November 30, 2025 • 30 mins
The Rockets closed out November with Sunday’s 129-101 victory at Utah, which gives Houston (13-4) 13 wins in its last 15 games, overall.
Featuring Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty, Sunday’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show breaks down all the key takeaways. Topics include Kevin Durant’s uber-efficient return; a much-improved defense; and an apparent promotion to the starting lineup for Reed Sheppard.
Featuring Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty, Sunday’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show breaks down all the key takeaways. Topics include Kevin Durant’s uber-efficient return; a much-improved defense; and an apparent promotion to the starting lineup for Reed Sheppard.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome into the post game.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Rockets rack up another win, one twenty nine to one
oh one in Utah. I'm here with Ben Dubos. Ben,
It's good to be back. It feels like an eternity
since we've done this again. We didn't skip the Warriors game,
which was a really great, thrilling win, a Reed Shepherd breakout.
But for this one, Rockets just crushed the Jazz from
(00:24):
pretty early on and it's just an embarrassment of riches
for the Rockets watching this game, just like there's just
a wide array of ways that this team can beat you,
and they just overwhelmed the Jazz today.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well. And one thing in the macro that I think
has been overlooked about the Rockets start to the season
going into today, they had the fourth toughest strength of
schedule and the entire NBA the rest of the way,
according to Tankeathon dead last number thirty. So whatever concerns
you had about this team, they've been playing a tougher
(00:59):
schedule than what they're to have over the final sixty
six games. Now I believe sixty five because you're thirteen
and four after today. So the Jazz are a bad team.
They're six and thirteen for a reason. Yet you're gonna
be playing some weaker teams coming up now. You haven't
had any back to backs yet, this is your first,
so we'll see how the Rockets fare tomorrow, although thankfully
there's no travel in between. And it's back to back
(01:20):
for the Jazz as well. And this week overall, you've
got five games in seven days, but largely against weaker opponents.
You've got the Jazz twice, You've got the Kings, You've
got the MAVs. So this is a part of the
schedule that you can fatten up on. And I think
that's what's gotten forgotten about this team. For as good
as this start has been, and I think they're right
on schedule with even the most optimistic of expectations going in.
(01:44):
I know you've got your spreadsheet. At the same time, look,
I don't know if there's any huge takeaways from this
game against a bad Jazz team other than as good
as Houston has looked overall, whatever nitpicks you might have
about the overall season. Like I had mentioned last week,
you know, Kevin Durant had struggled to shoot in those
last two games that he played before missing two games
(02:05):
for personal reasons. The previous two were against the Cavs
and the Nuggets, and I think he was about thirty
three percent in those two games. Well, today he led
the way twenty five points on above seventy percent shooting,
had four sis, three seals, six boards, and looked dominant.
Only had to play three quarters. So if you had
any concerns about Katie, because going in the number to
dip the tiny bit, you know, overall he was like
(02:26):
forty eight and a half percent, about thirty six and
a half percent from three to sixty one percent true shooting. Well,
all of those are going up a decent bet after today,
and I think you know it's true for KD. He's
going to face some weaker defenses and he should feast.
But I think it's true for the team as well.
As good as they've looked, they haven't had too many
easy games. It's night and tomorrow. These are easier games,
and so far, so good. The Rockets came out and
took care of business in the front end.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, absolutely excellent game for Katie in his return ten
of fourteen shooting. Reed Shepherd stays in the starting lineup,
and it's funny Reid didn't have this game where he
shot you know, ten twelve threes. I think he was
one of three from three point range, but still four
of eight from the field, had four steals, a couple
of blocks, was very very pesky on defense. I thought
(03:09):
he did a really good job there. And this is
the kind of perfect runway right now. I actually just
outlined the games that are coming up for him to
be in the starting lineup. I think we've talked about
it before. We saw it at the very beginning of
the preseason what they wanted was for Reid to start,
and then it was just kind of early on like, okay,
he's not ready. He has made such a leap. I mean,
(03:31):
I'm still obviously holding my breath a little bit, like
is this really going to continue? But he's made such
a leap in his comfort level that he looks like
he's fitting right in.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Again.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
These are our, you know, matchups that were ramping up
to the bigger names, but he's just been terrific. So
plus thirty three today. What's really ridiculous, Ben, is you
look at the raw total plus minus on the year
and Reach Shepherd's like up.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
There with shng Gun.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I think he's past now and this is two hundred
plus minutes difference, like he has put up some insane
plus minus totals. Reachepherd, he's in the top four or
five on the team. I think you got Amen Jabari,
Katie Reid, and Shan Goon and he's the guy who
hasn't played those the minutes like those guys.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah. I wrote a blog on Clutch Fans that went
live on Thanksgiving looking at some of the advanced metrics
and how favorably Reid grades out right now or at
least going into today. I haven't seen the post game update,
but box plus minus the entire league, Reid was fifth,
the only guys ahead Jokic, Sga, Giannis and Luca. Now
(04:39):
it's one metric and am I saying reads the fifth
best player in the world. Of course, not by the way,
the best American according to that metric, but I do
think it speaks to the overall impact that he makes
when he plays. The rockets are better when he's on
the floor, and in some ways I felt, really, I
don't want to say better, because thirty one and nine,
what he had the career night in San Francisco against
(05:01):
the Warriors to get that win. Obviously, that's really impressive,
but I think we all knew that Reid was capable
of popping off, that he had that in his bag. Offensively,
the big question was how he could play in a
complimentary role, because if you want to start him and
both Katie and Shingoon have it going on the way
they did tonight, there's only going to be so many touches,
(05:22):
so many shot attempts to go around. So is he
going to provide value in other areas as a ball handler,
as a facilitator, as a defender. Now, I know this
is a bad team, but I mean, to the point
we raised earlier, the Rockets are going to be playing
some bad teams coming up. You can only play who's
on your schedule. And for him to have six combined
steals and blocks tight his career high with four steals,
(05:44):
shot fifty percent overall, was in control of the offense.
He didn't shoot a lot, and yet it felt like
his fingerprints were all over this game because he was
very steady offensively, made the right reads the right passes. Defensively,
the Jazz aren't exactly the type team to punish his
lack of size the way some bigger opponents might try to,
but I mean whatever weaknesses there were, he off set
(06:07):
that and then some with the seals and the blocks
and the turnovers that he was able to force and
lead to easy buckets for the rockets. And so with Reed,
we all knew the potential. For me, it's more about
the floor what's going to happen if it's not a
game that he's able to really do a ton offensively,
at least in terms of scoring. And in some ways
(06:28):
I felt even better coming out of this one that
in a game where he wasn't super high usage, he
still had a good impact. You mentioned the plus thirty three,
which is astounding, and it led the way and I
think just the way the schedule sets up. So he
started the last three games in a row. Now, the
two prior to Katie's return were largely injury based, but
now he started tonight even with Joshua Kogie and Steven
(06:50):
Adams available, And so to me, that speaks volumes like
emay Udoka is buying in that this is something sustainable
because if they went again tomorrow, and I don't see
emay Udoka changing the lineup between games when you're playing
the same opponent, and you looked as good as the
Rockets did today. So you will have four straight games
of red starting all wins on the assumption they win tomorrow.
