February 20, 2026 • 31 mins
Kevin Durant, burner or not, was scorching (35 points, 70% FG) in Houston’s 105-101 victory at Charlotte. With the win, the Rockets (34-20) moved up to the No. 3 spot in the tightly packed Western Conference standings.
Featuring Ben DuBose, Dave Hardisty, and Michael Shapiro of Chron.com, Thursday night’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show reacts to all the key takeaways.
Discussion topics include Durant setting the right tone; promising signs from two young players in Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard; and strong defensive performances off the bench from Dorian Finney-Smith and Jae’Sean Tate.
Featuring Ben DuBose, Dave Hardisty, and Michael Shapiro of Chron.com, Thursday night’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show reacts to all the key takeaways.
Discussion topics include Durant setting the right tone; promising signs from two young players in Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard; and strong defensive performances off the bench from Dorian Finney-Smith and Jae’Sean Tate.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, welcome in everybody. Rockets get a big, big
win in Charlotte tonight, one oh five to one oh one,
a game that I think a lot of people who
aren't even Rockets fans were probably tuned in to watch,
given all the chaos and all the stories that we
saw since you know, All Star Game Day. Basically when
(00:23):
this news that Kevin Durant may or may not have
had a burner, everybody wants to see how Kevin Durant's
gonna play, how he's gonna interact with his teammates, how
his teammates are going to play. In response to you
know what he may or may not have said, Kevin
Durant definitely put those questions to rest. Tonight fourteen of
twenty from the field was absolutely scorching. Thirty five points.
(00:47):
Hit big shot, big free throws down the stretch that
ice this game. This was a fun one. I'm here
actually today with cron dot COM's Michael Shapiro. You could
definitely follow his work i chron dot common as well
on Twitter at m shap two and as well Ben
Dubos the Great and you can follow his stuff on
Twitter as well and on Blue Sky at Bendubo's and
(01:09):
Rockets wire and clutch fans as well rights for both guys.
This was a they needed this game and it was
good to see them come out on the road after
all of this controversy and all of the social media
mockery and all this stuff, to see Kadi come out, well,
Jabari come out. Well, this was a good game. I'll
start with you, Michael, what were your thoughts looking at
watching this one?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You know what, Kevin Durant, it's still pretty good, folks.
Thirty five points, fourteen to twenty shooting. You know that
game gets to ninety five ninety one, right, and Kevin
makes the last four field goals for Houston. One more
thing I kind of noticed here. He fired a lot
early ten first quarter points, and that's been a theme
a lot this season. Kevin says he scores to inspire
(01:51):
his teammates. That's a phrase he keeps using, and perhaps
he needs that like mentally, But I also think there's
an immediate gravitational pull from that. When he's cooking early,
when guys are having to converge on him immediately, he's
finding Jabari Smith in the corner. He's finding these open
guys and the offense is a lot more open, a
lot less clogged, and he saw that for Jabari tonight,
(02:11):
six or nine from the field, two threes in easy
fifteen points, that interplay should be there when Kevin's cooking early,
and it really was tonight.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
I also really liked what Kevin did late in the game,
and I think it was an adjustment more from him
than imy Ujoka to go earlier in the shot clock.
We had talked, especially early in the year, about the
Rockets being way too willing to wait for the double
and play four on three when in a perfect role,
it's Kad getting those shots to put the game away.
And I thought there were a couple of possessions midway
(02:41):
through the fourth quarter when the Rockets waited for the double,
it got sagnant, Charlotte hit him with a seven zero
run to cut it from eleven to four, and then
what flipped. Has Katie started going a lot earlier in
the shot clock. He started showing some juice to get
out in transition, and basically he made things happen before
the Hornets could sit that second defender. And there's some
(03:02):
things that ima Udoka can do to prod the team
and prod KD, you know, nudge them in that direction,
but a lot of it just comes down to you know,
players on the fly adjusting. And I think, you know,
KD showed a great feel for the game today, but
I think more than anything, you know, this was a
game where it's just great to see the Rockets collectively
play this hard. You know what had been masked with
(03:23):
the poor shooting in January and the turnovers in February,
was that Really since January first, they've been a good
defensive team. It's just the shooting and the turnovers have
kept the wins from being as much as you would like.
But I think what we saw tonight, well the three
point shooting didn't bounce back, but they did have a
little bit more juice to get those fifty to fifty
balls and they had twenty three stocks. So when you
(03:44):
combine Kevin Durant with that level of effort, attention to
detailed defensively, Jordian Pinny Smith Jay Shaun Tate were big
off the bench, I mean, this team should have a chance.
And if you were worried about you know, whatever happened
or didn't happen with Kevin Durant over the All Star break.
I think you can rest easy. He's still Kevin Durant.
As far as what it will mean for the rest
of the team, I mean time will tell. But through
(04:07):
one game, so far, so good. I think you have
to like beyond just you know, it was predictable that Kevin,
if anything, he's gonna feed off of this. He's been
through this before with the Burners twenty seventeen. If anything,
the attention, the spotlight's gonna you know, get him to,
you know, have something extra for these games. I guess
if there's any question, it's how does it affect the
other players on the team, the guys he allegedly called
(04:29):
out in the group chats, so to speak, And uh,
so far, so good. I mean, twenty three seals in blocks,
there's no signs to me that the effort was lagging
in any way.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And some of those blocks in the first half, especially
Jabari had a major one on Kulkbrenner. A Men did
as well, Kim Murph it was on Kulkbrenner and then
Kate he did. I mean they were highlight level blocks.
Their defense today was terrific. I still think there's some
offensive issues for whatever reason, you know, especially since Adams
has been out, but I think it was going on
before then. You know, they're scoring one hundred, maybe getting
(05:01):
a little bit over one hundred tonight, no exception, with
one hundred and five points, and you look at the
box and it's a little confusing. I mean, they got
a couple more shots, you know, the whole possession battle
than Charlotte did. They lost the rebounding battle tonight, fifty
two forty four. Really it's just a two point efficiency
tonight that that was so good and KD. I mean
fourteen of twenty and this is a guy who's shooting
(05:21):
a ton of mid range shots. He was two or
four from three. But it's not like he's just getting
layup after layup. He is shooting the basketball. And to
go fourteen to twenty is it's a special night. And
so I got to tip my hat to Katie. We obviously,
you know, had some some critical thoughts after the whole
you know, is he this burner account or not? But yeah,
(05:44):
I love the way he responded tonight and in his
post game as well. I thought he was very complimentary
of you know, going down the list, you know, the
players DFS, Jabari shanngun Reid. I thought he had a
lot of positive things to say, so maybe he's right
and maybe it won't be as big a deal, although
it is from the outside, you know, still a little
bit baffling.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I'm curious if either of you noticed. It felt, at
least to me, like Kad was more demonstrative than usual
during the games. You mentioned the postgame interview, but during
the game itself, you know, he was going out of
his way to high five teammates, to pump them up.
It felt like, you know, beyond obviously he wanted to
have a great stat line after the pr beating he's
taken the last few days. But did it feel to
(06:27):
either of you like he wanted to be a little
more demonstrative with his teammates to me, because that's that's
how it came off. I mean, it's one games anecdotal,
but it felt like he was super engaged tonight, not
just individually but with the team.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I mean you'll see that in certain nights where Kevin
is a little extra amped up. I think the biggest
one this season was at home against Phoenix. He hits
that game winner, right, and he does the kind of
get out of here gesture to the Suns, which I
thought was great, and that whole night he was kind
of fired up. He got entangled with Dylan a little bit.
