New year, new Rockets? As 2026 nears, Kevin Durant leads resurgence

The Rockets are 6-6 in December and recently wrapped up an underwhelming 2-4 road trip. Yet, a home victory tonight versus Indiana would give Houston (19-10, No. 4 in the Western Conference standings) a three-game winning streak to end the 2025 portion of its schedule. 

Presented by ClutchFans and hosted by Ben DuBose and Paulo Alves, Monday’s full show breaks down all of the latest developments surrounding the team. Topics include Kevin Durant’s efficient scoring binge; the implications of Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith returning healthy; and revised expectations for what has been a very inconsistent defense in recent weeks.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Rockets Fans, Welcome to The Rockets Launch Pod, an exclusive
podcast from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven
Red Nation. Get Ready, Ready, Get Ready. The Rockets Launch
Pod starts now.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome aboard, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and thanks for checking

(00:51):
out another new episode of The Rockets Launch Pod, presented
by Clutch Fans and with support from Sports Talk seven
ninety official Fleshire prodio station of your Houston Rockets. As always,
we're your hosts. I'm Ben Dubo's he's Palalo Alves. We
haven't recorded in a couple of weeks because we've been
trying to enjoy the aforementioned holiday season, or at least
as much as the Rockets will allow us to. There

(01:13):
were definitely some ridiculous losses in there, which we'll get to.
But today's a good time to record because they're coming
off a couple of really good wins, with the win
over the La Lakers on Christmas and then a blowout
of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday. So let's start with
a reset. Today is Monday, December thirtieth. Rockets are playing
their thirtieth game of the season tonight against a bad

(01:35):
Indiana Pacers team. Depending on that result, they will be
either twenty and ten or nineteen and eleven at the
thirty game mark, and by ex sension, also when the
calendar turns to twenty twenty six in a few days,
they should be twenty and ten because the Pacers are
a dreadful team without Tyrese Haliburton. But if there's one
thing we've learned from watching the Rockets this month, it's

(01:55):
that you shouldn't take any game for granted. Just look
back to the Pelicans and Kings games about ten days ago.
Tonight's game against the Pacers is also the final one
for the Rockets in December, and so they'll finish the
month either seven and six or six and seven. Obviously,
that's nowhere near as good as the thirteen and four
mark they had in October and November. At that time, Powell,

(02:17):
you looked it up, they had the fifth highest net
rating in NBA history. I think it's safe to say
that is no longer the case as we wind down
the month. But with all that said, it's not all bad.
The Rockets are back to the number four spot in
the Western Conference standings, and really no one in that
two through six range behind OKC. Those teams are the Nuggets,
the Spurs, the Rockets, the Lakers, the timber Wolves. No

(02:38):
one's really creating a ton of separation, so everything is
right there in front of them. It's all on the table,
and within the last few days they've sort of offset
those terrible losses with some really good wins. You beat
the aforementioned Nuggets and Lakers, you beat a Cavaliers team
that has underwhelmed this year, but they had all three
of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Darius Garland on Saturday night.

(03:00):
The margin of victory in those three games, all within
the past eight days or so, was close to twenty points.
Two of the wins were on the road, and while
the collective team defense it certainly slipped for the totality
of December, they're no longer the Juggernaut, when they were
ranked second on defense entering the month. In these three wins,
they've held three very good offenses to an average of

(03:23):
below one hundred points per game. So all in all,
it's a mixed bag, but definitely not all bad, and
now it looks like they're on something of an upswing.
We mentioned the three good wins in recent days, including
two since Christmas. They also got both Tory Eason Andrey
and Finney Smith back from injury in the past week,
and now the schedule was starting to even out as well.

(03:43):
In the first thirty games, they played only twelve at home,
exactly forty percent of the schedule at Toyota Center, sixty
percent on the road. Well, that means that of the
fifty two regular season games that are being played in
twenty six, the clear majority of those i e. Twenty
nine at the fifty two are going to be played
at home, and the entering Tonight's game against the Pacers,

(04:05):
the Brockets are nine to one in their last ten
games at Toyota Center. So there are a lot of
different ways in which you can look at and contextualize
this team's current situation, But I think the bottom line
is they've got every opportunity still in front of them
to make a good run in the weeks and months ahead.
How before we get into some of the more specific

(04:25):
storylines for players and individuals, how would you frame what
we've learned in December? Obviously you had the two and
four road trip, you had the terrible late game collapses,
the her to three mark on Night two of back
to backs, and yet you also had some great wins
in there as well. Just give me as you see
at a high level overview of what we've learned about

(04:45):
this team over the past couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
I think the most shocking thing, which I don't really
think is shocking by this, something that we have been
tracking since the beginning of the season is they seem
to have a little bit of an or at least
in those losses games bad team for the most part,
an inability to walk in on defense or lockdown on
defense or whatever whatever I want to call it. It's
always felt like this team has not been great defensively,

(05:10):
or I guess not been great. I guess not in
the scope of the league, but in the scope of
what we're watching with our own nyers right and what
we will we are used to pre in previous seasons.
But it always seemed like, okay, like they're they they're
not playing great defense because they don't really need to,
because the offense is really explosive and well, a good
measure of you being able to play lockdown, lockdown defense

(05:32):
when you need to is holding on two leads when
win games get tight. Because you can just you know,
lock walk in and play a little lower varium style
of basketball and guarantee those winds in that that has
not been happening, right, whether do you want to call
it efforts, because there's been times where offensive defensive rebounding
has been an issue. Even though they they will never root,

(05:52):
They're never they will never lose a rebounding bawtub because
that's so good on offense, there's still you know, a
little bit of adulta that you can have on defense
and how much you're giving up to the other team
while still being the best offensiveverybounding team in the league.
And so that's been kind of my my main takeaway
here is like, Okay, it seems like this team at

(06:13):
this point in time does not have that extra gear defensively,
and you know, this commentary is a little bit outdated
because it seems it seems to have you know, gotten
up better than past ketball games withitary reason and nother
anythink the smith but to justify the losses a thing beforehand,
I think that was that was mostly it seemed like
last season they were, you know, they were really good

(06:34):
quote team without a closer because they could lockdown defensively
and make like make a three pointer view worth like
three or four possessions for the other seam. And it
seems like that's no longer the case. And call it,
you know, call it being I guess, call it not
taking the opposition seriously, or call it trusting too much

(06:54):
that they'll just figure it out offensive without the game
or you know, at some point in the clutch. But
to me, that's been that's been the main takeaway. And
alive with that main takeaway comes you know what we
can take from the last couple of games, which is
I'm not gonna get too deep into it because I
know we'll break it down a little bit more in depth,
but which is, you know, with Tarresan coming back in

(07:16):
a little bit of more you know, a little bit
more of a chaos factor on defense, even though you
know the loss I remember correctly, was the Kings one
wardly happened because of a Tarresan or was it a Clippers?