(07:11):
That is, they will have at that point won fourteen
of sixteen games, because they've won thirteen to fifteen now
since that zero to two start. So you're coming out
of these two games in Utah. If you handle business tomorrow,
Read will started four straight games. Potentially you've won them all.
You're rolling as a team, Read is playing well individually.
(07:32):
The schedule at least for the remainder of this week
and next week as well. Isn't that difficult on paper?
Why would you change? And so for me, like, I'm
not saying it's a permanent change. They do have a
long road trip second half of December, Like it's not
always going to be easy. But if they went again
tomorrow and Read looks solid to me, this feels like
you may may roll with this for quite a while.
(07:53):
Like I don't see what would tip them back for
the time being.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, I absolutely agree with you.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
You know, it's I talked about at the very top
of the show, just this kind of embarrassment of riches,
you know, Shangun tonight ten to fifteen, really efficient, scored
quite a bit, yet the Rockets made their runs when
he was sitting for most of the game. It was
really kind of crazy, just kind of shows you how,
you know, potent this roster is. Right now, Steven Adams
(08:23):
comes in and just had a major impact in this game.
There was a play and I'm sure everybody wi watched
the game knows what I'm talking about right now where
he had this highlight reel. Block runs the floor, KD
finds him under the basket. He turns and just throws
down this nasty jam that looks like Steven Adams from
eight ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
He just has spring in his step.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
He had twelve boards tonight, four offensive, and I think
he played just under seventeen minutes, was a plus twenty four.
This is a starting level center on just about any
team in the league. He is sacrificed, in my opinion,
quite a bit to be here. I mean, to play
this role. Obviously it's good for him with the knee
(09:05):
and everything to not have so much on him. But
he is a major impact guy that I think probably
does not get enough credit in the sense of, you know,
he's two for four from the in the box score.
Nobody really notices what he does offensively in that nature,
but it has such tremendous force for the Rockets in
getting these wins.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Well, and also shout out to the stay Ready crew
guys like Clint Capella, JD. Davis, and Jayshan Tate, because
Steven was super fresh going into this game because he
didn't play on Wednesday at Golden State. He had been
listed as questionable for a few days. I think he
was technically questionable going in today as well with that
ankle injury. But because he didn't play Wednesday and there
(09:46):
was this break in the schedule, he hadn't played in
almost a week. It was from last Monday in Phoenix
was the last time that Stephen played, and so he
looked super fresh. For KD. It was more than a week.
It was since the previous Friday that was when he
last played. So Kevin had more than a week. Steven
had almost a week. And so guys of I don't
want to say old, but let's say advanced age, the
(10:09):
guys that are well into their second decade. Kd's almost
in his third decade in the NBA, that rest over
a season any opportunity you have to get them more
fresh is really beneficial, especially since a younger team where
they can just use their savvy and basically take over
a game at a moment's notice. You know, one thing
I really liked about what the Rockets showed us tonight.
I've talked before about the importance of, you know, being
(10:31):
able to put teams way in the third quarter, and
that's what great teams do, so that you can use
the fourth quarter to sort of let your big guns rest.
Kdi didn't play it all in the fourth quarter. I
don't think Steven did as well. And there was a
little bit midway through the game where the Rockets were
up by I think as much as twenty four in
the first half. The Jazz had cut it to thirteen
early in third quarter. We talked to me and you
that it looked like the Rockets were sort of sleep
(10:52):
walking a little bit. They weren't crashing the glass as
much offensively defensively, looked a little bit lethargic, and bam,
next thing you know, nineteen to two run. They're up
thirty in the game is it's clearly over and that's
when you have guys that are accomplished as accomplished as
Kevin Durant and Steven Adams playing against a very young
team like the Utah jass it doesn't take much to
(11:13):
flip a game, and that's what we saw in the
third quarter, well, not flip, but put a game away
that had been sort of trending Utah in terms of
the momentum, and then they flipped back hard in the
direction of the Rockets and they were able to cruise
to a victory, not even having to play Katie and
Stephen in the fourth quarter. So yeah, shout out to Steven.
He was tremendous. But also that's stay ready crude deserves
(11:34):
a ton of credit because obviously despite missing five rotation players,
they got a big win at Golden State the other
night on a night when the Warriors had Steph, Jimmy
and Draymond all playing. But beyond just getting that win,
being able to get guys like Katie and Steven a
few days extra rest whenever you can be creative in
the schedule. And this may come up again in December
(11:56):
because with the NBA Cup, they're going to have these
breaks where I think they go from like between the
sixth and the eighteenth, they played just two games. So
if you can sort of combine off days with you know,
maybe a maintenance game and give guys a week break,
especially that have been you know, that have the mileage
that guys like Kevin and Stephen do, then that can
(12:18):
really pay dividends in the grand scheme. And so I
thought the Rockets managed the situation well over the last week,
and I thought they reaped the rewards today.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, you know, I listened to Emoo Doakin post game.
He had a couple of things. One he talked about
their sort of game plan to take out Lori Markin
and Count George. County George has thrived. Now I didn't
know this, but I talked about on the broadcast that
apparently Count de George had an illness. Was fight was
playing through that aspect. But when I say they shut
somebody down who has been thriving, they shut this guy
(12:47):
down zero for six from the field, Uh finished with
eight turnovers. I didn't even notice this untill I'm looking
right now.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Zero points. Yeah, in nineteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, I don't want to say it's single handedly, amen,
but you got to obviously pointed at yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And Jabari's looked a lot better defensively as well, Like
really the collective defensive effort. The last three games, they're
holding teams to below one hundred points on average, and
the defensive rating going into today had surged just sixth. Overall,
I think it's there's a decent chance that will be
top five after today. The fourth quarter didn't help them,
but overall it should still move positively. And you know,
(13:23):
there's lots of guys across the board that we can credit,
but I thought Jabari specifically the last few weeks, he's
looked a lot more fluid defensively and how he moves
in the perimeter, and there were several possessions today. We
often talk about the work he did on his body,
showing up offensively with his ability to put the ball
on the floor. He looks a little bit more athletic
when he attacks close outs and goes to the rim.
But defensively, it feels like relative to even last year,
(13:45):
you see him holding up much better on switches, He's
moving his feet on the perimeter. And I know he
may gave some law to Jabari postgame, and I think
largely he was talking about on offense, but I think
defensively as well, Jabari's a big piece of you know,
if you switch a Mint off and you get Jabari on,
that advantage is not what it has been in previous years.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that I posted the clip.
I can't remember who it was for the Jazz that
was had the ball, but Jabbari through multiple sets sort
of was fighting through screens, around screens, defending a guy,
forced a deflection and then went the other way and
finished and that, you know, that's kind of what EMY
talked about. You know, it's funny because you and I
(14:27):
talked before the game. We talked a little bit about
what they're going to be missing with Reid starting, because
obviously a Kogi does bring some of that Dylan Brooks
physical defense. And I was thinking, well, I liked you.
I've always been a huge Jabari guy. I love Jabari.
