felt like fifty two and thirty that group sort of
squeezed out every last drop in terms of what emo
Udoka did with that team. This year's team may be
a little bit different. There may be some games in
the regular season that we're really frustrated because it just
feels like, you know, the opponent is getting way too
easy of shots compared to what we would like them
to and what on paper we think they should be
(13:35):
able to get. But I think the flip side is
that they have a gear once you get to bigger
games and especially the playoffs, once those double big lineups
fully lock in with the zone and trying to you know,
do everything they can to crash the glass get every steal.
They have a gear that last year's team didn't have.
So that's the upside. The downside, but I do worry
(13:57):
about a little bit is that maybe in the regular
season you don't see them getting every margin advantage that
they did a year ago.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, you know tonight, just real quick. As far as
the Pelicans are concerned, I I came into this year
thinking this is a clear lottery team. I you know,
was stunned that they traded their draft pick for Queen
and you know in the draft their their draft pick
for next year, which I think is going to set
Atlanta up nicely. Then I saw Zion looked like he's
in tremendous shape. But I watched him tonight. I don't
(14:25):
think that team is I think they're out of the playoffs.
We'll see they might, you know, fight for the bubble
or you know, for the play in but I just
think that team's probably one of your bottom five. We'll
see how it actually plays out. But yeah, it was
a mixed bag. You know. I mentioned this at the
same game. I'm a little concerned about the defense. I
clipped some of them, but I didn't bring them in
here to the to the stream because they just didn't
(14:46):
want to focus too much on that negativity. But there
were some clear plays. There was one in the zone
where a men went over to help read over to
the left side, you know, be on the three point
line for when they had two guys coming on our
pick and roll, which kind of had left his own spot,
which left Shangoon on an island, and Shangun didn't come
over to recover, and Drey Murphy had a wide open
free there was not anybody within ten to fifteen feet
(15:09):
of him. He missed, but he was wide open, and
Shangun knew that there was a miscommunication. I think it
probably was on the men. You saw that time out
quickly when Alvarado and Transition just went right past Reid
and and got the layup, and e May was not
happy and wanted to talk about it. I really don't
want to judge the defense in its totality until we
(15:29):
actually see Dorian Finney Smith. But you've lost Fred, you
lost Jalen, And I know people will say, well, you can't,
you know, put too much on Jalen or whatever, But
I'm just going to give him a little bit of credit.
He was a starter for this unit for a couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
While they're and he was he was laterally quick. I
guess that's what I'm getting at, is that the way
they're built, especially if to go with a double big,
there's not a ton of lateral quickness defensively, and so
you can try harder on the glass, you can try
to be more active with steels and your overall length
in the zone. But some of these deficiencies, you know,
short of the app for being superhuman, and that might
(16:01):
happen on occasion, It will certainly happen in the playoffs,
but it's not necessarily going to be night and day
different by the time you get to the regular season.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, and so we'll see the defense is definitely a
work in progress. I did, and Fred as well. You're missing,
but I think Dylan until we see DFS come out
and play, sure is gonna be missed. He's just he was,
in my opinion, the representation of their physical defense. You've
still got Tari, you got your Bar, you got a
mend Those are all good defensive players, switchable and all that,
(16:31):
but Dylan is unique and very physical. So we'll see
how this actually plays out. A couple of things I
want to talk about, one being KD. What we saw
from KD. I thought, to me, this game clearly showed
this guy's the closer of the team. I don't think
that that's anything breaking news, but I just thought that
what we saw, especially at the very end of the
(16:51):
half when he did hit that shot, to me, this
is a guy who I think they're going to when
they need a big bucket. Just hand the ball to
him and him go to work. You see him working
out of the high post, taking his guy here against
the end one. He had plenty of mid range turnarounds
in this game, one being right here I believe, And then,
(17:12):
like I said, also had that shot at the end
of the half was good in the third quarter. You know,
this is the second game that we see kt as
a Rocket and the road broadcast was basically drooling over him.
The guy is truly special, even at thirty seven years old,
if he's healthy, and that's you know, all year, I
think the Rockets are going to be very strong. They
have such a tremendous offensive weapon now as their primary
(17:36):
source of offense. You know, it's just a matter of
how much do you lose defensively in the overall big
picture until DFS gets back, but just offensively, this team
looks much improved from last year.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think what was most telling Katie actually
missed all of his threes tonight and he still had
fifteen points in twenty eight minutes on nearly forty seven
percent shooting. Let's be blunt with Jalen Green. Last year
it was threes, layups and not much else. He couldn't
even get to the line very frequently. And you can
criticize officials if you want, but the reality is he
(18:09):
just didn't get there very often, whereas with Kevin, even
if the threes aren't falling. And this is a fifty
to forty ninety guy for years in terms of his
shooting splits. So I don't think you need to worry
about him forgetting how to shoot. I think it's just
an off night. But yeah, I think the fact that
he has other elements that he can turn to in
his game, it's just night and day different than last year,
(18:31):
where if Jalen didn't have it going on from three,
I mean you sort of have to shrug your shoulders
and a lot of these matchups and say where are
you going to get the points from in the half court?
And that's not meant to be a shot at Jalen.