I feel like tonight was another night where the emotions
were maybe a little pent up after recent days. He
(07:00):
got after it. You always see him congratulating Reed Shepherd,
staying on him. That's pretty constant. But yeah, it was
a pretty fiery KD, and he met it with his
performance late. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, you know, it's definitely interesting. The defense is kind
of what, in my opinion, saved this game. You know,
you look at it. KD was red hot to start
and the Rockets were down. I believe it got to
double digits. It was at least to nine, and it
looked kind of ugly mid second quarter. You know, this
was a game as well where you know, defensively, they
they I think the Hornets started out seven to thirteen
(07:33):
from three. They went seven of twenty nine. I believe
the rest of the way. They basically turned this game around.
About five minutes left in the second quarter, they went small.
They went with Katie Jabari I guess essentially at center,
DFS Tari and a men and that lineup was brilliant defensively,
and that's when the Rockets suddenly made this a game,
(07:53):
took I think turned up. You know, they were down
I think ten or eleven points, took a four point lead.
And Katie actually brought it up in the post game saying,
I think we won that game, won the game with
that stretch. It certainly changed the game. And and so
I would say defense was the you know, defense and
the special play of Katie is what won it today.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It's interesting Kevin kind of said that post game because
something I think I may might've let slip the other
week is he talking about the wing heavy lineups to
us right, and he says that's where we're good, right,
And I think he's kind of right. And you know,
at least those feel like the most natural units. When
you have that combination of Kevin, Jabari, Tari, and Dorian,
three or four of those on the flour at a time,
(08:35):
the ball moves well, it's not the outprint is like
a demerit at all to the offense, but just the
ability to ping it consistently side to side, five dribblers
at a time. I think it's a big deal. And
the Rockets are going to lean more into that. The
more they don't have the double big to Lena right,
the further we get from Steven's injury. The wing heavy
lineup is sometimes think we're gonna see more and more
(08:55):
and more.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, and you look at the bench. I like the
little tweak they made to play Jayshaun Tate more. You know,
some folks have wondered what's happened to Josha Kogi. I
think one of the issues is that if Josh doesn't start,
it's difficult to bring him off the bench because those
units with Reed and Josh, you're extremely light and you're
prone to getting you know, bullied in terms of second
(09:17):
chance opportunities. Whereas with the four off the bench tonight
DFS who was very good, Jayshon Tate, Clint Capella and
Reed Shepherd reads the only small guy, so you have
a lot more physicality.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Across the board.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And I don't think you know Josh had done anything
necessarily wrong, but if you need to optimize, read Shepherd
and I think the rockets. Do you know even on
a night that he was one to five from three,
he still made an impact. He was four of seven,
I believe inside the ark and made a couple of
big middies a driving shot when the Rockets were taking
control of the game late in the third early in
the fourth quarter, you need to surround him with some
(09:51):
balt some physicality, some defense so that you're giving that
unit reinforcements. And that's something that that email's done. I
like that move. We'll see if works that way for
every matchup. But whenever they did two weeks ago against
the Hornets did not work. So you may as well
try something different tonight, and you had a week to
plan it out. But in terms of the overall defense,
I think you know it starts with Kevin. He had
(10:12):
in addition to the scoring, he had eight rebounds, he
had three blocks and a steal. So when he's given
you that level of effort, when your thirty seven year
old leading scorer is getting aftered on defense that way,
it's only natural that guys are are going to follow.
And that's what I meant in the aftermath of the
burner scandal when I mentioned that it's not going to
affect KD. We can see from twenty seventeen there were
(10:35):
some pushbacks saying, well, that Warriors team is way better
than the current Rockets yeah, they are. But the point
of that comparison was to say that expecting the scandal
to impact the team's play is sort of like expecting
the tail to wag the dog. What's going to impact
the narrative and how they play together and how hard
they play is whether they're winning games and if they're
(10:58):
able to put it together tonight and they win at
a high level. And this is the same team that
started thirteen and four with a dominant net rating and
now you have Dorian Phinney Smith getting healthy, like there's
reasons for optimism. Now if they lose games, is it
possible that the scandal becomes, you know, even more of
a distraction and you know, it becomes, you know, more
of a thing in the locker room. Maybe, But where
(11:19):
it starts is that you're losing games. And so I
think that's what you've got to look at first, is
the on court production and Kevin. If anything, there was
a comment earlier in the chat Dave like Katie is
fueled by the Twitter trauma. I think nothing else. It's
bringing the best out of Kevin Durant, not just offensively,
but defensively, and at least in you know, the short
term it might actually benefit the team because when Kadi
(11:41):
plays this hard, I think it's natural that other guys
are going to follow. Now, you can certainly question what
it means long term, and I'm not going to speak
for any of the other guys because this is their business,
it's not mine. But at least in the short term
they might rally around this. That's sort of my sense
is that if you have Kevin playing this hard and
this efficiently on top of it, you know, how does
it not sort of light a fire under everybody.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I just think that's one hundred percent. The basketball will
determine the feelings, not the other way around. I think
that's the key thing to remember here.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
You know, I was gonna say, Jabari sure did tonight.
I thought he looked confident, I thought he looked good,
he knocked down shots. I was really impressed with what
Jabari did tonight. But I want to also just give
him a shoutout for this win. This was a road
way Jabaris, in particular. Jabari's has struggled on the road
this year, and this team had won ten of eleven,
that team being the Charlotte Hornets. Yes, Diabat's out and
(12:35):
Miles Bridges as well, suspended from the fight with Detroit,
but you know, still they have their offensive firepower. Last
eleven games, number three in offense, the Hornets are number
six in defense. They've been very good in this recent stretch.
And for the Rockets to slow him down like that,
I thought that was great. But Jabbari, it was one
of those guys because he was, you know, criticized by
(12:55):
this burner, whether it was Katie or not. And you know,
you're watching him and he's played really well lately. That
was the thing that they actually addressed this on the broadcast.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I don't know if he caught this, but for whatever reason,
people who don't like Jabari or whatever on Twitter have
just been killing him and saying he's been playing terrible lately.
He hasn't, And in the last fifteen games he's been
quite good.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He's low been very good.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, well, key exactly, and they've been in that practice.
He was really good. But a clip got posted of
him shooting one shot that he was short on and
everybody just you know, clowned him. But I thought, you know,
he was really good today. I mean six of nine
from the field. He hit two of three from deep
hit a couple of mid range shots that were you know,
rise and fire type, which we want to be in
(13:40):
his willhouse.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I just thought he looked good. I thought he was
he played well.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
And I thought you needed his rem protection on a
night when for the most part it was rough for Shingoon.
I mean, there were some rough stretches in pick and
roll defense, but I think the bigger thing, for whatever reason,
and this goes back multiple years, Grant Williams is a
nightmare matchup for all for in Shindoon. I don't know
why it is, but if you want to be optimistic.
So the Rockets held the Hornets to one hundred and
(14:04):
one points, which bummed me out. There was this stat
that the Rockets have been pushing that they're nine to
zero this year when they hold opponents below one hundred points,
and of those nine games, five have come since the
start of January, reflecting the fact that the team's defense
has been improving for a while. It's just been sort
of masked by the downturn offensively and with turnovers. Well,
the Hornet should have been below one hundred tonight. It
(14:25):
took those two kickout threes off of just you know
loose ball rebounds and airballs that landed in the laps
of a guy for the Hornets to barely scrap across
one hundred, But they got one hundred and one with
an insane game from Grant Williams. Grant Williams had twenty
points and nine rebounds on seven to ten shooting four
or five from three. This is the guy who was
like twenty six percent on threes entering the night, and
(14:47):
he goes for you know, twenty and nine on eighty
percent from three. So that's the you know, the really
glass half full on the Rockets defensively tonight. Not only
did they win that game on that side of the
ball twenty three steals and blocks combined, but man, if
not for like a crazy outlier performance by Grant Williams,
the Hornets probably don't even score ninety.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, Michael, if you were to say anything on that,
but yeah, no, it's I can tell you a little
bit why shnggun struggles. This is definitely something I've been
saying about shngun forever. Strong base mobile players doesn't matter
their height, will give him trouble. They keep him from
the basket. And Grant Williams I can't remember which year
it was, but it was a twenty four to twenty
five the first year. I think they played Charlotte at
(15:28):
home this season over the season and shng Gun just
feasted in the first half, feasted and it wasn't Grant
Williams wasn't playing against him. I member this game, well,
they shifted put Grant Williams on him in the second half,
completely changed the game. Rockets lost that game. He just
struggles with guys who just are mobile and can keep
him from the basket. So that's you know, you definitely
(15:50):
identified a particular guy who does that to him. But
that's what you know why Shangun struggled tonight six to sixteen.