I don't think Jabari is this physical defender like in
a Kogi or Dylan Brooks, but you can see how
much he has improved in that area, and I think
(14:49):
that was on display there and and IM really kind
of raved about him. A shout out to Vanessa for
the question, but just talked about how He's had growth
in every single area, putting the ball on the floor,
shooting both sides of the floor. His physicality is comfortable,
you know, more comfortable with his body.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, he looks terrific.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I mean he's not getting the credit because it's you know,
Katie Shangun a mens sort of overshadowing that. But I mean,
like I said, the guy is second league or excuse me,
second on the team, and I think met raiding behind
the man. He's been a big reason why the Rockets
have been successful this season.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I mean, he's averaging about fifteen points per game, shooting
forty percent from three, the perfect glue guy, playing elite defense,
or at least very good defense. I'm sure some will
try and quibble over the word elite. I was stunned
at the Ringers top one hundred lists last week that
had Tory Easton at seventy five and Jabari in the
top one hundred. I don't see how you can watch
(15:45):
this team and not come to the conclusion that Jabari
is clearly the fourth most valuable player. I don't think
it's even debatable other than on some night Stephen Adams.
But with Steven there's a little bit of a maintenance
consideration that probably caps him a little bit, belowed Shabari
when you look at the totality of eighty two games.
But I would say Jabari at worse tied with Steven
(16:07):
for the fourth most impactful player on this team. I
think that's that's pretty undeniable. Now, reach Scheffer the last
few weeks, you know, can certainly make an argument, but
we need a little bit of a longer sample with
Reed before I think we truly buy in to that extent.
And if he does, if Reed is actually truly like
a top three or top four guy on this team
this season, then you're really cooking with gas at that point.
If Reed is that level of a player alongside KD. Shingoon, Amen, Jabari,
(16:31):
and Steven, then those are wonderful concerns to have. So, yeah,
Jabari has sort of flown under the radar because he's
never the headliner. He's very steady, but he's improved the
threes from about thirty five percent the last two years
to forty percent this year. Defensively, he looks more fluid.
That shows up offensively when he's attacking the closeouts. I mean,
he's just a perfect role player. And that's before we
(16:52):
even go into you know, there were no high leverage
possessions tonight, but we've talked about it before. How many
big threes has he hit late in games that sort
of teetering that could go either way, that have brought
the Rockets back into it? Like to me, he's just
the quintessential glue guy for a contender. That's what Jabari
Smith Junior is. And you know, I don't necessarily think
we saw it today because the Rockets won with ease,
(17:13):
but we just saw, as he may said, just a
much better player overall, and to some extent that's to
be expected. Like what people forget about Jabari He's just
twenty two years old. It's your four, but he's still
one of the youngest guys on this entire team in
terms of raw age because of how young he was
coming out of Auburn entering that twenty two draft class.
So for him to do what he's doing on a
winning team at twenty two is just phenomenal. And the
(17:36):
contract that Rafelstone and the Rockets got him on for
five years after this one, I mean, I think if
you're in the business of buying Rockets jerseys, Javari Smith
might be one of the safest ones to buy because
between his value to the team and so many different constructs,
he's not high usage. Between the friendly terms the contract,
(17:57):
dave I got a feel, and he's gonna be in
Houston for a long time.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So someone once said, if we ever traded Jabari, we
would be looking for somebody like Jabari. I mean, like
he is, his height, his ability to shoot, his ability
to defend it. It's more rare than I think people realize.
And he's comfortable playing complimentary role. I'm just I'm ecstatic
with how he's developing now. I thought it was a
(18:21):
little bit slow for you know, a couple of years,
but I think Jabari has become an extremely important player
for this team, you know, a man. We talked about
the defense and it was as always really good tonight,
just too of eight from the field. Missed some shots
that you're like, ah, you know, as he tends to
do at times where you're like, man, that was a
billion dollar move and then just you know, a ten
(18:43):
dollars finished kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It really just didn't quite pan out. But nine assist
and I was kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
You know, very comfortable on ball. Eight boards does all.
You know, he always brings the defense. I'm just ecstatic
and I think we're talking about like how different this
team is. I mean, look at it, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Alprin, Shnghoun,
Amn Thompson, Reed Shepherd. That is really there's not a
whole lot of overlap there. I mean they can score
(19:10):
in a variety of ways. He double one and another
one can really burn you. It's you know, again, tip
my hat to rafel Stone for building this because now
you've got guys Toari's not even here yet, Tarry Adams
coming off the bench, dfs.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Eventually you got a kogie who's contributing. This is a
really good team.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And it's starting to shape up to be kind of
similar to ten years ago, eight years ago, whatever it was,
to where you know, Okac is our golden state now
and we've got to figure out how we can compete
with this team. But the Rockets are in a tier below,
but they are really good and now it's a matter
of what adjustments can you make to knock off Okay see.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Well, and I think read to men long term have
a ton of potential starting next to one another because
I think those are two very complimentary players. It often
gets talked about in terms of ball handling because people
are nervous. There's been the whole question of is a
a full blown point guard. I don't know what the
answer is to that, but he at least has some
point guard abilities which allows you to run Reed Shepherd
(20:08):
off the ball a little bit, which can be really valuable.
Obviously there's valued him as a floor spacer, but also
just the movement, Like Reed works very hard off the ball,
and so he brings some gravity there that you can
tap into when you let a men handle the ball.
And conversely, if it's a matchup where you need a
little bit more ball handling and you want a men
to play out of that dunker slot, then you can
(20:29):
let Red initiate the offense. So you can sort of
let them go back and forth. The big question where
the men is the shooting. Well, Reed's got the shooting
in spades, And with Reid the big question is defense. Well,
a men's got the defense in spades. So I think
those two, as long as they can figure out how
to be comfortable in the touches they get, you know,
with Red it's still going to be to be determined.
(20:49):
He can't be as high usage, at least not consistently
in the starting lineup to the extent that he was
when he was in that sixth man role. But so far,
so good. He looked really promising today. I thought the
plus thirty three doesn't lie. And then yeah, and the
big picture are like Reid and the men have a
lot of complimentary skills. I think they can mitigate the
weakness of the other, or at least the perceived weakness,
And so yeah, just the way all of these pieces
(21:12):
fit together, like we've talked about it the last couple
of years about Shanngoon and Jabbari theoretically fit very well
together because the weaknesses of one are sort of the
strengths of the other. When you look at how they
fit together on the front line. Well, I think there's
some of those same traits in reading the men. So
not only have the Rockets drafted well and they have
all these promising young pieces, and now you have Kevin
Durant as the straw that sort of stirs the drink,
(21:32):
the tip of the sphere of scorer. But now you
have these young players whose games sort of perfectly balance
off each other. To me, that just speaks to you know,
obviously it's good foresight in terms of how they drafted.
I don't know if it's all that, because Rafeli will
tell you they go BPA, but whatever reason, it has
worked out that way. And certainly Imo Udoka as a
coach that knows how to make it all work together.
(21:53):
And so I know it's only one game. Well, no reading,
the men did start in the Suns and Warriors games
as well, three games of them starting together, and so far,
so good. I like the way they play off of
each other.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, you know, it's it's been an interesting, you know, discussion.