It's just a discussion of this year's seven why it's
so different, because what you've basically done is put Kevin
Durant into the Jalen Green role in terms of being
your tip of the spear perimeter score. Now, how much
(18:54):
is the defense going to drop off? Yeah, that's a
fair question. We can wonder about that, and you know,
I don't want to go too far down that road
until the games get real and we see what they
look like it closer to peak effort. But offensively, yeah,
they were a middle of the pack offense last year,
even with Jalen Green's flaws. Tonight was a reminder that
even if KD isn't making the threes, he's still so
(19:14):
much better in so many areas that he just makes
the offense that much better overall. And certainly it's not
all him. Jabari had a big game. We should talk
about Tari briefly as well, who had twenty points on
nine to fifteen shooting. But I think a lot that
comes down to KD. I mean, KD draws so much
attention that your ancillary pieces like Jabari and like Tari
are able to get much more advantage situations when they're
(19:35):
in the game.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, and I was gonna mention Tari as well. Tari
talks about being underrated, and and he's right because we
didn't even you know, my fault, didn't even mention him
until now. But yes, twenty points off the bench in
twenty one minutes. Was nine of eleven inside the arc,
oh four from beyond the arc, but hit nine of
eleven inside and had a very very strong game. Him
and Jabari really kind of keyed and led the offense
(19:57):
and then ended up with twenty one as well. Got
to give a shout out to Shangoon. He wasn't his
best game, but still eight points, twelve boards, seven assists.
But it leads me to the problem with the Rockets
offense that is showing itself and that's the turnovers. Yeah,
eleven of them in the first half. Shangoon finished with
six turnovers today read with four and read it. He
(20:19):
played the final two minutes of the first quarter, had
two of the worst turnovers that the kind that you
know coach will pull his hair out watching, and he
had four and I believe the men had three. So
that was thirteen of those turn of the team's turnovers
from from the three guys that you are hoping to
kind of take over from Fred as far as your
lead ball handler, like you said, you pointed out Kadi
(20:41):
and Jabari were bringing the ball up a lot tonight.
But those are the three that you expect to be
kind of creators or you know, the assist guys, and
they can't have the high turnovers. So no, you're more
efficient offensively, but you are turning it over more.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, And I guess if you want to find a
silver lining, I didn't think that a lot of the
turnovers were because they couldn't do something. It's not like
guys were just getting ripped in the back court. It
was more that the Pelicans had them scouted. Like I thought,
they were overplaying a lot early in the shot clock,
and the Rockets reads were a little vanilla, and so
(21:16):
it looked to me like the Pelicans were anticipating. And
I think the fact that Shin Gooon had six turnovers.
I don't want to say it was a bad game
for him, because certainly he always you know, brings a
lot of gravity and so that helps his teammates. But
he wasn't nearly as efficient when we talk about the
playmaking and the passing as he was in his first
couple of games. The fact that it's not just a
(21:37):
men and Red, but it's Shagoon as well leads to
me to believe it's not necessarily a physical deficiency. It's
more that, you know, the Pelicans had them well scouted,
They had a good idea of what they wanted to do.
And now it's on Emu Joka and the Rockets as
a staff, not just any player individually, to develop some
counters and if they're going to overplay on these, you know,
(21:58):
drible handoffs up high, then okay, get some more offful
movement going towards the bucket to sort of make them
pay if they're going to play that aggressively. So I
guess that's the one positive spin I would try to
put on it, is that the turnovers, Yeah, they're terrible,
and without Fred that's you know, absolutely one of the
big variables to watch for going into this year. But
I do think it's something that they theoretically can't adjust to.
(22:20):
It's not like they were just getting ripped going up
the court. It was more they got in the sets
and the Pelicans just sort of outsmarted them, out scouted them,
whatever you want to call it, and just anticipated the
action before the Rockets ran it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, there's one thing I want to talk about before
we you know, finished tonight, and that's basically the little
skirmish we saw. I believe was it second quarter, maybe
it was third. I'm blanking out here on the second
quarter and second quarter, thank you. Let me be clear
on this, and I've got the clip, I'll play it.
But you know, Alvarado was the instigator of this, clearly
(22:56):
was getting up in a man and he's the Alvarado
is done this his whole career. He's the Beverly Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
But the thing about this is a man. He's young
and he's amazing, but some of his reactions get have
gotten him in trouble in the past. And I think
we may have gotten you know, we may be good
(23:19):
here because when I first saw it, I thought he
clearly threw a punch.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah. I worried that too. The wide shot, Yeah yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Looking at it here you can see it here a
little bit in slow motion, he kind of, you know,
he kind of yeah, he kind of throws his hand.
I mean, you could consider they're stalling, not a closed
fist punch, and it's kind of a push slash shove
slash punch. I don't know what you want to call.
It didn't connect. I think we may get lucky here.
But my initial reaction was here comes one game suspension
for the OKC game, first game of the year.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, mine too.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
He was only called a flagrant one and he stayed
in the game, Like I said, finished with twenty one
points overall, five boards, three assists. What was what's your
over feeling here? I think I probably won't endear myself
to rockets fans to say, I really wish you would
chill a little bit. But I mean, I'm not out there,
no out there banging with these guys. I know how
tough that is. But I'm just saying I wish his
(24:12):
reaction on that, I wish it just toned down just
a touch, because, yeah, he could get in trouble pretty.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Easily, Yeah he could. I worry that it was a
punch initially until I saw the replays and look, I
thought what Alvarado did was a dirty play. So I'm
not going to say that that a man wasn't justified
in doing what he did. However, I think part of
the responsibility of being a star in the NBA is
(24:39):
recognizing that you are more important than most players, and
so if a man had responded the way I'm sure
he wanted to on some level. Yeah, my guess is
that the officials probably would have tossed both of them.
Maybe they both get suspensions because if the league office
looks at it, and then, you know, I don't want
to say it's impossible league office looks at it, but
(24:59):
I I think they're probably out of the woods simply
because they stop the game to review this. For several minutes,
and so the only way that you could discipline after
the fact is if the league office determined that the
refs screwed up. Like, if you disciplined after the fact,
then you're saying the flagrant one was wrong and that
this should have been So I doubt they want to
say on the record that their officials, after an extended review,
(25:20):
watched this. So I think, you know, this particular incident
is probably in the rearview mirror. But if it had
gotten worse, and certainly it has in the past, look
at the Tyler Hero situation a year ago. The bottom
line is if both of those players get tossed and
men Thompson is way more important to the Rockets than
Jose Alvarado is to the Pelicans, and Jose Alvarado knows that,
(25:41):
and that's true of most people that go against him.
