May 5, 2025 • 45 mins
After fighting back from a 3-1 deficit to tie their first-round series against the Warriors, the Rockets’ 2025 playoff run is over after a home loss in Game 7.
In the aftermath of a dreadful showing on offense (74 points in the first 45+ minutes), Monday’s show features reaction by our Ben DuBose to what went wrong against Golden State. Topics include the reasons for inefficient showings by Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun; the spacing limitations of “double big” lineups (Steven Adams and Sengun) when used with Amen Thompson; and a few positives to take out of the near-comeback, starting with Thompson and Fred VanVleet.
In the aftermath of a dreadful showing on offense (74 points in the first 45+ minutes), Monday’s show features reaction by our Ben DuBose to what went wrong against Golden State. Topics include the reasons for inefficient showings by Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun; the spacing limitations of “double big” lineups (Steven Adams and Sengun) when used with Amen Thompson; and a few positives to take out of the near-comeback, starting with Thompson and Fred VanVleet.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Cheers, Rockets fans, Welcome to The Logger Line, an exclusive
podcast from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Seven ninety The Logger Line.
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Speaker 1 (00:26):
The Logger Line starts now. Welcome aboard.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Bendubo's here.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Welcome into a mini cast episode of The Logger Line,
sponsored by a Carbock Brewing. It's Monday, May fifth, and unfortunately,
the Rockets twenty twenty five playoff run is now over.
Rockets lost a home Game seven to the Warriors on
Sunday night one O three to eighty nine, and so
Golden State ends up taking the series four games to three.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The Warriors will move on to play.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round starting Tuesday night.
So this is just going to be a quick hitting
episode recapping what happened in Game seven and really down
the home stretch of that series. In terms of bigger
picture implications, what it means for the off season, what
should the Rockets do with some of their players that
are at key inflection points, be it with their contracts
(01:21):
or with their careers. We'll do a full episode later
in the week with Palo al as my usual co host,
diving into some of those storylines. Also on Tuesday, at
Toyota Center, Rockets journal manager rafel Stone and head coach
Imo Rudoka they're going to meet with the media in
their standard exit interviews, if you will, and address some
of the key questions entering the off season. And so
(01:44):
after they speak, we'll have a bit more intel as
far as what the Rockets are thinking, or at least
what they want us to think they're thinking heading into
the off season, and thus we can analyze with a
bit more depth or at least more perspective from the
decision makers inside the building. This is going to be
immediate reactionary takes in the aftermath of a tough night
(02:06):
at Toyota Center.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I don't want to minimize it.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Losing to Steph Courage, Raymond Green, Steve Kerr and the
Warriors for a fifth time in under ten years, and
a third time to have your season end in under
seven years with a home loss to the Warriors at
Toyota Center, it's tough. And to see the optimism that
was in the air throughout Sunday after rallying back from
(02:29):
down three to one to tie the series at three.
That crowd to start the game was as loud as
I've ever heard it at Toyota Center to see the
revival of Houston Rockets basketball. And then, as Emay said
after the game, to lay an egg the way the
Rockets did to score just seventy four points in the
first almost forty six minutes of that game. Really they
(02:50):
had nothing until garbage time to.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Go from that high to that low.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Even if in the macro is understandable the Rockets are
or schedule fifty two to thirty, number two seed in
the West, even if they lose in the first round,
it was a hard fought series. They went seven games,
they won a road elimination game six. There's lots of
positives you can take away in the macro, and as
we get more distance from the actual game seven loss,
(03:18):
I think it'll be easier to look at the positives
of this season and even this seven game series over
the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
But for right.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Now to lose to the hated Warriors again, it really stings,
especially because I said on this pod last week, I
didn't know if the Rockets would be able to get
it to a Game seven in Houston after they fell
behind three to one. But I said, if the Rockets
got it back, I thought they'd be able to finish
the job. They did get it back, and then they
couldn't finish the job, and honestly, they weren't even close
(03:48):
really ever since that Buddy Healed explosion early in the
second quarter pushed it to double digits. The Rockets did
have one run in the third quarter where they got
it to three, but it felt like they had to
empty the tank to get it there, and as soon
as the Warriors pushed it back to double digits early
in the fourth quarter, it never really felt like there
was a point where the Rockets had a realistic chance
down the stretch of that game. Bottom Line, they just
(04:10):
did not have enough offense, and that was the theme
of the team for this season. They were a top
five defense the entire year. Offensively, they were middle of
the pack, and them being middle of the pack and
offensive rating was largely because of their ability to crash
the offensive class.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
In terms of true half court execution. What happened when.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
They were trying to draw up a play to generate
a good look, It was even worse than that. It
was bottom ten in the league. Their middle of the
pack offensive rating was based on how good they were
at crashing the glass and also getting out in transition
and using their athletes like a Men Thompson, like Jalen Green,
like Charlie Easton to get them some easier buckets. When
(04:51):
it is a half court game, which tends to happen
in the playoffs, it's a struggle for this team at times,
not all the time, but in a sport where you
have to win four times out of seven, you're prone
to one or two of these sinkers. And I suppose
we should have seen it coming now. I think the
Warriors caught a little bit of a break and that
(05:12):
without Gary Payton, the second who missed the game due
to illness, it forced Steve Kurr to lean more into
shooters like Buddy Heel, and so with Buddy coming out
of the gates hot, the Warriors were able to play
from in front, and with them having that advantage for
nearly the entirety of Game seven, it allowed the Warriors
(05:33):
to really squeeze the Rockets on the offensive end of
the court, Houston's offensive end, that is in that it
felt similar to Game one, which was also a slog
at tutusoner that the Rockets lost, but in that one,
all pro in Shrangoon was at least making a majority
of the one on one opportunities that he had against
(05:54):
Draymond Green.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I talked about if you go back.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
In our archives, the Warriors some what strategically leaving Shin
Gooon in single coverage and the big night he had
in Game one where I believe he had twenty six
points on eleven of eighteen shooting. Kudos to alp for
making those shots, but strategically the Warriors were okay with
playing with the tradeoff of Houston getting twos while Steph
(06:19):
and Golden State's shooters got threes.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
In Game seven, it was pretty much the same formula,
except Shin Gooon didn't even make the twos. He was
nine of twenty three, and a couple of those makes
came in garbage time in the last two minutes when
the game had already been decided. From Game two onward,
Alpha and Shinoon's true shooting percentage was about forty six
and a half from Game two onward the last six
games of this series. That's even lower than the forty
(06:44):
eight percent that Jalen Green shot, although if you take
away Game two for Jalen Green, that thirty eight point explosion,
I think he'd be at forty five or forty six
percent as well. So the bottom line is, with one
exception for both players.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Your top two scorers for the season.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
As a whole, Jalen Green and All Frenchhangon were extremely
inefficient in this series, and there were different reasons for
both players. With Jalen, the Warriors really focused, and Draymond
said this specifically after Game seven. They knew what the
Rockets could be when Jalen was at its best, so
(07:23):
they focused throughout the series on blitzing him and basically
making it as difficult as possible for Jalen Green not
to be able to beat them.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That was the emphasis from Steve Kerr.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
And even when Fred Benfleet really got hot from his
game game four through game six, it didn't change that much.
They committed a few more resources to Fred, but it
was still a Jalen first defensive game plan. And so
that's not to give Jalen a pass, absolutely not, because
if it's as simple as oh, any defense can just
blitz the top perimeter player and take them out of
(07:56):
the game. Well, then the Rockets wouldn't have to worry
about Steph going off.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
In this series. The Rockets had and have as.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Many athletic wing defenders as any team in the league.
It's not like they're super worried about guys like Moses
Moody and Quenton Post and Gary Payton the second so
you can shade help. And yet Steph is still throughout
this series. You know, it wasn't peak Staff, but he
was still pretty damn good. His true shooting percentage was
above sixty three. By the way, if it was as
(08:26):
easy to just take a top perimeter guy out of
the game as just blitzing him, then.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That would happen all the time in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
It doesn't, so I mentioned the context of the Warriors
committing those extra resources to Jalen to explain how it happened.
That's not to say that it's okay, and you know
some of it's on Jalen. He simply needs to be better.