As far as a man being a point guard. I
don't think he is a point guard, but in today's NBA,
it's more of a primary or engine type of construct.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Can he be that?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And I think he.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Can be that. I think he's starting to show that
he can be that.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You know, there's certainly things that he needs to clean up,
but I agree that the combo or the balance between
him and Read out there where they both can do
some of that creation and ball handling. I mean, it's
just impressive. I'm amazed and watching Read. You know, we
didn't get to talk about the Golden State game, but
that the way he played in that game where.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
He was so confident.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
This is in you know, at playing at Golden State,
a very tough place to play against a very veteran
team that knows how to win, and he was so
just confident. The balance between those two, in my opinion,
I think you've found your back and I'm very excited.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And yeah, I don't know if it's going to mean
a little.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Less shen hub shn Gun is always going to be
there as a playmaker for sure. I don't know if
that's going to necessarily be your primary, but you've got
between the three of those guys a lot of playmaking now.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, And I thought the biggest thing that we saw
in San Francisco was Reid wanted the stage. He wanted
the moment, and I think that's so big with a
young player. You know, this was for Reed in particular,
one of the first Spotlight games where he was thrust
into a starring role as the starter at point guard,
facing off against Steph Curry for a Rockets team that
was missing five rotation players if you count fredvan Fleet,
(23:38):
and so he had no choice but to let it fly.
He put up twenty five shots, and he made twelve
with them, including four threes, and several of them were
at high leverage moments in the second half. So the
way that he shined on that stage, I agree with you,
it means something. And then you know, the one concern
you have when you start Reid. I had seen some
people talking about, well, if Reid isn't the sixth man,
(23:59):
who is who's going to anchor those bench units? And
you know, it's not as cut and dry as saying, well,
here's the first unit, here's the second unit, because there
is some staggering that goes on, and we hope, you know,
two or three weeks from now, Charry Easton's going to
be back. But in the interim, Steven Adams is a
machine on the offensive glass. So even if you worry
a little bit about how well if your primary reserves
are Aaron Holliday, Josh Shakogi. Now to Aaron's credit, he
(24:22):
has shot really well the last couple of weeks, but
do they have enough firepower off that bench? Well, the
thing is, if they're playing minutes with Steven Adams, you're
probably going to get and you're going up against backups
largely from the other team. You're going to get so
many shot attempts. And Stephen, you know, we talked to
him earlier. He made nine of ten free throws. So
one of the big concerns with Steven in previous years,
(24:44):
can other teams just hack him, Like when he's attacking
the glass and the rockets are over the limit? Will
they just grab him and he's going to make one
of two free throws at most. That's not the case
this year, so that is not really an option for
other teams. And so when Steven can just crush the
op glass and teams are reluctant to foul him because
he's making free throws now, then even those second units
(25:07):
without Reid, you're still going to be okay offensively because
you have Steven in that offensive rebounding presence. I mean,
we'll see tomorrow it's night to back to back, but
by and large, Stephen is sort of an I don't
want to say an offensive hub, but he's an offensive
stimulus when he's out there, And so that might allow
you to play read with the starters and get away
with it.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, so you highlighted would be a bore close You
talked about what's coming up. I'm really the next five
games the Rockets should win. The Sun's probably probably the
toughest when in there. The Clippers are very hard to
figure out. But you got tomorrow, second game of a
back to back in Utah. Rockets will stay in Salt
Lake City tonight, play the Jazz again tomorrow night. I
can't imagine Kante George will have the same game, but
(25:49):
I still expect the Rockets to win that. Then to
come home play the Kings. Stay home to play the Suns.
That was supposed to be Jalen Green's return.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
If will be Dylan Brooks's return and.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
He's going to be some far there, yeah, no question.
Then you go on the road to play the Mavericks.
They're you know, maybe a little bit better lately, but
still you should win that game. And then you come
home to face the Clippers, which should have been a
tough game, but the way the Clippers are playing by
the way side note, I'm absolutely terrified that the Clippers
are going to keep playing this way and that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Pick is going to go to Okay see, and if
they get a top three pick, I'm just gonna lose it.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
But you know, the next five Rockets should win, you know,
knock on wood there, but then you come home, excuse me,
you stay home to or no, you go to Denver
to play the Nuggets on December fifteenth.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
So next five look really good.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Rockets currently thirteen and four should come out of this
eighteen and four. But again, I don't want to claim
any wins still happens. I'm just saying the next five
look really good.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, absolutely, And I'm curious to see if they can
keep up the defensive intensity because for me, that's been
so rewarding to see. Over the last week. I mentioned
going into today they were up to number six overall
on defense. The last three games are holding teams on
average to below one hundred points. I hate that the
Jazz technically exceeded a hundred points because somebody threw in
that garbage three basically at the buzzer, and I was like,
(27:04):
come on, they're technically at one on one. But know
the average of the last three still below one hundred.
And if you play with that level of defensive intensity
and you have the high end talent offensively that the
Rockets have, you're going to be fine against almost everyone
that you play, and against weaker teams. You should be
able to just run them out of the gym the
way the Rockets did tonight. And so that's been a
big question. To start the year, we talked about the
(27:25):
identity shifting. They were top to number one for a
stretch offensively, but they were giving a lot back defensively
relative to last year and they were top five. Well,
now the defense has come back almost to top five
and the offense is still top two. So will that
sustain itself as the schedule eases up. That's a big
question because it's easy to sort of take your foot
off the gas when you're playing weaker teams, like everybody
(27:46):
when you're playing murderers row like, it felt like the
Rockets were early in the year to bring your best effort.
You know, will the Rockets on night tub of a
back to back in Salt Lake City playing the Kings,
playing the Suns the MAVs, will they have that same
level of intensity If they do, Yeah, this team should
be just fine. And you know, one little thing that
I'm keeping my eye on. When I did my last
(28:07):
Rockets launch pod with Palo Alves, I talked about, you know,
where's the low hanging fruit? Where can this team improve
relative to the start of this season, and you know,
I talked about, you know, Katie specifically the shooting numbers
being a little bit down, and today that bounced back
in a big way. Polo made the point, and I
think I agree with him the more I thought about it.
It's defensively where this team was leaving some meat on
(28:28):
the bone. And so if you split up Red and
Steven and you start Read and you know, Stephen tries hard,
but defensively he's always going to be a little bit
limited just because he's not the most fleet of foot
those minutes with Read and Stephen together, there's a lot
of teams like Denver. We saw that in the second
half that can attack you. Well, if you split up
Read and Steven, you raise the overall defensive floor. So
(28:49):
as much as we talk about it on the offensive
end of the court, what Reed starting would mean defensively
splitting up Red and Steven. Not that either is a
full blown liability, but they they have certain difference, They
have certain areas that can be targeted, and so if
you play them together then that can make it a
little bit worse. But if you start Read and you
bring Steven off the bench, you break them up, you
(29:09):
might be raising the overall defensive ceiling of this team.
And if the defense continues to play at a near
top five level the way they have well now for
the season overall, but certainly the last few weeks, then
this stretch of the schedule, this is one where the
Rockets can go from their thirteen to four. Now, boy,
they could put together a lot of wins in a hurry.
