October 19, 2025 • 50 mins
With analysis from Ben DuBose and Paulo Alves, Sunday’s show reacts to the news of Kevin Durant extending his Houston contract for two additional years (and $90 million), as well as insight on whether Tari Eason is the next Rockets player in line for an extension.
The episode also looks ahead to Tuesday’s regular-season opener at Oklahoma City and breaks down whether Reed Sheppard or Steven Adams is most likely to be the fifth starter versus the Thunder.
The episode also looks ahead to Tuesday’s regular-season opener at Oklahoma City and breaks down whether Reed Sheppard or Steven Adams is most likely to be the fifth starter versus the Thunder.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome morning, Benjubo's here, Paolo Alves there, Welcome into another
episode of the Rockets Launch Pod, presented by Clutch Fans
and also with support from Sports Talk seven ninety official
Flag Show Prodotiation of your Houston Rockets. It's Sunday, October nineteenth,
(00:24):
about forty eight hours before the Rockets opened up their
regular season at Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, and we
will talk a little bit of basketball before tonight's pod ends,
but we're going to be talking mostly business on today's show.
And that's because Monday is a pretty big date and
a key inflection point on the NBA calendar each year.
So the way it works is on the day before
(00:46):
the regular season opener, which this year is Tuesday, and
the Rockets are part of that playing in Oklahoma City's
ring that game, rosters have to be finalized around the league,
and there's also a rookie scale contract extension deadline for
first run draft pick who are now entering their fourth
seasons in the league, and if they don't agree to
an extension by that time, then they become a restricted
(01:07):
free agent the next summer. There's no further negotiations. That's
just the way the system is set up. So here
in Houston, we all know the story the two twenty
two first round picks where Javori Smith Junior and Tari Eason,
and Javari already agreed to his extension months ago. Tari
is a bit trickier for reasons we documented in the
past in terms of projecting the future value, because some
(01:29):
of the risks reward considerations are fairly unique with regards
to his injury history, his unique playing style, and so
I think that's why those negotiations have taken a bit longer.
But in addition to that, and this is also something
that we touched on in previous episodes, the Tarian negotiations
were also kind of connected to the ongoing talks with
(01:49):
Kevin Durant over a veteran extension, because in this new
CVA landscape where you need to stay below the second
afront of the luxury a tax, all the deals are
sort of interconnected because it's like fitting together a puzzle. Now.
I've argued in the past it's possible that Jabari's deal
was tied to Kevin as well, but I think for
a different reason, and that for the Rockets to feel
secure that Jabbari and not Jalen Green was the young
(02:12):
guy to keep moving forward. Then the Rockets needed to
understand where his deal would come in at, and so
it wouldn't surprise me if that was something that came
up during the June negotiation between the Rockets and the Suns.
That's not confirmed, that's vi speculation, but longtime listeners know
where I'm coming from on that. Anyway, flash forward to
today and Sunday Morning News broke that KD would be
(02:34):
signing a two year, ninety million dollar extension to stay
with the Rockets. That's for two years after this season.
His deal for twenty five to twenty six is already
on the books, so technically he's now under contract with
the Rockets for the next three seasons, although the last
year is a player option. That's the twenty seven to
twenty eight league year. And then the ninety million dollar figure.
(02:55):
That's roughly thirty two million under what the max contract
would have been, which was at one hundred and twenty
two million over two years. And by the way, I'm
going to pat myself on the back because we came
pretty close to nailing the terms on this very podcast.
I went back and listened to our August show where
we talked about a KD extension. We also had a
show on a potential Tari extension and with Kevin we
(03:17):
mentioned two for one hundred or two for eighty as
potential parameters if he was going to give something of
a hometown discount, which had been reported by ESPN Sham Sharania,
who to no surprise broke the new Sunday of the
actual deal being reached, and then two for ninety is
basically Rafelstone and KD just splitting the difference there. But
the more important takeaway as far as the overall puzzle,
(03:40):
the bigger picture, all that good stuff KAT is now
coming in at about forty five million in annual value,
and that gives the Rockets about twenty five million in
space next off season below the second apron, which can
potentially be used on some combination of Tari eason and
then maybe having enough money left over that you can
use some or all of the taxpayer mid level exception,
(04:02):
which I believe has a starting salary of about six
million or so. Now I want to reiterate that as
of our recording on Sunday evening the nineteenth, and I'm
also not doing much editing, by the way, because we
want to get this live asap because of how timely
all of this is, and it could be that by
the time we actually upload this Atari deal is officially
(04:24):
in or by the time you're listening to it as
of our recording time, it's not so we're just guessing
right now. But I do think it's fair to conclude
that the Durant deal gives the Rockets enough wiggle room
to where Atari extension is very doable. And obviously that
would mitigate a lot of the uncertainty and the risk
for honestly, both the team and the player. And given
(04:45):
the fact that Tari hasn't gotten his first big contract yet,
he's had the obvious injury history, and also the Rockets
just need firm figures so that they can plan out
their future pay roles as this team gets more expensive.
That's been well documented. The bottom line is there's a
lot of incident for both side to get this resolved
without waiting until next offseason. And now that the KD
contract has officially come in at something of a discount,
(05:08):
you've got both incentive and opportunity. And while we still
don't know the cecivic value or years as of our
recording time. We'll talk about that in the future episode
once the terms are in. The bigger takeaway here is
that it does look like a deal is getting done.
David Aldridge and Will Gilory if the Athletic. They reported
earlier Sunday that a deal between Tari and the Rockets
is expected to be completed by the deadline, which is
(05:30):
officially at five pm Central on Monday afternoon. So those
are the general parameters. Powello, let's just start with the obvious.
What was your immediate reaction to the news of the
KD extension and ultimately what it means in the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I thought it was unbelievable. I know, we talked about
Katie taking a bay cut, and it was widely reported
that he would, But in my head it was always okay,
if you get a deal done with Tari and he
gets whatever's whatever's left, considering that it will always have
to be above a certain level pool of course, So
it came kind of as a surprise for two reasons. First,
(06:06):
because of the number itself. I know we talked about
those kinds of numbers, but to me it always had
a bit too optimistic to look at anybody at anything
under one hundred million. Guys, stay big Bacos, that's been
a thing. It's still rare, but bake it of sixteen
million a year. I think it's pretty imprecedented, unless it
(06:27):
is to bring on another time like KD is doing
this without knowing what these what this flexibility is going
to turn into in the future. I mean, when you
speak of KD, it's it's it's always rough, so it's
always hard to talk about KD and not a lot
stuph go look at how much stuff Curry is making,
and he had perhaps even more of a responsibility to
(06:47):
you know, take a hometown discount than what KD will
have with a completely new team. I'll get them to
that part later, but my first takeaway was it's interesting
that it has come out before the Towy news has
come out, unless they already I never know why these
extensions take until the last second, especially you know what
(07:08):
is with the office they have in recent memory. But
perhaps they already kind of know what the deal is
going to be with Tari and they're just you know,
waiting until the last second to make sure that there's
no deals signed in the meantime, that completely break president
and that would kind of throw ranking negotiations.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Kamara, obviously is a similar that Thetari. He just signed
for something like four years eighty million, although one of
those years goes from being a minimum team option to
whatever the twenty million AAD is. I don't think that's
going to change much. But I do think it's interesting
that they that they released the or at least made
public the kV extension before the Tarisan one, because if
(07:46):
the goal was to extract maximum value from a tar
gread deal, you'd probably be better off announcing the KD
trade the KD deal after the Tari ease and one,
because well, there's no deadline, so you could have And
second of all, you've kind of tipped your hand as
far as you know. Now that's ink now knows how
(08:07):
much money you're working with for my season.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
The fact that they didn't and this is obviously not
something that Prophel's stone, why does in the front office,
would you know? Over like overlook makes me think that
the deals already basically set in stone, and for some reason,
like with Kinglin and Killen Green last year, it just
hadn't been signed for whatever reason, because otherwise I think
they would have waited because there would be nowhere or
(08:32):
at least I can't see any downside in waiting until
after thy since it was done to walk in the
KD deal. But besides that, going into the actual number,
I think KD is probably being a little bit over
paid here. I don't think you should make a nickel
over what Ojen and Noobi is making because he's clearly
superior player. So I think the Rockets overpaid him by
(08:53):
about two and a half million dollars a year. Still,
even with the I'm kidding guys, please nobody, please know
what equipped that out of contact and then to get
flamed No, obviously it's it's a massive bargain for the
opposite of what I was just telling you. If O
Jenna no He's making two point five million wess than
Kevin Durrant, I think that tells you everything you need
to know. I mean all respects to Oljenoobi as a player,
(09:15):
but he's a Roblin and Katie is a top ten
player in the league. So I think that tells you
everything you need to know, and it kind of reinforces
the point that we had tried to get across just
from very early on, before Katy was even a rocket,
which is if he did was ever going to be
a rocket, it would always be because he's just a
guy that understands basketball from a playing standpoint and from
(09:38):
a business standpoint, and understands what it takes to win,
and that sometimes he's just very savvy. He picked the
Rockets before he came here. We always said, if he
picks the Rockets, or it's realistic that he might pick
the Rockets because it's a situation. It's the situation that
makes the most sense out of the options that he has,
(09:58):
even from a competing standpoint, right, So the team that's
already built, it's young, it can make up for whatever
possible shortcomings he may have as he gets older. Team
that can do all of that thing that desperately needs
exactly what he brings. And we always kind of highlighted
that Kad understood how much sense it may for him
to come to the Rockets because of how well he
(10:20):
fit into what the team needed. And I think this just,
you know, just doubles down on all we were saying
back then, which is, well KD understands as well. Besides
the on court basketball perspective, which obviously he's a perfect fit.
From a team building perspective, he also understands that at
this point in his career, you know, and this is
(10:41):
obviously not to down play the generosity that is shown.
Those fifteen million will allow the Rockets to be a
lot more competitive over the three years that he is here.
And he has talked about extensively about the goal being
to win a championship here and to have his jersey retired.
And it's not easy to have your jersey retire to
do with a franchise when you want to play three year.