He needs to develop some counters. I think specifically in
Game seven, it was maddening seeing him take the James
(08:55):
Harden threes and layups approach, and I guess free throws
as well, without being nearly as fluid or crafty as
James Harden in any of those areas, and that he's
not as good at drawing fouls, He's not as strong
when it comes to finishing near the rim, doesn't have
as much touch, and he's an okay shooter, but he's
certainly not an elite one. So if the game starts
(09:17):
off and he misses a couple of threes, he's going
to get a little bit tentative when it comes to
those step backs. Not like his footwork is quite as
polished as James's was either. Personally, what I would love
to see Jalen work on this offseason is the mid
range game, because it felt like he was very predictable
as the series progressed.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
He would take a couple of threes earlier in games.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
And if it didn't work out, he was hell bent
on going to the rim, and so you would see
Draymond Green and Cavon Looney just go vertical. Sure they
might foul him a little bit, but they know in
the playoffs those are less likely to get called.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
And people look at Jalen.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It's not entirely fair, but this is the reality is
being a little bit slender and likely to get bumped
off his spots easily than a standard shooting guard. Anyway,
on those drives, and one thing leads to another and
he's on the ground trying to get a call, it
doesn't go his way, and then the other team has
a five on four runout, And all of that's because
(10:13):
there's just.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
A one track mind.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It feels like when Jalen passes up that three, if
he doesn't take the three, he's gonna go straight to
the rim.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
And there's not a ton of craft.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
But I think more than that, he doesn't make defenders
respect enough spaces on the court. They know that he's
not going to pull from those in between areas. And
if he's playing alongside, which he usually is, at least
two if not three non spacers because the starting lineup
(10:46):
has Alper Eenchion Goon and a Men Thompson. Those are
not shooters and oftentimes you'd have Jalen playing with the
men and the double big lineup featuring Alpher, Echion Goon
and Steven Adams. Then and that if Jalen's not commanding
space on his drives or making defenders potentially account for
(11:06):
more space on the floor, and other guys are very
limited and where they can shoot from. All of a sudden,
your offense can bog down because it is very, very predictable,
and I think that's what happened with Jalen Green. And
of course the Warriors are willing and able to send
a little bit of help off those other non shooters,
because especially if you're playing two or three of them
(11:27):
at once, then there's just not enough space to pull
them away from those help areas. And so again, none
of this is to say that it's an excuse for Jalen.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
He needs to.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Develop counters or the Rockets, and I guess it can
be both of these things. The Rockets can also strategically
do some different things on their end in terms of
how they structure their offense when they get going, who
they play Jalen with.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
There's lots of options here.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I'm just presenting the context to explain what I think
happened in a series where let's be blunt. For the
year as a whole, was your leading scorer at twenty
one points per game on not great efficiency, but okay,
this series he scored below fifteen per game, even with
a thirty eight point Game two. He still was below
fifteen points per game for the series, and his true
(12:15):
shooting percentage was forty eight, and that's factoring in the
thirty eight point Game two just unacceptably bad.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And then with all brin Shanoon.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Look, I think the Warriors, it certainly helps that they
have a generational defender Andrey Mungreen, who is just a
perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate, And especially in
Game seven, I think.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
There was a little bit of a loose whistle, which
tends to happen in these spots.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
And so with the twos versus threes conundrum, and I
think especially with the Warriors getting off to that fast
start in Game seven, with Buddy Heel leveling the Rockets
with that early haymaker, I think that made the Warriors
all the more comfortable to just leave all for in
(13:02):
Shangoon at least for a while in single coverage.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And if they're getting threes while.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Shangoon makes a couple of contested twos, you live with it.
And in this case, it was even worse than Game
one in that the Warriors were getting some threes on
their end, but Shangoon wasn't even making the one on
one opportunities against Raymond, And say what you will, maybe
some of those were fouls, but it's game seven.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You got to anticipate that.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And to Shangoon's credit, he said after the season or
after the game that this season was below his standard offensively,
and it was. His shooting percentage tumbled from about fifty
four percent last year to forty nine and a half
percent this year. His true shooting percentage was a little
over fifty four, one of the lowest in the NBA
for a high usage center. I'm not panicking because we've
(13:51):
seen Shinoon be better as recently as last year. So
beyond the fact that both of these guys are still
relatively young twenty three years old the end of their
fourth seasons, they're getting closer to their peak, but you're
not at a point where either is close to the
end of their development cycles. It's not time to panic yet.
At the same time, when we see and we know
(14:14):
that both of these guys are capable of better, we
can call a spade a spade and say they underachieved
in this series. And yes, I know Shangoon still led
you in most of the counting stats for this series,
like points, rebounds, assists, those types of things, and you know,
relative to Jalen, he was the more valuable player in
large part because he's got more tools, and credit to Shangoon,
(14:37):
he moved really well defensively in this series. The double
big works because Shangoon was able to defend in space.
So let's not act like it was all bad. There's
a reason why you were in game seven in the
first place. There's a reason why for the series. I
think the teams ended up tied at seven hundred and
twenty eight points a piece. This was extremely competitive. You
(15:00):
don't do that if anybody is a complete zero. And
with Shingun in particular, the counting stats reflect the fact
that he was the guy amongst the starters who well
has some advantage simply because of his size, but also
played the most minutes because, in contrast to Jalen Shinangoon,
with his size, his at least theoretical finishing ability is
(15:23):
rebounding a little bit of playmaking depending on the game,
there was always at least some value that you could
extract from having him out there, and so because of that,
he led you in most statistical categories. With that said,
the efficiency can tell the story when it comes to
a production relative to let's say potential, and I think
(15:43):
the best way to put it is that he underachieved
and so did Jalen, and Shingun was still you know,
he was less of a problem than Jalen in the
sense that Shingun was a more valuable player in this series.
But that's because he's starting from a higher baseline. There's
a reason why all for In Shangun was an All
Star and Jalen was not. In terms of the series overall,
(16:04):
the Warriors, it's not so much that they thought Jalen
was better than Shingoon. They just looked at Jalen and
we've said this before on the pod as the most
important variable for this Rockets team that if the Rockets
couldn't get peaked Jalen, they wouldn't have the ability offensively
to win four games out of seven.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And ultimately they were right.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
It was the right bet, especially if they are generating
quality threes on offense and all per In Shangoon is
largely taken twos. That's a math bet that Steve Kerr
was willing to make and turns out right to make
so you tip your hat. It sucks, but it was
a good game plan and it worked, and so I
guess for me, I come out of this while certainly.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Annoyed to lose to the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Again and a little bit surprised again seeing how the
Rockets dominated at home from about the midpoint of the
third quarter of Game one and then all all of
Game two. In Game five, I really thought if it
got back to Houston that they'd be able to grind
it out. But when you really think about it, this
(17:10):
had plagued this team in high leverage spots all year,
which is what Game seven is. Those games tend to
be low scoring, everybody's dialed in, there's lots of nerves,
Officials let so much go and when the games get
in the mud. We saw it down the stretch of
close games all year. We have talked about how much
of a struggle it was, especially in the half court
(17:30):
laid in close games. I think back to the NBA
Cup run in December, which was a great learning experience
for this team, but when the really impactful games came,
the Rockets struggled to generate offense. If you recall they
won their group with that win at Minnesota, they had
(17:51):
an eighteen point lead and the Timberwolves just blitz them
in the second half. Now, the Rockets ended up winning
because the Timberwolves was one of those games expended so
much energy to come back from eighteen down that they
couldn't finish the job, and the Rockets won in overtime.
They had a little bit more in the tank, but
the Rockets could not generate offense when the Timberwolves were
making their run. And then the two games in December,
(18:13):
the quarterfinal game against the Warrior, sure was great that
the Rockets won. The final was ninety one ninety and
you got a coin flip call to go your way
with under five seconds left. You couldn't generate offense against
the same Golden State defense.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And then the loss to OKC in Las Vegas. It
was just a rock fight.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
It was brutal to watch this offense and the defense
kept the minute. But eventually in the fourth quarter, Shay
made a few shots and the thunder were able to
get separation, and ultimately the same dynamic played out in
Game seven, and I guess the Well, one other thing
I want to say, relative to Game one, it's fair
(18:52):
to wonder why were the Rockets close in Game seven,
cut it to as little as three laid in the
first or late in the third quarter, and never trailed
by twenty until clearly everything was off the rails in
the last five six minutes of the fourth quarter relative
to Game one, where they were down twenty three points
(19:13):
midway through the third quarter, and ultimately that proved too
much to overcome. I think it's because in Game seven
the Rockets were so dialed in defensively.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
They did get.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Better as the series progressed, and Fred van Fleet in
particular got better. They were a much higher floor version
than what we saw in Game one the Warriors at
the end of the third quarter, when the Rockets cut
it to sixty three to sixty, with I think two
or three minutes left, they had just sixty three points.
The Rockets found some things in that series that worked defensively,
(19:44):
and in the Game seven, you're going to be dialed in.
Every possession matters, even relative to games early in a
playoff series. In Game one, there was a little bit
of nerves, there was an experience, there was rust having
not played a competitive game in two weeks, and so
that's why even with Shangoon making the shots he didn't make.
(20:04):
In Game seven, the Rockets still fell behind twenty plus points,
as opposed to Game seven, where they were just close
enough to stay at arm's length. But what ended up
being the difference here. While the defense did enough in
Game seven to keep the Rockets theoretically in the game,
the offense didn't even have the gear that it had
(20:26):
in Game one. And so even if Game one was
uglier from a score perspective in the first two and
a half quarters, I think Game seven might have been
a little bit uglier overall in that it just felt
like there was zero formula for the Rockets to actually
win that game in the fourth quarter, because at least
(20:48):
in Game one, you could point to the success shng
Goon had in one on one situations and stream on
it and say, hey, if they can get back into
the game, make it close. Here's something that you can
do down the stretch of this game to land the plane.
In Game seven, there was nothing, and so even when
the Rockets were loosely competitive, it was a struggle at
(21:10):
least for me to come up with a roadmap that
would have them winning that game. And so I bring
up all of that context to say, I took a
little bit of peace out of the way they lost
Game seven, and that for me, it was just a
flashing red sign that said you're not good enough.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And if the Rockets, it's not.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Impossible that with a little bit better luck, maybe Buddy
Heel doesn't have that outlier shooting stretch in the first half.
With a little bit better luck, maybe Shingoon makes his bunnies.
You could have grinded out Game seven against a pretty
flawed Warriors team like they deserve to win. But let's
be clear, a team playing Moses Moody, Gary Payton, the
second Quinton post extended minutes, I have a tough time
(21:54):
seeing them do a lot of damage against the Minnesota
Timberwolves or anybody else in the playoffs for that matter.
This was a flaw of team, and yet the Rockets
just were not good enough and did not deserve to win.
And in contrast to a lot of recent Rockets' playoff flameouts,
if you will, certainly to twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen
series against the Warriors, and I know that's different because
(22:16):
that's a veteran led team near the end of their cycle.