Men Thompson, you can you know, I saw someone in
the comments saying that you can bait him. I mean
that sounds a little strong, but I think that's a
little bit of what Jose Alvarado was doing. He was
sort of trolling a little bit, and we see that
from time to time with various players in the NBA.
And the bottom line is some of these more troll
type players. I mean, we saw this with Pat Beverley
(26:02):
back in the day. I think one of the reasons
Pat Beverley played that way on some level he knew, Hey,
if both of us get tossed, it's gonna be a
net benefit to our team because I'm really not that
important in the grand scheme. So yeah, and so that's
the big thing for me with the Men. It's like,
you know, I don't think he's doing anything wrong per se,
because I mean, it was a dirty play by Jose Alvarado.
(26:23):
Like I can't blame a men for responding like he was.
He was not the instigator here, not even close. However, Yeah,
if you're a star of the NBA and a men
is pretty close. Like one of the reasons for optimism
with this year's team is, you know, you don't just
have two All Stars and KD and alprin jan Noon. Internally,
(26:43):
the Rockets fell like they have three all star caliber players. Well,
if you are an all Star caliber player in the NBA,
it's going to be a net loss to your team
if you get tossed along with somebody on the other side,
because most players are not all stars that you're going
up against. So yeah, that's where I understand where it
(27:03):
comes from. And in a lot of these situations, I
don't think a man is a hot head, so to speak.
I think he plays a physical brand of ball, and
in situations where it's gone, you know, maybe over the
line a little bit, I think he has not been
the instigator in most of them. However, I do think that,
and hopefully this happens with time and maturity, but as
(27:24):
it sets in on him that he's one of the
best twenty thirty forty players in the world. Hey, him
getting tossed is a bigger deal for the Rockets than
whoever he's going up against is getting tossed for the opponent.
So yeah, it's it may not be fair, but that's
just the responsibility that comes from being a top solve
player in the NBA and hopefully adjusted that.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, and I think he will. I'm hoping. I mean
it's a double edged sword because the dude is so competitive,
he's so unique. He's just special. You talk to the player,
talk to people with the Rockets behind the scenes, they'll
just rave about him and Thompson, how good he is.
You know, especially defensively, and just how good of an
athlete he is. He's so competitive the way what he
wants to be, you know in the NBA. That drive
(28:05):
is probably also what sparks some of this. He just
doesn't put up with craps and and responds. But we've
seen it a few times, Tyler Harrow. We saw it,
remember a year and a half ago, I think against
Dallas at the end of the year in his rookie season.
I can't remember who it was, Maxic Leeber maybe he tossed,
I can't remember. But you know, we're going to get
(28:25):
into playoff situations that are going to be way more
competitive than this preseason game. I just hope he, you know,
kind of learns to to tone that down, just in
touch so we don't lose him for other games, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
And to respond to someone in the comments I'm reading,
how would you feel if someone bear hugged you and
refuse to let go while pulling you to the ground,
It's instinct to push him off, Yes, one hundred percent agree. However,
he was close to going over the line tonight. He
didn't do it, but for a what second, it looked
like he did so I guess it's one of those things,
you know, a bullet, Yes, yeah, dodged a bullet, and
(28:58):
maybe he did know all long what he was doing,
and if he did, you know, tip your hat to him.
But yeah, it was close to the retaliation being excessive.
And so I think it's one of those situations where
behind the scenes the Rockets will say, hey, let's learn
from this. I understand the reaction, but let's make sure
we don't go any further than that, because if you do,
(29:19):
the consequences just based on how good a man is
would be much more for the Rockets than they are
for the opponent.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, we'll close with this. Have you heard whether they're
playing on Thursday? The starters? So Rockets close the preseason
Thursday against the Hawks. They've played him earlier. It's the
best team that they played in the preseason.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
So far.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, and so then this will be the final game
before the regular season.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Last week they said they were last week he May
said that they would treat these last two games as
a drust rehearsal. And we saw some changes tonight. The
biggest one off the bench. You know, it was tightened
to a nine in rotation, and it was Josha Koge
more of a veteran, not JD. Davison. Definitely head to
the JD. Davison fan club tonight, I got to own that.
But I do wonder about Thursday, with it being just
(30:03):
five days until the regular season and a very physical
opener in Oklahoma City and a very good opponent in
the Hawks, if if they might pull back a little bit. Yeah,
I don't know. Maybe they sort of split the difference
and play the starters for a half and then you
see a little bit more of the JD. Davison lineups
in the second half. That's what I wonder. I haven't
(30:24):
heard that. The plan before tonight was for them to
take these last two as addressed rehearsal. But look, they're
three to zero. They've looked really good the last two games,
at least overall. I mean, I know the second quarter
was sort of hit or missed tonight. I'm not even
going to count the fourth quarter because that was all
you know, second third teamers. I think you throw that out.
We're predominantly focused in the first three quarters the Utah
(30:44):
game tonight, buying large clearer wins. I would not be surprised.
I've not heard this, but I'd not be surprised if
Hemyoudoka said, you know, we'll play the starters, but maybe
we cut them off at about the midway point because
they've proven all that could be proven in the regular
season or in the and you've got a really tough
regular season opener next Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yep. Absolutely, we'll close there, Ben Man, I appreciate you
doing this. Rockets have one more game, we'll see. We'll
do it Thursday again. We'll do a postgame after they
take on the Hawks, and then it's on to the
regular season. Thanks to everybody. Appreciate all you listening and supporting.
If you want to know when we go live, just
subscribe to the channel and you'll get notifications. Thanks guys,
Welcome in. Rockets are three to zero in the preseason.