That actually went three. Taking the space shows how committed
(11:04):
he is to you know, being appreciated, I guess by
Rocket Science and and how you know he is committed
to This is not his retirement home, like, he is
here to do the best that he possibly can to
bring the success to the team and to have one
more place in his career. The way of belief. He
has another one where he is kind of a hero
(11:27):
to the fens of the team.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He obviously left okay, see you in a little bit
of a of a you know, rough situation, didn't only
the Warriors, especially on good terms. I mean, we can
tell that he didn't want to go back there. They
didn't leave Brooklyn. He kind of left on good terms,
but then didn't leave. They didn't leave s Phoenix and
good terms at all. And I think this shows his
(11:50):
commitment to Okay, I want a fran time that I
can call home, and I want to do everything so
that so that the team that I'm at has the
best situation possible to win with the reason. Obviously he
wasn't going to take a minimum deal. That's absert, but
a thirty million dollar Baker thirty two million dollar take
it over two years is massive and it shows how
(12:12):
community is and has immediate implication on the Tariason deal
because now the Rockets can go up to twenty five
millionaires to rotaintari On next season, which you know, it's
probably going to be above what the AAV is for
tari but might a lot of of its to do
something more creative like either either startaries deal on you know,
(12:33):
the typical contract structure where he starts at all or
salary and progresses year over year with the eight percent raises,
which might allow the Rockets, as you said, to side
an MLA guy or it might have a lot of
rockets to make the team more sustainable. While KD is
here by starting with you know, making the deal frontler
and perhaps starting at those twenty five million, but by
(12:56):
the time I mean fumtums extension kicks in that that
that figure might be lower than it would have been
if you if you had to get taken every penage
you could get, and it kind of lows the rockets
to eat more of that salary early on and have
Tari's contract be cheaper later on, which might a lot
of rockets to have you know, more and will a
(13:17):
lot of rockets have more flexibility once amnalumpone gets his
max extension paid. Not only that, not only the practical
benefits that come from that flexibility, it's also all the
message that and I'll leave that up to you because
you were with the guys today and you got some
live reactions to it, but the message that it relays
to all of the young guys that are you know,
(13:39):
starting to get their first week count rights that the
guy you looked up to your entire agree and just
too come massive take it to extend his contract. And
the fact that he came here and it's year one,
he hasn't played the game in the using Rockets uniform,
and he's already sacrificing for that culture. And he talked
about that culture and other security, but the message set
(14:01):
that realizes alongst the young guys obviously shaking Hun took
a bake up from what the march that he could
have gone. I think Tobari Smith a pretty team friendly deal.
I think fredvent Riet before the injury, was on a
pretty team friendly deal as well. I think Steven Adams
is on a team friendly deal as well. I think
Darren Finney Smith, well, we don't know what the injury
looks like to one hundred percent, but I think that
(14:25):
that his was a team friendly deal as well. And
I think that just you know, keeps that theme going
from a guy that is his first year here. He
doesn't owe anything for the franchise, right, but he still
decided that he was going to make a decision that's
incredibly selfless.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Thirty million over two years, a lot of money even
for Kevin Burn.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, and that's something that Im Jokas said when he
spoke to us at practice after the KD deal was
officially announced. His words, it shows their selflessness, talking about
not just Kevin, but other veterans, most notably President Lee
going down from a forty five million dollars sole twenty
five and I know he got hurt, but obviously they
did not know that at the time. And then you
mentioned Steven Adams and Doriy and Finny Smith. I think
(15:07):
they took pretty team friendly deals as well, And so
Emay continued his comments, they're about the basketball. I think
a lot of these guys are about the right things.
It's about winning and whatever it takes to get there.
They understand that flexibility matters, and it puts us in
a good spot when there's extra money to go around.
Speaking specifically to the vets, he said, they see the
big picture and the value of our depth. And what
(15:30):
Emy is referring to in that is that by having
a deep bench and young players who are capable of
taking on bigger roles and sliding up if need be,
then they can keep the veterans fresher to where they
have the best opportunity overall to achieve their goals. And
I think ultimately that's part of why they leaked the
Kevin Durant deal. First, I mean, I think I agree
with you Folo that the parameters of atari deal are
(15:52):
probably in place. I think that's why the Athletic is
reporting that a deal is expected to get done. I'm
thinking that I don't know if it's the team side,
the player side, or both. There's clearly some confidence and
it's just you know, dotting the i's and crossing the
t's at this point. But I also think that if
Kevin freaking Durant, a guy of his stature, is taking
(16:15):
that type of discount and fredman Fleet, president of the
players Union, Now, if guys of that stature in the
league are taking discounts, how does that not set a
tone for everyone else on the roster, Because as you mentioned,
it's really not just the vetter ends. I think they
probably set a tone. And maybe that's why you leak
the Kevin deal first, because it's so massive. It's Kevin Durant.
(16:38):
I guess he deserves his own day in the spotlight,
if you will. But I also think it sort of
continues the theme to where everybody feels like they want
to fall in line and it's about the collective rather
than any one person individual or any one set of negotiations.
It's about winning at a high level and that takes
(16:58):
sacrifice not just on the court, but off the court
as well, and so I think a deal is probably
in place, And even if it's not, you could also
argue that with twenty five million dollars, with the space
beneath the second APH and next off season, there's no
way that Tari is going to get a higher AAP
than Jabari. So there's enough room no matter what. In
my opinion, at this point, it's largely just about figuring
(17:21):
out if there's enough of a delta to where you
can have the full taxpayer mL as well. That's my guess.
But regardless, there is enough room to get a deal done.
And I mean theoretically you could wait until restricted free
agency as well, and I think still be in a
good spot. But it doesn't seem to me that that's
the way this is trending. But I just think that
the bigger takeaway here there's just not much downside because
(17:42):
if you see Kevin Durant doing this for the benefit
of the team, after all he has achieved, how does
it not make you when you're his teammate and you
look up to him, perhaps be more amenable to sacrifices
on your end, I don't think it's necessarily coincidence that
the Jabbari deal got done. Now, it might be in
part because of the Kevin Durant trade, but earlier in
(18:03):
that month, the Rockets agreed to those sweetheart deals that
you mentioned with Steven Adams and Fred n Fleet, who
I think both took salaries that are well below their
contributions last season. So if you're a young guy and
you see your teammates doing things like that for the
betterment of the team, how does that not make you
think along those same lines. I guess that's my take.
(18:23):
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, because I do if
I had to bet, the parameter's already in place. But
I also think it's just the Rockets love having this headline,
this storyline out there. And I think ultimately that's the
big takeaway here is that it's about the culture, and
you know, really it's about Imo Ujoka and the way
things have trended since he took over this program in
(18:43):
twenty twenty three. I think that's the real takeaway here,
is that even if there's still some eyes to dot
and tease to cross, there's just no real downside when
the headline is Kevin Durant taking thirty two million dollars less.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Right, Yeah, and it's it's not the first time that
the Rockets have allowed the media narrative to be or
to have the spotlight b on the player or the
agent Arkeets don't really. I think they've shown this with
Perparenentley back with the entire thirty year team ouction that
only became public that day later. The Rockets have always
(19:16):
shown a willingness to add the media narrative favor anybody
else other than the front office. They've never made it
a point to make it look like they're be seen anybody,
and they've never made it a point to make it
look like than an excellent for the office. They've always
tried to let use that as can a little bit
of as lever. They've always let the agents and the
(19:37):
players take or or or kind of squeeze out of
every move all that they can get for their own
purposes from a narrative perspective, because what the Rockets have
always cared more about. I think that the rock postone
that's always been the case is what's actually, you know,
the actual terms.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Of the contract.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
They don't care how you spin it to the media.
They care about getting the best terms possible. If they
can get a contract to b ten dollars cheaper, and
in exchange you get to write, you know, the report
for shams and haven't published it, they will allow you
to do that anyway, And I think I think that's
a really point for you, which is and I think
KB is someone who caret about the good publicity that
(20:18):
you know, perhaps they let it come first because well
be it being a you know, a single new news
kind of event gets more good publicity for KD than
it would game at the same time. And I think
it makes even more sense when you consider when the
news broke out, because the new and very early on
(20:41):
and it was the only thing that came on from
an NBA perspective as far as news goes.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
With eight am on the Dot that the news broke which,
by the way, whatever something is on the Dot, I
always think that it was planned in advance, like someone
might have had it in their drafts. It just scheduled
it for that time, and so that way it gets
to be a talking point on all the you know,
the Sunday morning shows, Sports Center. It sort of drives
the dialogue for the day, and you woke me up
because of course that's what like two pm for you.
(21:09):
But yeah, Dad alle Erner, the beat writer for the Chronicle.
I saw her tweet out later that she was sleepy
and then she was playing ketchup because she woke up
about Ted. Actually, thanks to you, fellow. I was on
top of it right when it broke out, because I
had this buzz and I looked at my phone. I
was like, holy shit, which eight am is not typically
a time that news breaks, but I guess when you
think about it, yeah, it does let him sort of
(21:30):
dominate the day, the news cycle, and it's sort of
fitting because if you recall, his trade to Houston was
also announced on a Sunday morning. That time, it was
about eleven am Houston time. All right, so let's transition
to on court discussion. I'm not going to gloss over
(21:50):
the Tory Easton contract as far as a discussion on
this podcast, but we're gonna save it for a future
episode because there's no point in going too far in
thes as far as how much money, how many years
when we're about to find out, and hell, we might
find out within an hour or two of when this
episode gets posted, So we'll come back to Tari later
(22:13):
this week if a deal gets done, and if for
some reason it doesn't, then we can look at the reports,
try and decipher where things went wrong, and maybe give
a little bit of an early look ahead to the
restricted ree agency market in twenty twenty six. I doubt
that will be the case, but the bottom line, it
doesn't feel prudent to go too far down the road
speculating about Tari figures when I think we're a few hours,
(22:35):
worst case about, you know, twenty hours from finding out
what the terms actually are, and we can talk about
the implications of those once they're in. So to wind
down this episode, I want to look at what we
saw on the floor in the final week of preseason,
and specifically, I think the debate for emay Udoka entering
the first few games of this season. We mentioned Tuesday
(22:57):
night against the Thunder on the road and then the
home opener Friday against Detroit should be a very good
team in the Eastern Conference led by Kate cutting him.
The big decision for ima Udoka, and he has not
tipped his hand just yet, is who the fifth starter
is going to be. Obviously, Kadi, Shingoon Amen and Jabari
are locked in and they've left the door open to
(23:18):
it being Reed Shepherd, Steven Adams or Tarry Easton as
the fifth starter. I think at this point it's more
likely to be Read or Steven because the only game
in the preseason slate that Tari started was the opener
that Katie started. He came off the bench and the
others we heard Joshua Kogie referred to him as a
potential sixth man of the year. So I think the
(23:40):
evidence that we've seen points to Tari being the sixth
man Versusil can fill a number of plugs, or if
there's Spoul trouble, can plug a number of holes, I
should say. And then with Reid and Stephen, it just
comes down to the archetype. Do you want the traditional
point guard that's in the Fred van Fleet body or
do you want to go double bitch and the high
(24:01):
floor that I think Steven Adams provides in that sense,
he might be a good replacement for the Fred archetype
in that Bred is a very different style of player,
but he does have a very high floor and that's
something that the Rockets might need when you look at
the high upside of certainly the big three, but also
Jabari is a third overall pick from a couple of
(24:21):
years ago as well, and Javari obviously had a great preseason.
So there's multiple ways that you could look at it.
But I think that's the big debate for you may Udoka,
and he has said that it might not be a
permanent thing. He could change it depending on the matchup,
And he also might be trying to buy time until
Jory Anthony Smith comes back. We don't have a firm
timetable just yet, but I don't think it's going to
(24:42):
be too long. We have seen him at training camp.
It's not like he's in hiding. No, he is running,
he is doing some drills. Jay Sharntate had the same
offseason ankle injury and it looks like he will be
cleared and available on opening night, So that should be
a positive sign in my opinion, that which Smith. Unless
there's a setback and we have not been told of that,
then it probably shouldn't be too much longer. And so
(25:05):
Dorian is someone that could certainly figure into the equation
as well. If the Rockets start off sluggishly defensively, and
as far as you know the trends, we talked about
them on the last episode. This is a team that
should have more of an offensive identity. In the preseason,
they led the league in points per game in offensive raiding. Defensively,
you lost Dylan Brooks and front and fleet from last
year's team. Jalen Green. I know he you know, catches
(25:28):
a lot of criticism, especially after being traded away, but
in terms of stopping triple penetration, which is at times
an issue in the free season, he was one of
your shiftiest guys outside of himn Thompson when it comes
to from defense. So with defense, the hope is that
playing harder in the regular season will take away some
of the you know, the spotty things that we saw
in the preseason. But time will tell, and if it doesn't,
(25:51):
then you do have Dori Anthonny Smith coming back in
the relatively near future that should help a lot as well.