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Was it the Kings one that that Tari has a
melt down? But he was still very good in that game,
just unfortunately I had a brain fart in the final possession.
The bigger story, obviously is that there shouldn't have been
a final possession against the King's team. That's bad and
one and one that you led by fourteen points with
like ten minutes to go.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, I know what we're saying. And so with you know,
TARLINGI in bringing that chaos as well and Al turning
finish Smith with both of those guys, yes, they were
back for those couple of games of rougets to not
have lost, but they were. You know, there's a little
bit of of a roost level, especially for the Ourian
Finn the Smith book for the reason as well, he's missed.
You know, I think over a month of the worth

(08:07):
of games. And so as those guys lock in and
then and as those guys give what we talked about
before the season, which is give he may Udoka different
more different to looks that they that he can give
to the tool the teams defensively and and give Imoka
perhaps I know, don't I don't want as well what
I want to get into a little bit later, but
give Emloka perhaps some different types of lineups that he

(08:29):
can go into when some when you know the offense
is not clicking and you'd rather be walking the other
team down rather than out scoring them. So yeah, that's
been my main takeaway from these games. It's although you know,
since I'm doing the ten thousand foot to you, I'll
add as well that as long as the Rockets are
on the other side of the bracket compared to the

(08:50):
thunder which would mean I think being the second seed,
the third seed, is it the fourth and fifth seeds
that are on the other hand.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, you want to avoid the fourth or fifth, so
I do be second or third. But if you can't
be second or third, then hank for the sixth spot
the way the Chimberwolves did last year. To me, that's
the play exactly.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
So you know, they are still very well within reach
of Denver. They are with one and a half games
or two games, right because we don't have the wins,
but one loss back one they might in the last column. No,
as long as you're still in range to attack those spots,
that's truly what matters most. As much as it's not
good for the podcast done in for content creation in general,

(09:30):
to say this truth is once you have a lot
of All Island Crockets half and once you are established
as a really good team, which I think the Rockets
are established and even at nineteen and ten, they are
still very good team. At that point, what really matters
is seeding and how you get there. It doesn't really
matter as much nobody's going to be thinking about. These
games come come late in the season. So it's the NBA,

(09:53):
it's eighty two games, it's a really long season. Not
all of these games matter. And just like the Rockets
went on a know one and four stretch, the Okycteler
also lost i think four games within the last six
or something. Goes to that some of that to that effect.
So then we don't see them melting down, although obviously
they have a bigger buffer this to say that, to me,
overwhelming problem has been the defense that seems to be

(10:17):
figuring itself out. Let's hope that friend continues. And beyond that,
it's just you know, you see people overreacting. People you know,
start start calling Amen thousand trash and people start, you know,
overreacting to every little thing that is possibly going wrong. Listen,
it's not we're not in a in what was last
season or the season prior where we're trying to prove
ourselves right. We are already there and so there's no

(10:40):
reason to you know, be too high or too low
throughout the season, because none of these games basically are
a really indictment on what this team is, on what
or what this team will be. You know, later in
the season, if they start falling into you know, playing
range or being complete clear out of the fight for

(11:00):
the two three seats, or it seemed like something is
clearly broken over in a long stretch of games, ten
fifteen games, and you start to worry, but but not
not at this point. They it's you know, earlier in
the season, they beat every they were kind of smashing
all the bad teams, and then lost all of the
good teams. And now we've kind of done the opposite.

(11:22):
We lost a bunch of bad teams and we won
against you know, some theoretically good teams. And although I
don't really believe in the Lakers, but this is to
say that it's you know, part of the ups and
downs of an eighty two game NBA season, and it's
not anything to be you know, overly concerned about in
my opinion.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, and I'm much more willing to buy into that
now than I was a week ago. The concern I
had a week ago was that you would basically had
three straight weeks of subpar play, and so there's gonna
be peaks in valleys. You're gonna have nights where you
just don't have the juice, the shots aren't going in.
But they went through a fairly extended period, with perhaps

(12:00):
the second game in Denver the one outlier well where
we never saw the peak rockets, And so it's easier
to stomach the meltdowns, the inexplicable things against teams like
New Orleans and Sacramento if they're offset by some really
good wins. But if the team is just clearly getting
worse month over month, that's where there could be some

(12:22):
bigger picture concerns like is there a reason they're regressing,
as there's something in the mix that just isn't right.
But now just basic inconsistency, some good games, some bad games,
and obviously there's gonna be months where you have a
long win streak and you stack wins. There's gonna be
other months where it's more up and down. I'm much
more willing to accept your framing now that we've seen

(12:42):
the start of what we hope is another upswing, and
really it could be sustained. Like you look at the
schedule ahead, the Pacers tonight Brooklyn on New Year's Day,
the MAVs, the Suns, the Trailblazer twice. You don't have
another back to back until the fifteenth and sixteenth of January,
so there's it's a real opportunity to make some headway

(13:02):
over the next few weeks, assuming the Rockets take care
of business in a way they did not in New
Orleans and Sacramento. Hopefully they learned their lessons. But to
your point on the seating, I think that's spot on.
We're starting to see a clear top six in the
West between the Thunder, the Spurs, the Nuggets, the Rockets,
the Lakers, and the Timberwolves. Beyond the top six, the