We just watched the Rockets beat the Pelicans in Birmingham, Alabama,
one thirty to one twenty eight, a game that probably
wasn't as close as the final score would suggest, but
Aaron Holliday puts in the game winner with one point
eight seconds left and Rockets moved to three and oh
(00:22):
in the preseason. We've got a lot of things to
discuss for this one because we saw some changes, and
I want to introduce my co host Ben Debos. Ben,
good to have you here.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, absolutely, it's three down and ninety nine to go, right,
because you got one more preseason game, eighty two in
the regular season and then sixteen in the postseason.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, and this was you know, it's interesting. The game
was one point game at halftime, sixty to fifty nine
after Kevin Durant hit that shot basically just before the
final horn. And there's a lot to discuss in there.
There were some good things, some bad things, but it
starts with the starting lineup change for sure, and that's
(01:04):
the Rockets went big. This looks more like a final
dress rehearsal. Reeed Shepherd is out restarted the first two
preseason games, Steven Adams was in what was what did
you see in the switch to the big lineup?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, we were talking offline before we started recording, and
I thought Steven, even though he had just two points,
was the story of the game because he was plus
twenty six and twenty four minutes, which is just ridiculous.
And I went and looked back. This is only the
second time, including preseason, regular season, and postseason, that all
for in Ching Goon and Steven Adams have started together.
(01:37):
You know what the first time was? It was against
the Oklahoma City Thunder last April when the Rockets won
by fourteen at home. And who did the Rockets open
with next Tuesday? The Oklahoma City Thunder, who will most
likely be starting Chuck Hungren and Isaiah Hartenstein. So it's
a friendly matchup for the double Big. It's a difficult matchup,
so he might have to go outside the box. So
(01:58):
I don't know if it's necessarily a long term choice,
but at least for opening night. The more you dig
into the opponent the matchup, it makes a lot of
sense for the Rockets to potentially start with the double big.
And I also wonder after watching this game tonight, if
Steven Adams might be, in a very convoluted way, the
(02:19):
perfect replacement for Fred bintleyt And obviously they are wildly
different as players in terms of you know, one's the
smallest guy on the court and one is probably the biggest,
but they are both very high iq very high floor,
and when your other four guys are as high upside
as Certainly the big three of Kevin, Durant, Aman Thompson
(02:39):
all per inching goon, but Javari Smith Junior, who had
an excellent scoring night tonight, clearly has a ton of
upside that fifth spot. It may be less about the
ceiling and more about the floor, and Fred and Stephen
do it in very different ways. But Stephen with certainly
the screen setting, the offensive rebounding, the presence or the rim,
(03:01):
He's never gonna be a zero. He's always going to
make contributions and the plus minus doesn't lie in that regard.
So that's why I wonder if maybe it's not in
every game thing, and certainly at thirty two, you're gonna
need to load manage him throughout the season, but when
the games are most meaningful, and especially if it's an
advantage matchup like the Thunder if maybe it's to your
(03:23):
benefits to start Steven Adams, because whoever you start is
gonna at least have a floor of I would say
twenty to twenty two minutes per game, because whoever you start,
unless there's like insane foul trouble, they're gonna play the
first six minutes of the first and third quarters. That's
twelve right there, and they're going to come back for
at least one brief stint otherwise four or five minutes,
(03:43):
probably more than that, but at least I would say
one more four or five minutes stint perhaps, So you're
looking at twenty to twenty two at a minimum, and
then if they're any good at all, obviously you can
go from twenty to twenty two to somewhere in the
range of twenty eight to thirty very easily, as opposed
to if you're coming out the bit, sure you're gonna
play at least probably twelve minutes per game, but your
(04:04):
role can be it's much easier to slide it up
or down. And so if you're looking at guys who
maybe your higher ceiling but also have lower floors, like
a reed shepherd, like Atari Ethan. Then sure, if they're hot,
you can play the hot hand and reward them. But
if they don't have it going on a given night,
then you can maybe play them twelve to fifteen minutes
(04:24):
and it's not that big of a deal. And so
if your starting lineup already has a ton of upside
between KD, shoon Amen and now Jabbari, it might make
sense to play the higher floor guy. So, you know,
I did a lot of thinking tonight because the first
couple of games I sort of looked at Reid as
the drop in replacement because from an archetype standpoint, he's
(04:46):
the closest to Fred and that's something that people around
the team have pointed out. But then in terms of
how the whole unit functions, what I was thinking after tonight,
maybe it makes sense just to go with the higher
floor guy, because you know, you have enough upside between
those other four and so rather than you know, take
the risk of Reed or Tarre having a really bad
night with Steven, He's never going to be a negative.
(05:07):
He's always going to be at least a neutral, usually
a slightly positive. So maybe, you know, I don't want
to say it's in every game thing, because the double
big isn't without its challenges. But I guess my biggest
takeaway after tonight the double Big with Steven Adams has
a very high floor. I don't want to say a
double big because I did think there were some some
rough minutes when it was Capella out there and not
(05:29):
Steven Adams. Those didn't necessarily go that well. But if
Steven Adams is part of the double Big, the floor
is really high. And maybe the floor is what we
should be looking at in the absence of Frond beIN Fleet.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, you know, Steven Adams to me is like it's
just like evidence that the buck score can lie, you know,
because this guy is so impactful. Yet you look and
he's one for four from the field, really not giving
you much else. So you look at the rebounds, six
offensive rebounds, just second chance opportunity after second chance opportunity.
He's done this everywhere he's been. He is a major
(06:02):
impact player in what he does for you know, box
plus minus, and you know, it's been a luxury to
have him. He's a starting level center just about anywhere,
so and I think that's what he is going to
be doing now. Shangoon's probably going to be you know,
I don't know about positions anymore, but Shanguon's probably switching
to the four sort of speak and whatever you want
to call it in this double Big lineup. And yeah,
(06:24):
he's just tremendous. Like you said, the plus minus today showed,
and you know, I think that I don't know if
it's not so much that Read lost the opportunity. Maybe
they just wanted to give him that experience. Maybe this
was the plan all along for Emay, but I think
this is where they're going. I think they're going to
start the double BIB.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
That's just my guess, especially with the Thunder.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah. Absolutely, and the.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Pistons are pretty physical too, so I would say that
whole first week sort of sets up for the Double Big.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, you know. And speaking of going big, today,
we got to talk a little bit about Jabari Smith
Junior because this guy was so aggressive today. I mean
I barely recognized him. I always believed in Jabari obviously,
but you know, he was so aggressive with his shot.