At very versatile and good defensive player for some time,
and one that should be a lot healthier than what
we saw in the last couple of years, based on
getting his ankle cleaned up. So as good as he
was defensively the last couple of years, just to imagine
how good he can be once he has more freedom
of movement. So defensively, I think we'll just have to
(26:13):
be patient, wait and see, and you know, I don't
know if they'll be quite as good as they were
a year ago, but obviously they don't have to be.
And then offensively well, because offensively they're just so much
better and they have a gear that last year's team
simply did not. So I think, you know, for me
and Polow's last full show, most of the themes as
(26:33):
far as offense and defense held. The final game obviously
was reed Shepherd and mostly third stringers, just eight guys
available period. The second to last game against the Pelicans
and neutral site game in Birmingham, that was the one
that he may refer to as the trust rehearsal, and
that was the one where Steven got the start. So
as far as Reid versus Steven, we've got three starts
(26:56):
in the preseason, but you have to put an asterisk
kind the third start in that pretty much all of
the veterans sat out. And then even though when you
look at the first three, Reid started twice, Steven started once. Well,
one of Steven's non starting games he hadn't played all
because he was unavailable, and then Stephen did play and
start the game that was the dress rehearsal, and he
(27:17):
was fantastic in that game. I think the Rockets were
plus twenty six in his twenty four minutes, something just
absolutely crazy. And of course that speaks to you know,
the screen setting, the offensive rebounding, the presence near the rim,
all the things that make Steven Adams just such a
uniquely impactful presence. And so that's the debate, and I've
gone back and forth. I think I'm leaning Steven simply
(27:41):
because certainly the opener you're going up against chet Holmgren
and as a Hartenstein, so it makes sense if the
Thunder do that to match up with the double dig.
But I also think on paper it makes sense to
air on the side of the higher floor, which is
what Steven Adams provides, and that you have so much
upside elsewhere in that's Art five. With Steven, He's always
(28:02):
going to make an impact as opposed to read. I mean,
there's going to be moments where he's outstanding. Obviously, the
numbers he put up nearly thirty points seven socks against
an Atlanta team playing most of its big guns, including
Trey Young, an All Star at point guard. I mean, yeah,
he's going to be really good some games, but there's
also ones like the first game against the Hawks, where
(28:23):
he wasn't that impactful. And so bringing that type of
player off the bench to where you aren't necessarily committed
or as committed to a high minutes total, I think
it gives e May a little bit of flexibility. And
I also think you know, I've talked about, you know,
the conundrum with Reed, and we've addressed it plenty of
times on this very pod, is you know, how do
you make him feel empowered? How do you give him
(28:45):
the freedom that he needs to go out there and
be aggressive and shoot enough at volume, especially from three,
to where his archetype is going to win out and
eventually he's going to make enough of those threes to
where the efficiency is there and he's gonna get enough
steals in blocks to where he's making enough plays on
the defensive end to make up for the physical shortcomings
and everything else that comes from being a relatively undersized
guard that isn't the quickest from side to side. Well,
(29:07):
it's not going to be easy, but as he gets
more confident. Look, there is a long history in the NBA.
I mean, hell, you can go back to you know,
the eighties with you know, Bennie Johnson and the Pistons,
but more recently Houston examples from this century. Look at
guys like Eric Gordon, like Lou Williams. It's sort of
take on that sixth man microwave type role off the bench,
(29:29):
and if they have it going on a given night,
of course you can ride the hot hands and play
them more and you can lean into their you know,
need to be trigger happy because they're going up against
many times second teamers and the guys they are out
there with that have already played the sixth man is
going to be fresher. So I just think that, you know,
(29:51):
even if I think what might be easiest for Read
on day one would be starting him and giving him
the longest runway possible, at the end of the day,
NBA history shows us that that's not really necessary. And
so it's not about Reid. It's about the team, and
in my opinion, what's best for the team is trying
to make it work. Maybe not every game. There's gonna
(30:11):
be some matchups where the double big isn't conducive, or
maybe Steven Adams needs a maintenance game, and I don't
think you want to start Clint Capella. By the way,
I thought there was a pretty clear drop off and
the effect the effectives of the double big when it
was Stephen an LP and when it was Capella and LP.
I think Clint actually had the lowest net rating of
any of the rotation players in the preseason. I have
an article at Rockets where looking at all the big
(30:33):
picture stats, I just think, you know, I'm not gonna
say Reid will never start, and if he plays the
way he did against Trey Young, then he could easily
make it to where he's a starting caliber player. I
think at some point the Rockets want him to be
that guy. Is it day one? In my opinion, starting
Read day one would be more about Read individually than
it would be about the team. The more I think
(30:53):
about it, and you also look at the teams they're playing,
physical opponents like the Thunder, like the Pistons, I'm leaning
to starting Steven. He gives you a very high floor
trying to make it work with Reid as your high
usage guy off the bench, can come in, be aggressive,
maybe take advantage of from favorable matchups for him in
much the same way. You know, they weren't point guards,
(31:14):
but in terms of being aggressive guys like Eric Gordon
and Lou Williams were for the Rockets last decade. To me,
that's the easiest template for me to see working and
making sense for this team. And that's not to overlook Tarri.
But Powell, we were talking offline. We both agree that
it just doesn't feel like starting Tori is in the
cards based on his usage in the preseason, based on
(31:35):
the context clues. The only game he started was the
one where Katie set out, So I think the bottom line,
there were four guys this time a month ago, there
were four guys when Fred got hurt that we knew
were in consideration for that fifth spot, between Dorian, Tary, Reed,
and Steven. Dorian's not ready Tari all evidence points to
him being a six man Syfe. I think it's between
(31:57):
Reid and Steven, and at least for Week one majority
of the matchups. I've come around on Steven. Paolo, what
are your conclusions after watching them for four games and
where are you at as opposed to, you know, regarding
who's that fourth who that fifth starter, excuse me, is
going to be.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I'm going to echo a lot of the same stuff
that you said. I do think it's going to be
to be Steven Adams. I do think that that there
is merit to Tarisan starting. But I think based off
all we saw in preseason, and I know people want
to say it's just preseason, but it echoes to some
to some extent into the season. So I just think
it makes the most sense for Steven Adams to start.
(32:35):
Even from a locker room management perspective, if you start
Steven Adams, it's a lot it's a lot easier to
also give Quick Copola playing time. And if you give
Quinn Copola playing time early on in the season one
starting Hinnie Smith comes back, there's less I guess Frekin.
As far as what if Quinn has to not play
at all for a twenty game stretch, I think if
(32:57):
you're playing very early on, he's eventually doing to be
or at least until if you start Seeban Adams right,
Quint Capella gets more space until Daurin Finnis Smith comes
back and is healthy, right, and you can bite time
doing from a nomnzy and expectations atand point you buy
time for that period and then eventually, I know we
don't like to talk about these things, but eventually someone's
(33:19):
going to get hurt. Hopefully it's not going to be
some anything more serious than than lead. But you know,
guys will pick up knocks and bruises over the season,
and when someone does, then you get to play Clint again.
And it's easier to manage from that standpoint than if
you don't play up early on and then you only
start playing him, you know, forty forty five games since
(33:39):
of the season, So I think it even from me
manage but the guy's personalities that but not that Clint
is some kind of guy that the men's anything. But
it's always best to have all of your weapons kind
of at least in the floor or in rhythm going
into the game. Then I'll have a guy not play
for a very large stretch of time beyond that, even
just from my I mean, the numbers don't why you
(34:02):
know I talk about I tweeted about it, and I
got really a lot of flame for it. I said
that her Levens didn't look good at all, and it didn't.
But still the double big lineup was waited for the
best and where the line up data was looked the best.
So even from a strictly trying to win standpoint, it
seems like, you know, small sample, boy, it seems like
(34:23):
that is still the way to go, and it allows you,
it allows it allows you to start what was last season,
by far, our best lineup, which was the triple big lineup.
It's not just two bases. It's Japari at the three,
which is still you know, a lot larger of a
three than then it's normal. And then you also have
kd Att too, so that's even bigger. So yeah, I
(34:44):
think that's what makes the most sense. I think that's
probably going to be our best line lineup in the postseasons.
So getting reps with those guys to get in building
that chemistry going to be good. Steven Adams and o
bringing in both will always be mismatches. For for Keet Homegren,
he's never going to be a guy that can you know, Messley,
those guys sort of rebounding goals and even on defense,
(35:05):
and so I think that's one of the way one
of the reasons why we played so well in twelve
cay sees it's that we are able to match their
physicality and sometimes even be overbearing to one of their
best players like yet so I think even from a
match lip standpoint, it makes a lot of steps. It
is not the matchup to go kind of smaller with
or even though we're not really small, it's whether it's
more of a macropaer you need really need to press
(35:26):
that advantage. And then as far as Reid goes, I
think it look really impressive in the last game, but
it goes to show what we've been saying for a
really long time. Apparently read only plays that well when
he's the guy, right, and I don't think it's a
fall in this game. It might be a flaw in
his kind of mental makeup. Right, he knew he was
(35:49):
the best offensive option on the team on the game
against the Hawks, the last one, and he played like it,
and he was deliberately looking war zone shot, and even
in the games prior to that, he was still deliberately
looking for his own shot. But he made what sometimes
is the correct play with and passed the ball along
a lot more often, and it seems like that breaks
his rhythm. I think if you say you know, if
(36:11):
you if you if you look at just you know,
call it the first two quarters and in the first
half of the third. From a volume standpoint, like Reads,
numbers are not going to look up. But then it
picked back up. We talked about it him being sort
of it seems like volume helps it and be more efficient,
which is a good trait to have, but probably not
for a six man. And so playing him off the band,
(36:33):
like you said, really taps into that and allows him
to be, you know, perhaps the main guy on the
flour depending on how the rotations shake out, but be
a higher the taking or than he would be. He's
playing like the next two men Thompain kd And and
Shingun at the same time in which those lineus is
obviously more more of an afterp plot. So from Reads,
(36:54):
I think, even from his development standpoint, I kind of
a disagree with what you said. I think even for
his development for Reads good coming off the bench and
having more responsibility as we will be best. And so
I think that's how they'll start. We'll see if how
long that lasts and how long, you know, I think
sank Clint is also kind of a way for us
to guarantee that can always run.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
A little bit lineups.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
So as far as as far as you know the
guys that's stuff and guys that come off the bench,
I think that's how it goes. I do still think
that from a minutes perspectives, from a minute perspectives to
the reason is the sixth man or the six guy,
I guess the most minutes not to read, even though
people might call Read the six man, because well we
typically call a six man as a scoring bunch off
the bench.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Let me clarify real quick on read Shepherd, I actually
agree with you that for his development, it's actually best
if he comes off the bench and learns a different
way to succeed. What I meant was that I think
in terms of giving him the best opportunity day one
to put up numbers, then I think that would be
as a starter because of that. You know, maybe calling
(37:56):
it a middle deficiency is a little bit much, but
that sense of free them that, for whatever reason, he
seems to only have when he's the guy or closer
to it in the starting lineup. So I actually do
agree with you it could be best for him in
the long run to learn how to play off the
bench and provide value in different constructs. It just might
(38:18):
take a little bit of time, and it might be
a little bit bumpier. I think the easiest thing to
do day one would be to start him, and he's
clearly more comfortable in that role, but it may not
be best for the team. That would be best just
to help him put up numbers and to sort of
play within the parameters as they are right now. Eventually
you want to expand the parameters, make him more plug
and play in a number of different scenarios, and I
(38:40):
agree with you. For developmental purposes, he needs to be
able to succeed in other ways. The history of NBA
guards off the bench suggests that there's no reason why
he couldn't. It just may take some time, it may
not be day one. One other thing before we wrap
up the pod, I wanted to ask you about so
I think we're in agreement that, barring injury, the day
(39:02):
one lineup in primary rotation is going to be a
men kd Jabari, Alp and Steven and then read Tari
and Klentt as three of your main guys off the bench.