This is a young team on the upswing, but there
was always that outlier, be it with the shooting, the
over twenty seven stretch, the officiating. There was always just
a few things or a pivotal moment here or there
that you could point to, and it made it difficult
to swallow because you say, at least I do man,
(22:39):
if only that had gone different, the entire result could flip.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
This wasn't that.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
This was honestly what we saw throughout the season, which
is that they are prone to clunkers. It might not
happen every game, but it does catch up with them.
And because of that, it's going to be really tough
to beat a good playoff opponent four times at a seven,
especially if the other team, and this would have been
the case in the Minnesota matchup, has a rest advantage.
(23:07):
So what I have loved to have seen the Rockets
speak the Warriors, of course, it would have been amazing,
But I really don't think that this was otherwise a
year that they were going to make serious noise. If
you have these limitations offensively, if you are prone in
a game where you are unloading the kitchen sink and
you're at seventy four points with two minutes and fifteen
(23:30):
seconds left. You're just not good enough, especially because we
have seen this from time to time all season long.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
This is nothing new.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
It might not happen every game, but in a sport
where you've got to win four times out of seven,
it happened enough to where it's damning, especially because in
contrast to the shooting outlier of twenty eighteen, this was
the opposite. They were three of fourteen on threes with
barely over two minutes left in that game. For the game,
the Warriors made eighteen threes to six for the Rockets,
(24:00):
but at the six for the Rockets, three came in
garbage time. They were three or fourteen with barely over
two minutes left. That is ridiculous, And yet I can't
tell you how they clearly could have gotten more without
substantively changing the personnel. Yet to do that you'd have
to be turning away from the lineups that got you
(24:20):
back in the series, with Steven Adams and the double
Big and a Men Thompson who was great in the
second half of this series. I just don't know what
the Rockets could have realistically done with the personnel that
had gotten them to Game seven. I mean, they were
playing three non spacers in Shongoon, Adams and and men
Thompson together for extended stretches of that game, So I'm
(24:43):
really not sure what they were supposed to do, especially
if Shangoon isn't making the two so the gravity isn't
going to be there.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
If not only do the Warriors have the math advantage,
but Shinngoon isn't making the most.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Of his one on one opportunities, and the Warriors are
winning the game, so they're playing from in front. They
just squeezed the life out of that offense, and I'm
not really sure what the Rockets could have done differently.
And I want to be clear when I say this,
Steven Adams was incredible down the home stretch of this year,
and I do hope they resign him. They'll have bird
(25:16):
rights this offseason. But in a lot of ways he
was a band aid for this team. They weren't planning
on playing him as many minutes as they ultimately did.
There's a reason why, more than halfway into the year
they had not even tried the double big. This was
no masterclass in coaching where Ima Rudoka was just waiting
(25:39):
until a few weeks before the playoffs to reveal this
secret strategy that nobody in the league would be able
to adapt to. No, it's more that well, certainly there
re few injuries that contributed to it. It was a
desperation strategy from a team that knew it wasn't good
enough as is, so they leaned even more into rebounding,
(26:03):
especially on the offensive side of the ball, to overcome
their lack of creation, their lack of shooting, just their
lack of scoring.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Let's be blunt.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
If you can't make enough shots, get enough opportunities to
where eventually you're bound to make a few or you
get fouled.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
That's the strategy.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
But it's important to remember how the Rockets got into
that strategy. And this is not a shot at Steven.
He's still very important even if he's a traditional backup center.
He's a really, really good one behind Alph echin Goon
and it gives you the optionality to play in different ways,
the screening, the rebounding, the passing. He's a very good
player and it would be a loss if the Rockets
aren't able to retain him. More on that in our
(26:45):
Bigger picture pod later in the week, But in terms
of Game seven, and the playoffs. This was not some
masterclass in which the Rockets thought they had some sort
of secret weapon and were just waiting for when to
deploy it. No, they were desperate. That's what it came
down to. They didn't think this was their best move.
(27:05):
It's just everything else wasn't working. And to Steven Adams credit,
it did work pretty well for a while. But I
just think, especially in the modern NBA, it's going to
catch up with you if you are playing three non
spacers out of your five players, and with the Men
being basically the focal point of this team. And by
(27:29):
the way, a Men was spectacular in Game seven. If
you want to talk positively, I think a Men doing
what he did down the home strutch of the series
from Game four through Game seven about twenty points, eight rebounds,
two and a half steals per game, fantastic defense, doing
more on ball as the series progressed.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
It validates Miyan.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
The Rockets think he is their best player already and
not far from being a legitimate star in the NBA,
maybe even a superstar down the line. They are building
around him and they should. He is a special player.
And really, I think people say that the start to
the series was bad. It was, but you almost have
to throw Game two out for Men because we remember
(28:10):
how it went down.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
He had six quick.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Points early in that game and it was actually looking
good for him, and then some really bizarre fouls took
him out in the first half, including the third where
Draymond and Steven Adams bumped him into or forced him
to go to the ground.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
He undercut Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
That's what led to the pelvis contusion, and that was
the third and third found in the first quarter. It
takes you out for ended up being the half, I believe,
and then by the time he came back, the Rockets
are up by fifteen to twenty points. Obviously not gonna
want to take the team out of the flow, go
away from what's working in that game. It was Jalen Green,
and so people sort of had this narrative of a
Men being bad through the first three games.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Not exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
He was bad in game one, certainly in Game three,
the first road game at San Francisco. There were a
lot of guys in the Rockets who struggled in that environment,
but Game two was an outlier. He quite frankly to me,
by the eye test looked like he was going to
have a big night and circumstances changed that.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
And then from Game four onward he was very, very good.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
But one of the limitations if that's your best player
and he's limited and where he can shoot from, and
you also have two other guys who are very limited
in their range in Shingoon and Adams and Jalen Green
gets very predictable in terms of how he attacks and
the minutes that he's out there. Dylan Brooks, by the way,
you know, he had a big Game five, but I
thought he was disappointed in Game seven. He had some
(29:32):
lapses defensively off ball against Buddy Heel in the first
half and shooting wise just three of nine oh of
three from three. A couple of those looks were pretty open.
There just wasn't enough spacing to function. And with all
the IQ in the world, and Steven Adams and all
par in Shangoon are both very intelligent individuals, it's hard
to overcome in a winner take all game where every
(29:55):
possession means the world and everybody is dialed in the
fact that three A players just aren't respected beyond eight
ten feet. There's only so many things you can do.
It's not a failure of coaching. It's not strategy. It's
just the limitations. And that's why, in large part, the
Rockets didn't want to run these lineups. That's why they
(30:18):
didn't try to do it when the season started. That's
why they weren't trying it in training camp. You'd implement
that from the start if that's something you really believe in. No,
it was sheer desperation, and to the credit of Steven
Adams and the Rockets, they made it work and they
almost won a playoff series against a Golden State team
with three future Hall of famers and a great coach
writing it. But I think what we saw in Game
(30:41):
seven is that there are limitations to that strategy, especially
if your top scorers, in the case of the Rockets,
all pro in Shanoon and Jalen Green, aren't doing the
heavy lifting. At some point, the math is going to
kill you, and the math is not going to be
your friend in the modern NBA if three of your
players are non shooters.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
And again, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
That's a huge referendum on the future. I think they
should and will want Steven Adams back. I don't think
Golden State solved him. I think it's more a question
of the double big, especially in a game where these
other things are going wrong as well. Bottom line, a
men is a great building block, but with the shooting limitations,
(31:25):
at least right now, it does box you in a
little bit in terms of how you fell out that
roster around him. Again, that's not a huge indictment of
a men. That's honestly not that different.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Now.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I'm not saying a man is anywhere near a Giannis.
But there's a reason why the five in Milwaukee all
these years has been Brook Lopez, who can space the
floor out to twenty five feet. That's how you unlock
the best version of the honest and then they have
brought in Bobby Portis off the bench. There's certain ways
you have to play to bring out the best version
(32:00):
of a men, and I do think it's a fair
question if at least in a playoff environment, maybe in
small doses here or there, but if you're having to
lean into double big for twenty to thirty minutes per night,
is that compatible with the men? Thompson, I don't know,
and I really don't think it's a big deal because
again I don't think this was the Rocket's plan in
(32:21):
the grand scheme. It's just this was the best band
aid they had for this particular season. But what Game
seven reminded me of, at least was that it was
in fact a band aid. There was a wound under
there that ultimately was going to cause the death of
this team, and we saw it in Game seven. And
(32:43):
that doesn't mean that you need to panic. I'm open
to bigger moves if it makes sense in the off season.
I'm also open to simply staying the course, because a
lot of these guys led by a men should get
better organically. You have a course seven. They're all twenty
three years old or younger. There's no reason to do
anything rash, but at least for now, based on who
(33:04):
they were in this season, and I think they.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
All have great work ethics. They'll work hard in the
off season.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
But Game seven was just a reminder that this team
did not have enough, and we knew this all along.
There were times if you squent hard enough, you try
to convince yourself otherwise. But really, this team died the.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Way we always expected them to die.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
It sucks, but this is something that if you understood
the big picture, what the limitations of this team were
going into the year. Sometimes you sometimes me always us.
It sounds great to say, but in reality, sometimes you
need a guy to just go out and get you
a tough bucket that you can trust. The Rockets didn't
really have that guy, and that.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Was the end of the season. A couple of other things.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I've seen some questioning could the Rockets have played more
guys off the bench? Maybe, But you know, I've talked
to a few people in the building. The sense was
and by the eye, I think they're probably right on this.
The Warriors were not a great matchup for Tari Easton,
specifically because of his stropensity to gamble and so if
(34:11):
he's going to be out of position in a half
court game because he's trying to make the hero play
all of a sudden, especially when you're trailing, you're giving
up that backbreaking three that can sink your chances. And
so they're not gonna bench him. But I don't think
they had a lot of confidence in playing Tari thirty
thirty five plus minutes and it ending well against a
(34:33):
team that's as savvy as the Steph Curry led Warriors.