That's the bottom line. And Dave one last shout out,
I gotta get in. The Rockets and Texans need to
(29:31):
schedule more games at the same time. We are now
two tozer for both teams in games where they both
played on Sunday afternoon. The Milwaukee game was the same
time as that insane Davis Mills come back against the
Jags a couple of weeks ago. And now the Texans
could the big win in Indie and the Rockets roll
in Utah. So we need more Sunday afternoon Mattinees where
they play at the same time, because somehow it brings
out the best in both of them.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Absolutely, that's Bendibo's in. I just say Rockets play again
the same team tomorrow night. We'll be back as they
got some guys stid in the fourth quarter. Because there's
such a blowout tonight should be good for tomorrow, even
though Adams will be out again.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That's been Domos.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Thank all of you guys for supporting us and watching us,
and we appreciate it and we will see you all
tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Thanks everybody,
Welcome into the post game.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Rockets rack up another win, one twenty nine to one
oh one in Utah. I'm here with Ben Dubos. Ben,
It's good to be back. It feels like an eternity
since we've done this again. We didn't skip the Warriors game,
which was a really great, thrilling win, a Reed Shepherd breakout.
But for this one, Rockets just crushed the Jazz from
(00:24):
pretty early on and it's just an embarrassment of riches
for the Rockets watching this game, just like there's just
a wide array of ways that this team can beat you,
and they just overwhelmed the Jazz today.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well. And one thing in the macro that I think
has been overlooked about the Rockets start to the season
going into today, they had the fourth toughest strength of
schedule and the entire NBA the rest of the way,
according to Tankeathon dead last number thirty. So whatever concerns
you had about this team, they've been playing a tougher
(00:59):
schedule than what they're to have over the final sixty
six games. Now I believe sixty five because you're thirteen
and four after today. So the Jazz are a bad team.
They're six and thirteen for a reason. Yet you're gonna
be playing some weaker teams coming up now. You haven't
had any back to backs yet, this is your first,
so we'll see how the Rockets fare tomorrow, although thankfully
there's no travel in between. And it's back to back
(01:20):
for the Jazz as well. And this week overall, you've
got five games in seven days, but largely against weaker opponents.
You've got the Jazz twice, You've got the Kings, You've
got the MAVs. So this is a part of the
schedule that you can fatten up on. And I think
that's what's gotten forgotten about this team. For as good
as this start has been, and I think they're right
on schedule with even the most optimistic of expectations going in.
(01:44):
I know you've got your spreadsheet. At the same time, look,
I don't know if there's any huge takeaways from this
game against a bad Jazz team other than as good
as Houston has looked overall, whatever nitpicks you might have
about the overall season. Like I had mentioned last week,
you know, Kevin Durant had struggled to shoot in those
last two games that he played before missing two games
(02:05):
for personal reasons. The previous two were against the Cavs
and the Nuggets, and I think he was about thirty
three percent in those two games. Well, today he led
the way twenty five points on above seventy percent shooting,
had four sis, three seals, six boards, and looked dominant.
Only had to play three quarters. So if you had
any concerns about Katie, because going in the number to
dip the tiny bit, you know, overall he was like
(02:26):
forty eight and a half percent, about thirty six and
a half percent from three to sixty one percent true shooting. Well,
all of those are going up a decent bet after today,
and I think you know it's true for KD. He's
going to face some weaker defenses and he should feast.
But I think it's true for the team as well.
As good as they've looked, they haven't had too many
easy games. It's night and tomorrow. These are easier games,
and so far, so good. The Rockets came out and
took care of business in the front end.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, absolutely excellent game for Katie in his return ten
of fourteen shooting. Reed Shepherd stays in the starting lineup,
and it's funny Reid didn't have this game where he
shot you know, ten twelve threes. I think he was
one of three from three point range, but still four
of eight from the field, had four steals, a couple
of blocks, was very very pesky on defense. I thought
(03:09):
he did a really good job there. And this is
the kind of perfect runway right now. I actually just
outlined the games that are coming up for him to
be in the starting lineup. I think we've talked about
it before. We saw it at the very beginning of
the preseason what they wanted was for Reid to start,
and then it was just kind of early on like, okay,
he's not ready. He has made such a leap. I mean,
(03:31):
I'm still obviously holding my breath a little bit, like
is this really going to continue? But he's made such
a leap in his comfort level that he looks like
he's fitting right in.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Again.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
These are our, you know, matchups that were ramping up
to the bigger names, but he's just been terrific. So
plus thirty three today. What's really ridiculous, Ben, is you
look at the raw total plus minus on the year
and Reach Shepherd's like up.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
There with shng Gun.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I think he's past now and this is two hundred
plus minutes difference, like he has put up some insane
plus minus totals. Reachepherd, he's in the top four or
five on the team. I think you got Amen Jabari,
Katie Reid, and Shan Goon and he's the guy who
hasn't played those the minutes like those guys.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah. I wrote a blog on Clutch Fans that went
live on Thanksgiving looking at some of the advanced metrics
and how favorably Reid grades out right now or at
least going into today. I haven't seen the post game update,
but box plus minus the entire league, Reid was fifth,
the only guys ahead Jokic, Sga, Giannis and Luca. Now
(04:39):
it's one metric and am I saying reads the fifth
best player in the world. Of course, not by the way,
the best American according to that metric, but I do
think it speaks to the overall impact that he makes
when he plays. The rockets are better when he's on
the floor, and in some ways I felt, really, I
don't want to say better, because thirty one and nine,
what he had the career night in San Francisco against
(05:01):
the Warriors to get that win. Obviously, that's really impressive,
but I think we all knew that Reid was capable
of popping off, that he had that in his bag. Offensively,
the big question was how he could play in a
complimentary role, because if you want to start him and
both Katie and Shingoon have it going on the way
they did tonight, there's only going to be so many touches,
(05:22):
so many shot attempts to go around. So is he
going to provide value in other areas as a ball handler,
as a facilitator, as a defender. Now, I know this
is a bad team, but I mean, to the point
we raised earlier, the Rockets are going to be playing
some bad teams coming up. You can only play who's
on your schedule. And for him to have six combined
steals and blocks tight his career high with four steals,
(05:44):
shot fifty percent overall, was in control of the offense.
He didn't shoot a lot, and yet it felt like
his fingerprints were all over this game because he was
very steady offensively, made the right reads the right passes. Defensively,
the Jazz aren't exactly the type team to punish his
lack of size the way some bigger opponents might try to,
but I mean whatever weaknesses there were, he off set
(06:07):
that and then some with the seals and the blocks
and the turnovers that he was able to force and
lead to easy buckets for the rockets. And so with Reed,
we all knew the potential. For me, it's more about
the floor what's going to happen if it's not a
game that he's able to really do a ton offensively,
at least in terms of scoring. And in some ways
(06:28):
I felt even better coming out of this one that
in a game where he wasn't super high usage, he
still had a good impact. You mentioned the plus thirty three,
which is astounding, and it led the way and I
think just the way the schedule sets up. So he
started the last three games in a row. Now, the
two prior to Katie's return were largely injury based, but
now he started tonight even with Joshua Kogie and Steven
(06:50):
Adams available, And so to me, that speaks volumes like
emay Udoka is buying in that this is something sustainable
because if they went again tomorrow, and I don't see
emay Udoka changing the lineup between games when you're playing
the same opponent, and you looked as good as the
Rockets did today. So you will have four straight games
of red starting all wins on the assumption they win tomorrow.
(07:11):
That is, they will have at that point won fourteen
of sixteen games, because they've won thirteen to fifteen now
since that zero to two start. So you're coming out
of these two games in Utah. If you handle business tomorrow,
Read will started four straight games. Potentially you've won them all.
You're rolling as a team, Read is playing well individually.
(07:32):
The schedule at least for the remainder of this week
and next week as well. Isn't that difficult on paper?