I thought Shangun was better in the fourth, but in
the first half that was a pretty big issue.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
And then in terms of the defense, I think Jory
and Finney Smith, Michael, I know you wanted to talk
about him, and we honestly should because this is the
second strade. Really good performance from him, eight points, four boards,
made a couple of threes, but you know, the traditional
black score stats don't do him justice. He's a guy
who you see his value by how the team performs
(16:23):
when he's on the floor and what he means as
a connector and a communicator on both ends. And this
is why, you know, it's a small sample. We're talking
about two games, but his entire sample this year is small,
so it's all we have. And so these two games
he's been good. I think tonight's twenty three minutes is
the most he's played yet with the Rockets. So it
seems the ankle is getting better. To me by the
(16:44):
eye test, it seems he's moving better. And you know,
this is why the Rockets didn't make a panic trade
at the deadline using DFS as salary filler, which, you know,
being hard capped at the first apron, that was all
they could realistically do if they wanted to make a trade. Look,
if you believe in this guy, and clearly they did.
There's a reason they targeted him as basically their Dylan
replacement in free agency. He didn't even start playing until Christmas,
(17:06):
and there was no training camp, there's no preseason. It
would be irresponsible to just, you know, give up on
the guy and say, yeah, you know, forget what I
thought before after just five weeks when he didn't even
have a training camp, didn't even have a preseason to say, yeah, whatever,
I think he's washed. We're done. I mean, I get
why fans are alarmed, because you know, there should be
(17:27):
a sense of urgency with, you know, a team with
a thirty seven year old Kevin Durant. But maybe the
best course of action is just to trust that, Hey,
all that scouting you did in the off season targeting
dfs as you know, an ideal fit, just stick with that,
and maybe they're starting to reap the rewards. Now That's
how I'm looking at it.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You know, I'm gonna call myself in perhaps some fellow
media members out here. You know, in these press conferences
earlier in the year, you may keep saying, you know,
when we're at full strength, when we have Tari, when
we have Dorian, we're gonna feel and look a lot better.
And I kind of roll my eyes at that and say,
how many times can you kind of go to that? Well,
I kind of think he's right. I kind of think
(18:03):
that when you have the full complement of wings, like
we said, and especially when Dorian is more fully mobile,
closer than ninety percent of mobility, he's a really really
strong top line defender.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So is Tari.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Eason, so is a men Thompson. That's like the vision
of this roster that we've seen at full and Ben,
you make a good point that the Rockets have this vision.
They are not going to derail the vision because of
a bad January. In fact, for Felsen kind of laughed
at us when we brought up the idea of one
bad month determining the season. Right, So the Rockets had
a vision to get DFS to have these wings. Tonight
(18:38):
we saw it come to Fruition show. Shout out to them,
you know, it's fair enough.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I think that's exactly right, Michael and I love that's
been their ema. Rudoka's vision for this team since he
got here is defensive wings, athleticism, make it incredibly difficult,
switch everything. That's his philosophy and that's what he wants
to do. And I think having you know, obviously he
didn't want to trade Dylan, but to bring in DFS
to a place that you have this arsenal of guys.
(19:02):
Tari A men Jabari as far as a big, he
can do some of that switching and play and be
able to shoot as a big. So it's I think
that's the vision that he may has for the team,
and obviously you have some special offensive players Kevin Durant
and you hope, you know with Shan Gun. So it's
that's exactly what I think that they hope to accomplish.
And with DFS. I mean, I know we've said this before,
(19:24):
but I still just think you have to be a
little bit patient and it may not pan out, but
I think kind of like Steven Adams when he was
coming back manager, you have to just wait until to
see before he gets back, because he really was a very,
very key player defensively for several teams like the Lakers
last year, So just give it time. I thought he
was really good tonight.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
And it might be that this is the key to
unlocking the peak version of Reef Shepherd, because the conundrum
all year has been, you know, how do you get
the clear advantages on offense, how he can sort of
equal out the math game from three while surviving the
struggles on defense at least at times. Well then maybe
the added physicality and versatility when you have all those
(20:06):
wings is how you can bring out a peak reach Shepherd.
And as far as this game to transition beyond just
individual players, because I think before we close out, we
should highlight, you know, the team's performance overall. This was
such a big win. I had talked to some people
inside the organization. I mean, certainly they're aware of the
noise and so to sort of push back on the
pr title wave in recent days. You know, the last
(20:28):
thing you want to do is lose a couple of
games coming out of the All Star break, and they
have a challenging one on Saturday night in New York,
and now it feels like, you know, it's a great opportunity,
but it's not the end of the world if you
lose it. Whereas if you had lost this game and
you're potentially steering a two game would have been a
three game losing streak in the face sandwiched around all
this burner stuff, then yeah, that's the kind of environment
(20:51):
where it can spiral. Now I feel like it gives
the Rockets opportunity to catch their breath, and we know
they have, you know, a two game homestead next week
against tanking teams, So now all of a sudden, it
feels like the floor those two games Monday and Wednesday,
neither is back to back against the Jazz and the Kings,
So it sort of feels like the floor coming out
of the All Star Break is three and one in
your first four games and then I think the five
(21:13):
or six after that aren't that difficult either. So they've
got an opportunity to sort of stack some wins. But
I think it's sort of like one game at a time,
and in terms of how this first week goes, if
they had lost this game, you have a tough one
Saturday night at Madison Square Garden coming up at night
Conspiral all of a sudden, like they've got an opportunity
to be at least three and one in the first
week and from there who knows.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Right, Yeah, they have a schedule that I think is
like around maybe number twenty five per Tanka Tharn rest
of the season. It's a pretty easy stretch with as
you said, Jazz Kings, Magic, Miami and the Whiz coming up,
So that's not tough. I want to mention that next
game real quick. So I think that's fun for one
particular reason. They got a face Cat and Mitch in
New York on Saturday, and I want to see how
(21:54):
the Rockets and Alperin and I guess Clint and more importantly,
the wing lineups. I want to see how they handle
two bigs and two impressive bigs. The Rockets are going
to have to face some combo of what lemby Nicola,
Chett and Hartenstein in the playoffs. So the more kind
of reps they get against good impressive centers, especially duos,
I think that's pretty important for Houston. So I'm going
(22:16):
to watch out for that on Saturday for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's a nationally televised game, right yeah, ABC, Okay, okay,
that that's going to be interesting. You know that they're
going to ask Katie about this, like there's at least
they're certainly going to address it in in you know,
shows before the game.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I mean, I'm certainly not worried about Kevin Durant, how
as far as this play. He's you know, basically an artist,
you know, with with how he how efficient he is,
and how well he does. I am looking more at
Jabbari how he responds to this, and certainly Shannghu and
how he responds and.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
A few others.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
As far as Reid, I don't know if we really
kind of talked about him enough tonight, but it's what
did you guys, see from him tonight was plus eleven
when he was out there played I think a good
amount in the fourth. You know, with Reid, you just
never know what you're going to get. You might have
game where he's a reliability for you, you might have
a game where he's just completely won it for you.