And then Jabari look Jabari has a bright future. And
I do think twelve minutes or whatever it was in
game seven was a little low.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
But he's not just one of five.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Let's not act like he was going out there and
you know, ripping the nets. It was a struggle, and
I think game sevens are those scenarios where once you
fall behind, you're gonna run guys into the ground.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
The situation callsport you'd rather go out.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Because your guys, just your mainstays, that is, can't get
it done. Then you would turning to guys that are
on the bench for a reason, and so you can
point to you know, a man had the calf cramps
in the middle of the second half, probably because he
was playing that damn hard in that third quarter comeback.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Well, at least she had the comeback.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Do we really think that if you had played you know,
Jabari Smith or even Aaron Holliday in those minutes, that
you would have been able to overcome a Warrior's team
winning by double digits in a Game seven and get
back to at least briefly a one possession game.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
I mean, you should be open minded and if somebody
has a hot night, you know you should be open
to the buddy heeled just outlier performance. But I think
in the case of Jabari specifically, he just didn't have
it going nearly to that extent in Game seven. And
we can quill a little bit about the minutes being low,
but I just think sometimes in the game seven scenario,
(36:00):
minutes are going to be artificially low or high depending
on whether someone is in the circle of trust, simply
because even one minute out of a game for one
of your mainstays, that can end up being the difference
in whether your season extends or whether you go home.
And I think Sabari just found himself on the outside
looking in. It just wasn't his night. You can quibble
(36:20):
over that. I don't think you know, he's twenty one.
I don't think the Rockets are panicking over him. He's
got a lot of room.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
For further growth.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I don't think it's an indictment of his future. Again,
all of this is just based on who the Rockets
are right now and ultimately the way they lost Game seven.
I've already gone on for forty minutes, so I'll wrap
this because it's a lot longer than I expected it
to be. And I don't want to get into any
of the bigger picture implication. We'll do that in a
full episode later in the week after we hear from
raphil Stone GM of the Rockets and take a few
(36:49):
days to decompress. This is my pod trying to make
sense of what happened in Game seven. I just think
this team died from a lack of half court offense.
It was always there to some degree, not every game,
but in a sport where you've got to win four
times out of seven to advance, you were going to
(37:09):
have one or two of these clunkers. And you know,
the source of optimism that I had when I was
looking at how the Rockets could get back in this
series is that, you know, they played from in front
most of those two games in San Francisco, Game three
and Game four that they lost Game two, in Game five,
they dominated Game six, they led most of the way.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Well, at some point.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
This particular group, with where these players are at right
now in their development cycles, they were going to be
prone for another one of those clunkers. And it just
so happened that a Game seven was that clunker. And
so it sucks. But in reality, this is sort of
what we knew already. It is what it is. And
now we move on to the offseason, and obviously the
(37:54):
Rockets they have a lot of assets. We'll see what
happens in the draft lottery next Monday. Maybe they have
even a better asset. And this your twenty twenty five
first run pick from the Phoenix Suns. Keep your fingers crossed. Obviously,
we'll cover that. No matter what happens with the twenty
twenty five Phoenix pick, they've already got plenty assets young
players to make a deal for a big name. It
just depends on whether it's the right fit long term.
(38:15):
And the Rockets are going to be cautious because you
don't have an unlimited ability to make these types of
big trades. When you fire your bullet, you need to
make sure it doesn't miss. The worst thing you can
do is expend a lot of assets on a gamble
and then you end up with an older player, more
expensive player. It takes up way more of your cap
and it doesn't even get you where you want to
go anyway. At least, now you're young and you have
(38:37):
a lot of flexibility. You have the hope that some
of these guys will get better organically, I do think
they generally work hard and so they should get better
in the off season. On top of the usual development
curve of NBA players, I think the mental makeup of
this group is good, but in terms of where they
are right now in May twenty twenty five, they just
(38:58):
didn't have enough and they were due for one of
those games. It sucks that it came in Game seven,
but it is what it is, and now it's on
to the off season.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
And again, the.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
More perspective, the more time we get away from this series,
I think, the easier it will be to think positively
about what we learned this season. By the way, one
positive note on the series before I close out the pod,
I mentioned a Men Thompson being the guy from Game
four onward who clearly was the straw storing the drink
(39:30):
and the head of the snake, as ema Udoka put it,
and showing why the Rockets believe in him as a
star level player. Fred Vanfleet, what he did down the
home stretch of this series was remarkable. He carried them
in Game six on the road, which I think psychologically
was big for this group to be able to win
an elimination game on the road with that type of pressure,
even if they lost the series, there's a lot of
(39:53):
positives you can take from seeing them not succumb to
the deficit to seeing the fight they had, which something
that Treymond and Steph talked about in their postgame comments
glowingly about the Rockets, the toughness they played with. When
your veteran for general, comes out and plays the way
Fred did down the stretch of this series, basically twenty
(40:14):
five points per game on Elite efficiency from Game four onward,
it sets a tone that younger players are going to follow.
But more than that, I think it also reinforces that
Fred still has that gear in him. And as I
said a lot in recent weeks, I think his struggles,
especially in the second half of this year, that was
(40:34):
a bad ankle injury. Believe it was a Grade two
and then he reaggravated it coming back in March, so
he was nowhere near one hundred percent. And it sucks
because in January when the Rockets had all those big
wins two against the Cavs, two against the Grizzlies, one
against the Celtics, the best win of the year, Fred
was shooting thirty nine percent from three in that month
(40:54):
he was figuring it out and then February first bad
ankle injury. Never the same, he was playing through it
because obviously there's lots of intangibles benefits that he brings
to the floor. He helps your transition defense a ton.
He still works the pick and roll with Shingoon really well.
It's not that he was a negative by any means,
(41:16):
but he did not have the juice that he typically has.
And when you're an undersized point guard to begin with,
if you don't have your usual explosion, it doesn't take
a lot for your efficiency metrics to really take a
hit because you're not able to get those easy buckets
the way most NBA players can. And so I acknowledge that,
you know, the true shooting for Fred went down from
(41:37):
I think about fifty seven percent last year to like
fifty one and a half fifty two this year. It
doesn't look good, but I think injuries were a big
part of that story. Not gonna say age is nothing.
He's thirty one now, and small guards they don't always
age well. I do think Fred's high IQ like Chris Paul,
So there's hope that that hill age more gracefully than
(41:59):
a lot of his counterparts.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
I'm not gonna say you can't argue for.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Age being a part of what happened, but I think
it's more just a fluke injury that was more severe
than the Rockets led on. That's nothing new with the Rockets.
Lots of teams are kg about injuries. But they managed
him well down the home stretch of the year, and
we saw throughout most of this playoff series. Had a
bad start, but honestly, he had good looks in Game one.
(42:26):
They just didn't go in. The last four games, by
and large they went in. It kept the Rockets competitive.
My god, Fred was playing so hard. He was picking
up full court, he was diving on the floor in
the back court. He was leaving it all on the floor.
And the fact that he could do that, I think
it should tell you that he's still buying large, at
least in my opinion, the guy he was a year ago,
(42:49):
and is he a cornerstone player. No, But I do
think it shows you why the Rockets intent on bringing
him back, be it picking up the last year of
his existing contractor you know, declining that and resigning him
at a lower, more team friendly figure. Either way, I
think from everything I've heard, he's likely to be back,
and I think this series should show you that even
(43:11):
if you were worried about Fred a few weeks ago,
he's still the guy he was a year ago. That
noise is still in there, and especially in the playoffs,
there's value in being able to trust a guy to
bring out the best version of himself when the games
matter most.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Fred Benfleet is one of those guys.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
So for a team that's not going to have cap
space no matter what, based on the extensions the Rockets
handed out to Shangoon and Jalen before the season, they
already made that choice. I think it's clear you should
want Fred vn vleet back something because it's not like
you can really replace him no matter what you do.
But this series it taught me that, or it showed
me that you should be pretty excited about it. It's
(43:51):
not a move that you make just because well, you
can't replace him. No, he's still a really high impact
player when he's right, and honestly, in this series, I'd say,
you know, you could argue for a men or Fred
as your MVP of the series. They were your most
valuable players and they were the reason you had a
chance in Game seven, there.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Just was not enough supporting help.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Collectively, the offense just didn't have it and because of that,
your season is now over.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Anyway, I'll wrap it for today.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Boy, I thought this would be like fifteen to twenty minutes,
end up being forty five.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
But y'all know me. Anyway, this will do it for today.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Unfortunately, playoff run is over, but lots to look forward
to this offseason.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Lots of options for the Rockets. They will have a
lottery pick from the Phoenix Suns coming their way.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
How high will that be we'll find out in a
few days when the lottery is held next Monday. Also
the end of season press conference from Rafel Stone that
will be Tuesday. We'll hear from him on a number
of these subjects, as far as the off season ahead,
what the Rockets are thinking internally, what they're looking for
potentially externally. We'll be able to react to what Rafel's
(44:54):
says and do a little bit more deeper dive on
where the Rockets go from here. Today, just wanted to
give a few immediate reactionary thoughts on what went wrong
in this series, what we learned, and then with Paolo
and guests. In future episodes, we'll talk a bit more
big picture. Anyway, this is it for today. If you
want more content before the next show, the best place
(45:16):
to get that is on social media. You can follow
me at Benjubo's on Blue Sky and then this show.
The logger line is on Twitter slash acx and if
you go to the linksur in the bio you can
find links to distribution partners like Apple, Google and Spotify.