Why would you change? And so for me, like, I'm
not saying it's a permanent change. They do have a
long road trip second half of December, Like it's not
always going to be easy. But if they went again
tomorrow and Read looks solid to me, this feels like
you may may roll with this for quite a while.
(07:53):
Like I don't see what would tip them back for
the time being.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, I absolutely agree with you.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
You know, it's I talked about at the very top
of the show, just this kind of embarrassment of riches,
you know, Shangun tonight ten to fifteen, really efficient, scored
quite a bit, yet the Rockets made their runs when
he was sitting for most of the game. It was
really kind of crazy, just kind of shows you how,
you know, potent this roster is. Right now, Steven Adams
(08:23):
comes in and just had a major impact in this game.
There was a play and I'm sure everybody wi watched
the game knows what I'm talking about right now where
he had this highlight reel. Block runs the floor, KD
finds him under the basket. He turns and just throws
down this nasty jam that looks like Steven Adams from
eight ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
He just has spring in his step.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
He had twelve boards tonight, four offensive, and I think
he played just under seventeen minutes, was a plus twenty four.
This is a starting level center on just about any
team in the league. He is sacrificed, in my opinion,
quite a bit to be here. I mean, to play
this role. Obviously it's good for him with the knee
(09:05):
and everything to not have so much on him. But
he is a major impact guy that I think probably
does not get enough credit in the sense of, you know,
he's two for four from the in the box score.
Nobody really notices what he does offensively in that nature,
but it has such tremendous force for the Rockets in
getting these wins.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Well, and also shout out to the stay Ready crew
guys like Clint Capella, JD. Davis, and Jayshan Tate, because
Steven was super fresh going into this game because he
didn't play on Wednesday at Golden State. He had been
listed as questionable for a few days. I think he
was technically questionable going in today as well with that
ankle injury. But because he didn't play Wednesday and there
(09:46):
was this break in the schedule, he hadn't played in
almost a week. It was from last Monday in Phoenix
was the last time that Stephen played, and so he
looked super fresh. For KD. It was more than a week.
It was since the previous Friday that was when he
last played. So Kevin had more than a week. Steven
had almost a week. And so guys of I don't
want to say old, but let's say advanced age, the
(10:09):
guys that are well into their second decade. Kd's almost
in his third decade in the NBA, that rest over
a season any opportunity you have to get them more
fresh is really beneficial, especially since a younger team where
they can just use their savvy and basically take over
a game at a moment's notice. You know, one thing
I really liked about what the Rockets showed us tonight.
I've talked before about the importance of, you know, being
(10:31):
able to put teams way in the third quarter, and
that's what great teams do, so that you can use
the fourth quarter to sort of let your big guns rest.
Kdi didn't play it all in the fourth quarter. I
don't think Steven did as well. And there was a
little bit midway through the game where the Rockets were
up by I think as much as twenty four in
the first half. The Jazz had cut it to thirteen
early in third quarter. We talked to me and you
that it looked like the Rockets were sort of sleep
(10:52):
walking a little bit. They weren't crashing the glass as
much offensively defensively, looked a little bit lethargic, and bam,
next thing you know, nineteen to two run. They're up
thirty in the game is it's clearly over and that's
when you have guys that are accomplished as accomplished as
Kevin Durant and Steven Adams playing against a very young
team like the Utah jass it doesn't take much to
(11:13):
flip a game, and that's what we saw in the
third quarter, well, not flip, but put a game away
that had been sort of trending Utah in terms of
the momentum, and then they flipped back hard in the
direction of the Rockets and they were able to cruise
to a victory, not even having to play Katie and
Stephen in the fourth quarter. So yeah, shout out to Steven.
He was tremendous. But also that's stay ready crude deserves
(11:34):
a ton of credit because obviously despite missing five rotation players,
they got a big win at Golden State the other
night on a night when the Warriors had Steph, Jimmy
and Draymond all playing. But beyond just getting that win,
being able to get guys like Katie and Steven a
few days extra rest whenever you can be creative in
the schedule. And this may come up again in December
(11:56):
because with the NBA Cup, they're going to have these
breaks where I think they go from like between the
sixth and the eighteenth, they played just two games. So
if you can sort of combine off days with you know,
maybe a maintenance game and give guys a week break,
especially that have been you know, that have the mileage
that guys like Kevin and Stephen do, then that can
(12:18):
really pay dividends in the grand scheme. And so I
thought the Rockets managed the situation well over the last week,
and I thought they reaped the rewards today.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, you know, I listened to Emoo Doakin post game.
He had a couple of things. One he talked about
their sort of game plan to take out Lori Markin
and Count George. County George has thrived. Now I didn't
know this, but I talked about on the broadcast that
apparently Count de George had an illness. Was fight was
playing through that aspect. But when I say they shut
somebody down who has been thriving, they shut this guy
(12:47):
down zero for six from the field, Uh finished with
eight turnovers. I didn't even notice this untill I'm looking
right now.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Zero points. Yeah, in nineteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, I don't want to say it's single handedly, amen,
but you got to obviously pointed at yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
And Jabari's looked a lot better defensively as well, Like
really the collective defensive effort. The last three games, they're
holding teams to below one hundred points on average, and
the defensive rating going into today had surged just sixth. Overall,
I think it's there's a decent chance that will be
top five after today. The fourth quarter didn't help them,
but overall it should still move positively. And you know,
(13:23):
there's lots of guys across the board that we can credit,
but I thought Jabari specifically the last few weeks, he's
looked a lot more fluid defensively and how he moves
in the perimeter, and there were several possessions today. We
often talk about the work he did on his body,
showing up offensively with his ability to put the ball
on the floor. He looks a little bit more athletic
when he attacks close outs and goes to the rim.
But defensively, it feels like relative to even last year,
(13:45):
you see him holding up much better on switches, He's
moving his feet on the perimeter. And I know he
may gave some law to Jabari postgame, and I think
largely he was talking about on offense, but I think
defensively as well, Jabari's a big piece of you know,
if you switch a Mint off and you get Jabari on,
that advantage is not what it has been in previous years.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that I posted the clip.
I can't remember who it was for the Jazz that
was had the ball, but Jabbari through multiple sets sort
of was fighting through screens, around screens, defending a guy,
forced a deflection and then went the other way and
finished and that, you know, that's kind of what EMY
talked about. You know, it's funny because you and I
(14:27):
talked before the game. We talked a little bit about
what they're going to be missing with Reid starting, because
obviously a Kogi does bring some of that Dylan Brooks
physical defense. And I was thinking, well, I liked you.
I've always been a huge Jabari guy. I love Jabari.
I don't think Jabari is this physical defender like in
a Kogi or Dylan Brooks, but you can see how
much he has improved in that area, and I think
(14:49):
that was on display there and and IM really kind
of raved about him. A shout out to Vanessa for
the question, but just talked about how He's had growth
in every single area, putting the ball on the floor,
shooting both sides of the floor. His physicality is comfortable,
you know, more comfortable with his body.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, he looks terrific.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I mean he's not getting the credit because it's you know,
Katie Shangun a mens sort of overshadowing that. But I mean,
like I said, the guy is second league or excuse me,
second on the team, and I think met raiding behind
the man. He's been a big reason why the Rockets
have been successful this season.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I mean, he's averaging about fifteen points per game, shooting
forty percent from three, the perfect glue guy, playing elite defense,
or at least very good defense. I'm sure some will
try and quibble over the word elite. I was stunned
at the Ringers top one hundred lists last week that
had Tory Easton at seventy five and Jabari in the
top one hundred. I don't see how you can watch
(15:45):
this team and not come to the conclusion that Jabari
is clearly the fourth most valuable player. I don't think
it's even debatable other than on some night Stephen Adams.