They could do a ten man rotation with both Aeron
Holliday and Joshua Kogi. I'm actually wondering if, maybe if
Reid is better than we thought going into training camp,
(39:24):
and we last recorded, we talked some about his opener
in preseason, which wasn't that good, and we both agree
that he looked much better the second week, especially that
finale against the Hawks. If Reid is playing a lot
better and he's providing value not just as a ballhandler
but as a shooter, does it maybe make sense to
slide Josha Koge ahead of Aeron Holliday a little bit.
(39:46):
I know you were down on what a Kogi did
and that opener against the Hawks, he wasn't very aware
off ball. I thought that improved a lot as he
got more reps. Obviously, offensively he was tremendous against the Hawks.
But I also think a Kogi is nice to sort
to pair with red in that a Kogi is crazy long.
It's not just the the six four sixty five as
a shooting guard. He's also he has like a seven
(40:08):
foot wingspan, I believe, and last year he shot thirty
five percent on threes. In the preseason he was forty percent.
Aaron Holiday actually did not shoot well in the preseason
at all. Now there's no reason to think that he's
fallen off on that end. I think with a larger
sample size that will be fine. But I do wonder
if Reid is more ready than we had thought going
into training camp. Just that perhaps Slider and Holiday down
(40:30):
a little bit and perhaps make you think a little
bit more about Josha Kogi because we've worried about the
dribble penetration issue the defense. We've talked about it in
previous episodes, and especially until Jorian and Finney Smith comes back,
they're going to be a little light on that side
of the ball. I guess you could argue for Jay
Sharon Tate as well, but I think the reason I'm
comparing a Kogie and Holiday, they're both guards, so I
(40:52):
think the roles, while a little different, it's not night
and day different, So you could play them both. You know,
it's not crazy have a ten minute rotation early in
the year, But I guess the one thought I had
to myself and we're not just spend long on this
because this is you know, we're talking about maybe five
ten minutes, you know, the delta in terms of your
end of the bench guys that are playing. But coming
off that Hawks game, I am wondering if maybe a
(41:14):
Kogi plays a little bit more and Holiday plays a
little bit less relative to what I thought after the
first couple of preseason games. What are your thoughts there.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I'm surprised you're not giving you guy J D. Davis
in a shout.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
No, come on, he's fine, and you know, relative to
a two way slot, he's a very good signing. Don't
get me wrong, but no, I don't think he's going
to factor into the day one. I think that'll be
the more veteran guys, Aaron, Josh and now Jashon, which yeah,
fortunately does see what. Jashon is cleared and ready to go. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Two terms of your actual question, I'm expecting Josha Golee
to be the guy that plays rather than Aaron Holliday.
I think Aaron Holly is okay defensively. I think jos
is a plus defensively. And I don't think the Rugs
really neat the ball extra ball Hiley. I actually think
Targets may struggle to feed all the mouths they got
to feed. I mean, you look at the address to
(42:06):
the rehearsal game and twinplet to another bunch on a
make But you know you got you got the many
funds that are twenty points. But Rivardi, at twenty six
you got kid and only fifteen, you got Tories, and
at twenty probably expect that to go down. You got
ching Hunad only eight. And I know Shingun gets really
involved with with the passing and being the hub and
all that stuff. But when you start to think out
the guys are taking steps up in their careers and
(42:29):
they're in their involvement offense a way, I think there's
actually gonna fee a lot of mouths to feed rather
than rather than two little playmakers like we were expecting
earlier on when Fred got hurt. So I do think
a lower kind of or more of a more of
a kind of more more of a role player type
makes more sense in the rodation, especially when he also
(42:49):
plays better defense in Judge Goe. So I do expect
Ushakuu to start and I don't think don't really think
that that's a hot take. And I think though I
don't know if I don't know if most people would
think that, but the few couple of Rockets fans that
I've talked about during the games, I would expectedly to
be the to be the guy that gets.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Into the rotation.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I wanted touch on one more thing though that I
feel like it's gotta be reiterated, perhaps a little bit
more than what it has been a Javaris Smith has taken. No,
he's not close to the same play he was last season.
And if if we had this Smith last season, we
might have beaten the Warriors. And he I know he
was good against the Warriors, but as far as how
intentionally he is about scoring and getting to a spot
(43:31):
and how and also if he has win like I'm
starting to think, and I've never wanted to put a
ceiling on a lot of people have said that he's
a he's a three and D switchable role player. I've
always thought that that was it was really good if
he could become effective at that. But I've always held
on to even though I was a Ban Carrol guy,
I've always held on to the fact that there's a
little bit more bare if he wants to tap into it.
(43:53):
And it's been very little time, and obviously this is
not just for reflection of the work he's put in
with KD. I think that will kind of catalyze it
to a higher level. But even it's just the work
he put in in the in the off season, and
we heard him talk about.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
It, his on ball work.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
I think he is he has gotten a lot better
at basically everything, and I think that there's a world
out there where he is, you know. I think he's
clearly the fourth option on the team right now, and
I think in a lot of games he's going to
be the second or third highest highest score around the team,
and sometimes even if when the highest score on the team.
(44:30):
This team buntil this point, has has been very selfless
with the ball, especially Kad, compared to what I was
expecting him to be, right, not that I was expecting
him to be selfish, but more so that I was
expecting him to get more eyes of possessions. By design
from the coaching staff, We're played so selfless that it
feels like a combination of Japari has gotten a lot better,
(44:51):
and I don't think teams have caught up to how
much better the party is, so they will give him
more space to guard the other guys, and he's been
really as sort of and will have have more chances,
I guess, to punish those types of defenses and what
teams are throwing out at us because especially when when
when you play double bit, when you match up Javari
is going to have a mismatch. Of the guys are
(45:13):
going to have miss methods. Jabari's will probably be the
easiest to punish because if you have a lot like
you're gonna put your biggest defender arm Chingle. Right after that,
you know we're gonna put one of your biggest defenders
on on Steve Alps, try and keep them off the boards,
and then your best win defender is going to be
on KD more than likely, which means that one of
the guards is probably going to be on This is
(45:35):
probably going to be on Jabbari and he has to
be able to punish it. And he has shown, you know,
a lot of progress in that regard. So I think
a lot of people kind of have said that this
is a three year window for the Rockets, and I've
never agreed with that, even pre Jabbari kind of breakout
(45:55):
or not really a breakup, but improvement. I think one
of the ways in which you remain a top tier
team post KT in a few years is with Javari
taking on that role. And when you look at it,
I mean, look at the bill that the Nuggets have, right,
you have Shingun Yogiic, you have a man functionain Kamal
(46:16):
Murray from all offensive standpoint, and then the third guy
I'm though, only that Nuggets championship team and that and
on those nugget on those Nuggets contending teams is Michael
Barber junior.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
And I've said for.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
A really long time that Javari can very well be
Michael Porter junior offensively with a lot better with much
better defense. So yeah, just wanted to, you know, keep
taking that claim that I do think that Javari is
prying to a breakout, if not this year, but as
we go forward, because he's been getting a lot better
at basically everything basketball. I think his defense has been
(46:48):
kind of the same that it was last season, but offensively,
he's thinking he's taking steps forward, and I don't want
that go and notice.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Oh, you're exactly right, And it's what he said he
was working on in the offseason in his skills development.
I believe with Aaron Miller talking about getting more confident
in his handle the shot creation. When the areas he's
improved at match almost exactly with what he's been telling
you for months, that's when you should start to think, hey,
(47:16):
there might be there might be something to that. And yeah,
I noticed in the Pelicans game to your point on
him drawing the weakest guard defender, the Pelicans tried to
stash Jordan Poole on him, and Gavari went to work.
I also think that, you know, if they run more
zone because they go double big, then you know, the
big difference between the preseason regular season. To offset the
(47:39):
lack of you know, triple penetration stoppers, you're gonna have
to be a lot more active in that zone, a
lot more handsy. I'm a big believer that defense translates
to offense and vice versa, and that your energy on
one end often leads to energy on the other. And
so if Jabari is having to take on a greater
defensive role, as you know, he's not a perimeter stopper,
(47:59):
but he'll be asked to do a little bit more
than what he was at times last season, especially with
how uniquely important he is to the double big. And
you're not gonna ask a thirty seven year old Kevin
Durant to do too much. Then yeah, I could see
Jabari having some defense to offense type sequences, and you
know he may be because of cross matches, you know,
(48:19):
tribbling the ball up the court, or the guy you
turn to because of who the defense is trying to
stash on him. So I just think, for a number
of reasons, I agree that what we saw in the preseason,
where he led the team in scoring on very good efficiency,
is real. My biggest macro takeaway from the preseason. And
we don't have to get into this tonight. I want
(48:40):
to wrap up, and we will in a couple of minutes,
but the gravity of Kevin Durant and all Frinch Shangoon
in the minutes they played together was just insane. Now
that was only two exhibitions. We'll have plenty of time
to talk about that as the year progresses. But compared
to last year, and even compared to last preseason, I
went back and looked at highlights from a couple of those,
it was night and day different. And so the non KD,
(49:04):
non string Gooon guys in that starting lineup, well, maybe
not Stephen Adams because we know what he is offensively,
but Jabari and the men, I think they're gonna have
opportunities that are just so much better than what they
had a year ago.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
By the way, before we close, did you get the
invitation for KBS three three planning events next week?
