First impressions as Rockets open 2024-25 preseason

With preseason play officially underway for the NBA’s 2024-25 season, Wednesday’s show features reaction from our Ben DuBose and Paulo Alves to early performances from the Rockets.

Topics include encouraging signs by Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, and Amen Thompson; the seemingly healthy return of Steven Adams; and what to watch for as other Houston players such as Tari Eason, Dillon Brooks, and Jock Landale make their exhibition debuts in the days ahead.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Cheers.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Rockets fans, Welcome to The Logger Line, an exclusive podcast
from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety
rock The Locker Line. It's proudly served to you by
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
It is good.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh yeah, Red Nation, get ready, Ready, get Ready the
lagger Line.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
This starts now. Welcome aboard, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for
checking out another new episode of The logger Line, again
served to you courtesy of Clutch City Lagger of Carbock Brewing.
I'm Ben Dubos, your host, editor of USA Today's Rockets
Were and contributor to Sports Talk seven ninety, official flightship

(00:52):
radio station of your Houston Rockets. I'm joined by Pawlo
alf for our co host and producer out of Portugal.
You can follow him on Twitter, slash x at Palo Alves, NBA,
me at Ben Dubo's So as we shot this Wednesday,
October ninth, preseason play for the Rockets is officially underway.
They opened the preseason with a nine point loss at
Utah on Monday night, although I think you can put

(01:13):
loss in air quotes because they had largely dominated the
game when the starters and the top rotation players were
in for both sides, and they just sort of let
go of the rope in the second half, where it
was primarily guys a lot further down the depth chart
who were playing. Tonight. The Rockets are back in action
in Oklahoma City. To be determined who exactly plays. They
held out Tarry Easton, Dylan Brooks, Jack Landale, Jeff Green

(01:36):
in Utah, not because any were hurt, but just as
a typical maintenance thing during the preseason. We actually heard
from the Thunder today that they plan on playing every one,
So it will be a bit of a test for
the Rockets against a team that was number one in
the Western Conference last season. Should be fun. Jamori Smith
against Chet Holmgren is always a good storyline as well,
although I do think that just based on the way

(01:57):
e May is handling it, he'll still hold out at
least two or three of the normal rotation guys, with
the logic being that it allows you to focus a
little bit more on true rotation players for the guys
who do play. So anyway, as far as this show,
we're going to be largely offering our thoughts on the opener,
and I'm going to start with a huge disclaimer. Yes,

(02:18):
we know it's a small sample size of only one
preseason game, and not only that, we're largely going to
be focusing on just the first half of it because,
as mentioned, the second half is pretty uninspired across the board,
and really, I don't think fans care that much about
how guys like Nate Henton and Jermaine Samuels Junior played
at the tail end. They're mostly going to be in
the G League with the Vipers this year anyway, So

(02:40):
we're largely going to be talking about twenty four minutes
or so of an exhibition. And yeah, I think it's
fair to say that Powow and myself both get it.
We're just reacting to it because, let's be honest, it's
the first time we've had on court rockets basketball in
a game setting in about six months, so naturally we're
pretty excited. We want to see what it looks like
and what the guys have been working on this summer

(03:03):
and what their progress looks like, so power before we
go into actual analysis for a few of these players,
Are you good with that general disclaimer? Is there anything
else that you want to quickly throw in off the.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Top, Yeah, And I guess I'll just say basketball's back.
But I mean we're here to talk about the Texans, right,
I'm just kidding, just kidding.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
I have talk about the Astros, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Oh but I mean we last five was last fall.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
We were still, you know, innocently hopeful.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
When when we have Mitt Tumas suddenly talked about them,
Oh god, I mean, Texans a third one and they're
not playing anywhere close to their peak football. That's that's
my expert of being in the ones who started watching
a year or last year or.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
Tenenty years ago.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
But I was a Chiefs fan for a little bit
because there's no time to up Davis Mills play. But yeah,
and I don't know, it's just city. It's got to be,
you know, probably the most important athlete in US and sportsha.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
I do think that there's probably going to be a
little bit of extra buzz around the start to the
season for the Rockets. Obviously there are higher expectations this
year coming off of forty one and forty one. We
know they want to play playoff basketball next spring. But
because the Astros have a rare October off, then it
is going to be easier for folks to get down
to Toyota Center and be invested for those opening games