I don't know if this was the game plan necessarily
(07:09):
because he did have Jordan Pool on him. I would assume,
knowing e May, that their plan was to basically attack,
you know, Jordan Poole, but there was several instances where
he didn't hesitate in the slightest, was very comfortable getting
into his spots, you know, took a lot of catch
and shoot opportunities, but also created posted up you know, drove.
(07:33):
At times, he just looks like a different player. He
looks more confident. I don't I don't know so much
if it's the physical nature, you know, physical improvements as
much as just he looks comfortable out there. And it
showed today he had twenty four points in less than
twenty minutes and there was just I want to play
this one play. It really wasn't anything special, but you
had pointed out before that Jabbari and KD were bringing
(07:56):
the ball up a lot, and you can see him
bringing up here and immediately they go right into the
post up and you know, with Pool on him and
he takes him. He doesn't score here, but he draws
the file and gets to the line. That's what we're
seeing more of from Jabari. And when you are going
with such a big lineup, Jabari's gonna have players that
sometimes there are six five, six, six, six, you know, seven
(08:20):
guarding him. I can't believe he says sixty seven, My
daughter's gonna flip out. But still, you know that's what's
gonna happen. You're gonna have some mismatches with Jabari, and
I think we saw that today.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, and he may talk to in training camp about
one of the advantages just starting Jabari alongside that big
three was that you could give it to him and
he could take advantage of some of the weaker defenders
who would inevitably be put on him at times. And
I know in this configuration it's not that Steven is
a dynamic offensive player, but Steven is so big you're
gonna have to cover him with a big someone that
can at least provide something of a presence near the
(08:52):
rim to help box out. So yeah, when someone like
a Jordan Poole is on Jabari, it makes all the
sense to milk him. But yeah, I thought it was
noteworthy the way they were initiating sets with Jabari and
KD because you know, they would have a men bring
the ball up the court in the back court just
in case someone wanted to press them, but as soon
as it got to half court, it felt like they
(09:13):
were confident in Kad and Jabari to make the right decisions.
Obviously they want to take advantage of what a men
can do off the ball, and so yeah, it felt
like in the first and third quarters there was a
lot of initiation through either KD drawing something close to
a double and then having a four on three type
of situation, or just trusting Jabari to go out and
(09:34):
put the ball on the floor if that's what the
situation calls for. And that's why you focus on the
overall skills development. At twenty two years old, it's too
soon to consider him just a three and D type
of player. No, there's more to his game, especially if
he's going to be in this type of starting lineup
where there's going to be so much gravity drawn by
three players that he's playing alongside. Then yeah, that's why
you work on the handle and doing other things. Be
(09:56):
able to put the ball on the floor, to pass
and create at times. And I thought you saw that tonight.
It was really really encouraging, not just any made shots,
but the overall totality of his game, the way he
was able to make plays in so many different areas. Yeah,
it sets up to me this season should be a
clear leap forward for him. I don't know if it
(10:17):
will be statistically just because I don't know how many
shots they are going to be. There's so many mouths
to feed, especially when you get to the regular season.
But in terms of efficiency impact on winning, he is
set up to thrive, and I thought tonight in the
dress rehearsal he did exactly that. Now, I do want
acknowledge the elephant in the room. I did think that,
you know, defensively in the third quarter, it was very
(10:40):
good and that's where they largely put the game away. Now,
I know they had to win it on the Aaron
Holliday buzzer beater or close to a buzzer beater with
like a second and a half left, But it was
a weird game in that, you know, they were elite
offensively pretty much the entire time they were playing their
big guns. They really really struggled defensively in the second quarter.
(11:01):
That's what allowed the Pelicans to briefly get a lead
before that KD near a buzzer beater at the half.
Then it felt like sort of the vintage Warriors. The
Rockets in the third quarter came out sort of annoyed
and said, yeah, let's put this game away, and they
pretty much did, even if the backups largely let that
get away in the fourth quarter with Jabari starting alongside
(11:21):
Steven and Alpi, and this triple big if you will shoot,
you can call it quadruple big because it's basically a
men Jari, kd Stephen and Shingoon. The dribble penetration stopping it,
I mean, is going to be an issue. Like they
just don't have the lateral quickness, and I think you
know that's the one thing. You know, Javari is a
very switchable defender, but it's not realistic to expect him
(11:45):
to stop six foot guys that are uber quick and
able to put the ball on the floor. He can
deter them, and certainly his length in the zone can
make some things happen, but he's not at the level
of really Amn Thompson, and I guess you know you
can seek a few minutes for Tarry Easton there, but
he's not a perimeter stopper. And certainly Steven Adams and
(12:08):
all Princh and Goon are nowhere close, and Kevin Durant
at thirty seven is very limited as well. So offensively,
this is going to flow really well, and it did. Defensively,
it was a mixed bag at best. You know, the
silver lining you can point to in the third quarter
when they really wanted to put the game away, they
were able to, and so that's a good sign. But
(12:29):
I do think that what it shows you is that
this configuration, if they do go double big for long
stretches this year with Steven Adams, they're going to be
very dependent on how much gas they have in the tank.