I'm just curious what you saw as I five of
(23:07):
twelve from the field, one of five from three to
thirteen points plus eleven.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Michael, I'll defer to you since you were the guy
that asked you May about potentially starting read.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
First off, I that was just fight the year. He
May's a little smile after. M was fantastic and it
wasn't a decision I endorsed, but after some success in okay,
see it was worth acid. Okay, I'm done defending myself
and yeah it was great.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Good questions, just funny here spawns. Yeah, he's great.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
You know, he may he tells it like it is.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I like that Moreover.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I think with Reid, the thing is I just want
to see them let him play through the mistakes and
the errors and the frustrations where he's swiping or getting
bowled over, because I still don't think there's Rockets lineups
that are going to win multiple playoff series without like
one or two little read eruptions in April and May.
And if he's buried in the rotation and Sharry minutes
(23:55):
with Jade Davison or just you know out for Jayshawn Taate,
that's not enough fire. They need Reed Shepherd to have
some spurts and some big games. I know he's a
frustrating player, but they took him with teen for four overall,
pick right, and I think there is legitimate offensive talent there,
and so he was good in the fourth. Okay, tonight,
(24:16):
keep playing in Meme. That's my push. Keep playing the kid.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Yeah, I was gonna switch gears. I've got one other
topic I wanted to ask you guys about. There was
a quote from e May yesterday. I should have mentioned
this earlier and got sidetracked because there's so much to
discuss coming out of this one. But did you see
the quote from Emy when he was asked about JD
Davison or a buyout Yeah, where he's said, yeah, we
like JD, we see him as a part of the future.
But there's some guys on the buyout market that are
(24:42):
attractive as well.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
JD may get a deal.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
If they don't, they don't don't deal with a bio
guy like better then yeah, and and JD to be clear,
like they wouldn't lose him, it's just he's close to
maxing out the days in his two way contract.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
He'd stay in the organization and they could potentially give
him a contract this summer to keep him for for
future years. But I'm honestly thinking that I don't know
the names. I think some of it's waiting to see
exactly who gets bought out because teams have until March
first to buy out players and for them to be
eligible for the playoffs with a new team, So it's
still to be determined exactly what the buyout market is.
(25:17):
But I'm starting to think that the comparison is between JD.
Davison and a big rather than JD. Davison and another guard,
because it just seems like, you know, whenever the Rockets
feel like they need an extra ball handler, E May
has no hesitation turning to JD. Davison and this game tonight,
even coming out of the All Star Break and against
(25:37):
a Hornet's team that you know was a little under
man due to the suspensions clip Capella only played nine minutes,
and so I do think that there's a role where Dave.
You've mentioned Keban Looney before, But if they could get
a third dig to replicate a little bit of what
they had when it was Alp, Stephen and Clint and
do a little closer to what Steven gave, then you're
never going to fully replace Steven, but at least give
(25:59):
them some elements of that. I think that might be
the comparison rather than JD to another guard, because you know,
they've had opportunities really ever since you know, Chris Paul
and the Clippers farted ways back in December, like they've
had opportunities to add a guard for the sake of
adding a guard, they haven't. And in these matchups like
the Thunder where they clearly need, you know, an additional
(26:19):
ball handler, it doesn't seem like they are hesitant to
turn to JD at all. So I really am starting
to think it's not about necessarily the Rockets wanting to
upgrade JD. Davison. It's more is there a big that
they like that can potentially fill that Stephen hole. I
don't know that that's not source to me that's just
sort of my reading of the tea leaves. And you know,
they're thirty four and twenty now, they're only a half
(26:40):
game back of the Nuggets for the three spot, and
that's on the opposite side of the bracket from OKC
if you want to match up with the Nuggets. And
by the way, the fourth and final meeting, which could
determine the tie breakers in a couple of weeks in Denver,
the Nuggets have Jokic, the Nuggets have Valanchounis. There's a
lot of size. Maybe that's a matchup, and if you
see them in the playoffs in a two to three
that you need more size. And so I'm just curious,
(27:02):
like that's just me reading the tea leaves, But I
wouldn't be surprised if it's not Jady Davison versus a
veteran guard, but it's Jady Davison versus the potential big man.
What do y'all think about that?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I think that's a pretty heady point for two reasons.
One because it again that forces the EMEYU don't go
to play read Shepherd more in the regular season, right,
But two in the playoff series, I think extended Clint
Capella minutes that that's kind of a scary proposition for
emeju do right just to have Perhaps it is like
an older, heady screener like Kevon Looney, which I think
(27:33):
again would be kind of music, perhaps Kevin Durant and
read Shepherd's Ears, or if it's more of a vertical
spacer kind of guy, I don't think Clint quite fills
that need at this point. He's kind of like an
in between, clean it up kind of center. So I
think it's a heavy play that a third body just
to be around a different dimension that could be pretty smart.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Ben, I think it's exactly right. I think that's exactly
what they want is a big Again, the Kevon Looney
is not sourced. That's just me kind of putting myself
in their shoes and thinking what I believe that would
be sourced or so that they would look at is
they don't want anyone who's going to block their young players.
They want somebody who's going to highlight and compliment and
accent their young players, make them better. And guys, you know,
(28:16):
Steven Adams does that. He sets screens for Reid, he
sets screens for Katie. You know gets the offensive rebounds
gives the Rockets second chances. And Looney to me is
is he does a lot of similar things with a
couple of things he doesn't do. He's a little bit
more switchable. He is older. You know, he's thirty years old,
and you know, like I said, has had some allegations
of being washed in in his final year with Golden State.
(28:38):
But and he's not really playing much with the Pelicans.
But if he does get bought out, I'm just gonna
bet that the Rockets are interested in him.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Let me just end her up with one quick point.
Cavon Looney is only thirty years old. That's unbelievable. The
fact that it's just thirty.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
He started at like eighteen or nineteen. Yeah, he had to.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I just that that caught me and that makes me
feel old this whole thing. But wow, that's great.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Good to know.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And he's unfortunately a name that people in Houston know
well because he was a part of several of those
Warriors Rockets playoff series that never ended well in the
twenty ten. So that's part of my especially here, it
feels like that he's been around for a while. And
the other thing, I don't really think they're looking at
wings at all, like I guess you know Undrew rafel Stone.
They're always best player available. But I think with DFS
(29:25):
rounding into form and they showed you tonight, they're still
willing to trust Jayshaun Tate in the right matchup. I
think they feel pretty good about their wings, as you
said earlier, Michael, when they're at full strength. So I
think it's I think it's a guard or a big
and reading between the tea leaves. I think if it's
if it's guard, they're pretty comfortable with JD. It just
comes down to, you know, we'll see exactly who the
(29:46):
bigs are and at that point it will be BPA.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, I think it'll be big, but we'll see. We'll
see how that plays out. Yeah, guys, I appreciate anything
you want to say about this game. There's a great
win Rockets to pull it out in Charlotte tonight against
a team that's been red hot one O.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Five, one oh one. Really good win.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
We are going to see another great matchup Rockets versus
Nicks seven thirty Houston time. I believe Saturday night on
a as Ben pointed out, and yeah, anything you guys,
want to say about this game or anything else with
the Rockets before we return Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Well, just looking ahead to Saturday, it's the one game
of the season that Kevin Durant, now at thirty seven
years old, will get to play at Madison Square Garden.
So between the controversy of the past week, and we've
seen this with a lot of aging NBA stars, they
especially if you're in the Western Conference, they take that
one trip to New York very seriously. It would not
(30:36):
shock me if this is one that Katie has highlighted.
So if you want to get greedy and maybe go
four and oh out of the break, this might be
the opportunity because I think Broadway is gonna you know,
it's gonna give Katie a little bit of extra juice
for this one.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, I was gonna say, we have I think a
spring and summer full of drama ahead, and I think,
as Ben said, I think it can start Saturday night
in New York. So we got a fun couple weeks coming,
don't we.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Fellas absolutely going to be some interesting fan comments. Katie
is going to interact with fans and as in Square Garden.