(04:23):
on the twenty third and the twenty fifth, the opening
games of the regular season. They have two at home
next week, the fifteenth and seventeenth, in the preseason. And
so when the Astros are playing most weeknights in the playoffs,
and that's you know, three four hours a night, then
that consumes most of the oxygen when it comes to
the Houston sports scene as opposed to the Texans. Look,

(04:44):
I love talking about the Texans, I love watching them,
but because they only play once per week, typically on
a Sunday at noon, then there's a lot more breathing
room for a team such as the Rockets and even
the Dynamo who are headed to the MLS postseason to
get a little bit of love in a way that
when the Astros are playing deep in October, they just
dominate the scene. So I guess what I would point out,

(05:05):
Not only are the Texans playing well, they're four and
one and they're not even at their best yet. C J.
Shroud is phenomenal, and it's a relatively young team. They
can get better. But beyond that, I also think it's
sort of easy to have overlap between the Texans and
Rockets in a way that there isn't this time of
year with the Rockets and the Astros.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Does that make sense, Yeah, I'll just perspect on what
you said about how you enjoy watching the Texands Listen.
I enjoy watching football in general. I don't know about
the Texans feels a little bit like the Steven Salas offense,
where you know you have talent and it's just like
this should be so much better than this, Like why
do we keep posting a Christian little meta?

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, some of this is because they haven't had Joe
mixin since the first game and a half of this season,
and so it's a very delicate balance. The one thing
I will say in defense of Bobby Sloweck, I don't
think they want to stray too far from their identity
because when they have Joe Mixon, you do want to
be able to run the ball and generate some of

(06:05):
your deep shots off of play action. The difficulty now
is that not Well, not only do you not have
mix and you also don't have Damian Pierce, so you're
on your third and fourth string running backs, and so
combine that with an offensive line that's still young and
building chemistry and hasn't played a ton together. Thankfully, they
have cleaned up the penalties the last couple of weeks,
which has made them a lot more watchable. But I

(06:27):
just think that you don't have the playmaking potential with
the running back room the way it is right now,
and so because of that, it doesn't generate the deep
shots for CJ. Shroud, especially with Tankdal's still working his
way back to health and Nico Collins dealing with an
off and on hamstring injury that seems likely to keep
him out at least this weekend against New England. Hopefully
it won't matter because the Patriots aren't that good, but

(06:49):
I think the offense will make a lot more sense
when they have mixing back and so because of that,
the run game becomes a lot more of a threat
the way it was against the Colts to start the year,
and because of that, that'll sort of naturally lead just
some more chunk plays down the field that I know
fans want to see. So that's the one thing I'll
sort of add to it. Unlike the silas Hearers, where

(07:09):
it felt like I know some people throughout the organic
learning stuff but it's not as if there were some
master plan. The roster, just even at full strength, did
not have the potential, at least not in that season.
I think for the Texans right now, they're just trying
to buy time until they get to full strength, and
they don't want to deviate too much from the formula,
and so I think that that's the one sort of
pushback I would give. I understand the frustration, but I

(07:32):
just think that you know, it's going to make a
little more sense when they get Joe Mixon back out
there and the run game is more of a threat.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Listen, all I want is just one game, just one
game where you'll let CJ pass seventy five times, all
three downs, every single dry and I best really score
like fifteen.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
You might get that. You might get that. In November.
They have a back to back against the Lions and Cowboys,
both primetime games one Sunday night the next Monday night,
and those are opponents that typically put up a lot
of points. So I'd not be surprised if you see
that more. Then hopefully you'll have mix in because it's
not even so much that they're going to run the
ball more. When mixing comes back. No, it's that just

(08:12):
the threat of being able to do more is going
to operate, is going to open up more things in
the passing game, and that's where CJ can really take advantage,
especially if it's receivers are getting healthy as well. Anyway,
enough about the Texans for a basketball podcast mentioned playmaking,
and I'm going to lead off our discussion today talking
largely about the preseason opener with playmakers on the Rockets,

(08:34):
which are Jalen Grain and all per inchh and Goon.
Of course Fred fin Fleet is up there as well,
but let's be real, Fred is who he is at
this point. There's a little more intrigue to All Pee
and Jalen Green entering year four because there is some
variance to the players they're going to become. We know
they're potentially going into contract years, although maybe there's still
a chance of an extension. With all per Inch and Goon.