Subscribe if pods your view if you've not already, but
also links to our friends, sponsors, partners of the program,
USA Today's Rockets, our carbuck Browing, Sports Talk seven ninety.
Hit up those links and you can enjoy their content
(45:37):
as well. All right, that'll do it for today. Unfortunately,
Rocket season is over, but this podcast is not. Should
be a very fun off season, and we'll have you
covered right here at the logger Line.
Cheers, Rockets fans, Welcome to The Logger Line, an exclusive
podcast from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Seven ninety The Logger Line.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's proudly served to you by car Box Clutch City Logger.
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It is god o Ye Red Nation. Get Ready, Ready,
Get Ready.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The Logger Line starts now. Welcome aboard.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Bendubo's here.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Welcome into a mini cast episode of The Logger Line,
sponsored by a Carbock Brewing. It's Monday, May fifth, and unfortunately,
the Rockets twenty twenty five playoff run is now over.
Rockets lost a home Game seven to the Warriors on
Sunday night one O three to eighty nine, and so
Golden State ends up taking the series four games to three.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The Warriors will move on to play.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round starting Tuesday night.
So this is just going to be a quick hitting
episode recapping what happened in Game seven and really down
the home stretch of that series. In terms of bigger
picture implications, what it means for the off season, what
should the Rockets do with some of their players that
are at key inflection points, be it with their contracts
(01:21):
or with their careers. We'll do a full episode later
in the week with Palo al as my usual co host,
diving into some of those storylines. Also on Tuesday, at
Toyota Center, Rockets journal manager rafel Stone and head coach
Imo Rudoka they're going to meet with the media in
their standard exit interviews, if you will, and address some
of the key questions entering the off season. And so
(01:44):
after they speak, we'll have a bit more intel as
far as what the Rockets are thinking, or at least
what they want us to think they're thinking heading into
the off season, and thus we can analyze with a
bit more depth or at least more perspective from the
decision makers inside the building. This is going to be
immediate reactionary takes in the aftermath of a tough night
(02:06):
at Toyota Center.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I don't want to minimize it.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Losing to Steph Courage, Raymond Green, Steve Kerr and the
Warriors for a fifth time in under ten years, and
a third time to have your season end in under
seven years with a home loss to the Warriors at
Toyota Center, it's tough. And to see the optimism that
was in the air throughout Sunday after rallying back from
(02:29):
down three to one to tie the series at three.
That crowd to start the game was as loud as
I've ever heard it at Toyota Center to see the
revival of Houston Rockets basketball. And then, as Emay said
after the game, to lay an egg the way the
Rockets did to score just seventy four points in the
first almost forty six minutes of that game. Really they
(02:50):
had nothing until garbage time to.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Go from that high to that low.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Even if in the macro is understandable the Rockets are
or schedule fifty two to thirty, number two seed in
the West, even if they lose in the first round,
it was a hard fought series. They went seven games,
they won a road elimination game six. There's lots of
positives you can take away in the macro, and as
we get more distance from the actual game seven loss,
(03:18):
I think it'll be easier to look at the positives
of this season and even this seven game series over
the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
But for right.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Now to lose to the hated Warriors again, it really stings,
especially because I said on this pod last week, I
didn't know if the Rockets would be able to get
it to a Game seven in Houston after they fell
behind three to one. But I said, if the Rockets
got it back, I thought they'd be able to finish
the job. They did get it back, and then they
couldn't finish the job, and honestly, they weren't even close
(03:48):
really ever since that Buddy Healed explosion early in the
second quarter pushed it to double digits. The Rockets did
have one run in the third quarter where they got
it to three, but it felt like they had to
empty the tank to get it there, and as soon
as the Warriors pushed it back to double digits early
in the fourth quarter, it never really felt like there
was a point where the Rockets had a realistic chance
down the stretch of that game. Bottom Line, they just
(04:10):
did not have enough offense, and that was the theme
of the team for this season. They were a top
five defense the entire year. Offensively, they were middle of
the pack, and them being middle of the pack and
offensive rating was largely because of their ability to crash
the offensive class.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
In terms of true half court execution. What happened when.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
They were trying to draw up a play to generate
a good look, It was even worse than that. It
was bottom ten in the league. Their middle of the
pack offensive rating was based on how good they were
at crashing the glass and also getting out in transition
and using their athletes like a Men Thompson, like Jalen Green,
like Charlie Easton to get them some easier buckets. When
(04:51):
it is a half court game, which tends to happen
in the playoffs, it's a struggle for this team at times,
not all the time, but in a sport where you
have to win four times out of seven, you're prone
to one or two of these sinkers. And I suppose
we should have seen it coming now. I think the
Warriors caught a little bit of a break and that
(05:12):
without Gary Payton, the second who missed the game due
to illness, it forced Steve Kurr to lean more into
shooters like Buddy Heel, and so with Buddy coming out
of the gates hot, the Warriors were able to play
from in front, and with them having that advantage for
nearly the entirety of Game seven, it allowed the Warriors
(05:33):
to really squeeze the Rockets on the offensive end of
the court, Houston's offensive end, that is in that it
felt similar to Game one, which was also a slog
at tutusoner that the Rockets lost, but in that one,
all pro in Shrangoon was at least making a majority
of the one on one opportunities that he had against
(05:54):
Draymond Green.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I talked about if you go back.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
In our archives, the Warriors some what strategically leaving Shin
Gooon in single coverage and the big night he had
in Game one where I believe he had twenty six
points on eleven of eighteen shooting. Kudos to alp for
making those shots, but strategically the Warriors were okay with
playing with the tradeoff of Houston getting twos while Steph
(06:19):
and Golden State's shooters got threes.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
In Game seven, it was pretty much the same formula,
except Shin Gooon didn't even make the twos. He was
nine of twenty three, and a couple of those makes
came in garbage time in the last two minutes when
the game had already been decided. From Game two onward,
Alpha and Shinoon's true shooting percentage was about forty six
and a half from Game two onward the last six
games of this series. That's even lower than the forty
(06:44):
eight percent that Jalen Green shot, although if you take
away Game two for Jalen Green, that thirty eight point explosion,
I think he'd be at forty five or forty six
percent as well. So the bottom line is, with one
exception for both players.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Your top two scorers for the season.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
As a whole, Jalen Green and All Frenchhangon were extremely
inefficient in this series, and there were different reasons for
both players. With Jalen, the Warriors really focused, and Draymond
said this specifically after Game seven. They knew what the
Rockets could be when Jalen was at its best, so
(07:23):
they focused throughout the series on blitzing him and basically
making it as difficult as possible for Jalen Green not
to be able to beat them.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That was the emphasis from Steve Kerr.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
And even when Fred Benfleet really got hot from his
game game four through game six, it didn't change that much.
They committed a few more resources to Fred, but it
was still a Jalen first defensive game plan. And so
that's not to give Jalen a pass, absolutely not, because
if it's as simple as oh, any defense can just
blitz the top perimeter player and take them out of
(07:56):
the game. Well, then the Rockets wouldn't have to worry
about Steph going off.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
In this series. The Rockets had and have as.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Many athletic wing defenders as any team in the league.
It's not like they're super worried about guys like Moses
Moody and Quenton Post and Gary Payton the second so
you can shade help. And yet Steph is still throughout
this series. You know, it wasn't peak Staff, but he
was still pretty damn good. His true shooting percentage was
above sixty three. By the way, if it was as
(08:26):
easy to just take a top perimeter guy out of
the game as just blitzing him, then.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That would happen all the time in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
It doesn't, so I mentioned the context of the Warriors
committing those extra resources to Jalen to explain how it happened.
That's not to say that it's okay, and you know
some of it's on Jalen. He simply needs to be better.
He needs to develop some counters. I think specifically in
Game seven, it was maddening seeing him take the James
(08:55):
Harden threes and layups approach, and I guess free throws
as well, without being nearly as fluid or crafty as
James Harden in any of those areas, and that he's
not as good at drawing fouls, He's not as strong
when it comes to finishing near the rim, doesn't have
as much touch, and he's an okay shooter, but he's
certainly not an elite one. So if the game starts
(09:17):
off and he misses a couple of threes, he's going
to get a little bit tentative when it comes to
those step backs. Not like his footwork is quite as
polished as James's was either. Personally, what I would love
to see Jalen work on this offseason is the mid
range game, because it felt like he was very predictable
as the series progressed.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
He would take a couple of threes earlier in games.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
And if it didn't work out, he was hell bent
on going to the rim, and so you would see
Draymond Green and Cavon Looney just go vertical. Sure they
might foul him a little bit, but they know in
the playoffs those are less likely to get called.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
And people look at Jalen.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It's not entirely fair, but this is the reality is
being a little bit slender and likely to get bumped
off his spots easily than a standard shooting guard. Anyway,
on those drives, and one thing leads to another and
he's on the ground trying to get a call, it
doesn't go his way, and then the other team has
a five on four runout, And all of that's because
(10:13):
there's just.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
A one track mind.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It feels like when Jalen passes up that three, if
he doesn't take the three, he's gonna go straight to
the rim.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
And there's not a ton of craft.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
But I think more than that, he doesn't make defenders
respect enough spaces on the court. They know that he's
not going to pull from those in between areas. And
if he's playing alongside, which he usually is, at least
two if not three non spacers because the starting lineup
(10:46):
has Alper Eenchion Goon and a Men Thompson. Those are
not shooters and oftentimes you'd have Jalen playing with the
men and the double big lineup featuring Alpher, Echion Goon
and Steven Adams. Then and that if Jalen's not commanding
space on his drives or making defenders potentially account for
(11:06):
more space on the floor, and other guys are very
limited and where they can shoot from. All of a sudden,
your offense can bog down because it is very, very predictable,
and I think that's what happened with Jalen Green. And
of course the Warriors are willing and able to send
a little bit of help off those other non shooters,
because especially if you're playing two or three of them
(11:27):
at once, then there's just not enough space to pull
them away from those help areas. And so again, none
of this is to say that it's an excuse for Jalen.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
He needs to.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Develop counters or the Rockets, and I guess it can
be both of these things. The Rockets can also strategically
do some different things on their end in terms of
how they structure their offense when they get going, who
they play Jalen with.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
There's lots of options here.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I'm just presenting the context to explain what I think
happened in a series where let's be blunt. For the
year as a whole, was your leading scorer at twenty
one points per game on not great efficiency, but okay,
this series he scored below fifteen per game, even with
a thirty eight point Game two. He still was below
fifteen points per game for the series, and his true
(12:15):
shooting percentage was forty eight, and that's factoring in the
thirty eight point Game two just unacceptably bad.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And then with all brin Shanoon.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Look, I think the Warriors, it certainly helps that they
have a generational defender Andrey Mungreen, who is just a
perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate, And especially in
Game seven, I think.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
There was a little bit of a loose whistle, which
tends to happen in these spots.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
And so with the twos versus threes conundrum, and I
think especially with the Warriors getting off to that fast
start in Game seven, with Buddy Heel leveling the Rockets
with that early haymaker, I think that made the Warriors
all the more comfortable to just leave all for in
(13:02):
Shangoon at least for a while in single coverage.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And if they're getting threes while.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Shangoon makes a couple of contested twos, you live with it.