Without question, that's going to be a fun one. Appreciate
you guys, Thank you and everyone for tuning in and
paying attention. Please leave your questions, comments, feedback anything in
the chat. We'll definitely address those and we will see
you all Saturday night. Thanks Michael, Thank you Bannons ike ys.
All right, welcome in everybody. Rockets get a big, big
win in Charlotte tonight, one oh five to one oh one,
a game that I think a lot of people who
aren't even Rockets fans were probably tuned in to watch,
given all the chaos and all the stories that we
saw since you know, All Star Game Day. Basically when
(00:23):
this news that Kevin Durant may or may not have
had a burner, everybody wants to see how Kevin Durant's
gonna play, how he's gonna interact with his teammates, how
his teammates are going to play. In response to you
know what he may or may not have said, Kevin
Durant definitely put those questions to rest. Tonight fourteen of
twenty from the field was absolutely scorching. Thirty five points.
(00:47):
Hit big shot, big free throws down the stretch that
ice this game. This was a fun one. I'm here
actually today with cron dot COM's Michael Shapiro. You could
definitely follow his work i chron dot common as well
on Twitter at m shap two and as well Ben
Dubos the Great and you can follow his stuff on
Twitter as well and on Blue Sky at Bendubo's and
(01:09):
Rockets wire and clutch fans as well rights for both guys.
This was a they needed this game and it was
good to see them come out on the road after
all of this controversy and all of the social media
mockery and all this stuff, to see Kadi come out, well,
Jabari come out. Well, this was a good game. I'll
start with you, Michael, what were your thoughts looking at
watching this one?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You know what, Kevin Durant, it's still pretty good, folks.
Thirty five points, fourteen to twenty shooting. You know that
game gets to ninety five ninety one, right, and Kevin
makes the last four field goals for Houston. One more
thing I kind of noticed here. He fired a lot
early ten first quarter points, and that's been a theme
a lot this season. Kevin says he scores to inspire
(01:51):
his teammates. That's a phrase he keeps using, and perhaps
he needs that like mentally, But I also think there's
an immediate gravitational pull from that. When he's cooking early,
when guys are having to converge on him immediately, he's
finding Jabari Smith in the corner. He's finding these open
guys and the offense is a lot more open, a
lot less clogged, and he saw that for Jabari tonight,
(02:11):
six or nine from the field, two threes in easy
fifteen points, that interplay should be there when Kevin's cooking early,
and it really was tonight.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
I also really liked what Kevin did late in the game,
and I think it was an adjustment more from him
than imy Ujoka to go earlier in the shot clock.
We had talked, especially early in the year, about the
Rockets being way too willing to wait for the double
and play four on three when in a perfect role,
it's Kad getting those shots to put the game away.
And I thought there were a couple of possessions midway
(02:41):
through the fourth quarter when the Rockets waited for the double,
it got sagnant, Charlotte hit him with a seven zero
run to cut it from eleven to four, and then
what flipped. Has Katie started going a lot earlier in
the shot clock. He started showing some juice to get
out in transition, and basically he made things happen before
the Hornets could sit that second defender. And there's some
(03:02):
things that ima Udoka can do to prod the team
and prod KD, you know, nudge them in that direction,
but a lot of it just comes down to you know,
players on the fly adjusting. And I think, you know,
KD showed a great feel for the game today, but
I think more than anything, you know, this was a
game where it's just great to see the Rockets collectively
play this hard. You know what had been masked with
(03:23):
the poor shooting in January and the turnovers in February,
was that Really since January first, they've been a good
defensive team. It's just the shooting and the turnovers have
kept the wins from being as much as you would like.
But I think what we saw tonight, well the three
point shooting didn't bounce back, but they did have a
little bit more juice to get those fifty to fifty
balls and they had twenty three stocks. So when you
(03:44):
combine Kevin Durant with that level of effort, attention to
detailed defensively, Jordian Pinny Smith Jay Shaun Tate were big
off the bench, I mean, this team should have a chance.
And if you were worried about you know, whatever happened
or didn't happen with Kevin Durant over the All Star break.
I think you can rest easy. He's still Kevin Durant.
As far as what it will mean for the rest
of the team, I mean time will tell. But through
(04:07):
one game, so far, so good. I think you have
to like beyond just you know, it was predictable that Kevin,
if anything, he's gonna feed off of this. He's been
through this before with the Burners twenty seventeen. If anything,
the attention, the spotlight's gonna you know, get him to,
you know, have something extra for these games. I guess
if there's any question, it's how does it affect the
other players on the team, the guys he allegedly called
(04:29):
out in the group chats, so to speak, And uh,
so far, so good. I mean, twenty three seals in blocks,
there's no signs to me that the effort was lagging
in any way.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And some of those blocks in the first half, especially
Jabari had a major one on Kulkbrenner. A Men did
as well, Kim Murph it was on Kulkbrenner and then
Kate he did. I mean they were highlight level blocks.
Their defense today was terrific. I still think there's some
offensive issues for whatever reason, you know, especially since Adams
has been out, but I think it was going on
before then. You know, they're scoring one hundred, maybe getting
(05:01):
a little bit over one hundred tonight, no exception, with
one hundred and five points, and you look at the
box and it's a little confusing. I mean, they got
a couple more shots, you know, the whole possession battle
than Charlotte did. They lost the rebounding battle tonight, fifty
two forty four. Really it's just a two point efficiency
tonight that that was so good and KD. I mean
fourteen of twenty and this is a guy who's shooting
(05:21):
a ton of mid range shots. He was two or
four from three. But it's not like he's just getting
layup after layup. He is shooting the basketball. And to
go fourteen to twenty is it's a special night. And
so I got to tip my hat to Katie. We obviously,
you know, had some some critical thoughts after the whole
you know, is he this burner account or not? But yeah,
(05:44):
I love the way he responded tonight and in his
post game as well. I thought he was very complimentary
of you know, going down the list, you know, the
players DFS, Jabari shanngun Reid. I thought he had a
lot of positive things to say, so maybe he's right
and maybe it won't be as big a deal, although
it is from the outside, you know, still a little
bit baffling.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I'm curious if either of you noticed. It felt, at
least to me, like Kad was more demonstrative than usual
during the games. You mentioned the postgame interview, but during
the game itself, you know, he was going out of
his way to high five teammates, to pump them up.
It felt like, you know, beyond obviously he wanted to
have a great stat line after the pr beating he's
taken the last few days. But did it feel to
(06:27):
either of you like he wanted to be a little
more demonstrative with his teammates to me, because that's that's
how it came off. I mean, it's one games anecdotal,
but it felt like he was super engaged tonight, not
just individually but with the team.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I mean you'll see that in certain nights where Kevin
is a little extra amped up. I think the biggest
one this season was at home against Phoenix. He hits
that game winner, right, and he does the kind of
get out of here gesture to the Suns, which I
thought was great, and that whole night he was kind
of fired up. He got entangled with Dylan a little bit.
I feel like tonight was another night where the emotions
were maybe a little pent up after recent days. He
(07:00):
got after it. You always see him congratulating Reed Shepherd,
staying on him. That's pretty constant. But yeah, it was
a pretty fiery KD, and he met it with his
performance late. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, you know, it's definitely interesting. The defense is kind
of what, in my opinion, saved this game. You know,
you look at it. KD was red hot to start
and the Rockets were down. I believe it got to
double digits. It was at least to nine, and it
looked kind of ugly mid second quarter. You know, this
was a game as well where you know, defensively, they
they I think the Hornets started out seven to thirteen
(07:33):
from three. They went seven of twenty nine. I believe
the rest of the way. They basically turned this game around.