(13:24):
closest team in the standings is Phoenix. But I'm sorry,
I do not take the Phoenix Suns seriously. They're playing
above their heads. They're a nice story. I think they
could reasonably make the playing tournament, But no, I do
not see the Suns being a forty five plus one
team the challenges for a top six seed. No, they've
been very lucky. Friendly schedule that's going to even out,
and Jalen Green still out for at least two or
three more weeks no where near coming back from the

(13:46):
handstring injury, so it turns out he will not play
in Houston this year. The final Sun's Rockets game in
Houston is next Monday. So the closest team in the
standings to passing one of the top six is the Warriors.
Lost Sunday in Toronto. That's their sixteenth loss of the season.
So there's already six games of buffer between the Rockets

(14:08):
and the Warriors, and Houston has already had in the
season series as well because of that Reed Shepherd Classic
before Thanksgiving. So a six game advantage going into calendar
year twenty twenty six, that's pretty big. So I feel
fairly safe in saying that barring major injuries. And no,
I don't think Shongoon's calf tightness is a big deal.

(14:30):
What caused him to miss Saturday's game and he's listed
as questionable for tonight. I think that's the Rockets being
conservative if it was anything that was particularly alarming. Yes,
I know there's been an epidemic of calf issues, but
with that in mind, I don't think the Rockets would
let him play on Christmas Night given that designation. He
was listed as questionable if they had any long term concerns,
Like I think Alpi just needs a few days. I

(14:52):
think he talked his way into Christmas because you know,
spotlight game against the Lakers, and he played fairly well
in that game, at least with defense and rebounding, which
has been a theme of the Rockets struggles in December.
By the way, when you talk to people inside the building,
they will consistently tell you it's about the defense. It's
about the rebounding. That's what they're focused on. It's not
crunch time offense. It's not who's the point guard, it's defense,

(15:13):
it's rebounding. Shingoon isn't He isn't all of that, but
he's part of that. However, on Christmas, I thought he
was better. I thought he moved fairly well. And so
to close the loop on Shinoon's injury status and his
health wouldn't shock me if he sits again tonight, because
with the relative break in the schedule, you can get
in a week off between when he last played on Thursday,
December twenty fifth and the New Year's Day game in Brooklyn,

(15:35):
So you can give him a full week off and
you know, not saying for sure he won't play tonight.
That's just my guess, because the Rockets should be favored
by a lot against the Pacers and are favored by
a lot regardless of Alphi's status, so you might as
well err on the side of caution. Really don't think
it's something that we're gonna have to worry about in
the big picture, and unless something you know, dramatic happens
from an injury standpoint to someone like Katie or Shangoon

(15:57):
or men, I don't see the Rockets out of the
top six. I think at this point it's pretty clear
that they're one of the best teams. And I think
after Saturday's when they're back to the second best point
differential in the West at plus eight point six, only
trailing the Thunder who still had that absurd plus fourteen
point two. God, although they did lose three to the
Spurs this month, which perhaps shows some vulnerability. Time will

(16:20):
tell anyway. My biggest takeaway, I think the narrative, and
you touched on this briefly, the early season narrative of
this team was completely backwards. There was this talk after
the first Denver game, the first in Denver this month
of when the Rockets going to beat a really good team,
and I just think so much of their record against
so called top teams was circumstantial, Like we're talking coin

(16:44):
flip games, going back to the first week of the
season against the Thunder, the Pistons, that first Nuggets game
that was literally stolen from them by some of the
worst officiating you'll ever see, consistently biased in one direction.
All of these games were just one flips in. At
some point it's gonna turn, and it has started to

(17:05):
turn in recent games. The bigger issue for this team
that's led by a thirty seven year old star and
a defense that needs peak effort to be at its best,
is gonna be consistency and finding ways, especially on night
two of back to backs, to tap into that peak
effort that they need to be at their best. And

(17:27):
KD specifically, you know, his season overall, we need to
talk about it. His numbers are ridiculous now, Paolo. So
after that game against the Cavs, thirty points on like
sixty five percent shooting in under three quarters, his true
shooting for the year now is sixty four point three.
He's shooting fifty two percent overall, above forty four percent

(17:47):
on threes, ninety percent on free throws, just absolutely ridiculous
in his age thirty seven season. And if you filter
out the back to backs, where he's admittedly not been
quite himself and that's to be expected at thirty seven,
If you filter out the back to backs, his true
shooting percentage is sixty six point one. Like at volume
for someone scoring twenty five plus points per game. That's

(18:10):
in the tier of Jokic Sga Giannis in terms of
scoring efficiency. Like that's not just an All Star, that's
illegit all NBA at least from an offensive standpoint, MVP
level candidate. He's still that guy, which is remarkable at
thirty seven years old. And so if you have that
type of top option and you combine that with a
good head coach and he Mayojoka and a good defense,

(18:32):
which we all know when healthy and when focused, they
can be. How are you not lethal against any team?
This idea that the Rockets are just a try hard
team like last year's group that can't beat the best
of the best. It just doesn't make sense when you
look at this team, and I think a lot of
it's just you know, trying to make something out of nothing.
With regards to you know, a few early season games,

(18:53):
microscopic sample size and trying to sort of put a
bow on just trying to find an explanation for why
they lost these games to go teams. Now that's turning.
The concern is consistency, and you know, is this team,
given what it needs effort wise on defense, and given
that it's led by a thirty seven year old, are
they going to be able to be able to bring

(19:13):
it every night over eighty two games. Pretty clearly the
answer is not always yes, and so that's a part
of the slippage that we've seen this month, and we
may see it more in the second half of the season.
You know, one bad thing about the schedule in twenty
six ten of their thirteen back to backs are still
to come. So it's pretty clear that's that's not a
strength of this team. Maybe it won't be quite as