And in this case, it was even worse than Game
one in that the Warriors were getting some threes on
their end, but Shangoon wasn't even making the one on
one opportunities against Raymond, And say what you will, maybe
some of those were fouls, but it's game seven.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You got to anticipate that.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And to Shangoon's credit, he said after the season or
after the game that this season was below his standard offensively,
and it was. His shooting percentage tumbled from about fifty
four percent last year to forty nine and a half
percent this year. His true shooting percentage was a little
over fifty four, one of the lowest in the NBA
for a high usage center. I'm not panicking because we've
(13:51):
seen Shinoon be better as recently as last year. So
beyond the fact that both of these guys are still
relatively young twenty three years old the end of their
fourth seasons, they're getting closer to their peak, but you're
not at a point where either is close to the
end of their development cycles. It's not time to panic yet.
At the same time, when we see and we know
(14:14):
that both of these guys are capable of better, we
can call a spade a spade and say they underachieved
in this series. And yes, I know Shangoon still led
you in most of the counting stats for this series,
like points, rebounds, assists, those types of things, and you know,
relative to Jalen, he was the more valuable player in
large part because he's got more tools, and credit to Shangoon,
(14:37):
he moved really well defensively in this series. The double
big works because Shangoon was able to defend in space.
So let's not act like it was all bad. There's
a reason why you were in game seven in the
first place. There's a reason why for the series. I
think the teams ended up tied at seven hundred and
twenty eight points a piece. This was extremely competitive. You
(15:00):
don't do that if anybody is a complete zero. And
with Shingun in particular, the counting stats reflect the fact
that he was the guy amongst the starters who well
has some advantage simply because of his size, but also
played the most minutes because, in contrast to Jalen Shinangoon,
with his size, his at least theoretical finishing ability is
(15:23):
rebounding a little bit of playmaking depending on the game,
there was always at least some value that you could
extract from having him out there, and so because of that,
he led you in most statistical categories. With that said,
the efficiency can tell the story when it comes to
a production relative to let's say potential, and I think
(15:43):
the best way to put it is that he underachieved
and so did Jalen, and Shingun was still you know,
he was less of a problem than Jalen in the
sense that Shingun was a more valuable player in this series.
But that's because he's starting from a higher baseline. There's
a reason why all for In Shangun was an All
Star and Jalen was not. In terms of the series overall,
(16:04):
the Warriors, it's not so much that they thought Jalen
was better than Shingoon. They just looked at Jalen and
we've said this before on the pod as the most
important variable for this Rockets team that if the Rockets
couldn't get peaked Jalen, they wouldn't have the ability offensively
to win four games out of seven.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And ultimately they were right.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
It was the right bet, especially if they are generating
quality threes on offense and all per In Shangoon is
largely taken twos. That's a math bet that Steve Kerr
was willing to make and turns out right to make
so you tip your hat. It sucks, but it was
a good game plan and it worked, and so I
guess for me, I come out of this while certainly.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Annoyed to lose to the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Again and a little bit surprised again seeing how the
Rockets dominated at home from about the midpoint of the
third quarter of Game one and then all all of
Game two. In Game five, I really thought if it
got back to Houston that they'd be able to grind
it out. But when you really think about it, this
(17:10):
had plagued this team in high leverage spots all year,
which is what Game seven is. Those games tend to
be low scoring, everybody's dialed in, there's lots of nerves,
Officials let so much go and when the games get
in the mud. We saw it down the stretch of
close games all year. We have talked about how much
of a struggle it was, especially in the half court
(17:30):
laid in close games. I think back to the NBA
Cup run in December, which was a great learning experience
for this team, but when the really impactful games came,
the Rockets struggled to generate offense. If you recall they
won their group with that win at Minnesota, they had
(17:51):
an eighteen point lead and the Timberwolves just blitz them
in the second half. Now, the Rockets ended up winning
because the Timberwolves was one of those games expended so
much energy to come back from eighteen down that they
couldn't finish the job, and the Rockets won in overtime.
They had a little bit more in the tank, but
the Rockets could not generate offense when the Timberwolves were
making their run. And then the two games in December,
(18:13):
the quarterfinal game against the Warrior, sure was great that
the Rockets won. The final was ninety one ninety and
you got a coin flip call to go your way
with under five seconds left. You couldn't generate offense against
the same Golden State defense.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And then the loss to OKC in Las Vegas. It
was just a rock fight.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
It was brutal to watch this offense and the defense
kept the minute. But eventually in the fourth quarter, Shay
made a few shots and the thunder were able to
get separation, and ultimately the same dynamic played out in
Game seven, and I guess the Well, one other thing
I want to say, relative to Game one, it's fair
(18:52):
to wonder why were the Rockets close in Game seven,
cut it to as little as three laid in the
first or late in the third quarter, and never trailed
by twenty until clearly everything was off the rails in
the last five six minutes of the fourth quarter relative
to Game one, where they were down twenty three points
(19:13):
midway through the third quarter, and ultimately that proved too
much to overcome. I think it's because in Game seven
the Rockets were so dialed in defensively.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
They did get.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Better as the series progressed, and Fred van Fleet in
particular got better. They were a much higher floor version
than what we saw in Game one the Warriors at
the end of the third quarter, when the Rockets cut
it to sixty three to sixty, with I think two
or three minutes left, they had just sixty three points.
The Rockets found some things in that series that worked defensively,
(19:44):
and in the Game seven, you're going to be dialed in.
Every possession matters, even relative to games early in a
playoff series. In Game one, there was a little bit
of nerves, there was an experience, there was rust having
not played a competitive game in two weeks, and so
that's why even with Shangoon making the shots he didn't make.
(20:04):
In Game seven, the Rockets still fell behind twenty plus points,
as opposed to Game seven, where they were just close
enough to stay at arm's length. But what ended up
being the difference here. While the defense did enough in
Game seven to keep the Rockets theoretically in the game,
the offense didn't even have the gear that it had
(20:26):
in Game one. And so even if Game one was
uglier from a score perspective in the first two and
a half quarters, I think Game seven might have been
a little bit uglier overall in that it just felt
like there was zero formula for the Rockets to actually
win that game in the fourth quarter, because at least
(20:48):
in Game one, you could point to the success shng
Goon had in one on one situations and stream on
it and say, hey, if they can get back into
the game, make it close. Here's something that you can
do down the stretch of this game to land the plane.
In Game seven, there was nothing, and so even when
the Rockets were loosely competitive, it was a struggle at
(21:10):
least for me to come up with a roadmap that
would have them winning that game. And so I bring
up all of that context to say, I took a
little bit of peace out of the way they lost
Game seven, and that for me, it was just a
flashing red sign that said you're not good enough.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And if the Rockets, it's not.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Impossible that with a little bit better luck, maybe Buddy
Heel doesn't have that outlier shooting stretch in the first half.
With a little bit better luck, maybe Shingoon makes his bunnies.
You could have grinded out Game seven against a pretty
flawed Warriors team like they deserve to win. But let's
be clear, a team playing Moses Moody, Gary Payton, the
second Quinton post extended minutes, I have a tough time
(21:54):
seeing them do a lot of damage against the Minnesota
Timberwolves or anybody else in the playoffs for that matter.
This was a flaw of team, and yet the Rockets
just were not good enough and did not deserve to win.
And in contrast to a lot of recent Rockets' playoff flameouts,
if you will, certainly to twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen
series against the Warriors, and I know that's different because
(22:16):
that's a veteran led team near the end of their cycle.
This is a young team on the upswing, but there
was always that outlier, be it with the shooting, the
over twenty seven stretch, the officiating. There was always just
a few things or a pivotal moment here or there
that you could point to, and it made it difficult
to swallow because you say, at least I do man,
(22:39):
if only that had gone different, the entire result could flip.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
This wasn't that.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
This was honestly what we saw throughout the season, which
is that they are prone to clunkers. It might not
happen every game, but it does catch up with them.
And because of that, it's going to be really tough
to beat a good playoff opponent four times at a seven,
especially if the other team, and this would have been
the case in the Minnesota matchup, has a rest advantage.