But with Steven there's a little bit of a maintenance
consideration that probably caps him a little bit, belowed Shabari
when you look at the totality of eighty two games.
But I would say Jabari at worse tied with Steven
(16:07):
for the fourth most impactful player on this team. I
think that's that's pretty undeniable. Now, reach Scheffer the last
few weeks, you know, can certainly make an argument, but
we need a little bit of a longer sample with
Reed before I think we truly buy in to that extent.
And if he does, if Reed is actually truly like
a top three or top four guy on this team
this season, then you're really cooking with gas at that point.
If Reed is that level of a player alongside KD. Shingoon, Amen, Jabari,
(16:31):
and Steven, then those are wonderful concerns to have. So, yeah,
Jabari has sort of flown under the radar because he's
never the headliner. He's very steady, but he's improved the
threes from about thirty five percent the last two years
to forty percent this year. Defensively, he looks more fluid.
That shows up offensively when he's attacking the closeouts. I mean,
he's just a perfect role player. And that's before we
(16:52):
even go into you know, there were no high leverage
possessions tonight, but we've talked about it before. How many
big threes has he hit late in games that sort
of teetering that could go either way, that have brought
the Rockets back into it? Like to me, he's just
the quintessential glue guy for a contender. That's what Jabari
Smith Junior is. And you know, I don't necessarily think
we saw it today because the Rockets won with ease,
(17:13):
but we just saw, as he may said, just a
much better player overall, and to some extent that's to
be expected. Like what people forget about Jabari He's just
twenty two years old. It's your four, but he's still
one of the youngest guys on this entire team in
terms of raw age because of how young he was
coming out of Auburn entering that twenty two draft class.
So for him to do what he's doing on a
winning team at twenty two is just phenomenal. And the
(17:36):
contract that Rafelstone and the Rockets got him on for
five years after this one, I mean, I think if
you're in the business of buying Rockets jerseys, Javari Smith
might be one of the safest ones to buy because
between his value to the team and so many different constructs,
he's not high usage. Between the friendly terms the contract,
(17:57):
dave I got a feel, and he's gonna be in
Houston for a long time.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So someone once said, if we ever traded Jabari, we
would be looking for somebody like Jabari. I mean, like
he is, his height, his ability to shoot, his ability
to defend it. It's more rare than I think people realize.
And he's comfortable playing complimentary role. I'm just I'm ecstatic
with how he's developing now. I thought it was a
(18:21):
little bit slow for you know, a couple of years,
but I think Jabari has become an extremely important player
for this team, you know, a man. We talked about
the defense and it was as always really good tonight,
just too of eight from the field. Missed some shots
that you're like, ah, you know, as he tends to
do at times where you're like, man, that was a
billion dollar move and then just you know, a ten
(18:43):
dollars finished kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It really just didn't quite pan out. But nine assist
and I was kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
You know, very comfortable on ball. Eight boards does all.
You know, he always brings the defense. I'm just ecstatic
and I think we're talking about like how different this
team is. I mean, look at it, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Alprin, Shnghoun,
Amn Thompson, Reed Shepherd. That is really there's not a
whole lot of overlap there. I mean they can score
(19:10):
in a variety of ways. He double one and another
one can really burn you. It's you know, again, tip
my hat to rafel Stone for building this because now
you've got guys Toari's not even here yet, Tarry Adams
coming off the bench, dfs.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Eventually you got a kogie who's contributing. This is a
really good team.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And it's starting to shape up to be kind of
similar to ten years ago, eight years ago, whatever it was,
to where you know, Okac is our golden state now
and we've got to figure out how we can compete
with this team. But the Rockets are in a tier below,
but they are really good and now it's a matter
of what adjustments can you make to knock off Okay see.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Well, and I think read to men long term have
a ton of potential starting next to one another because
I think those are two very complimentary players. It often
gets talked about in terms of ball handling because people
are nervous. There's been the whole question of is a
a full blown point guard. I don't know what the
answer is to that, but he at least has some
point guard abilities which allows you to run Reed Shepherd
(20:08):
off the ball a little bit, which can be really valuable.
Obviously there's valued him as a floor spacer, but also
just the movement, Like Reed works very hard off the ball,
and so he brings some gravity there that you can
tap into when you let a men handle the ball.
And conversely, if it's a matchup where you need a
little bit more ball handling and you want a men
to play out of that dunker slot, then you can
(20:29):
let Red initiate the offense. So you can sort of
let them go back and forth. The big question where
the men is the shooting. Well, Reed's got the shooting
in spades, And with Reid the big question is defense. Well,
a men's got the defense in spades. So I think
those two, as long as they can figure out how
to be comfortable in the touches they get, you know,
with Red it's still going to be to be determined.
(20:49):
He can't be as high usage, at least not consistently
in the starting lineup to the extent that he was
when he was in that sixth man role. But so far,
so good. He looked really promising today. I thought the
plus thirty three doesn't lie. And then yeah, and the
big picture are like Reid and the men have a
lot of complimentary skills. I think they can mitigate the
weakness of the other, or at least the perceived weakness,
And so yeah, just the way all of these pieces
(21:12):
fit together, like we've talked about it the last couple
of years about Shanngoon and Jabbari theoretically fit very well
together because the weaknesses of one are sort of the
strengths of the other. When you look at how they
fit together on the front line. Well, I think there's
some of those same traits in reading the men. So
not only have the Rockets drafted well and they have
all these promising young pieces, and now you have Kevin
Durant as the straw that sort of stirs the drink,
(21:32):
the tip of the sphere of scorer. But now you
have these young players whose games sort of perfectly balance
off each other. To me, that just speaks to you know,
obviously it's good foresight in terms of how they drafted.
I don't know if it's all that, because Rafeli will
tell you they go BPA, but whatever reason, it has
worked out that way. And certainly Imo Udoka as a
coach that knows how to make it all work together.
(21:53):
And so I know it's only one game. Well, no reading,
the men did start in the Suns and Warriors games
as well, three games of them starting together, and so far,
so good. I like the way they play off of
each other.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, you know, it's it's been an interesting, you know, discussion.
As far as a man being a point guard. I
don't think he is a point guard, but in today's NBA,
it's more of a primary or engine type of construct.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Can he be that?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And I think he.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Can be that. I think he's starting to show that
he can be that.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You know, there's certainly things that he needs to clean up,
but I agree that the combo or the balance between
him and Read out there where they both can do
some of that creation and ball handling. I mean, it's
just impressive. I'm amazed and watching Read. You know, we
didn't get to talk about the Golden State game, but
that the way he played in that game where.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
He was so confident.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
This is in you know, at playing at Golden State,
a very tough place to play against a very veteran
team that knows how to win, and he was so
just confident. The balance between those two, in my opinion,
I think you've found your back and I'm very excited.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And yeah, I don't know if it's going to mean
a little.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Less shen hub shn Gun is always going to be
there as a playmaker for sure. I don't know if
that's going to necessarily be your primary, but you've got
between the three of those guys a lot of playmaking now.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, And I thought the biggest thing that we saw
in San Francisco was Reid wanted the stage. He wanted
the moment, and I think that's so big with a
young player. You know, this was for Reed in particular,
one of the first Spotlight games where he was thrust
into a starring role as the starter at point guard,
facing off against Steph Curry for a Rockets team that
was missing five rotation players if you count fredvan Fleet,
(23:38):
and so he had no choice but to let it fly.