(19:35):
much of a weakness with Tory Eastan and Doriyanfiny'spi back,
but I certainly don't think it's it's a strength by
any means, and it makes sense when you look at
the roster composition. So it's probably going to cost them
a few games over the balance of eighty two, and
it's why they're not going to make, you know, a
serious run at like sixty five plus wins. In my opinion,
they're not going to have like the fifth best rating
in NBA history the way it looked like they might

(19:56):
after the first six weeks of the season. But I
I do think that what we've seen lately, and it
makes sense with this version of Kevin Durant which is
still in him. Yeah, this team has all sorts of
high upside if Kevin Durant is able to deliver at
this level. And you know, one of the questions I had,
I wanted to see how much it could scale up

(20:17):
because when I watch the Rockets without Shingoon on Saturday night,
pretty much everybody knew going into that game against the Cavs, Okay,
they're going to go as far as Katie can take them.
Rockets were on fumes coming off the six game road trip,
didn't practice, didn't have a shoot around, No shing Gooon.
Fairly good opponent at least from a talent perspective, and
so Katie was going to get all the touches and

(20:37):
playmaking reps that he could handle, and in less than
three quarters he has thirty points, seven assists against a
quality opponent, and the game is over and he's doing
an on insane efficiency. So the upside scenario for this
team just get to April fairly healthy and turn Kevin
Durant loose. The games are spread out, there's no back
to back. Sometimes you have multiple days off, especially in

(20:58):
the first round of the playoffs. Just dial up Katie's usage,
give him every opportunity to see if he can tap
back into the MVP level guy that he was as
recently as a few years ago before he started having
some health issues. It's not realistic to expect that over
the balance of an eighty two game season, at least
not every night. But what you want to see is

(21:19):
whether he still has that gear in him. And you know,
when we did our checkpoints at the ten game mark,
the twenty game mark of the season, I noted that
his efficiency at that time was a little bit down
relative to past years, and I wondered, you know, is
this the year there might be a little bit of
slippage from a thirty seven year old kat I think
it's pretty clear now that we're at, you know, the
thirty game mark, getting close to halfway through the season.
The answer is absolutely not. He's still that guy and

(21:41):
as he put it, efficiency man. So if you have
that version of Katie and you had the defense that
we all know they are capable of, they got the
upside and so if they just get to the playoffs healthy,
they have a chance. Regardless of what the final record is.
It's just unfortunately what it takes to bring out the
best version of the Rockets. It feels like it's not

(22:02):
really realistic to see that on a super consistent basis
over eighty two games. So the final win total in
terms of you know, is it fifty wins, fifty five wins,
sixty wins, sixty five It might not be what we
had hoped it would be a month or two ago,
especially in the aftermathic losing Front and Fleet, so you
don't have the depth, the stabilizing force that we would
have liked. But in terms of the upside, in my opinion,

(22:24):
pollow it remains to be seen if they'll hit it,
but it's it's as big as it ever was. That's
the bottom line for me. Is that sort of how
you see it in terms of maybe the narratives spinning
from a team that can't beat the top teams. To
now it feels like a team that's you know, able
to beat the top teams, but the issue is finding
the consistency.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
It's, as you said, it sounds like to me like
the upside of the of the team. You know, everybody
wants to focus on talking about whether they need a
point guard it or not, Like that's typical national media
first stake. You know, look at this team. What jumps
off the page because I don't really watch them play,
I just watch it from a surface level. That's what

(23:04):
a surface level analysis tells you. Hey, they lost for
event lead. Maybe they need a point guard because their
only point guard you know, can't shoot or has issues
you know with his handle. That always screamed to me,
like they're always screamed to me. I just don't watch
the team and or I just don't want to bother

(23:25):
like actually analyzing what's been going right or wrong with
the team. Mark team has been elite offensively throughout the
entire season, and if you ever watch them play, you
can and if you've ever watched them play last season,
you can clearly tell that there's there's like ten times
more meat on the bone defensively than that is offensively
like that, you can't get that much better offensively other

(23:48):
than limiting turnovers. For the most part, Yes they might.
They might not have a bunch of leeague shooters besides
Kad and reached Shepherd and the Javari is having a
good season and Tari's on low volume of a really
good shooter. But that won't hold up when you watch
the team play most like, lower shooting percentages will be

(24:10):
the seeding because of how much the offensive rebound. Right, Like,
if you're gonna carry have an offensive rebound fifty percent
of the time, you can shoot twenty five percent lower
from the field and have basically the same results. So
the upside for this team, as he said, is keeping
this offense while you know, jumping one of the like
four or five levels above they can get defensively depending

(24:32):
on on on lineups, right, which brings me to my
second point. I think, and you touched on it a
little bit earlier, it feels like there's been some and
I'm not sure if I can even call it regression,
but at least from an effort perspective, it is regression
from from openching on defensively, and he hasn't been able

(24:53):
to make it up offensively in the way that he
had by being brilliant earlier in the season. Since the
not the loss to the Clippers, but the one the
Clippers game before, like when he was coming off those
two games that he didn't play, he's been you know,
twenty twenty two points a game, ten rebound, six assists,

(25:14):
but the number of jumps off the screen is fourthnovers
six assists to four turnovers over a seven Yeah, seven
games sample sizes is not good enough. From a true
shooting standpoint, he's doing that strike he's at forty like
he's at fifty five percent through shooting, which for a
cender is not good. His slippage coinciding with the Rockets
to for I guess game results, I don't think that's

(25:38):
a coincidence, and I think it's been a pattern throughout
the season at the team in general has had, you know,
a little bit of a lower effort on defense, and
I think Changan is included in that. But once if
you're giving that up defensively, you got to keep up
just brilliant offense and things has not kept brilliant offense
up for those for that strategy games, and then I

(26:00):
guess beyond that, I think you gotta I think you've
got to look at it as as you said, the
upside is still there, and I think if you've loke
the DNB long enough, you can relate to the fact
that typically teams that rely on you know, veterans or
teams that you know know that they have arrived, don't

(26:22):
play with one hundred percent intensity throughout the entire season,
and then when it comes to and it also depends
on the way they score, but then when it comes
to the playoffs, they have that extra good they can get.
When you look at the Lebron James teams, these later
Lakers teams right with Ad with Lebron, they weren't necessarily
the best radio season teams, but you knew when it