About five minutes left in the second quarter, they went small.
They went with Katie Jabari I guess essentially at center,
DFS Tari and a men and that lineup was brilliant defensively,
and that's when the Rockets suddenly made this a game,
(07:53):
took I think turned up. You know, they were down
I think ten or eleven points, took a four point lead.
And Katie actually brought it up in the post game saying,
I think we won that game, won the game with
that stretch. It certainly changed the game. And and so
I would say defense was the you know, defense and
the special play of Katie is what won it today.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It's interesting Kevin kind of said that post game because
something I think I may might've let slip the other
week is he talking about the wing heavy lineups to
us right, and he says that's where we're good, right,
And I think he's kind of right. And you know,
at least those feel like the most natural units. When
you have that combination of Kevin, Jabari, Tari, and Dorian,
three or four of those on the flour at a time,
(08:35):
the ball moves well, it's not the outprint is like
a demerit at all to the offense, but just the
ability to ping it consistently side to side, five dribblers
at a time. I think it's a big deal. And
the Rockets are going to lean more into that. The
more they don't have the double big to Lena right,
the further we get from Steven's injury. The wing heavy
lineup is sometimes think we're gonna see more and more
(08:55):
and more.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, and you look at the bench. I like the
little tweak they made to play Jayshaun Tate more. You know,
some folks have wondered what's happened to Josha Kogi. I
think one of the issues is that if Josh doesn't start,
it's difficult to bring him off the bench because those
units with Reed and Josh, you're extremely light and you're
prone to getting you know, bullied in terms of second
(09:17):
chance opportunities. Whereas with the four off the bench tonight
DFS who was very good, Jayshon Tate, Clint Capella and
Reed Shepherd reads the only small guy, so you have
a lot more physicality.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Across the board.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And I don't think you know Josh had done anything
necessarily wrong, but if you need to optimize, read Shepherd
and I think the rockets. Do you know even on
a night that he was one to five from three,
he still made an impact. He was four of seven,
I believe inside the ark and made a couple of
big middies a driving shot when the Rockets were taking
control of the game late in the third early in
the fourth quarter, you need to surround him with some
(09:51):
balt some physicality, some defense so that you're giving that
unit reinforcements. And that's something that that email's done. I
like that move. We'll see if works that way for
every matchup. But whenever they did two weeks ago against
the Hornets did not work. So you may as well
try something different tonight, and you had a week to
plan it out. But in terms of the overall defense,
I think you know it starts with Kevin. He had
(10:12):
in addition to the scoring, he had eight rebounds, he
had three blocks and a steal. So when he's given
you that level of effort, when your thirty seven year
old leading scorer is getting aftered on defense that way,
it's only natural that guys are are going to follow.
And that's what I meant in the aftermath of the
burner scandal when I mentioned that it's not going to
affect KD. We can see from twenty seventeen there were
(10:35):
some pushbacks saying, well, that Warriors team is way better
than the current Rockets yeah, they are. But the point
of that comparison was to say that expecting the scandal
to impact the team's play is sort of like expecting
the tail to wag the dog. What's going to impact
the narrative and how they play together and how hard
they play is whether they're winning games and if they're
(10:58):
able to put it together tonight and they win at
a high level. And this is the same team that
started thirteen and four with a dominant net rating and
now you have Dorian Phinney Smith getting healthy, like there's
reasons for optimism. Now if they lose games, is it
possible that the scandal becomes, you know, even more of
a distraction and you know, it becomes, you know, more
of a thing in the locker room. Maybe, But where
(11:19):
it starts is that you're losing games. And so I
think that's what you've got to look at first, is
the on court production and Kevin. If anything, there was
a comment earlier in the chat Dave like Katie is
fueled by the Twitter trauma. I think nothing else. It's
bringing the best out of Kevin Durant, not just offensively,
but defensively, and at least in you know, the short
term it might actually benefit the team because when Kadi
(11:41):
plays this hard, I think it's natural that other guys
are going to follow. Now, you can certainly question what
it means long term, and I'm not going to speak
for any of the other guys because this is their business,
it's not mine. But at least in the short term
they might rally around this. That's sort of my sense
is that if you have Kevin playing this hard and
this efficiently on top of it, you know, how does
it not sort of light a fire under everybody.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I just think that's one hundred percent. The basketball will
determine the feelings, not the other way around. I think
that's the key thing to remember here.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
You know, I was gonna say, Jabari sure did tonight.
I thought he looked confident, I thought he looked good,
he knocked down shots. I was really impressed with what
Jabari did tonight. But I want to also just give
him a shoutout for this win. This was a road
way Jabaris, in particular. Jabari's has struggled on the road
this year, and this team had won ten of eleven,
that team being the Charlotte Hornets. Yes, Diabat's out and
(12:35):
Miles Bridges as well, suspended from the fight with Detroit,
but you know, still they have their offensive firepower. Last
eleven games, number three in offense, the Hornets are number
six in defense. They've been very good in this recent stretch.
And for the Rockets to slow him down like that,
I thought that was great. But Jabbari, it was one
of those guys because he was, you know, criticized by
(12:55):
this burner, whether it was Katie or not. And you know,
you're watching him and he's played really well lately. That
was the thing that they actually addressed this on the broadcast.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I don't know if he caught this, but for whatever reason,
people who don't like Jabari or whatever on Twitter have
just been killing him and saying he's been playing terrible lately.
He hasn't, And in the last fifteen games he's been
quite good.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He's low been very good.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, well, key exactly, and they've been in that practice.
He was really good. But a clip got posted of
him shooting one shot that he was short on and
everybody just you know, clowned him. But I thought, you know,
he was really good today. I mean six of nine
from the field. He hit two of three from deep
hit a couple of mid range shots that were you know,
rise and fire type, which we want to be in
(13:40):
his willhouse.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I just thought he looked good. I thought he was
he played well.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
And I thought you needed his rem protection on a
night when for the most part it was rough for Shingoon.
I mean, there were some rough stretches in pick and
roll defense, but I think the bigger thing, for whatever reason,
and this goes back multiple years, Grant Williams is a
nightmare matchup for all for in Shindoon. I don't know
why it is, but if you want to be optimistic.
So the Rockets held the Hornets to one hundred and
(14:04):
one points, which bummed me out. There was this stat
that the Rockets have been pushing that they're nine to
zero this year when they hold opponents below one hundred points,
and of those nine games, five have come since the
start of January, reflecting the fact that the team's defense
has been improving for a while. It's just been sort
of masked by the downturn offensively and with turnovers. Well,
the Hornet should have been below one hundred tonight. It
(14:25):
took those two kickout threes off of just you know
loose ball rebounds and airballs that landed in the laps
of a guy for the Hornets to barely scrap across
one hundred, But they got one hundred and one with
an insane game from Grant Williams. Grant Williams had twenty
points and nine rebounds on seven to ten shooting four
or five from three. This is the guy who was
like twenty six percent on threes entering the night, and
(14:47):
he goes for you know, twenty and nine on eighty
percent from three. So that's the you know, the really
glass half full on the Rockets defensively tonight. Not only
did they win that game on that side of the
ball twenty three steals and blocks combined, but man, if
not for like a crazy outlier performance by Grant Williams,
the Hornets probably don't even score ninety.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, Michael, if you were to say anything on that,
but yeah, no, it's I can tell you a little
bit why shnggun struggles. This is definitely something I've been
saying about shngun forever. Strong base mobile players doesn't matter
their height, will give him trouble. They keep him from
the basket. And Grant Williams I can't remember which year
it was, but it was a twenty four to twenty
five the first year. I think they played Charlotte at
(15:28):
home this season over the season and shng Gun just
feasted in the first half, feasted and it wasn't Grant
Williams wasn't playing against him. I member this game, well,
they shifted put Grant Williams on him in the second half,
completely changed the game. Rockets lost that game. He just
struggles with guys who just are mobile and can keep
him from the basket. So that's you know, you definitely
(15:50):
identified a particular guy who does that to him. But
that's what you know why Shangun struggled tonight six to sixteen.