He put up twenty five shots, and he made twelve
with them, including four threes, and several of them were
at high leverage moments in the second half. So the
way that he shined on that stage, I agree with you,
it means something. And then you know, the one concern
you have when you start Reid. I had seen some
people talking about, well, if Reid isn't the sixth man,
(23:59):
who is who's going to anchor those bench units? And
you know, it's not as cut and dry as saying, well,
here's the first unit, here's the second unit, because there
is some staggering that goes on, and we hope, you know,
two or three weeks from now, Charry Easton's going to
be back. But in the interim, Steven Adams is a
machine on the offensive glass. So even if you worry
a little bit about how well if your primary reserves
are Aaron Holliday, Josh Shakogi. Now to Aaron's credit, he
(24:22):
has shot really well the last couple of weeks, but
do they have enough firepower off that bench? Well, the
thing is, if they're playing minutes with Steven Adams, you're
probably going to get and you're going up against backups
largely from the other team. You're going to get so
many shot attempts. And Stephen, you know, we talked to
him earlier. He made nine of ten free throws. So
one of the big concerns with Steven in previous years,
(24:44):
can other teams just hack him, Like when he's attacking
the glass and the rockets are over the limit? Will
they just grab him and he's going to make one
of two free throws at most. That's not the case
this year, so that is not really an option for
other teams. And so when Steven can just crush the
op glass and teams are reluctant to foul him because
he's making free throws now, then even those second units
(25:07):
without Reid, you're still going to be okay offensively because
you have Steven in that offensive rebounding presence. I mean,
we'll see tomorrow it's night to back to back, but
by and large, Stephen is sort of an I don't
want to say an offensive hub, but he's an offensive
stimulus when he's out there, And so that might allow
you to play read with the starters and get away
with it.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, so you highlighted would be a bore close You
talked about what's coming up. I'm really the next five
games the Rockets should win. The Sun's probably probably the
toughest when in there. The Clippers are very hard to
figure out. But you got tomorrow, second game of a
back to back in Utah. Rockets will stay in Salt
Lake City tonight, play the Jazz again tomorrow night. I
can't imagine Kante George will have the same game, but
(25:49):
I still expect the Rockets to win that. Then to
come home play the Kings. Stay home to play the Suns.
That was supposed to be Jalen Green's return.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
If will be Dylan Brooks's return and.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
He's going to be some far there, yeah, no question.
Then you go on the road to play the Mavericks.
They're you know, maybe a little bit better lately, but
still you should win that game. And then you come
home to face the Clippers, which should have been a
tough game, but the way the Clippers are playing by
the way side note, I'm absolutely terrified that the Clippers
are going to keep playing this way and that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Pick is going to go to Okay see, and if
they get a top three pick, I'm just gonna lose it.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
But you know, the next five Rockets should win, you know,
knock on wood there, but then you come home, excuse me,
you stay home to or no, you go to Denver
to play the Nuggets on December fifteenth.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
So next five look really good.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Rockets currently thirteen and four should come out of this
eighteen and four. But again, I don't want to claim
any wins still happens. I'm just saying the next five
look really good.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, absolutely, And I'm curious to see if they can
keep up the defensive intensity because for me, that's been
so rewarding to see. Over the last week. I mentioned
going into today they were up to number six overall
on defense. The last three games are holding teams on
average to below one hundred points. I hate that the
Jazz technically exceeded a hundred points because somebody threw in
that garbage three basically at the buzzer, and I was like,
(27:04):
come on, they're technically at one on one. But know
the average of the last three still below one hundred.
And if you play with that level of defensive intensity
and you have the high end talent offensively that the
Rockets have, you're going to be fine against almost everyone
that you play, and against weaker teams. You should be
able to just run them out of the gym the
way the Rockets did tonight. And so that's been a
big question. To start the year, we talked about the
(27:25):
identity shifting. They were top to number one for a
stretch offensively, but they were giving a lot back defensively
relative to last year and they were top five. Well,
now the defense has come back almost to top five
and the offense is still top two. So will that
sustain itself as the schedule eases up. That's a big
question because it's easy to sort of take your foot
off the gas when you're playing weaker teams, like everybody
(27:46):
when you're playing murderers row like, it felt like the
Rockets were early in the year to bring your best effort.
You know, will the Rockets on night tub of a
back to back in Salt Lake City playing the Kings,
playing the Suns the MAVs, will they have that same
level of intensity If they do, Yeah, this team should
be just fine. And you know, one little thing that
I'm keeping my eye on. When I did my last
(28:07):
Rockets launch pod with Palo Alves, I talked about, you know,
where's the low hanging fruit? Where can this team improve
relative to the start of this season, and you know,
I talked about, you know, Katie specifically the shooting numbers
being a little bit down, and today that bounced back
in a big way. Polo made the point, and I
think I agree with him the more I thought about it.
It's defensively where this team was leaving some meat on
(28:28):
the bone. And so if you split up Red and
Steven and you start Read and you know, Stephen tries hard,
but defensively he's always going to be a little bit
limited just because he's not the most fleet of foot
those minutes with Read and Stephen together, there's a lot
of teams like Denver. We saw that in the second
half that can attack you. Well, if you split up
Read and Steven, you raise the overall defensive floor. So
(28:49):
as much as we talk about it on the offensive
end of the court, what Reed starting would mean defensively
splitting up Red and Steven. Not that either is a
full blown liability, but they they have certain difference, They
have certain areas that can be targeted, and so if
you play them together then that can make it a
little bit worse. But if you start Read and you
bring Steven off the bench, you break them up, you
(29:09):
might be raising the overall defensive ceiling of this team.
And if the defense continues to play at a near
top five level the way they have well now for
the season overall, but certainly the last few weeks, then
this stretch of the schedule, this is one where the
Rockets can go from their thirteen to four. Now, boy,
they could put together a lot of wins in a hurry.
That's the bottom line. And Dave one last shout out,
I gotta get in. The Rockets and Texans need to
(29:31):
schedule more games at the same time. We are now
two tozer for both teams in games where they both
played on Sunday afternoon. The Milwaukee game was the same
time as that insane Davis Mills come back against the
Jags a couple of weeks ago. And now the Texans
could the big win in Indie and the Rockets roll
in Utah. So we need more Sunday afternoon Mattinees where
they play at the same time, because somehow it brings
out the best in both of them.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Absolutely, that's Bendibo's in. I just say Rockets play again
the same team tomorrow night. We'll be back as they
got some guys stid in the fourth quarter. Because there's
such a blowout tonight should be good for tomorrow, even
though Adams will be out again.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That's been Domos.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Thank all of you guys for supporting us and watching us,
and we appreciate it and we will see you all
tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Thanks everybody,
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