(26:42):
came to the playoffs that they had that extra gear
that they could step into, whether it was because you know,
Ad was injured, or just the fact that their offensive
engines were not necessarily those tireless, you know, really high
volume types of like Clams Harden and across the Westboo,
guys that can just carry you out to wins throughout

(27:02):
the season. Right not having guys like that leads you
exposed to, you know, lower end outcomes in certain games.
Like kV is really good, but Kivy is a deep
of the spears, is not necessarily an engine to the
same extent. He's really good, but not necessarily the same
extent that a guy like Russ or a guy like
Harden or even new age guy actually because just like
Center or a guy like Nicola Jokic who will just

(27:24):
carry your team to a certain level offensively every single
everything all night and just push you through the finish
line like a lot of times, right, kav can you know,
close games out for you. But he's you know, this
seems not built in a way to just have that
high of a floor offensively. I guess that's that's kind
of my point. I think Shane gun can when he's

(27:44):
at his best, can be that, but as we as
I just pointed out last seven eight, he's not being
and his best, so he's not been able to do that.
And he's really young. He's twenty three years old. Right
at that point in their careers, was James Harden and
Russell Westbrook the type of engines that we you know,
kind of remember them as when they were in their primes.
Now so and YO get the same thing. So he'll

(28:06):
get to that point and and when when that comes,
that comes. But at this point, the teple, this spear
for the Rockets is kV and just I think behave
as one of those teams that you know, they know
that they'll be fine, and so sometimes I just think
that they just take the foot off the gas, which
means that at the same time, with those James Hardened

(28:26):
team right well, a couple of them were you know,
literally just stopped by the best team of all time.
But at others and other points like the bubble season
and stuff like that, you knew that once it came
to the playoffs, you have already kind of seen what
the ceiling with that team was right then. Obviously with
the CP three teams, that ceiling was really high, but

(28:47):
with other versions of those James Harden teams, you knew
that what they were in the regular season was close
to what the ceiling was come the playoffs. With this team,
I think that that's not true, like it wasn't true
with those Lebron Laker teams and some of those you know,
Miami Heats, Timmy Bothward teams as well, where you knew
that they weren't necessarily playing two hundred percent of their

(29:10):
potential throughout the entire regular season or even close to it.
So I do think when when we get into the postseason, right,
if guys are still if guys are still healthy, and
you said that that's the priority, I think that there's
multiple levels that the team can't climb. And I think
one of them was shown in these last couple of
games when Shun or the last game where Shigun didn't play,

(29:33):
and we saw them going to small ball lineups a
bit more right, and it seemed like, Okay, you know,
now you're seeing a team play defense to to a
higher standard, and now you're seeing one of the weapons
that we had talked about earlier in the season. When
you have to finish Smith and the man tombs and
entirees and Anjbarry Smith's und you're on the floor and

(29:53):
you can even and you can have Kad into that
at Kadi into that lineup. But if you didn't, you
if you want to add Kad and reach A put
into that line up three elite defenders next to them,
and it's a lot easier to play that lockdown level
defense that we've been talking about, right, And that's what
That's the one thing that was struggling to mention earlier
is that got me really excited because that showed me

(30:15):
a different look of this team that I knew was
there but we haven't had a chance to see yet.
And that worked. And it feels like that's going to
be key against certain matchups, especially from the post season,
when you don't really want to get into these you know,
high scoring and I think that's the type of wants
to play in the post season where you're getting too

(30:36):
these you know, high scoring, high ceiling, low four types
of games, like against the Thunder, you might want to
get into a game like that, you know, against most
other teams, Rockets are good enough to be able to
beat them straight up in our increase variants. So that
was my that Those were my main thoughts going forward

(30:56):
onto what the ceiling of this team is, what the
Seal can be offensively, sorry, but defensively, it's not just
that the intensity hasn't been there, it's also that we
haven't been using the tools that this team has because
of injury thus far, and that's yet to be sure.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, and I think the return of draw Amphony Smith
is already paying dividends there. They've looked much better in
his minutes. Last night he was at plus twenty against
the Cavaliers in only sixteen minutes. So as you get
in the January, hopefully the fifteen minutes per daing cap
that he's at now will progress closer to twenty and
twenty five and ideally by the playoffs he'll be full

(31:38):
go offensively. You know, we've talked throughout this year about
who the fifth starter should be and the absence of
predbin Fleet, and I think the change they made on
Christmas going to Charnie Easton, that's really interesting. And Zach
Lowe on his podcast with The Ringer made the case
and I think he's right for why it's a bigger
deal than what people around the league initially gave it

(32:00):
credit for. Tarry Easton is potentially a blend between Josha
Koge and Reed Shepherd, not in playing style, but what
he brings to the collective. You know, we've made the
case before for why you might want to start read
Shepherd to get one more shooter to space the floor
more for guys like a Men Thompson. But obviously the

(32:21):
trade off is the defense. And so if you have
two guys out there with Reed and Shangoon that get
relentlessly hunted, does that lower your ceiling defensively? To your
point on sort of balancing the two sides of the court, Well,
when you start Tarry Eason, you get he's not the
ball handler or the creator that Reid is, but he

(32:45):
is still a very good shooter whose faces the floor
in a way that Josha Koge simply does not. So
you get the floor spacing which opens the floor for
a men. Thompson and you know, the other night when
we were recapping the Christmas game, I calls a bit
of a perfuffle on on Twitter. Someone clipped what I
said on the Buchfins YouTube show that I did with

(33:07):
Dave Artisty, and I simulcast that on our Rockets launch
pot feeds, and I mentioned that I was talking to
someone inside the organization during the Laker game and they
mentioned that the Rockets are at their best when a
man is the engine. And people got in their feelings
because obviously, especially in social media, people are very entrenched
on this idea of exactly how a men should be used.