I thought Shangun was better in the fourth, but in
the first half that was a pretty big issue.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
And then in terms of the defense, I think Jory
and Finney Smith, Michael, I know you wanted to talk
about him, and we honestly should because this is the
second strade. Really good performance from him, eight points, four boards,
made a couple of threes, but you know, the traditional
black score stats don't do him justice. He's a guy
who you see his value by how the team performs
(16:23):
when he's on the floor and what he means as
a connector and a communicator on both ends. And this
is why, you know, it's a small sample. We're talking
about two games, but his entire sample this year is small,
so it's all we have. And so these two games
he's been good. I think tonight's twenty three minutes is
the most he's played yet with the Rockets. So it
seems the ankle is getting better. To me by the
(16:44):
eye test, it seems he's moving better. And you know,
this is why the Rockets didn't make a panic trade
at the deadline using DFS as salary filler, which, you know,
being hard capped at the first apron, that was all
they could realistically do if they wanted to make a trade. Look,
if you believe in this guy, and clearly they did.
There's a reason they targeted him as basically their Dylan
replacement in free agency. He didn't even start playing until Christmas,
(17:06):
and there was no training camp, there's no preseason. It
would be irresponsible to just, you know, give up on
the guy and say, yeah, you know, forget what I
thought before after just five weeks when he didn't even
have a training camp, didn't even have a preseason to say, yeah, whatever,
I think he's washed. We're done. I mean, I get
why fans are alarmed, because you know, there should be
(17:27):
a sense of urgency with, you know, a team with
a thirty seven year old Kevin Durant. But maybe the
best course of action is just to trust that, Hey,
all that scouting you did in the off season targeting
dfs as you know, an ideal fit, just stick with that,
and maybe they're starting to reap the rewards. Now That's
how I'm looking at it.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You know, I'm gonna call myself in perhaps some fellow
media members out here. You know, in these press conferences
earlier in the year, you may keep saying, you know,
when we're at full strength, when we have Tari, when
we have Dorian, we're gonna feel and look a lot better.
And I kind of roll my eyes at that and say,
how many times can you kind of go to that? Well,
I kind of think he's right. I kind of think
(18:03):
that when you have the full complement of wings, like
we said, and especially when Dorian is more fully mobile,
closer than ninety percent of mobility, he's a really really
strong top line defender.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So is Tari.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Eason, so is a men Thompson. That's like the vision
of this roster that we've seen at full and Ben,
you make a good point that the Rockets have this vision.
They are not going to derail the vision because of
a bad January. In fact, for Felsen kind of laughed
at us when we brought up the idea of one
bad month determining the season. Right, So the Rockets had
a vision to get DFS to have these wings. Tonight
(18:38):
we saw it come to Fruition show. Shout out to them,
you know, it's fair enough.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I think that's exactly right, Michael and I love that's
been their ema. Rudoka's vision for this team since he
got here is defensive wings, athleticism, make it incredibly difficult,
switch everything. That's his philosophy and that's what he wants
to do. And I think having you know, obviously he
didn't want to trade Dylan, but to bring in DFS
to a place that you have this arsenal of guys.
(19:02):
Tari A men Jabari as far as a big, he
can do some of that switching and play and be
able to shoot as a big. So it's I think
that's the vision that he may has for the team,
and obviously you have some special offensive players Kevin Durant
and you hope, you know with Shan Gun. So it's
that's exactly what I think that they hope to accomplish.
And with DFS. I mean, I know we've said this before,
(19:24):
but I still just think you have to be a
little bit patient and it may not pan out, but
I think kind of like Steven Adams when he was
coming back manager, you have to just wait until to
see before he gets back, because he really was a very,
very key player defensively for several teams like the Lakers
last year, So just give it time. I thought he
was really good tonight.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
And it might be that this is the key to
unlocking the peak version of Reef Shepherd, because the conundrum
all year has been, you know, how do you get
the clear advantages on offense, how he can sort of
equal out the math game from three while surviving the
struggles on defense at least at times. Well then maybe
the added physicality and versatility when you have all those
(20:06):
wings is how you can bring out a peak reach Shepherd.
And as far as this game to transition beyond just
individual players, because I think before we close out, we
should highlight, you know, the team's performance overall. This was
such a big win. I had talked to some people
inside the organization. I mean, certainly they're aware of the
noise and so to sort of push back on the
pr title wave in recent days. You know, the last
(20:28):
thing you want to do is lose a couple of
games coming out of the All Star break, and they
have a challenging one on Saturday night in New York,
and now it feels like, you know, it's a great opportunity,
but it's not the end of the world if you
lose it. Whereas if you had lost this game and
you're potentially steering a two game would have been a
three game losing streak in the face sandwiched around all
this burner stuff, then yeah, that's the kind of environment
(20:51):
where it can spiral. Now I feel like it gives
the Rockets opportunity to catch their breath, and we know
they have, you know, a two game homestead next week
against tanking teams, So now all of a sudden, it
feels like the floor those two games Monday and Wednesday,
neither is back to back against the Jazz and the Kings,
So it sort of feels like the floor coming out
of the All Star Break is three and one in
your first four games and then I think the five
(21:13):
or six after that aren't that difficult either. So they've
got an opportunity to sort of stack some wins. But
I think it's sort of like one game at a time,
and in terms of how this first week goes, if
they had lost this game, you have a tough one
Saturday night at Madison Square Garden coming up at night
Conspiral all of a sudden, like they've got an opportunity
to be at least three and one in the first
week and from there who knows.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Right, Yeah, they have a schedule that I think is
like around maybe number twenty five per Tanka Tharn rest
of the season. It's a pretty easy stretch with as
you said, Jazz Kings, Magic, Miami and the Whiz coming up,
So that's not tough. I want to mention that next
game real quick. So I think that's fun for one
particular reason. They got a face Cat and Mitch in
New York on Saturday, and I want to see how
(21:54):
the Rockets and Alperin and I guess Clint and more importantly,
the wing lineups. I want to see how they handle
two bigs and two impressive bigs. The Rockets are going
to have to face some combo of what lemby Nicola,
Chett and Hartenstein in the playoffs. So the more kind
of reps they get against good impressive centers, especially duos,
I think that's pretty important for Houston. So I'm going
(22:16):
to watch out for that on Saturday for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's a nationally televised game, right yeah, ABC, Okay, okay,
that that's going to be interesting. You know that they're
going to ask Katie about this, like there's at least
they're certainly going to address it in in you know,
shows before the game.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I mean, I'm certainly not worried about Kevin Durant, how
as far as this play. He's you know, basically an artist,
you know, with with how he how efficient he is,
and how well he does. I am looking more at
Jabbari how he responds to this, and certainly Shannghu and
how he responds and.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
A few others.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
As far as Reid, I don't know if we really
kind of talked about him enough tonight, but it's what
did you guys, see from him tonight was plus eleven
when he was out there played I think a good
amount in the fourth. You know, with Reid, you just
never know what you're going to get. You might have
game where he's a reliability for you, you might have
a game where he's just completely won it for you.
I'm just curious what you saw as I five of
(23:07):
twelve from the field, one of five from three to
thirteen points plus eleven.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Michael, I'll defer to you since you were the guy
that asked you May about potentially starting read.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
First off, I that was just fight the year. He
May's a little smile after. M was fantastic and it
wasn't a decision I endorsed, but after some success in okay,
see it was worth acid. Okay, I'm done defending myself
and yeah it was great.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Good questions, just funny here spawns. Yeah, he's great.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
You know, he may he tells it like it is.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I like that Moreover.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I think with Reid, the thing is I just want
to see them let him play through the mistakes and
the errors and the frustrations where he's swiping or getting
bowled over, because I still don't think there's Rockets lineups
that are going to win multiple playoff series without like
one or two little read eruptions in April and May.