Speaker 1 (49:26):
Geez If we get busted for that, that would be
hashtag Houston sports. Anyway, on that note, we will bring
this episode to a close, and if you want more
insight from Powell or myself before our next episode, go
to our new Twitter page at launch Pods seven ninety
where if you hit up the link tree and the bio,
that's got all the links that you could need. As
(49:47):
far as friends partner sponsored to the program clutch Bans
Sports Talk seven ninety USA, Today's Rockets Wire, the YouTube
live shows I've been doing with Dave Hardesty after a
lot of games over at clutch Bans, but also our
podcast platforms haven't already subscribed left to positive review please
do Apple, Google, Spotify, YouTube, all those places. Again, just
(50:07):
go to the link tree and the bio at launch
Pod seven ninety on Twitter, slash x and that's got
all the links you could ever need to help support
this show. And with that we will journ for tonight
for Palo Alps. I'm Ben Jubo's. As always, thanks so
much for listening, and please come back soon for more
new episodes of The Rockets Launch Pod,
Welcome morning, Benjubo's here, Paolo Alves there, Welcome into another
episode of the Rockets Launch Pod, presented by Clutch Fans
and also with support from Sports Talk seven ninety official
Flag Show Prodotiation of your Houston Rockets. It's Sunday, October nineteenth,
(00:24):
about forty eight hours before the Rockets opened up their
regular season at Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, and we
will talk a little bit of basketball before tonight's pod ends,
but we're going to be talking mostly business on today's show.
And that's because Monday is a pretty big date and
a key inflection point on the NBA calendar each year.
So the way it works is on the day before
(00:46):
the regular season opener, which this year is Tuesday, and
the Rockets are part of that playing in Oklahoma City's
ring that game, rosters have to be finalized around the league,
and there's also a rookie scale contract extension deadline for
first run draft pick who are now entering their fourth
seasons in the league, and if they don't agree to
an extension by that time, then they become a restricted
(01:07):
free agent the next summer. There's no further negotiations. That's
just the way the system is set up. So here
in Houston, we all know the story the two twenty
two first round picks where Javori Smith Junior and Tari Eason,
and Javari already agreed to his extension months ago. Tari
is a bit trickier for reasons we documented in the
past in terms of projecting the future value, because some
(01:29):
of the risks reward considerations are fairly unique with regards
to his injury history, his unique playing style, and so
I think that's why those negotiations have taken a bit longer.
But in addition to that, and this is also something
that we touched on in previous episodes, the Tarian negotiations
were also kind of connected to the ongoing talks with
(01:49):
Kevin Durant over a veteran extension, because in this new
CVA landscape where you need to stay below the second
afront of the luxury a tax, all the deals are
sort of interconnected because it's like fitting together a puzzle. Now.
I've argued in the past it's possible that Jabari's deal
was tied to Kevin as well, but I think for
a different reason, and that for the Rockets to feel
secure that Jabbari and not Jalen Green was the young
(02:12):
guy to keep moving forward. Then the Rockets needed to
understand where his deal would come in at, and so
it wouldn't surprise me if that was something that came
up during the June negotiation between the Rockets and the Suns.
That's not confirmed, that's vi speculation, but longtime listeners know
where I'm coming from on that. Anyway, flash forward to
today and Sunday Morning News broke that KD would be
(02:34):
signing a two year, ninety million dollar extension to stay
with the Rockets. That's for two years after this season.
His deal for twenty five to twenty six is already
on the books, so technically he's now under contract with
the Rockets for the next three seasons, although the last
year is a player option. That's the twenty seven to
twenty eight league year. And then the ninety million dollar figure.
(02:55):
That's roughly thirty two million under what the max contract
would have been, which was at one hundred and twenty
two million over two years. And by the way, I'm
going to pat myself on the back because we came
pretty close to nailing the terms on this very podcast.
I went back and listened to our August show where
we talked about a KD extension. We also had a
show on a potential Tari extension and with Kevin we
(03:17):
mentioned two for one hundred or two for eighty as
potential parameters if he was going to give something of
a hometown discount, which had been reported by ESPN Sham Sharania,
who to no surprise broke the new Sunday of the
actual deal being reached, and then two for ninety is
basically Rafelstone and KD just splitting the difference there. But
the more important takeaway as far as the overall puzzle,
(03:40):
the bigger picture, all that good stuff KAT is now
coming in at about forty five million in annual value,
and that gives the Rockets about twenty five million in
space next off season below the second apron, which can
potentially be used on some combination of Tari eason and
then maybe having enough money left over that you can
use some or all of the taxpayer mid level exception,
(04:02):
which I believe has a starting salary of about six
million or so. Now I want to reiterate that as
of our recording on Sunday evening the nineteenth, and I'm
also not doing much editing, by the way, because we
want to get this live asap because of how timely
all of this is, and it could be that by
the time we actually upload this Atari deal is officially
(04:24):
in or by the time you're listening to it as
of our recording time, it's not so we're just guessing
right now. But I do think it's fair to conclude
that the Durant deal gives the Rockets enough wiggle room
to where Atari extension is very doable. And obviously that
would mitigate a lot of the uncertainty and the risk
for honestly, both the team and the player. And given
(04:45):
the fact that Tari hasn't gotten his first big contract yet,
he's had the obvious injury history, and also the Rockets
just need firm figures so that they can plan out
their future pay roles as this team gets more expensive.
That's been well documented. The bottom line is there's a
lot of incident for both side to get this resolved
without waiting until next offseason. And now that the KD
contract has officially come in at something of a discount,
(05:08):
you've got both incentive and opportunity. And while we still
don't know the cecivic value or years as of our
recording time. We'll talk about that in the future episode
once the terms are in. The bigger takeaway here is
that it does look like a deal is getting done.
David Aldridge and Will Gilory if the Athletic. They reported
earlier Sunday that a deal between Tari and the Rockets
is expected to be completed by the deadline, which is
(05:30):
officially at five pm Central on Monday afternoon. So those
are the general parameters. Powello, let's just start with the obvious.
What was your immediate reaction to the news of the
KD extension and ultimately what it means in the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I thought it was unbelievable. I know, we talked about
Katie taking a bay cut, and it was widely reported
that he would, But in my head it was always okay,
if you get a deal done with Tari and he
gets whatever's whatever's left, considering that it will always have
to be above a certain level pool of course, So
it came kind of as a surprise for two reasons. First,
(06:06):
because of the number itself. I know we talked about
those kinds of numbers, but to me it always had
a bit too optimistic to look at anybody at anything
under one hundred million. Guys, stay big Bacos, that's been
a thing. It's still rare, but bake it of sixteen
million a year. I think it's pretty imprecedented, unless it
(06:27):
is to bring on another time like KD is doing
this without knowing what these what this flexibility is going
to turn into in the future. I mean, when you
speak of KD, it's it's it's always rough, so it's
always hard to talk about KD and not a lot
stuph go look at how much stuff Curry is making,
and he had perhaps even more of a responsibility to
(06:47):
you know, take a hometown discount than what KD will
have with a completely new team. I'll get them to
that part later, but my first takeaway was it's interesting
that it has come out before the Towy news has
come out, unless they already I never know why these
extensions take until the last second, especially you know what
(07:08):
is with the office they have in recent memory. But
perhaps they already kind of know what the deal is
going to be with Tari and they're just you know,
waiting until the last second to make sure that there's
no deals signed in the meantime, that completely break president
and that would kind of throw ranking negotiations.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Kamara, obviously is a similar that Thetari. He just signed
for something like four years eighty million, although one of
those years goes from being a minimum team option to
whatever the twenty million AAD is. I don't think that's
going to change much. But I do think it's interesting
that they that they released the or at least made
public the kV extension before the Tarisan one, because if
(07:46):
the goal was to extract maximum value from a tar
gread deal, you'd probably be better off announcing the KD
trade the KD deal after the Tari ease and one,
because well, there's no deadline, so you could have And
second of all, you've kind of tipped your hand as
far as you know. Now that's ink now knows how
(08:07):
much money you're working with for my season.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
The fact that they didn't and this is obviously not
something that Prophel's stone, why does in the front office,
would you know? Over like overlook makes me think that
the deals already basically set in stone, and for some reason,
like with Kinglin and Killen Green last year, it just
hadn't been signed for whatever reason, because otherwise I think
they would have waited because there would be nowhere or
(08:32):
at least I can't see any downside in waiting until
after thy since it was done to walk in the
KD deal. But besides that, going into the actual number,
I think KD is probably being a little bit over
paid here. I don't think you should make a nickel
over what Ojen and Noobi is making because he's clearly
superior player. So I think the Rockets overpaid him by
(08:53):
about two and a half million dollars a year. Still,
even with the I'm kidding guys, please nobody, please know
what equipped that out of contact and then to get
flamed No, obviously it's it's a massive bargain for the
opposite of what I was just telling you. If O
Jenna no He's making two point five million wess than
Kevin Durrant, I think that tells you everything you need
to know. I mean all respects to Oljenoobi as a player,
(09:15):
but he's a Roblin and Katie is a top ten
player in the league. So I think that tells you
everything you need to know, and it kind of reinforces
the point that we had tried to get across just
from very early on, before Katy was even a rocket,
which is if he did was ever going to be
a rocket, it would always be because he's just a
guy that understands basketball from a playing standpoint and from
(09:38):
a business standpoint, and understands what it takes to win,
and that sometimes he's just very savvy. He picked the
Rockets before he came here. We always said, if he
picks the Rockets, or it's realistic that he might pick
the Rockets because it's a situation. It's the situation that
makes the most sense out of the options that he has,
(09:58):
even from a competing standpoint, right, So the team that's
already built, it's young, it can make up for whatever
possible shortcomings he may have as he gets older. Team
that can do all of that thing that desperately needs
exactly what he brings. And we always kind of highlighted
that Kad understood how much sense it may for him
to come to the Rockets because of how well he
(10:20):
fit into what the team needed. And I think this just,
you know, just doubles down on all we were saying
back then, which is, well KD understands as well. Besides
the on court basketball perspective, which obviously he's a perfect fit.
From a team building perspective, he also understands that at
this point in his career, you know, and this is
(10:41):
obviously not to down play the generosity that is shown.
Those fifteen million will allow the Rockets to be a
lot more competitive over the three years that he is here.
And he has talked about extensively about the goal being
to win a championship here and to have his jersey retired.
And it's not easy to have your jersey retire to
do with a franchise when you want to play three year.
That actually went three. Taking the space shows how committed
(11:04):
he is to you know, being appreciated, I guess by
Rocket Science and and how you know he is committed
to This is not his retirement home, like, he is
here to do the best that he possibly can to
bring the success to the team and to have one
more place in his career. The way of belief. He
has another one where he is kind of a hero
(11:27):
to the fens of the team.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He obviously left okay, see you in a little bit
of a of a you know, rough situation, didn't only
the Warriors, especially on good terms. I mean, we can
tell that he didn't want to go back there. They
didn't leave Brooklyn. He kind of left on good terms,
but then didn't leave. They didn't leave s Phoenix and
good terms at all. And I think this shows his
(11:50):
commitment to Okay, I want a fran time that I
can call home, and I want to do everything so
that so that the team that I'm at has the
best situation possible to win with the reason. Obviously he
wasn't going to take a minimum deal. That's absert, but
a thirty million dollar Baker thirty two million dollar take
it over two years is massive and it shows how
(12:12):
community is and has immediate implication on the Tariason deal
because now the Rockets can go up to twenty five
millionaires to rotaintari On next season, which you know, it's
probably going to be above what the AAV is for
tari but might a lot of of its to do
something more creative like either either startaries deal on you know,
(12:33):
the typical contract structure where he starts at all or
salary and progresses year over year with the eight percent raises,
which might allow the Rockets, as you said, to side
an MLA guy or it might have a lot of
rockets to make the team more sustainable. While KD is
here by starting with you know, making the deal frontler
and perhaps starting at those twenty five million, but by
(12:56):
the time I mean fumtums extension kicks in that that
that figure might be lower than it would have been
if you if you had to get taken every penage
you could get, and it kind of lows the rockets
to eat more of that salary early on and have
Tari's contract be cheaper later on, which might a lot
of rockets to have you know, more and will a
(13:17):
lot of rockets have more flexibility once amnalumpone gets his
max extension paid. Not only that, not only the practical
benefits that come from that flexibility, it's also all the
message that and I'll leave that up to you because
you were with the guys today and you got some
live reactions to it, but the message that it relays
to all of the young guys that are you know,
(13:39):
starting to get their first week count rights that the
guy you looked up to your entire agree and just
too come massive take it to extend his contract. And
the fact that he came here and it's year one,
he hasn't played the game in the using Rockets uniform,
and he's already sacrificing for that culture. And he talked
about that culture and other security, but the message set
(14:01):
that realizes alongst the young guys obviously shaking Hun took
a bake up from what the march that he could
have gone. I think Tobari Smith a pretty team friendly deal.