(33:29):
Is he a point guard? Is he a wing. How
much should be on ball, how much should be off
In my opinion, it's foolish to be that entrenched in anything.
He's just twenty two years old and in this first
half of year three. But regardless, people are in their
feelings about that, they're pretty dug in, and a lot
of people, for starters, misheard what I said. It's not

(33:49):
saying that Men Thompson is their engine nowhere close. They're
saying that these games where he's at his best, that's
when the offense is really humming. Obviously, just superficially, you
have two All Stars and Kevin Durant and All per
in Shangoon. If you get if you get Amn Thompson
excuse me, also playing at a star level, and you
have three players of that stature, then the team is

(34:10):
inherently going to be very difficult to beat. But I
also think a Men's style of play when he gets
going downhill and pressuring the rim, the combination of that
with his vision, he's able to create for his teammates
in a way that's fairly unique on this team, especially
without Fred than Fleet. So he's not the engine in

(34:31):
the sense that we don't see the peak version of
a men let's call it Christmas Amen on an every
game basis. But when they have that version of a
men and you can play Shingoon and Katie a little
more off ball and you can set them up, that's
when this team really hums offensively. And so the challenge
is getting that much more consistently. They're not going to

(34:53):
coordinate a men. They're not going to say, well, because
it's convenient, we want our team to have you as
the engine, so we're just going to coordinate and say
that you're that guy, even though you're not consistently playing
at that level. They're not stupid. No, there's a lot
of games where they have to just go as far
as Kadi and or Shingoon Kid take them. That's just
the reality of this team with a twenty two year

(35:14):
old a Men Thompson. But if there are things you
can change with your team to bring out the best
version of a Men Thompson, you should consider it. Because
the best version of a Men Thompson is the best
version of the Houston Rockets in most cases. And so
I think the additional floor spacing from starting Tarry Easton

(35:34):
relative to Joshua Koki, the transition play the Terror Twins dynamic.
I think that helps get a Men going. We're only
two games into the sample, so it's far too soon
to say anything conclusively, but I'm going to be interested
to see what happens with Tari. It feels like for
the foreseeable future in that fifth starter role. Because his
minutes cap is now up to twenty five. I suspect

(35:56):
that'll increase to closer to thirty in the games ahead,
so he's cleared. There's no back to backs for at
least two and a half weeks moving forward, so I
want to see does a Men Thompson take off now
that you have Chari Easton as a starter. I think
it's possible that he does for obvious reasons that would
increase the ceiling of this team. And I just think,

(36:20):
you know, it's not set in stone. The Rockets have
multiple starting options. There might be some games where they
think the double big works. Steven Adams was brilliant against
the Cavaliers. I don't think you should say Tarry Easton
is an Entrench starter just yet, but I'm intrigued to
see what happens with this configuration because I just feel
like Paolo it sort of brings everything full circle that
we've been talking about all season, trying to find the

(36:41):
right balance between defense and offense, war spacing and switchability.
With Tari Easton, you get a lot of not all,
but you get a lot of the benefits of breed
Shepherd and a lot of the benefits of Josh Jakogi,
and so I see. You know, first off, I want
Tari for the sake of Tarri e to have a
good season, to go out and prove he's worthy of

(37:02):
the contract that he wants, and so on and so forth.
But beyond that, for the team overall, I just think
Tarry Easton is one of their five best players. I
think he's well balanced, and so I'm really excited to
see what happens here. I think starting Tari it's the
right time. If his leg is capable of handling, the
minutes increase, and I just think he's probably the most
balanced option of the four you could look at for

(37:24):
that role. And if you have a more balanced starting lineup,
to me, that's the key to getting the best versions
of the other four players alongside them. So what are
your thoughts on the Tari's starting experiment and what have
you thought from I guess the first couple of games
of early returns.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
I think it's probably the right call. There's a couple
of things, or one thing that didn't like was the
reply he gave in in the kind of the postgame
interview on you know, playing finally or something like that. That
scares me a bit, like you're you're, let's not forget
like starter or not, you're role player right than and

(38:00):
you're playing for the team.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
You know.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
I don't like that kind of attitude, So you know,
I'll leave that there, Like I don't want him starting
to ever come off as as the rockets appeasing him,
because that's that's a test present. But beyond that, just
strictly on the court, I do think that I agree
with what you said, Like Targie gives you better ball

(38:24):
handling than he gives you better shooting than to this point,
and he gives you, you know, more versatile. It all
gives you although has been good, but he gives you
better offensive rebounding as well, gives you better transition play,
gives you more turnovers, also gives you a little bit
more boneheaded decisions. But hope, but it hasn't been too
apparent up to this point. So yes, I do agree,

(38:47):
but touching on I want to transition that into a
little bit of them and thoumps conversation, Like I actually
think that. I mean, like the definition of a good
amend thumption game for different people is different ways. Because
a man Thompson can put up twenty because he's driving
to the rim and there's more spacing, And a man
Thompson can put up twenty casingns throw him six waves
and that's half of his works or five lobs and

(39:08):
that's half of his works, and he has gone into
twenty that way as well. So he's able. Like he's
a really smart cutter. He's really athletic. He can play
both as the as the roll man on a traditional
big spot. He can cut from the wing. He can
you know, take advantage of if I can close out,
although that's not been the case. He has not been
degraded or that prospective of a shooter. But like he

(39:29):
has that IQ or that you know, basketball savvy to
be in the right places and to cut at the
right times in a way Kyllen Green was not able
to last year. And this is our straight jaman. This
is gonna make sense to know it open. At the
same time, if your definition of a really good Amend

(39:51):
comes on game is a game where he's creating off
the dribble and he's getting to those twenty points and
it looks flashier and he's finishing around the rim and
he's sitting a couple of mid ring shots and you know,
all that's flowing, he's blowing by guy that's the dribble
and stuff like that. If that's your definition, then what
changes whether Amend Thompson's playing well better or not for
that specific way of playing better is actually Shanegun being