And if he's buried in the rotation and Sharry minutes
(23:55):
with Jade Davison or just you know out for Jayshawn Taate,
that's not enough fire. They need Reed Shepherd to have
some spurts and some big games. I know he's a
frustrating player, but they took him with teen for four overall,
pick right, and I think there is legitimate offensive talent there,
and so he was good in the fourth. Okay, tonight,
(24:16):
keep playing in Meme. That's my push. Keep playing the kid.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Yeah, I was gonna switch gears. I've got one other
topic I wanted to ask you guys about. There was
a quote from e May yesterday. I should have mentioned
this earlier and got sidetracked because there's so much to
discuss coming out of this one. But did you see
the quote from Emy when he was asked about JD
Davison or a buyout Yeah, where he's said, yeah, we
like JD, we see him as a part of the future.
But there's some guys on the buyout market that are
(24:42):
attractive as well.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
JD may get a deal.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
If they don't, they don't don't deal with a bio
guy like better then yeah, and and JD to be clear,
like they wouldn't lose him, it's just he's close to
maxing out the days in his two way contract.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
He'd stay in the organization and they could potentially give
him a contract this summer to keep him for for
future years. But I'm honestly thinking that I don't know
the names. I think some of it's waiting to see
exactly who gets bought out because teams have until March
first to buy out players and for them to be
eligible for the playoffs with a new team, So it's
still to be determined exactly what the buyout market is.
(25:17):
But I'm starting to think that the comparison is between JD.
Davison and a big rather than JD. Davison and another guard,
because it just seems like, you know, whenever the Rockets
feel like they need an extra ball handler, E May
has no hesitation turning to JD. Davison and this game tonight,
even coming out of the All Star Break and against
(25:37):
a Hornet's team that you know was a little under
man due to the suspensions clip Capella only played nine minutes,
and so I do think that there's a role where Dave.
You've mentioned Keban Looney before, But if they could get
a third dig to replicate a little bit of what
they had when it was Alp, Stephen and Clint and
do a little closer to what Steven gave, then you're
never going to fully replace Steven, but at least give
(25:59):
them some elements of that. I think that might be
the comparison rather than JD to another guard, because you know,
they've had opportunities really ever since you know, Chris Paul
and the Clippers farted ways back in December, like they've
had opportunities to add a guard for the sake of
adding a guard, they haven't. And in these matchups like
the Thunder where they clearly need, you know, an additional
(26:19):
ball handler, it doesn't seem like they are hesitant to
turn to JD at all. So I really am starting
to think it's not about necessarily the Rockets wanting to
upgrade JD. Davison. It's more is there a big that
they like that can potentially fill that Stephen hole. I
don't know that that's not source to me that's just
sort of my reading of the tea leaves. And you know,
they're thirty four and twenty now, they're only a half
(26:40):
game back of the Nuggets for the three spot, and
that's on the opposite side of the bracket from OKC
if you want to match up with the Nuggets. And
by the way, the fourth and final meeting, which could
determine the tie breakers in a couple of weeks in Denver,
the Nuggets have Jokic, the Nuggets have Valanchounis. There's a
lot of size. Maybe that's a matchup, and if you
see them in the playoffs in a two to three
that you need more size. And so I'm just curious,
(27:02):
like that's just me reading the tea leaves, But I
wouldn't be surprised if it's not Jady Davison versus a
veteran guard, but it's Jady Davison versus the potential big man.
What do y'all think about that?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I think that's a pretty heady point for two reasons.
One because it again that forces the EMEYU don't go
to play read Shepherd more in the regular season, right,
But two in the playoff series, I think extended Clint
Capella minutes that that's kind of a scary proposition for
emeju do right just to have Perhaps it is like
an older, heady screener like Kevon Looney, which I think
(27:33):
again would be kind of music, perhaps Kevin Durant and
read Shepherd's Ears, or if it's more of a vertical
spacer kind of guy, I don't think Clint quite fills
that need at this point. He's kind of like an
in between, clean it up kind of center. So I
think it's a heavy play that a third body just
to be around a different dimension that could be pretty smart.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Ben, I think it's exactly right. I think that's exactly
what they want is a big Again, the Kevon Looney
is not sourced. That's just me kind of putting myself
in their shoes and thinking what I believe that would
be sourced or so that they would look at is
they don't want anyone who's going to block their young players.
They want somebody who's going to highlight and compliment and
accent their young players, make them better. And guys, you know,
(28:16):
Steven Adams does that. He sets screens for Reid, he
sets screens for Katie. You know gets the offensive rebounds
gives the Rockets second chances. And Looney to me is
is he does a lot of similar things with a
couple of things he doesn't do. He's a little bit
more switchable. He is older. You know, he's thirty years old,
and you know, like I said, has had some allegations
of being washed in in his final year with Golden State.
(28:38):
But and he's not really playing much with the Pelicans.
But if he does get bought out, I'm just gonna
bet that the Rockets are interested in him.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Let me just end her up with one quick point.
Cavon Looney is only thirty years old. That's unbelievable. The
fact that it's just thirty.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
He started at like eighteen or nineteen. Yeah, he had to.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I just that that caught me and that makes me
feel old this whole thing. But wow, that's great.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Good to know.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And he's unfortunately a name that people in Houston know
well because he was a part of several of those
Warriors Rockets playoff series that never ended well in the
twenty ten. So that's part of my especially here, it
feels like that he's been around for a while. And
the other thing, I don't really think they're looking at
wings at all, like I guess you know Undrew rafel Stone.
They're always best player available. But I think with DFS
(29:25):
rounding into form and they showed you tonight, they're still
willing to trust Jayshaun Tate in the right matchup. I
think they feel pretty good about their wings, as you
said earlier, Michael, when they're at full strength. So I
think it's I think it's a guard or a big
and reading between the tea leaves. I think if it's
if it's guard, they're pretty comfortable with JD. It just
comes down to, you know, we'll see exactly who the
(29:46):
bigs are and at that point it will be BPA.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, I think it'll be big, but we'll see. We'll
see how that plays out. Yeah, guys, I appreciate anything
you want to say about this game. There's a great
win Rockets to pull it out in Charlotte tonight against
a team that's been red hot one O.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Five, one oh one. Really good win.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
We are going to see another great matchup Rockets versus
Nicks seven thirty Houston time. I believe Saturday night on
a as Ben pointed out, and yeah, anything you guys,
want to say about this game or anything else with
the Rockets before we return Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Well, just looking ahead to Saturday, it's the one game
of the season that Kevin Durant, now at thirty seven
years old, will get to play at Madison Square Garden.
So between the controversy of the past week, and we've
seen this with a lot of aging NBA stars, they
especially if you're in the Western Conference, they take that
one trip to New York very seriously. It would not
(30:36):
shock me if this is one that Katie has highlighted.
So if you want to get greedy and maybe go
four and oh out of the break, this might be
the opportunity because I think Broadway is gonna you know,
it's gonna give Katie a little bit of extra juice
for this one.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, I was gonna say, we have I think a
spring and summer full of drama ahead, and I think,
as Ben said, I think it can start Saturday night
in New York. So we got a fun couple weeks coming,
don't we.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Fellas absolutely going to be some interesting fan comments. Katie
is going to interact with fans and as in Square Garden.
Without question, that's going to be a fun one. Appreciate
you guys, Thank you and everyone for tuning in and
paying attention. Please leave your questions, comments, feedback anything in
the chat. We'll definitely address those and we will see
you all Saturday night. Thanks Michael, Thank you Bannons ike ys.
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