I think fredvent Riet before the injury, was on a
pretty team friendly deal as well. I think Steven Adams
is on a team friendly deal as well. I think
Darren Finney Smith, well, we don't know what the injury
looks like to one hundred percent, but I think that
(14:25):
that his was a team friendly deal as well. And
I think that just you know, keeps that theme going
from a guy that is his first year here. He
doesn't owe anything for the franchise, right, but he still
decided that he was going to make a decision that's
incredibly selfless.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Thirty million over two years, a lot of money even
for Kevin Burn.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, and that's something that Im Jokas said when he
spoke to us at practice after the KD deal was
officially announced. His words, it shows their selflessness, talking about
not just Kevin, but other veterans, most notably President Lee
going down from a forty five million dollars sole twenty
five and I know he got hurt, but obviously they
did not know that at the time. And then you
mentioned Steven Adams and Doriy and Finny Smith. I think
(15:07):
they took pretty team friendly deals as well, And so
Emay continued his comments, they're about the basketball. I think
a lot of these guys are about the right things.
It's about winning and whatever it takes to get there.
They understand that flexibility matters, and it puts us in
a good spot when there's extra money to go around.
Speaking specifically to the vets, he said, they see the
big picture and the value of our depth. And what
(15:30):
Emy is referring to in that is that by having
a deep bench and young players who are capable of
taking on bigger roles and sliding up if need be,
then they can keep the veterans fresher to where they
have the best opportunity overall to achieve their goals. And
I think ultimately that's part of why they leaked the
Kevin Durant deal. First, I mean, I think I agree
with you Folo that the parameters of atari deal are
(15:52):
probably in place. I think that's why the Athletic is
reporting that a deal is expected to get done. I'm
thinking that I don't know if it's the team side,
the player side, or both. There's clearly some confidence and
it's just you know, dotting the i's and crossing the
t's at this point. But I also think that if
Kevin freaking Durant, a guy of his stature, is taking
(16:15):
that type of discount and fredman Fleet, president of the
players Union, Now, if guys of that stature in the
league are taking discounts, how does that not set a
tone for everyone else on the roster, Because as you mentioned,
it's really not just the vetter ends. I think they
probably set a tone. And maybe that's why you leak
the Kevin deal first, because it's so massive. It's Kevin Durant.
(16:38):
I guess he deserves his own day in the spotlight,
if you will. But I also think it sort of
continues the theme to where everybody feels like they want
to fall in line and it's about the collective rather
than any one person individual or any one set of negotiations.
It's about winning at a high level and that takes
(16:58):
sacrifice not just on the court, but off the court
as well, and so I think a deal is probably
in place, And even if it's not, you could also
argue that with twenty five million dollars, with the space
beneath the second APH and next off season, there's no
way that Tari is going to get a higher AAP
than Jabari. So there's enough room no matter what. In
my opinion, at this point, it's largely just about figuring
(17:21):
out if there's enough of a delta to where you
can have the full taxpayer mL as well. That's my guess.
But regardless, there is enough room to get a deal done.
And I mean theoretically you could wait until restricted free
agency as well, and I think still be in a
good spot. But it doesn't seem to me that that's
the way this is trending. But I just think that
the bigger takeaway here there's just not much downside because
(17:42):
if you see Kevin Durant doing this for the benefit
of the team, after all he has achieved, how does
it not make you when you're his teammate and you
look up to him, perhaps be more amenable to sacrifices
on your end, I don't think it's necessarily coincidence that
the Jabbari deal got done. Now, it might be in
part because of the Kevin Durant trade, but earlier in
(18:03):
that month, the Rockets agreed to those sweetheart deals that
you mentioned with Steven Adams and Fred n Fleet, who
I think both took salaries that are well below their
contributions last season. So if you're a young guy and
you see your teammates doing things like that for the
betterment of the team, how does that not make you
think along those same lines. I guess that's my take.
(18:23):
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, because I do if
I had to bet, the parameter's already in place. But
I also think it's just the Rockets love having this headline,
this storyline out there. And I think ultimately that's the
big takeaway here is that it's about the culture, and
you know, really it's about Imo Ujoka and the way
things have trended since he took over this program in
(18:43):
twenty twenty three. I think that's the real takeaway here,
is that even if there's still some eyes to dot
and tease to cross, there's just no real downside when
the headline is Kevin Durant taking thirty two million dollars less.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Right, Yeah, and it's it's not the first time that
the Rockets have allowed the media narrative to be or
to have the spotlight b on the player or the
agent Arkeets don't really. I think they've shown this with
Perparenentley back with the entire thirty year team ouction that
only became public that day later. The Rockets have always
(19:16):
shown a willingness to add the media narrative favor anybody
else other than the front office. They've never made it
a point to make it look like they're be seen anybody,
and they've never made it a point to make it
look like than an excellent for the office. They've always
tried to let use that as can a little bit
of as lever. They've always let the agents and the
(19:37):
players take or or or kind of squeeze out of
every move all that they can get for their own
purposes from a narrative perspective, because what the Rockets have
always cared more about. I think that the rock postone
that's always been the case is what's actually, you know,
the actual terms.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Of the contract.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
They don't care how you spin it to the media.
They care about getting the best terms possible. If they
can get a contract to b ten dollars cheaper, and
in exchange you get to write, you know, the report
for shams and haven't published it, they will allow you
to do that anyway, And I think I think that's
a really point for you, which is and I think
KB is someone who caret about the good publicity that
(20:18):
you know, perhaps they let it come first because well
be it being a you know, a single new news
kind of event gets more good publicity for KD than
it would game at the same time. And I think
it makes even more sense when you consider when the
news broke out, because the new and very early on
(20:41):
and it was the only thing that came on from
an NBA perspective as far as news goes.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
With eight am on the Dot that the news broke which,
by the way, whatever something is on the Dot, I
always think that it was planned in advance, like someone
might have had it in their drafts. It just scheduled
it for that time, and so that way it gets
to be a talking point on all the you know,
the Sunday morning shows, Sports Center. It sort of drives
the dialogue for the day, and you woke me up
because of course that's what like two pm for you.
(21:09):
But yeah, Dad alle Erner, the beat writer for the Chronicle.
I saw her tweet out later that she was sleepy
and then she was playing ketchup because she woke up
about Ted. Actually, thanks to you, fellow. I was on
top of it right when it broke out, because I
had this buzz and I looked at my phone. I
was like, holy shit, which eight am is not typically
a time that news breaks, but I guess when you
think about it, yeah, it does let him sort of
(21:30):
dominate the day, the news cycle, and it's sort of
fitting because if you recall, his trade to Houston was
also announced on a Sunday morning. That time, it was
about eleven am Houston time. All right, so let's transition
to on court discussion. I'm not going to gloss over
(21:50):
the Tory Easton contract as far as a discussion on
this podcast, but we're gonna save it for a future
episode because there's no point in going too far in
thes as far as how much money, how many years
when we're about to find out, and hell, we might
find out within an hour or two of when this
episode gets posted, So we'll come back to Tari later
(22:13):
this week if a deal gets done, and if for
some reason it doesn't, then we can look at the reports,
try and decipher where things went wrong, and maybe give
a little bit of an early look ahead to the
restricted ree agency market in twenty twenty six. I doubt
that will be the case, but the bottom line, it
doesn't feel prudent to go too far down the road
speculating about Tari figures when I think we're a few hours,
(22:35):
worst case about, you know, twenty hours from finding out
what the terms actually are, and we can talk about
the implications of those once they're in. So to wind
down this episode, I want to look at what we
saw on the floor in the final week of preseason,
and specifically, I think the debate for emay Udoka entering
the first few games of this season. We mentioned Tuesday
(22:57):
night against the Thunder on the road and then the
home opener Friday against Detroit should be a very good
team in the Eastern Conference led by Kate cutting him.
The big decision for ima Udoka, and he has not
tipped his hand just yet, is who the fifth starter
is going to be. Obviously, Kadi, Shingoon Amen and Jabari
are locked in and they've left the door open to
(23:18):
it being Reed Shepherd, Steven Adams or Tarry Easton as
the fifth starter. I think at this point it's more
likely to be Read or Steven because the only game
in the preseason slate that Tari started was the opener
that Katie started. He came off the bench and the
others we heard Joshua Kogie referred to him as a
potential sixth man of the year. So I think the
(23:40):
evidence that we've seen points to Tari being the sixth
man Versusil can fill a number of plugs, or if
there's Spoul trouble, can plug a number of holes, I
should say. And then with Reid and Stephen, it just
comes down to the archetype. Do you want the traditional
point guard that's in the Fred van Fleet body or
do you want to go double bitch and the high
(24:01):
floor that I think Steven Adams provides in that sense,
he might be a good replacement for the Fred archetype
in that Bred is a very different style of player,
but he does have a very high floor and that's
something that the Rockets might need when you look at
the high upside of certainly the big three, but also
Jabari is a third overall pick from a couple of
(24:21):
years ago as well, and Javari obviously had a great preseason.
So there's multiple ways that you could look at it.
But I think that's the big debate for you may Udoka,
and he has said that it might not be a
permanent thing. He could change it depending on the matchup,
And he also might be trying to buy time until
Jory Anthony Smith comes back. We don't have a firm
timetable just yet, but I don't think it's going to
(24:42):
be too long. We have seen him at training camp.
It's not like he's in hiding. No, he is running,
he is doing some drills. Jay Sharntate had the same
offseason ankle injury and it looks like he will be
cleared and available on opening night, So that should be
a positive sign in my opinion, that which Smith. Unless
there's a setback and we have not been told of that,
then it probably shouldn't be too much longer. And so
(25:05):
Dorian is someone that could certainly figure into the equation
as well. If the Rockets start off sluggishly defensively, and
as far as you know the trends, we talked about
them on the last episode. This is a team that
should have more of an offensive identity. In the preseason,
they led the league in points per game in offensive raiding. Defensively,
you lost Dylan Brooks and front and fleet from last
year's team. Jalen Green. I know he you know, catches
(25:28):
a lot of criticism, especially after being traded away, but
in terms of stopping triple penetration, which is at times
an issue in the free season, he was one of
your shiftiest guys outside of himn Thompson when it comes
to from defense. So with defense, the hope is that
playing harder in the regular season will take away some
of the you know, the spotty things that we saw
in the preseason. But time will tell, and if it doesn't,
(25:51):
then you do have Dori Anthonny Smith coming back in
the relatively near future that should help a lot as well.