(40:14):
on the floora because like it or not, Chekun's really
good for a man thumbs. But if your definition of
a good Amend thumbs and game is again where he
played like Crossall Westbrook and he's driving to the room
noms top of the dribble, then Chengun's not the right
pick and roll apart. And for a guard that wants
to do that, she can creates a lot of advantages
and am And Thompson is great at exploiting those advantages

(40:37):
that he can create. However, if you have a more
traditional sense of what a star guard will do or
star point guard will do, when it comes to rim pressure,
then more spacing and a pig that's not a post
bit will create will weave more more of those spots
on the open for amend Thomption to get to those spots.
So it's a combination of different people being mad at

(41:01):
different versions of Amn thombs and that don't fit what
their ideally ideal version of a man Thombson is. And
you could see that in the last game when Chang
where singing in the play when they're with there was
the comp there was the combination of the space inside
being a little bit cleaner and the outside spacing being
being tired being a better as well. And you saw

(41:24):
men Thombson have some of those plays and have some
of those dribes like it's not and it can happen
with Shengun as well, not saying once again, I'm not like,
this is not my ideal version of a man. A
man eventually might become that, even with Shengu, but at
this point he's not developed yet as a finisher at
the rim, as a finisher from the mid range to

(41:45):
be maximized with a post ping on the floor. That
being said, the better, the best thing for this team
right now, is for men to be that complimentary player
that plays with Shingham is really good, and he's probably
he's the second best player on the team at this
moment because KDI is on fire. So if you want
to win right now, that's how you win. But that

(42:07):
does not make it so. The rockets are not at
their absolute best when a man's unleashed. There's a non
ball creator when a man is the engine. I agree
with Zach Clowe. I agree with what you said. The
rockets are their best. The problem is a man is
not consistent enough being that as a finisher when he
creates for himself to warrant that being the primary look

(42:29):
on most games. So when it does happen, yes we
do look our best, but it doesn't happen frequently enough,
and a man is not developed enough for that to
be what we should strive to do on a game.
My game basis because playing chain guns as the hand
and the engine KT as the engine right now is
better than that, or is more consistent than that, even

(42:50):
though when you can get that version of a man,
that is the best version of rockets as well. I
think I don't know if I could if I made
that clear enough just bringing it down to single sentences.
The best version of the rockets is when a man's
is when a man's an engine. If you want to
get that the most, then Shangoon playing with Schngun does not.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Let's all take that every game the best on an
every game basis.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Because of that, the recipe for success should not be
to sailor the team to a man being the engine,
because it's not consistent enough at that. The best way
to get the best out of this team is to
play around shang Gun and have a man be that
savvy cutter that he already is. And that This is
why I connected it to Jail and Clean earlier on,
because this was a problem for jailmen as well. The

(43:41):
problem with doing it for Jailuen was that Jaun when
he wasn't that engine, was not proficient enough as a
cutter as the lob threat in the ways that a
man is and in the ways that a man can play.
That's why it didn't work for jail for a minute. Thus,
with Sengon as a hub, you're not gonna get you know,
offensive engine and Thomson, but you're gonna get kind of

(44:02):
a more Alzar type version of a Man Thomson from men,
which is still a really good player when the defense
is that as well. So I hope this doesn't get
miscomestrued in some clip because this is not that they
get Shingun. It's not a big get a Man Thompson.
It's not that they get k D. It's not that
they get aryas. It's just the pieces we have right now.

(44:24):
Like you can get one hundred percent impact on Man
Thombson as an offensive hub and and that will be
the ideal version of a man founction to some people.
But in order to get that, you perhaps have to
get a little bit less from Shingle or literally less,
a little bit less time with Shingle. However, you can
get ninety percent of that impact from a man Thomson

(44:44):
with his smarts and his defense, and he's being at
the right place at the right time, finishing place. Witchingn
is the hub. You're gonna get ninety percent of the production.
And you're gonna combine with that the fact that you're
getting a full on All Star and to me and
an All NBA player this year in Shanghun playing to
the best of his ability as well. So that's the
ideal version or that's the the more achievable ideal version

(45:06):
of the rockets.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
And that's really go ahead.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Yeah, I was gonna just himself. Ideally, a man's not
the person that has to adapt for those to not
be you know, kind of mutually exclusive. Exclusive to some
extent is a man. Because when a man gets better
at being a ball handler and and and gets crisper
with decisions and has a tighter handle hand, and he's
better at getting to the mid range and getting to

(45:31):
because he's getting those shots a lot, and that opens
up space for him to be a better finisher at
the rim later on, Like as a man develops, he'll
fit even better with Shengun, and that this won't be
this won't be changn won't make him any less of
a threat, and then he can be as he does
not a little bit because a man's not developed enough
to take advantage of the advent of the advantages creates

(45:53):
when he is on the ball, because Hingun's creating space
for him, it's not just necessarily the best space for
a man to try as a man developed. So you'll
get to that point, but at this moment, we live
in this weird gray area where people have different versions
of what the best version of a man thumbs and
can be, and the man thumb is not developed enough
to satisfy both of those, you know, mindsets from people,

(46:15):
which is why you see wildly different teams from a
man from being brilliant and having twenty points and seventy
five percent of them being off of cuts and lobster
change from Singun. And you also get a great team
from man when he gets twenty points and he's driving
to the rim at will and he's finishing, and some
of those have been on national television. That's when everybody
goes wild and says, oh, you know, that's the uber

(46:36):
athlete that a man thumbs and that everybody thinks will
be an All Star. But you also get the games
where you're not getting the offensive engine version of a
man and that just haven't been and there just aren't
as many openings from them to take advantage of the
other defense and get those lobs and get those cuts
and the ball goes to somebody else. And then combine that,
you know, when those those easy opportunities are up, they're

(47:00):
playing off of Shengun and at the same time he's
playing with Shinghum, so he can really be or he's
not as good at being the offensive engine. That's when
you get those games where he has five turnovers and
you know, nine to eleven points, because it's the perfect
storm for it not to go well with him. It's okay,
you're playing with Shangun, but you're not being able to
capitalize off of the advantages that Shinkun's giving you, so