And over eighty two regular season games, it's easy for
us to sit here and say, yeah, they should go
all out every game. I don't think that's realistic, especially
with as veteran laden as they are right now. So
(12:53):
the silver lining, once you get to the playoffs, these
guys will have more time between games. They'll go all out,
and so if if they crash the glass, if they're
super active like defending the passing lanes, they had the
overall length of physicality to overcome some of the issues
with dribble penetration. But I do worry a little bit
that during the regular season, you know, last year it
(13:13):
felt like fifty two and thirty that group sort of
squeezed out every last drop in terms of what emo
Udoka did with that team. This year's team may be
a little bit different. There may be some games in
the regular season that we're really frustrated because it just
feels like, you know, the opponent is getting way too
easy of shots compared to what we would like them
to and what on paper we think they should be
(13:35):
able to get. But I think the flip side is
that they have a gear once you get to bigger
games and especially the playoffs, once those double big lineups
fully lock in with the zone and trying to you know,
do everything they can to crash the glass get every steal.
They have a gear that last year's team didn't have.
So that's the upside. The downside, but I do worry
(13:57):
about a little bit is that maybe in the regular
season you don't see them getting every margin advantage that
they did a year ago.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, you know tonight, just real quick. As far as
the Pelicans are concerned, I I came into this year
thinking this is a clear lottery team. I you know,
was stunned that they traded their draft pick for Queen
and you know in the draft their their draft pick
for next year, which I think is going to set
Atlanta up nicely. Then I saw Zion looked like he's
in tremendous shape. But I watched him tonight. I don't
(14:25):
think that team is I think they're out of the playoffs.
We'll see they might, you know, fight for the bubble
or you know, for the play in but I just
think that team's probably one of your bottom five. We'll
see how it actually plays out. But yeah, it was
a mixed bag. You know. I mentioned this at the
same game. I'm a little concerned about the defense. I
clipped some of them, but I didn't bring them in
here to the to the stream because they just didn't
(14:46):
want to focus too much on that negativity. But there
were some clear plays. There was one in the zone
where a men went over to help read over to
the left side, you know, be on the three point
line for when they had two guys coming on our
pick and roll, which kind of had left his own spot,
which left Shangoon on an island, and Shangun didn't come
over to recover, and Drey Murphy had a wide open
free there was not anybody within ten to fifteen feet
(15:09):
of him. He missed, but he was wide open, and
Shangun knew that there was a miscommunication. I think it
probably was on the men. You saw that time out
quickly when Alvarado and Transition just went right past Reid
and and got the layup, and e May was not
happy and wanted to talk about it. I really don't
want to judge the defense in its totality until we
(15:29):
actually see Dorian Finney Smith. But you've lost Fred, you
lost Jalen, And I know people will say, well, you can't,
you know, put too much on Jalen or whatever, But
I'm just going to give him a little bit of credit.
He was a starter for this unit for a couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
While they're and he was he was laterally quick. I
guess that's what I'm getting at, is that the way
they're built, especially if to go with a double big,
there's not a ton of lateral quickness defensively, and so
you can try harder on the glass, you can try
to be more active with steels and your overall length
in the zone. But some of these deficiencies, you know,
short of the app for being superhuman, and that might
(16:01):
happen on occasion, It will certainly happen in the playoffs,
but it's not necessarily going to be night and day
different by the time you get to the regular season.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, and so we'll see the defense is definitely a
work in progress. I did, and Fred as well. You're missing,
but I think Dylan until we see DFS come out
and play, sure is gonna be missed. He's just he was,
in my opinion, the representation of their physical defense. You've
still got Tari, you got your Bar, you got a
mend Those are all good defensive players, switchable and all that,
(16:31):
but Dylan is unique and very physical. So we'll see
how this actually plays out. A couple of things I
want to talk about, one being KD. What we saw
from KD. I thought, to me, this game clearly showed
this guy's the closer of the team. I don't think
that that's anything breaking news, but I just thought that
what we saw, especially at the very end of the
(16:51):
half when he did hit that shot, to me, this
is a guy who I think they're going to when
they need a big bucket. Just hand the ball to
him and him go to work. You see him working
out of the high post, taking his guy here against
the end one. He had plenty of mid range turnarounds
in this game, one being right here I believe, And then,
(17:12):
like I said, also had that shot at the end
of the half was good in the third quarter. You know,
this is the second game that we see kt as
a Rocket and the road broadcast was basically drooling over him.
The guy is truly special, even at thirty seven years old,
if he's healthy, and that's you know, all year, I
think the Rockets are going to be very strong. They
have such a tremendous offensive weapon now as their primary
(17:36):
source of offense. You know, it's just a matter of
how much do you lose defensively in the overall big
picture until DFS gets back, but just offensively, this team
looks much improved from last year.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think what was most telling Katie actually
missed all of his threes tonight and he still had
fifteen points in twenty eight minutes on nearly forty seven
percent shooting. Let's be blunt with Jalen Green. Last year
it was threes, layups and not much else. He couldn't
even get to the line very frequently. And you can
criticize officials if you want, but the reality is he
(18:09):
just didn't get there very often, whereas with Kevin, even
if the threes aren't falling. And this is a fifty
to forty ninety guy for years in terms of his
shooting splits. So I don't think you need to worry
about him forgetting how to shoot. I think it's just
an off night. But yeah, I think the fact that
he has other elements that he can turn to in
his game, it's just night and day different than last year,
(18:31):
where if Jalen didn't have it going on from three,
I mean you sort of have to shrug your shoulders
and a lot of these matchups and say where are
you going to get the points from in the half court?
And that's not meant to be a shot at Jalen.