(23:07):
So what I have loved to have seen the Rockets
speak the Warriors, of course, it would have been amazing,
But I really don't think that this was otherwise a
year that they were going to make serious noise. If
you have these limitations offensively, if you are prone in
a game where you are unloading the kitchen sink and
you're at seventy four points with two minutes and fifteen
(23:30):
seconds left. You're just not good enough, especially because we
have seen this from time to time all season long.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
This is nothing new.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
It might not happen every game, but in a sport
where you've got to win four times out of seven,
it happened enough to where it's damning, especially because in
contrast to the shooting outlier of twenty eighteen, this was
the opposite. They were three of fourteen on threes with
barely over two minutes left in that game. For the game,
the Warriors made eighteen threes to six for the Rockets,
(24:00):
but at the six for the Rockets, three came in
garbage time. They were three or fourteen with barely over
two minutes left. That is ridiculous, And yet I can't
tell you how they clearly could have gotten more without
substantively changing the personnel. Yet to do that you'd have
to be turning away from the lineups that got you
(24:20):
back in the series, with Steven Adams and the double
Big and a Men Thompson who was great in the
second half of this series. I just don't know what
the Rockets could have realistically done with the personnel that
had gotten them to Game seven. I mean, they were
playing three non spacers in Shongoon, Adams and and men
Thompson together for extended stretches of that game, So I'm
(24:43):
really not sure what they were supposed to do, especially
if Shangoon isn't making the two so the gravity isn't
going to be there.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
If not only do the Warriors have the math advantage,
but Shinngoon isn't making the most.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Of his one on one opportunities, and the Warriors are
winning the game, so they're playing from in front. They
just squeezed the life out of that offense, and I'm
not really sure what the Rockets could have done differently.
And I want to be clear when I say this,
Steven Adams was incredible down the home stretch of this year,
and I do hope they resign him. They'll have bird
(25:16):
rights this offseason. But in a lot of ways he
was a band aid for this team. They weren't planning
on playing him as many minutes as they ultimately did.
There's a reason why, more than halfway into the year
they had not even tried the double big. This was
no masterclass in coaching where Ima Rudoka was just waiting
(25:39):
until a few weeks before the playoffs to reveal this
secret strategy that nobody in the league would be able
to adapt to. No, it's more that well, certainly there
re few injuries that contributed to it. It was a
desperation strategy from a team that knew it wasn't good
enough as is, so they leaned even more into rebounding,
(26:03):
especially on the offensive side of the ball, to overcome
their lack of creation, their lack of shooting, just their
lack of scoring.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Let's be blunt.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
If you can't make enough shots, get enough opportunities to
where eventually you're bound to make a few or you
get fouled.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
That's the strategy.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
But it's important to remember how the Rockets got into
that strategy. And this is not a shot at Steven.
He's still very important even if he's a traditional backup center.
He's a really, really good one behind Alph echin Goon
and it gives you the optionality to play in different ways,
the screening, the rebounding, the passing. He's a very good
player and it would be a loss if the Rockets
aren't able to retain him. More on that in our
(26:45):
Bigger picture pod later in the week, But in terms
of Game seven, and the playoffs. This was not some
masterclass in which the Rockets thought they had some sort
of secret weapon and were just waiting for when to
deploy it. No, they were desperate. That's what it came
down to. They didn't think this was their best move.
(27:05):
It's just everything else wasn't working. And to Steven Adams credit,
it did work pretty well for a while. But I
just think, especially in the modern NBA, it's going to
catch up with you if you are playing three non
spacers out of your five players, and with the Men
being basically the focal point of this team. And by
(27:29):
the way, a Men was spectacular in Game seven. If
you want to talk positively, I think a Men doing
what he did down the home strutch of the series
from Game four through Game seven about twenty points, eight rebounds,
two and a half steals per game, fantastic defense, doing
more on ball as the series progressed.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
It validates Miyan.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
The Rockets think he is their best player already and
not far from being a legitimate star in the NBA,
maybe even a superstar down the line. They are building
around him and they should. He is a special player.
And really, I think people say that the start to
the series was bad. It was, but you almost have
to throw Game two out for Men because we remember
(28:10):
how it went down.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
He had six quick.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Points early in that game and it was actually looking
good for him, and then some really bizarre fouls took
him out in the first half, including the third where
Draymond and Steven Adams bumped him into or forced him
to go to the ground.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
He undercut Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
That's what led to the pelvis contusion, and that was
the third and third found in the first quarter. It
takes you out for ended up being the half, I believe,
and then by the time he came back, the Rockets
are up by fifteen to twenty points. Obviously not gonna
want to take the team out of the flow, go
away from what's working in that game. It was Jalen Green,
and so people sort of had this narrative of a
Men being bad through the first three games.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Not exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
He was bad in game one, certainly in Game three,
the first road game at San Francisco. There were a
lot of guys in the Rockets who struggled in that environment,
but Game two was an outlier. He quite frankly to me,
by the eye test looked like he was going to
have a big night and circumstances changed that.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
And then from Game four onward he was very, very good.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
But one of the limitations if that's your best player
and he's limited and where he can shoot from, and
you also have two other guys who are very limited
in their range in Shingoon and Adams and Jalen Green
gets very predictable in terms of how he attacks and
the minutes that he's out there. Dylan Brooks, by the way,
you know, he had a big Game five, but I
thought he was disappointed in Game seven. He had some
(29:32):
lapses defensively off ball against Buddy Heel in the first
half and shooting wise just three of nine oh of
three from three. A couple of those looks were pretty open.
There just wasn't enough spacing to function. And with all
the IQ in the world, and Steven Adams and all
par in Shangoon are both very intelligent individuals, it's hard
to overcome in a winner take all game where every
(29:55):
possession means the world and everybody is dialed in the
fact that three A players just aren't respected beyond eight
ten feet. There's only so many things you can do.
It's not a failure of coaching. It's not strategy. It's
just the limitations. And that's why, in large part, the
Rockets didn't want to run these lineups. That's why they
(30:18):
didn't try to do it when the season started. That's
why they weren't trying it in training camp. You'd implement
that from the start if that's something you really believe in. No,
it was sheer desperation, and to the credit of Steven
Adams and the Rockets, they made it work and they
almost won a playoff series against a Golden State team
with three future Hall of famers and a great coach
writing it. But I think what we saw in Game
(30:41):
seven is that there are limitations to that strategy, especially
if your top scorers, in the case of the Rockets,
all pro in Shanoon and Jalen Green, aren't doing the
heavy lifting. At some point, the math is going to
kill you, and the math is not going to be
your friend in the modern NBA if three of your
players are non shooters.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
And again, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
That's a huge referendum on the future. I think they
should and will want Steven Adams back. I don't think
Golden State solved him. I think it's more a question
of the double big, especially in a game where these
other things are going wrong as well. Bottom line, a
men is a great building block, but with the shooting limitations,
(31:25):
at least right now, it does box you in a
little bit in terms of how you fell out that
roster around him. Again, that's not a huge indictment of
a men. That's honestly not that different.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Now.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I'm not saying a man is anywhere near a Giannis.
But there's a reason why the five in Milwaukee all
these years has been Brook Lopez, who can space the
floor out to twenty five feet. That's how you unlock
the best version of the honest and then they have
brought in Bobby Portis off the bench. There's certain ways
you have to play to bring out the best version
(32:00):
of a men, and I do think it's a fair
question if at least in a playoff environment, maybe in
small doses here or there, but if you're having to
lean into double big for twenty to thirty minutes per night,
is that compatible with the men? Thompson, I don't know,
and I really don't think it's a big deal because
again I don't think this was the Rocket's plan in
(32:21):
the grand scheme. It's just this was the best band
aid they had for this particular season. But what Game
seven reminded me of, at least was that it was
in fact a band aid. There was a wound under
there that ultimately was going to cause the death of
this team, and we saw it in Game seven. And
(32:43):
that doesn't mean that you need to panic. I'm open
to bigger moves if it makes sense in the off season.
I'm also open to simply staying the course, because a
lot of these guys led by a men should get
better organically. You have a course seven. They're all twenty
three years old or younger. There's no reason to do
anything rash, but at least for now, based on who
(33:04):
they were in this season, and I think they.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
All have great work ethics. They'll work hard in the
off season.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
But Game seven was just a reminder that this team
did not have enough, and we knew this all along.
There were times if you squent hard enough, you try
to convince yourself otherwise. But really, this team died the.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Way we always expected them to die.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
It sucks, but this is something that if you understood
the big picture, what the limitations of this team were
going into the year. Sometimes you sometimes me always us.
It sounds great to say, but in reality, sometimes you
need a guy to just go out and get you
a tough bucket that you can trust. The Rockets didn't
really have that guy, and that.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Was the end of the season. A couple of other things.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I've seen some questioning could the Rockets have played more
guys off the bench? Maybe, But you know, I've talked
to a few people in the building. The sense was
and by the eye, I think they're probably right on this.
The Warriors were not a great matchup for Tari Easton,
specifically because of his stropensity to gamble and so if
(34:11):
he's going to be out of position in a half
court game because he's trying to make the hero play
all of a sudden, especially when you're trailing, you're giving
up that backbreaking three that can sink your chances. And
so they're not gonna bench him. But I don't think
they had a lot of confidence in playing Tari thirty
thirty five plus minutes and it ending well against a
(34:33):
team that's as savvy as the Steph Curry led Warriors.