(47:24):
you look like the weak wink on the team. But
all of this will eventually get better as the man develops.
And the discourse being what it is comes not from
a man's ability or inability. It comes from people having
different ideas of what a man should be well.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
And I think a lot of the confusion on social
media is because with stan culture, everything is a constant
comparison between player A and player B. When from a
team perspective, they're trying to figure out what's best not
to not just to optimize these players individually, but how
it fits from a team perspective and how it all
works together. And I should also mention when I talk

(48:02):
about a men as an engine, perhaps it's something that's
more important in the short term with We'll see what
happens with Shongoon and the calf. But if he needs
to miss a few more games, I hope he doesn't,
But if he plays, maybe they'll be a little bit
conservative with his minutes. That could play into it as well,
because I do think that the Amen as an Engine
formula fits a little bit easier with Steven Adams as
the primary big But I just think in terms of

(48:24):
the comments that I made and the analysis that you
just laid out, it comes down to how the team
optimizes all of these pieces together and what brings out
the best version of the Rockets. And so much in
social media, people are so entrenched in their positions that
they look at it first from the perspective of what's
best for their individual player and what does this mean

(48:46):
for comparative purposes looking at player A versus player B
versus player C, and so in many ways we're just
speaking different languages. And when you look at it from
the Rockets perstructive, I think it's understandable what they're thinking.
It's not easy, it's nuanced. It's layered in terms of,
you know, what makes sense on a given night versus

(49:07):
a given opponent. But yeah, the men as the engine
formula that they look really good when he's able to
do that for many reasons, some of his own controls,
some based on roster composition. He's not able to do
that on an every game basis, and so they're going
to run the offense differently. The bottom line, it's just
about optimizing the pieces that you have. I do think,

(49:28):
at least against the better opponents, they have gotten better
at doing that as this season has progressed, and now,
of course the challenge is to do it more consistently.
Anyway to wind down the pod, I'll be quick my
closing thought, I'm even more convinced than our last full
show when we did the trade season preview with Dave
Hartisty on December fifteenth, when players all around the league

(49:50):
became trade eligible, those that signed or were traded this
past offseason. I think it's pretty clear that barring a
significant injury, the Rockets are like to stand pat and
any addition is likely to come via the buyout market.
By the time February gets here, they will be able
to offer a full minimum deal and they have a
roster spot open. I just think now that Ari Easton

(50:12):
and Doriy and Phinny Smith are both back who are
you going to upgrade? Who do you look at in
this nine man rotation. You can even extend it to
ten or eleven and look at guys like Clint Capelle
or in holiday Josha Kogi. Who exactly are you looking
to upgrade? The uncertainty was always when are Tari Easton

(50:32):
and Dorian and Phinny Smith is going to make it back?
What are they going to look like when they do? Well?
Now that that uncertainty has been resolved and reed Shepherd
continues to play at a high level eighteen points eight
assists plus twenty five on Saturday, forty percent on threes.
He has one of the best plus minuses on the team. Still,
who are you looking to upgrade? I just think it's
very clear that unless there's like some megastar that comes

(50:56):
available at the right price, that and I can't imagine
who that would be and how it just checks every
box and it's too good for the Rockets not to
consider unless something like that happens. I'm more convinced than
ever that this is a barely quiet trade deadline they
add someone via the buy out market. But I just
think the biggest questions with this team have been resolved,

(51:16):
Tari and DFS are back, and so with that, unless
someone gets hurt, unless something radically changes in the next month,
I'm more convinced than ever that it's going to be
quiet and that they'll give this team a real look
in the playoffs. And you know, if it doesn't go
well in the playoffs for whatever reason, then yeah, you
can reevaluate that next summer. But I just think with
Tari and DFS back and playing relatively well, I think

(51:37):
the needles moved even more towards this being a pretty
quiet trade deadline for Felstone. That's my closing thought. Uh, powllo,
Does that make sense to you? And is there anything
else you want into touch on before we close up?

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Shot? Not really. The de ends are running in the
Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
There you go, all right, Well, we'll end it there.
That's a very positive way to look at it. Although
we were watching the end of the Eagles Bills game
before we started recording. I'm pretty optimistic about the path
for the Texans, not just having won eight straight games,
but the five seed in the playoffs. They'll be a
heavy favorite on the road, well five seed, assuming they

(52:12):
win their finale against a colts team. Playing for nothing,
and assuming the Jaguars be a terrible Tennessee team, but
five seed goes up against a Stealers or Ravens team
with a much worse record, that's a game you should win.
And after that, with as good as the six and
sevens are this year, the Bills and the Chargers, there's
a decent chance the Rockets or the Texans excuse me,
are hosting a game in the divisional round or even

(52:34):
the AFC Championship game if they continue to win. So
it's all on them. The offense still has some holes,
but it's all right in front of them, just like
it's all in front of the Rockets. And so I
think that's a good place to bring this pod full
circle because both teams have a lot to look forward
to as the calendar turns to twenty six. All Right,
with that, we'll bring tonight's episode to a close. If

(52:56):
you want more insights before our next full show, which
not sure what day it will be, either later this
week or early next week, that we'll do something New
Year's Resolutions themed, because obviously January first is Thursday, so
we'll talk about what we're hoping to see from the
Rockets in the new year. But until that next show,
best place to get a hold of me and Powlow

(53:17):
is on social media. My handle is at Bendubo's, Powow's
is at Palo ALVE's NBA, and then if you hit
up launch Pods seven ninety that's the Twitter handle for
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bio that's got links to everything you could possibly need
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Sports Luck seven ninety USA, Today's Rocketshire watch fans. It's

(53:40):
got the link to the Clutch Fans YouTube page where
I'm doing post gang shows after most games with Dave Hardesty.
So anything that you might want to hear more from
us help support the show, just go to that link
tree at launch Pods seven ninety on Twitter and you
can find everything you'd need there. All right, with those

(54:00):
flides complete, we will adjourn for today for Pallo Alves.
I'm Benju bos As always appreciate you all so much
for listening, and please come back soon for more new
episodes of The Rockets Launch Pod