It's just a discussion of this year's seven why it's
so different, because what you've basically done is put Kevin
Durant into the Jalen Green role in terms of being
your tip of the spear perimeter score. Now, how much
(18:54):
is the defense going to drop off? Yeah, that's a
fair question. We can wonder about that, and you know,
I don't want to go too far down that road
until the games get real and we see what they
look like it closer to peak effort. But offensively, yeah,
they were a middle of the pack offense last year,
even with Jalen Green's flaws. Tonight was a reminder that
even if KD isn't making the threes, he's still so
(19:14):
much better in so many areas that he just makes
the offense that much better overall. And certainly it's not
all him. Jabari had a big game. We should talk
about Tari briefly as well, who had twenty points on
nine to fifteen shooting. But I think a lot that
comes down to KD. I mean, KD draws so much
attention that your ancillary pieces like Jabari and like Tari
are able to get much more advantage situations when they're
(19:35):
in the game.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, and I was gonna mention Tari as well. Tari
talks about being underrated, and and he's right because we
didn't even you know, my fault, didn't even mention him
until now. But yes, twenty points off the bench in
twenty one minutes. Was nine of eleven inside the arc,
oh four from beyond the arc, but hit nine of
eleven inside and had a very very strong game. Him
and Jabari really kind of keyed and led the offense
(19:57):
and then ended up with twenty one as well. Got
to give a shout out to Shangoon. He wasn't his
best game, but still eight points, twelve boards, seven assists.
But it leads me to the problem with the Rockets
offense that is showing itself and that's the turnovers. Yeah,
eleven of them in the first half. Shangoon finished with
six turnovers today read with four and read it. He
(20:19):
played the final two minutes of the first quarter, had
two of the worst turnovers that the kind that you
know coach will pull his hair out watching, and he
had four and I believe the men had three. So
that was thirteen of those turn of the team's turnovers
from from the three guys that you are hoping to
kind of take over from Fred as far as your
lead ball handler, like you said, you pointed out Kadi
(20:41):
and Jabari were bringing the ball up a lot tonight.
But those are the three that you expect to be
kind of creators or you know, the assist guys, and
they can't have the high turnovers. So no, you're more
efficient offensively, but you are turning it over more.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, And I guess if you want to find a
silver lining, I didn't think that a lot of the
turnovers were because they couldn't do something. It's not like
guys were just getting ripped in the back court. It
was more that the Pelicans had them scouted. Like I thought,
they were overplaying a lot early in the shot clock,
and the Rockets reads were a little vanilla, and so
(21:16):
it looked to me like the Pelicans were anticipating. And
I think the fact that Shin Gooon had six turnovers.
I don't want to say it was a bad game
for him, because certainly he always you know, brings a
lot of gravity and so that helps his teammates. But
he wasn't nearly as efficient when we talk about the
playmaking and the passing as he was in his first
couple of games. The fact that it's not just a
(21:37):
men and Red, but it's Shagoon as well leads to
me to believe it's not necessarily a physical deficiency. It's
more that, you know, the Pelicans had them well scouted,
They had a good idea of what they wanted to do.
And now it's on Emu Joka and the Rockets as
a staff, not just any player individually, to develop some
counters and if they're going to overplay on these, you know,
(21:58):
drible handoffs up high, then okay, get some more offful
movement going towards the bucket to sort of make them
pay if they're going to play that aggressively. So I
guess that's the one positive spin I would try to
put on it, is that the turnovers, Yeah, they're terrible,
and without Fred that's you know, absolutely one of the
big variables to watch for going into this year. But
I do think it's something that they theoretically can't adjust to.
(22:20):
It's not like they were just getting ripped going up
the court. It was more they got in the sets
and the Pelicans just sort of outsmarted them, out scouted them,
whatever you want to call it, and just anticipated the
action before the Rockets ran it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, there's one thing I want to talk about before
we you know, finished tonight, and that's basically the little
skirmish we saw. I believe was it second quarter, maybe
it was third. I'm blanking out here on the second
quarter and second quarter, thank you. Let me be clear
on this, and I've got the clip, I'll play it.
But you know, Alvarado was the instigator of this, clearly
(22:56):
was getting up in a man and he's the Alvarado
is done this his whole career. He's the Beverly Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
But the thing about this is a man. He's young
and he's amazing, but some of his reactions get have
gotten him in trouble in the past. And I think
we may have gotten you know, we may be good
(23:19):
here because when I first saw it, I thought he
clearly threw a punch.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah. I worried that too. The wide shot, Yeah yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Looking at it here you can see it here a
little bit in slow motion, he kind of, you know,
he kind of yeah, he kind of throws his hand.
I mean, you could consider they're stalling, not a closed
fist punch, and it's kind of a push slash shove
slash punch. I don't know what you want to call.
It didn't connect. I think we may get lucky here.
But my initial reaction was here comes one game suspension
for the OKC game, first game of the year.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, mine too.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
He was only called a flagrant one and he stayed
in the game, Like I said, finished with twenty one
points overall, five boards, three assists. What was what's your
over feeling here? I think I probably won't endear myself
to rockets fans to say, I really wish you would
chill a little bit. But I mean, I'm not out there,
no out there banging with these guys. I know how
tough that is. But I'm just saying I wish his
(24:12):
reaction on that, I wish it just toned down just
a touch, because, yeah, he could get in trouble pretty.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Easily, Yeah he could. I worry that it was a
punch initially until I saw the replays and look, I
thought what Alvarado did was a dirty play. So I'm
not going to say that that a man wasn't justified
in doing what he did. However, I think part of
the responsibility of being a star in the NBA is
(24:39):
recognizing that you are more important than most players, and
so if a man had responded the way I'm sure
he wanted to on some level. Yeah, my guess is
that the officials probably would have tossed both of them.
Maybe they both get suspensions because if the league office
looks at it, and then, you know, I don't want
to say it's impossible league office looks at it, but
(24:59):
I I think they're probably out of the woods simply
because they stop the game to review this. For several minutes,
and so the only way that you could discipline after
the fact is if the league office determined that the
refs screwed up. Like, if you disciplined after the fact,
then you're saying the flagrant one was wrong and that
this should have been So I doubt they want to
say on the record that their officials, after an extended review,
(25:20):
watched this. So I think, you know, this particular incident
is probably in the rearview mirror. But if it had
gotten worse, and certainly it has in the past, look
at the Tyler Hero situation a year ago. The bottom
line is if both of those players get tossed and
men Thompson is way more important to the Rockets than
Jose Alvarado is to the Pelicans, and Jose Alvarado knows that,
(25:41):
and that's true of most people that go against him.