At very versatile and good defensive player for some time,
and one that should be a lot healthier than what
we saw in the last couple of years, based on
getting his ankle cleaned up. So as good as he
was defensively the last couple of years, just to imagine
how good he can be once he has more freedom
of movement. So defensively, I think we'll just have to
(26:13):
be patient, wait and see, and you know, I don't
know if they'll be quite as good as they were
a year ago, but obviously they don't have to be.
And then offensively well, because offensively they're just so much
better and they have a gear that last year's team
simply did not. So I think, you know, for me
and Polow's last full show, most of the themes as
(26:33):
far as offense and defense held. The final game obviously
was reed Shepherd and mostly third stringers, just eight guys
available period. The second to last game against the Pelicans
and neutral site game in Birmingham, that was the one
that he may refer to as the trust rehearsal, and
that was the one where Steven got the start. So
as far as Reid versus Steven, we've got three starts
(26:56):
in the preseason, but you have to put an asterisk
kind the third start in that pretty much all of
the veterans sat out. And then even though when you
look at the first three, Reid started twice, Steven started once. Well,
one of Steven's non starting games he hadn't played all
because he was unavailable, and then Stephen did play and
start the game that was the dress rehearsal, and he
(27:17):
was fantastic in that game. I think the Rockets were
plus twenty six in his twenty four minutes, something just
absolutely crazy. And of course that speaks to you know,
the screen setting, the offensive rebounding, the presence near the rim,
all the things that make Steven Adams just such a
uniquely impactful presence. And so that's the debate, and I've
gone back and forth. I think I'm leaning Steven simply
(27:41):
because certainly the opener you're going up against chet Holmgren
and as a Hartenstein, so it makes sense if the
Thunder do that to match up with the double dig.
But I also think on paper it makes sense to
air on the side of the higher floor, which is
what Steven Adams provides, and that you have so much
upside elsewhere in that's Art five. With Steven, He's always
(28:02):
going to make an impact as opposed to read. I mean,
there's going to be moments where he's outstanding. Obviously, the
numbers he put up nearly thirty points seven socks against
an Atlanta team playing most of its big guns, including
Trey Young, an All Star at point guard. I mean, yeah,
he's going to be really good some games, but there's
also ones like the first game against the Hawks, where
(28:23):
he wasn't that impactful. And so bringing that type of
player off the bench to where you aren't necessarily committed
or as committed to a high minutes total, I think
it gives e May a little bit of flexibility. And
I also think you know, I've talked about, you know,
the conundrum with Reed, and we've addressed it plenty of
times on this very pod, is you know, how do
you make him feel empowered? How do you give him
(28:45):
the freedom that he needs to go out there and
be aggressive and shoot enough at volume, especially from three,
to where his archetype is going to win out and
eventually he's going to make enough of those threes to
where the efficiency is there and he's gonna get enough
steals in blocks to where he's making enough plays on
the defensive end to make up for the physical shortcomings
and everything else that comes from being a relatively undersized
guard that isn't the quickest from side to side. Well,
(29:07):
it's not going to be easy, but as he gets
more confident. Look, there is a long history in the NBA.
I mean, hell, you can go back to you know,
the eighties with you know, Bennie Johnson and the Pistons,
but more recently Houston examples from this century. Look at
guys like Eric Gordon, like Lou Williams. It's sort of
take on that sixth man microwave type role off the bench,
(29:29):
and if they have it going on a given night,
of course you can ride the hot hands and play
them more and you can lean into their you know,
need to be trigger happy because they're going up against
many times second teamers and the guys they are out
there with that have already played the sixth man is
going to be fresher. So I just think that, you know,
(29:51):
even if I think what might be easiest for Read
on day one would be starting him and giving him
the longest runway possible, at the end of the day,
NBA history shows us that that's not really necessary. And
so it's not about Reid. It's about the team, and
in my opinion, what's best for the team is trying
to make it work. Maybe not every game. There's gonna
(30:11):
be some matchups where the double big isn't conducive, or
maybe Steven Adams needs a maintenance game, and I don't
think you want to start Clint Capella. By the way,
I thought there was a pretty clear drop off and
the effect the effectives of the double big when it
was Stephen an LP and when it was Capella and LP.
I think Clint actually had the lowest net rating of
any of the rotation players in the preseason. I have
an article at Rockets where looking at all the big
(30:33):
picture stats, I just think, you know, I'm not gonna
say Reid will never start, and if he plays the
way he did against Trey Young, then he could easily
make it to where he's a starting caliber player. I
think at some point the Rockets want him to be
that guy. Is it day one? In my opinion, starting
Read day one would be more about Read individually than
it would be about the team. The more I think
(30:53):
about it, and you also look at the teams they're playing,
physical opponents like the Thunder, like the Pistons, I'm leaning
to starting Steven. He gives you a very high floor
trying to make it work with Reid as your high
usage guy off the bench, can come in, be aggressive,
maybe take advantage of from favorable matchups for him in
much the same way. You know, they weren't point guards,
(31:14):
but in terms of being aggressive guys like Eric Gordon
and Lou Williams were for the Rockets last decade. To me,
that's the easiest template for me to see working and
making sense for this team. And that's not to overlook Tarri.
But Powell, we were talking offline. We both agree that
it just doesn't feel like starting Tori is in the
cards based on his usage in the preseason, based on
(31:35):
the context clues. The only game he started was the
one where Katie set out, So I think the bottom line,
there were four guys this time a month ago, there
were four guys when Fred got hurt that we knew
were in consideration for that fifth spot, between Dorian, Tary, Reed,
and Steven. Dorian's not ready Tari all evidence points to
him being a six man Syfe. I think it's between
(31:57):
Reid and Steven, and at least for Week one majority
of the matchups. I've come around on Steven. Paolo, what
are your conclusions after watching them for four games and
where are you at as opposed to, you know, regarding
who's that fourth who that fifth starter, excuse me, is
going to be.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I'm going to echo a lot of the same stuff
that you said. I do think it's going to be
to be Steven Adams. I do think that that there
is merit to Tarisan starting. But I think based off
all we saw in preseason, and I know people want
to say it's just preseason, but it echoes to some
to some extent into the season. So I just think
it makes the most sense for Steven Adams to start.
(32:35):
Even from a locker room management perspective, if you start
Steven Adams, it's a lot it's a lot easier to
also give Quick Copola playing time. And if you give
Quinn Copola playing time early on in the season one
starting Hinnie Smith comes back, there's less I guess Frekin.
As far as what if Quinn has to not play
at all for a twenty game stretch, I think if
(32:57):
you're playing very early on, he's eventually doing to be
or at least until if you start Seeban Adams right,
Quint Capella gets more space until Daurin Finnis Smith comes
back and is healthy, right, and you can bite time
doing from a nomnzy and expectations atand point you buy
time for that period and then eventually, I know we
don't like to talk about these things, but eventually someone's
(33:19):
going to get hurt. Hopefully it's not going to be
some anything more serious than than lead. But you know,
guys will pick up knocks and bruises over the season,
and when someone does, then you get to play Clint again.
And it's easier to manage from that standpoint than if
you don't play up early on and then you only
start playing him, you know, forty forty five games since
(33:39):
of the season, So I think it even from me
manage but the guy's personalities that but not that Clint
is some kind of guy that the men's anything. But
it's always best to have all of your weapons kind
of at least in the floor or in rhythm going
into the game. Then I'll have a guy not play
for a very large stretch of time beyond that, even
just from my I mean, the numbers don't why you
(34:02):
know I talk about I tweeted about it, and I
got really a lot of flame for it. I said
that her Levens didn't look good at all, and it didn't.
But still the double big lineup was waited for the
best and where the line up data was looked the best.
So even from a strictly trying to win standpoint, it
seems like, you know, small sample, boy, it seems like
(34:23):
that is still the way to go, and it allows you,
it allows it allows you to start what was last season,
by far, our best lineup, which was the triple big lineup.
It's not just two bases. It's Japari at the three,
which is still you know, a lot larger of a
three than then it's normal. And then you also have
kd Att too, so that's even bigger. So yeah, I
(34:44):
think that's what makes the most sense. I think that's
probably going to be our best line lineup in the postseasons.
So getting reps with those guys to get in building
that chemistry going to be good. Steven Adams and o
bringing in both will always be mismatches. For for Keet Homegren,
he's never going to be a guy that can you know, Messley,
those guys sort of rebounding goals and even on defense,
(35:05):
and so I think that's one of the way one
of the reasons why we played so well in twelve
cay sees it's that we are able to match their
physicality and sometimes even be overbearing to one of their
best players like yet so I think even from a
match lip standpoint, it makes a lot of steps. It
is not the matchup to go kind of smaller with
or even though we're not really small, it's whether it's
more of a macropaer you need really need to press
(35:26):
that advantage. And then as far as Reid goes, I
think it look really impressive in the last game, but
it goes to show what we've been saying for a
really long time. Apparently read only plays that well when
he's the guy, right, and I don't think it's a
fall in this game. It might be a flaw in
his kind of mental makeup. Right, he knew he was
(35:49):
the best offensive option on the team on the game
against the Hawks, the last one, and he played like it,
and he was deliberately looking war zone shot, and even
in the games prior to that, he was still deliberately
looking for his own shot. But he made what sometimes
is the correct play with and passed the ball along
a lot more often, and it seems like that breaks
his rhythm. I think if you say you know, if
(36:11):
you if you if you look at just you know,
call it the first two quarters and in the first
half of the third. From a volume standpoint, like Reads,
numbers are not going to look up. But then it
picked back up. We talked about it him being sort
of it seems like volume helps it and be more efficient,
which is a good trait to have, but probably not
for a six man. And so playing him off the band,
(36:33):
like you said, really taps into that and allows him
to be, you know, perhaps the main guy on the
flour depending on how the rotations shake out, but be
a higher the taking or than he would be. He's
playing like the next two men Thompain kd And and
Shingun at the same time in which those lineus is
obviously more more of an afterp plot. So from Reads,
(36:54):
I think, even from his development standpoint, I kind of
a disagree with what you said. I think even for
his development for Reads good coming off the bench and
having more responsibility as we will be best. And so
I think that's how they'll start. We'll see if how
long that lasts and how long, you know, I think
sank Clint is also kind of a way for us
to guarantee that can always run.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
A little bit lineups.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
So as far as as far as you know the
guys that's stuff and guys that come off the bench,
I think that's how it goes. I do still think
that from a minutes perspectives, from a minute perspectives to
the reason is the sixth man or the six guy,
I guess the most minutes not to read, even though
people might call Read the six man, because well we
typically call a six man as a scoring bunch off
the bench.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Let me clarify real quick on read Shepherd, I actually
agree with you that for his development, it's actually best
if he comes off the bench and learns a different
way to succeed. What I meant was that I think
in terms of giving him the best opportunity day one
to put up numbers, then I think that would be
as a starter because of that. You know, maybe calling
(37:56):
it a middle deficiency is a little bit much, but
that sense of free them that, for whatever reason, he
seems to only have when he's the guy or closer
to it in the starting lineup. So I actually do
agree with you it could be best for him in
the long run to learn how to play off the
bench and provide value in different constructs. It just might
(38:18):
take a little bit of time, and it might be
a little bit bumpier. I think the easiest thing to
do day one would be to start him, and he's
clearly more comfortable in that role, but it may not
be best for the team. That would be best just
to help him put up numbers and to sort of
play within the parameters as they are right now. Eventually
you want to expand the parameters, make him more plug
and play in a number of different scenarios, and I
(38:40):
agree with you. For developmental purposes, he needs to be
able to succeed in other ways. The history of NBA
guards off the bench suggests that there's no reason why
he couldn't. It just may take some time, it may
not be day one. One other thing before we wrap
up the pod, I wanted to ask you about so
I think we're in agreement that, barring injury, the day
(39:02):
one lineup in primary rotation is going to be a
men kd Jabari, Alp and Steven and then read Tari
and Klentt as three of your main guys off the bench.