And then Jabari look Jabari has a bright future. And
I do think twelve minutes or whatever it was in
game seven was a little low.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
But he's not just one of five.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Let's not act like he was going out there and
you know, ripping the nets. It was a struggle, and
I think game sevens are those scenarios where once you
fall behind, you're gonna run guys into the ground.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
The situation callsport you'd rather go out.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Because your guys, just your mainstays, that is, can't get
it done. Then you would turning to guys that are
on the bench for a reason, and so you can
point to you know, a man had the calf cramps
in the middle of the second half, probably because he
was playing that damn hard in that third quarter comeback.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Well, at least she had the comeback.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Do we really think that if you had played you know,
Jabari Smith or even Aaron Holliday in those minutes, that
you would have been able to overcome a Warrior's team
winning by double digits in a Game seven and get
back to at least briefly a one possession game.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
I mean, you should be open minded and if somebody
has a hot night, you know you should be open
to the buddy heeled just outlier performance. But I think
in the case of Jabari specifically, he just didn't have
it going nearly to that extent in Game seven. And
we can quill a little bit about the minutes being low,
but I just think sometimes in the game seven scenario,
(36:00):
minutes are going to be artificially low or high depending
on whether someone is in the circle of trust, simply
because even one minute out of a game for one
of your mainstays, that can end up being the difference
in whether your season extends or whether you go home.
And I think Sabari just found himself on the outside
looking in. It just wasn't his night. You can quibble
(36:20):
over that. I don't think you know, he's twenty one.
I don't think the Rockets are panicking over him. He's
got a lot of room.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
For further growth.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I don't think it's an indictment of his future. Again,
all of this is just based on who the Rockets
are right now and ultimately the way they lost Game seven.
I've already gone on for forty minutes, so I'll wrap
this because it's a lot longer than I expected it
to be. And I don't want to get into any
of the bigger picture implication. We'll do that in a
full episode later in the week after we hear from
raphil Stone GM of the Rockets and take a few
(36:49):
days to decompress. This is my pod trying to make
sense of what happened in Game seven. I just think
this team died from a lack of half court offense.
It was always there to some degree, not every game,
but in a sport where you've got to win four
times out of seven to advance, you were going to
(37:09):
have one or two of these clunkers. And you know,
the source of optimism that I had when I was
looking at how the Rockets could get back in this
series is that, you know, they played from in front
most of those two games in San Francisco, Game three
and Game four that they lost Game two, in Game five,
they dominated Game six, they led most of the way.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Well, at some point.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
This particular group, with where these players are at right
now in their development cycles, they were going to be
prone for another one of those clunkers. And it just
so happened that a Game seven was that clunker. And
so it sucks. But in reality, this is sort of
what we knew already. It is what it is. And
now we move on to the offseason, and obviously the
(37:54):
Rockets they have a lot of assets. We'll see what
happens in the draft lottery next Monday. Maybe they have
even a better asset. And this your twenty twenty five
first run pick from the Phoenix Suns. Keep your fingers crossed. Obviously,
we'll cover that. No matter what happens with the twenty
twenty five Phoenix pick, they've already got plenty assets young
players to make a deal for a big name. It
just depends on whether it's the right fit long term.
(38:15):
And the Rockets are going to be cautious because you
don't have an unlimited ability to make these types of
big trades. When you fire your bullet, you need to
make sure it doesn't miss. The worst thing you can
do is expend a lot of assets on a gamble
and then you end up with an older player, more
expensive player. It takes up way more of your cap
and it doesn't even get you where you want to
go anyway. At least, now you're young and you have
(38:37):
a lot of flexibility. You have the hope that some
of these guys will get better organically, I do think
they generally work hard and so they should get better
in the off season. On top of the usual development
curve of NBA players, I think the mental makeup of
this group is good, but in terms of where they
are right now in May twenty twenty five, they just
(38:58):
didn't have enough and they were due for one of
those games. It sucks that it came in Game seven,
but it is what it is, and now it's on
to the off season.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
And again, the.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
More perspective, the more time we get away from this series,
I think, the easier it will be to think positively
about what we learned this season. By the way, one
positive note on the series before I close out the pod,
I mentioned a Men Thompson being the guy from Game
four onward who clearly was the straw storing the drink
(39:30):
and the head of the snake, as ema Udoka put it,
and showing why the Rockets believe in him as a
star level player. Fred Vanfleet, what he did down the
home stretch of this series was remarkable. He carried them
in Game six on the road, which I think psychologically
was big for this group to be able to win
an elimination game on the road with that type of pressure,
even if they lost the series, there's a lot of
(39:53):
positives you can take from seeing them not succumb to
the deficit to seeing the fight they had, which something
that Treymond and Steph talked about in their postgame comments
glowingly about the Rockets, the toughness they played with. When
your veteran for general, comes out and plays the way
Fred did down the stretch of this series, basically twenty
(40:14):
five points per game on Elite efficiency from Game four onward,
it sets a tone that younger players are going to follow.
But more than that, I think it also reinforces that
Fred still has that gear in him. And as I
said a lot in recent weeks, I think his struggles,
especially in the second half of this year, that was
(40:34):
a bad ankle injury. Believe it was a Grade two
and then he reaggravated it coming back in March, so
he was nowhere near one hundred percent. And it sucks
because in January when the Rockets had all those big
wins two against the Cavs, two against the Grizzlies, one
against the Celtics, the best win of the year, Fred
was shooting thirty nine percent from three in that month
(40:54):
he was figuring it out and then February first bad
ankle injury. Never the same, he was playing through it
because obviously there's lots of intangibles benefits that he brings
to the floor. He helps your transition defense a ton.
He still works the pick and roll with Shingoon really well.
It's not that he was a negative by any means,
(41:16):
but he did not have the juice that he typically has.
And when you're an undersized point guard to begin with,
if you don't have your usual explosion, it doesn't take
a lot for your efficiency metrics to really take a
hit because you're not able to get those easy buckets
the way most NBA players can. And so I acknowledge that,
you know, the true shooting for Fred went down from
(41:37):
I think about fifty seven percent last year to like
fifty one and a half fifty two this year. It
doesn't look good, but I think injuries were a big
part of that story. Not gonna say age is nothing.
He's thirty one now, and small guards they don't always
age well. I do think Fred's high IQ like Chris Paul,
So there's hope that that hill age more gracefully than
(41:59):
a lot of his counterparts.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
I'm not gonna say you can't argue for.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Age being a part of what happened, but I think
it's more just a fluke injury that was more severe
than the Rockets led on. That's nothing new with the Rockets.
Lots of teams are kg about injuries. But they managed
him well down the home stretch of the year, and
we saw throughout most of this playoff series. Had a
bad start, but honestly, he had good looks in Game one.
(42:26):
They just didn't go in. The last four games, by
and large they went in. It kept the Rockets competitive.
My god, Fred was playing so hard. He was picking
up full court, he was diving on the floor in
the back court. He was leaving it all on the floor.
And the fact that he could do that, I think
it should tell you that he's still buying large, at
least in my opinion, the guy he was a year ago,
(42:49):
and is he a cornerstone player. No, But I do
think it shows you why the Rockets intent on bringing
him back, be it picking up the last year of
his existing contractor you know, declining that and resigning him
at a lower, more team friendly figure. Either way, I
think from everything I've heard, he's likely to be back,
and I think this series should show you that even
(43:11):
if you were worried about Fred a few weeks ago,
he's still the guy he was a year ago. That
noise is still in there, and especially in the playoffs,
there's value in being able to trust a guy to
bring out the best version of himself when the games
matter most.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Fred Benfleet is one of those guys.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
So for a team that's not going to have cap
space no matter what, based on the extensions the Rockets
handed out to Shangoon and Jalen before the season, they
already made that choice. I think it's clear you should
want Fred vn vleet back something because it's not like
you can really replace him no matter what you do.
But this series it taught me that, or it showed
me that you should be pretty excited about it. It's
(43:51):
not a move that you make just because well, you
can't replace him. No, he's still a really high impact
player when he's right, and honestly, in this series, I'd say,
you know, you could argue for a men or Fred
as your MVP of the series. They were your most
valuable players and they were the reason you had a
chance in Game seven, there.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Just was not enough supporting help.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Collectively, the offense just didn't have it and because of that,
your season is now over.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Anyway, I'll wrap it for today.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Boy, I thought this would be like fifteen to twenty minutes,
end up being forty five.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
But y'all know me. Anyway, this will do it for today.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Unfortunately, playoff run is over, but lots to look forward
to this offseason.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Lots of options for the Rockets. They will have a
lottery pick from the Phoenix Suns coming their way.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
How high will that be we'll find out in a
few days when the lottery is held next Monday. Also
the end of season press conference from Rafel Stone that
will be Tuesday. We'll hear from him on a number
of these subjects, as far as the off season ahead,
what the Rockets are thinking internally, what they're looking for
potentially externally. We'll be able to react to what Rafel's
(44:54):
says and do a little bit more deeper dive on
where the Rockets go from here. Today, just wanted to
give a few immediate reactionary thoughts on what went wrong
in this series, what we learned, and then with Paolo
and guests. In future episodes, we'll talk a bit more
big picture. Anyway, this is it for today. If you
want more content before the next show, the best place
(45:16):
to get that is on social media. You can follow
me at Benjubo's on Blue Sky and then this show.
The logger line is on Twitter slash acx and if
you go to the linksur in the bio you can
find links to distribution partners like Apple, Google and Spotify.
Subscribe if pods your view if you've not already, but
also links to our friends, sponsors, partners of the program,
USA Today's Rockets, our carbuck Browing, Sports Talk seven ninety.
Hit up those links and you can enjoy their content
(45:37):
as well. All right, that'll do it for today. Unfortunately,
Rocket season is over, but this podcast is not. Should
be a very fun off season, and we'll have you
covered right here at the logger Line.
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