Men Thompson, you can you know, I saw someone in
the comments saying that you can bait him. I mean
that sounds a little strong, but I think that's a
little bit of what Jose Alvarado was doing. He was
sort of trolling a little bit, and we see that
from time to time with various players in the NBA.
And the bottom line is some of these more troll
type players. I mean, we saw this with Pat Beverley
(26:02):
back in the day. I think one of the reasons
Pat Beverley played that way on some level he knew, Hey,
if both of us get tossed, it's gonna be a
net benefit to our team because I'm really not that
important in the grand scheme. So yeah, and so that's
the big thing for me with the Men. It's like,
you know, I don't think he's doing anything wrong per se,
because I mean, it was a dirty play by Jose Alvarado.
(26:23):
Like I can't blame a men for responding like he was.
He was not the instigator here, not even close. However, Yeah,
if you're a star of the NBA and a men
is pretty close. Like one of the reasons for optimism
with this year's team is, you know, you don't just
have two All Stars and KD and alprin jan Noon. Internally,
(26:43):
the Rockets fell like they have three all star caliber players. Well,
if you are an all Star caliber player in the NBA,
it's going to be a net loss to your team
if you get tossed along with somebody on the other side,
because most players are not all stars that you're going
up against. So yeah, that's where I understand where it
(27:03):
comes from. And in a lot of these situations, I
don't think a man is a hot head, so to speak.
I think he plays a physical brand of ball, and
in situations where it's gone, you know, maybe over the
line a little bit, I think he has not been
the instigator in most of them. However, I do think that,
and hopefully this happens with time and maturity, but as
(27:24):
it sets in on him that he's one of the
best twenty thirty forty players in the world. Hey, him
getting tossed is a bigger deal for the Rockets than
whoever he's going up against is getting tossed for the opponent.
So yeah, it's it may not be fair, but that's
just the responsibility that comes from being a top solve
player in the NBA and hopefully adjusted that.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, and I think he will. I'm hoping. I mean
it's a double edged sword because the dude is so competitive,
he's so unique. He's just special. You talk to the player,
talk to people with the Rockets behind the scenes, they'll
just rave about him and Thompson, how good he is.
You know, especially defensively, and just how good of an
athlete he is. He's so competitive the way what he
wants to be, you know in the NBA. That drive
(28:05):
is probably also what sparks some of this. He just
doesn't put up with craps and and responds. But we've
seen it a few times, Tyler Harrow. We saw it,
remember a year and a half ago, I think against
Dallas at the end of the year in his rookie season.
I can't remember who it was, Maxic Leeber maybe he tossed,
I can't remember. But you know, we're going to get
(28:25):
into playoff situations that are going to be way more
competitive than this preseason game. I just hope he, you know,
kind of learns to to tone that down, just in
touch so we don't lose him for other games, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
And to respond to someone in the comments I'm reading,
how would you feel if someone bear hugged you and
refuse to let go while pulling you to the ground,
It's instinct to push him off, Yes, one hundred percent agree. However,
he was close to going over the line tonight. He
didn't do it, but for a what second, it looked
like he did so I guess it's one of those things,
you know, a bullet, Yes, yeah, dodged a bullet, and
(28:58):
maybe he did know all long what he was doing,
and if he did, you know, tip your hat to him.
But yeah, it was close to the retaliation being excessive.
And so I think it's one of those situations where
behind the scenes the Rockets will say, hey, let's learn
from this. I understand the reaction, but let's make sure
we don't go any further than that, because if you do,
(29:19):
the consequences just based on how good a man is
would be much more for the Rockets than they are
for the opponent.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, we'll close with this. Have you heard whether they're
playing on Thursday? The starters? So Rockets close the preseason
Thursday against the Hawks. They've played him earlier. It's the
best team that they played in the preseason.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
So far.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, and so then this will be the final game
before the regular season.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Last week they said they were last week he May
said that they would treat these last two games as
a drust rehearsal. And we saw some changes tonight. The
biggest one off the bench. You know, it was tightened
to a nine in rotation, and it was Josha Koge
more of a veteran, not JD. Davison. Definitely head to
the JD. Davison fan club tonight, I got to own that.
But I do wonder about Thursday, with it being just
(30:03):
five days until the regular season and a very physical
opener in Oklahoma City and a very good opponent in
the Hawks, if if they might pull back a little bit. Yeah,
I don't know. Maybe they sort of split the difference
and play the starters for a half and then you
see a little bit more of the JD. Davison lineups
in the second half. That's what I wonder. I haven't
(30:24):
heard that. The plan before tonight was for them to
take these last two as addressed rehearsal. But look, they're
three to zero. They've looked really good the last two games,
at least overall. I mean, I know the second quarter
was sort of hit or missed tonight. I'm not even
going to count the fourth quarter because that was all
you know, second third teamers. I think you throw that out.
We're predominantly focused in the first three quarters the Utah
(30:44):
game tonight, buying large clearer wins. I would not be surprised.
I've not heard this, but I'd not be surprised if
Hemyoudoka said, you know, we'll play the starters, but maybe
we cut them off at about the midway point because
they've proven all that could be proven in the regular
season or in the and you've got a really tough
regular season opener next Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yep. Absolutely, we'll close there, Ben Man, I appreciate you
doing this. Rockets have one more game, we'll see. We'll
do it Thursday again. We'll do a postgame after they
take on the Hawks, and then it's on to the
regular season. Thanks to everybody. Appreciate all you listening and supporting.
If you want to know when we go live, just
subscribe to the channel and you'll get notifications. Thanks guys,
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.