They could do a ten man rotation with both Aeron
Holliday and Joshua Kogi. I'm actually wondering if, maybe if
Reid is better than we thought going into training camp,
(39:24):
and we last recorded, we talked some about his opener
in preseason, which wasn't that good, and we both agree
that he looked much better the second week, especially that
finale against the Hawks. If Reid is playing a lot
better and he's providing value not just as a ballhandler
but as a shooter, does it maybe make sense to
slide Josha Koge ahead of Aeron Holliday a little bit.
(39:46):
I know you were down on what a Kogi did
and that opener against the Hawks, he wasn't very aware
off ball. I thought that improved a lot as he
got more reps. Obviously, offensively he was tremendous against the Hawks.
But I also think a Kogi is nice to sort
to pair with red in that a Kogi is crazy long.
It's not just the the six four sixty five as
a shooting guard. He's also he has like a seven
(40:08):
foot wingspan, I believe, and last year he shot thirty
five percent on threes. In the preseason he was forty percent.
Aaron Holiday actually did not shoot well in the preseason
at all. Now there's no reason to think that he's
fallen off on that end. I think with a larger
sample size that will be fine. But I do wonder
if Reid is more ready than we had thought going
into training camp. Just that perhaps Slider and Holiday down
(40:30):
a little bit and perhaps make you think a little
bit more about Josha Kogi because we've worried about the
dribble penetration issue the defense. We've talked about it in
previous episodes, and especially until Jorian and Finney Smith comes back,
they're going to be a little light on that side
of the ball. I guess you could argue for Jay
Sharon Tate as well, but I think the reason I'm
comparing a Kogie and Holiday, they're both guards, so I
(40:52):
think the roles, while a little different, it's not night
and day different, So you could play them both. You know,
it's not crazy have a ten minute rotation early in
the year, But I guess the one thought I had
to myself and we're not just spend long on this
because this is you know, we're talking about maybe five
ten minutes, you know, the delta in terms of your
end of the bench guys that are playing. But coming
off that Hawks game, I am wondering if maybe a
(41:14):
Kogi plays a little bit more and Holiday plays a
little bit less relative to what I thought after the
first couple of preseason games. What are your thoughts there.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I'm surprised you're not giving you guy J D. Davis
in a shout.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
No, come on, he's fine, and you know, relative to
a two way slot, he's a very good signing. Don't
get me wrong, but no, I don't think he's going
to factor into the day one. I think that'll be
the more veteran guys, Aaron, Josh and now Jashon, which yeah,
fortunately does see what. Jashon is cleared and ready to go. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Two terms of your actual question, I'm expecting Josha Golee
to be the guy that plays rather than Aaron Holliday.
I think Aaron Holly is okay defensively. I think jos
is a plus defensively. And I don't think the Rugs
really neat the ball extra ball Hiley. I actually think
Targets may struggle to feed all the mouths they got
to feed. I mean, you look at the address to
(42:06):
the rehearsal game and twinplet to another bunch on a
make But you know you got you got the many
funds that are twenty points. But Rivardi, at twenty six
you got kid and only fifteen, you got Tories, and
at twenty probably expect that to go down. You got
ching Hunad only eight. And I know Shingun gets really
involved with with the passing and being the hub and
all that stuff. But when you start to think out
the guys are taking steps up in their careers and
(42:29):
they're in their involvement offense a way, I think there's
actually gonna fee a lot of mouths to feed rather
than rather than two little playmakers like we were expecting
earlier on when Fred got hurt. So I do think
a lower kind of or more of a more of
a kind of more more of a role player type
makes more sense in the rodation, especially when he also
(42:49):
plays better defense in Judge Goe. So I do expect
Ushakuu to start and I don't think don't really think
that that's a hot take. And I think though I
don't know if I don't know if most people would
think that, but the few couple of Rockets fans that
I've talked about during the games, I would expectedly to
be the to be the guy that gets.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Into the rotation.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I wanted touch on one more thing though that I
feel like it's gotta be reiterated, perhaps a little bit
more than what it has been a Javaris Smith has taken. No,
he's not close to the same play he was last season.
And if if we had this Smith last season, we
might have beaten the Warriors. And he I know he
was good against the Warriors, but as far as how
intentionally he is about scoring and getting to a spot
(43:31):
and how and also if he has win like I'm
starting to think, and I've never wanted to put a
ceiling on a lot of people have said that he's
a he's a three and D switchable role player. I've
always thought that that was it was really good if
he could become effective at that. But I've always held
on to even though I was a Ban Carrol guy,
I've always held on to the fact that there's a
little bit more bare if he wants to tap into it.
(43:53):
And it's been very little time, and obviously this is
not just for reflection of the work he's put in
with KD. I think that will kind of catalyze it
to a higher level. But even it's just the work
he put in in the in the off season, and
we heard him talk about.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
It, his on ball work.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
I think he is he has gotten a lot better
at basically everything, and I think that there's a world
out there where he is, you know. I think he's
clearly the fourth option on the team right now, and
I think in a lot of games he's going to
be the second or third highest highest score around the team,
and sometimes even if when the highest score on the team.
(44:30):
This team buntil this point, has has been very selfless
with the ball, especially Kad, compared to what I was
expecting him to be, right, not that I was expecting
him to be selfish, but more so that I was
expecting him to get more eyes of possessions. By design
from the coaching staff, We're played so selfless that it
feels like a combination of Japari has gotten a lot better,
(44:51):
and I don't think teams have caught up to how
much better the party is, so they will give him
more space to guard the other guys, and he's been
really as sort of and will have have more chances,
I guess, to punish those types of defenses and what
teams are throwing out at us because especially when when
when you play double bit, when you match up Javari
is going to have a mismatch. Of the guys are
(45:13):
going to have miss methods. Jabari's will probably be the
easiest to punish because if you have a lot like
you're gonna put your biggest defender arm Chingle. Right after that,
you know we're gonna put one of your biggest defenders
on on Steve Alps, try and keep them off the boards,
and then your best win defender is going to be
on KD more than likely, which means that one of
the guards is probably going to be on This is
(45:35):
probably going to be on Jabbari and he has to
be able to punish it. And he has shown, you know,
a lot of progress in that regard. So I think
a lot of people kind of have said that this
is a three year window for the Rockets, and I've
never agreed with that, even pre Jabbari kind of breakout
(45:55):
or not really a breakup, but improvement. I think one
of the ways in which you remain a top tier
team post KT in a few years is with Javari
taking on that role. And when you look at it,
I mean, look at the bill that the Nuggets have, right,
you have Shingun Yogiic, you have a man functionain Kamal
(46:16):
Murray from all offensive standpoint, and then the third guy
I'm though, only that Nuggets championship team and that and
on those nugget on those Nuggets contending teams is Michael
Barber junior.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
And I've said for.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
A really long time that Javari can very well be
Michael Porter junior offensively with a lot better with much
better defense. So yeah, just wanted to, you know, keep
taking that claim that I do think that Javari is
prying to a breakout, if not this year, but as
we go forward, because he's been getting a lot better
at basically everything basketball. I think his defense has been
(46:48):
kind of the same that it was last season, but offensively,
he's thinking he's taking steps forward, and I don't want
that go and notice.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Oh, you're exactly right, And it's what he said he
was working on in the offseason in his skills development.
I believe with Aaron Miller talking about getting more confident
in his handle the shot creation. When the areas he's
improved at match almost exactly with what he's been telling
you for months, that's when you should start to think, hey,
(47:16):
there might be there might be something to that. And yeah,
I noticed in the Pelicans game to your point on
him drawing the weakest guard defender, the Pelicans tried to
stash Jordan Poole on him, and Gavari went to work.
I also think that, you know, if they run more
zone because they go double big, then you know, the
big difference between the preseason regular season. To offset the
(47:39):
lack of you know, triple penetration stoppers, you're gonna have
to be a lot more active in that zone, a
lot more handsy. I'm a big believer that defense translates
to offense and vice versa, and that your energy on
one end often leads to energy on the other. And
so if Jabari is having to take on a greater
defensive role, as you know, he's not a perimeter stopper,
(47:59):
but he'll be asked to do a little bit more
than what he was at times last season, especially with
how uniquely important he is to the double big. And
you're not gonna ask a thirty seven year old Kevin
Durant to do too much. Then yeah, I could see
Jabari having some defense to offense type sequences, and you
know he may be because of cross matches, you know,
(48:19):
tribbling the ball up the court, or the guy you
turn to because of who the defense is trying to
stash on him. So I just think, for a number
of reasons, I agree that what we saw in the preseason,
where he led the team in scoring on very good efficiency,
is real. My biggest macro takeaway from the preseason. And
we don't have to get into this tonight. I want
(48:40):
to wrap up, and we will in a couple of minutes,
but the gravity of Kevin Durant and all Frinch Shangoon
in the minutes they played together was just insane. Now
that was only two exhibitions. We'll have plenty of time
to talk about that as the year progresses. But compared
to last year, and even compared to last preseason, I
went back and looked at highlights from a couple of those,
it was night and day different. And so the non KD,
(49:04):
non string Gooon guys in that starting lineup, well, maybe
not Stephen Adams because we know what he is offensively,
but Jabari and the men, I think they're gonna have
opportunities that are just so much better than what they
had a year ago.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
By the way, before we close, did you get the
invitation for KBS three three planning events next week?
Speaker 1 (49:26):
Geez If we get busted for that, that would be
hashtag Houston sports. Anyway, on that note, we will bring
this episode to a close, and if you want more
insight from Powell or myself before our next episode, go
to our new Twitter page at launch Pods seven ninety
where if you hit up the link tree and the bio,
that's got all the links that you could need. As
(49:47):
far as friends partner sponsored to the program clutch Bans
Sports Talk seven ninety USA, Today's Rockets Wire, the YouTube
live shows I've been doing with Dave Hardesty after a
lot of games over at clutch Bans, but also our
podcast platforms haven't already subscribed left to positive review please
do Apple, Google, Spotify, YouTube, all those places. Again, just
(50:07):
go to the link tree and the bio at launch
Pod seven ninety on Twitter, slash x and that's got
all the links you could ever need to help support
this show. And with that we will journ for tonight
for Palo Alps. I'm Ben Jubo's. As always, thanks so
much for listening, and please come back soon for more
new episodes of The Rockets Launch Pod,
Popular Podcasts
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.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
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.