(08:56):
We have an episode since then, so we may touch
on that today. I will tell if the deal gets
dombey to those guys by the October twenty first deadline.
But regardless, you're four is a key inflection point for
young players, both that them drafted in the first round
of the twenty twenty one NBA Draft. So there's a
lot to look forward to with those two guys, and
so far, so good. I've heard good things about them

(09:17):
at training camp. They certainly looked good on the floor
in Utah, where for the first two and a half
quarters the Rockets were in control with Jalen and Lpe
and something of a leading role a men Thompson played
very well as you would expect starting in place of
Dylan Brooks. We may touch on that for the episode ends,
but I'm gonna lead off our discussion with Jalen because

(09:38):
it's becoming more clear and it probably was already, but
he is the ultimate variable for this team, and he
is the one guy who if he hits at his
peak level or reasonable peak level, then this team can
be really good a lot sooner than fans are expecting.

(09:59):
And as far as the preseason opener, again the caveat
we threw out earlier, small sample size exhibition, YadA, YadA.
All that's true, but look, he was the game high
scorer with twenty one points in just twenty minutes. He
had nineteen in the first half alone. For the game,
he shot fifty percent overall four of nine on threes,
right at forty five percent. I do want to note
that at least one of those threes was a catch

(10:20):
and shoot often assists from Fred, so it's not like
Jalen had to dominate the ball to get in rhythm
and be efficient. We know those narratives to pop up
from time to time. No, he was functioning off the
ball as well, and he made some catching shoots. Also,
shout out to Steve Adams for freeing Jayalen up on
a couple of occasions with a great screen. I'm sure
we'll talk about that before the pod ends as well.

(10:40):
In terms of the team impact, the Rockets were plus
fifteen in the twenty minutes that he played and minus
twenty four and the twenty eight minutes that he didn't.
That's staggering and it largely feels like what we saw
after the All Star break, And unlike that stretch where
there was no all for in Shindon for the final
month plus of the season, this time Jalen did play

(11:01):
alongside Shingoon for key stretches in Utah and it really
didn't look that different. And that was a full strength
Utah team. I know the Jazz were a lottery team.
But keep in mind when they had Lori markin in
a year ago, they were right with the Rockets hovering
around five hundred through about the midpoint of the season.
It wasn't until they went into tank mode midway through
that they became completely uncompetitive. So it's not as if

(11:23):
that Jazz team did not have talent and the Rockets
were integrating new pieces. It was the first time that
Jalen and LP had played together since Jalen went on
that great run in March, which to highlight the team
aspect of all of this. We know the Rockets went
on the eleven game winning streak for thirteen and two
in March when Jalen was playing at that all star level,
and yet he still looked like the same guy when

(11:45):
he was playing alongside allp in Salt Lake City on
Monday Night. So I think that's very encouraging And as
far as the key variable when it comes to Jalen,
I just think so much of it comes down to
the three point shooting I mentioned four of nine. It's
not to say that the other elements of his game
don't matter. I mean, I do think he played with
good pace, he made good reads. He competed well defensively,

(12:08):
but for me, it's the three point shooting that either
seems to make it all come together or potentially fall apart.
I think you know, defensively, Jalen is not the most
physically imposing guy the way a men is. But it's
worth noting that Jalen is one of the quickest guys
on the team and really in the whole NBA. He's
got the ability laterally to stay in front of this

(12:29):
guy most of the time, and that's important. We've heard
from imy Udoka in training camp the one of the
real points of emphasis with the Rockets is doing a
better job of staying with guys off the dribble so
that they're not overhelping and leading to open three pointers
off of ball movement. We know the Rockets are really
prioritizing that math advantage from three point range, getting more
three pointers themselves and ideally giving up fere to the opponent,

(12:51):
and then how that sort of ties in with the
rest of Jalen's game. We know last year that when
the threes didn't fall for Jalen and through the Aul
Star break was below thirty one percent, we saw the
bad body language, it took a toll on the other
aspects of his game. He didn't always compete defensively. Offensively,
he would occasionally get tentative, and then when he passed

(13:11):
up open shots, the entire flow of the offense would
sort of break down. But conversely, when he makes those shots,
everything looks beautiful with that offense, and he often gets
sharper with the mental stuff as well. I think that's
fairly common, especially with young players. It's nothing that you
should be super alarmed by. And then, in terms of
eman Ujoka and the Rockets potentially playing to that, when

(13:34):
he tweaked the offense at the All Star break to
play with more pace shoot more threes, Jalen said that
was to his benefit, that higher pace, and from that
point forward he shot thirty seven percent on threes the
rest of the year, and that's when the rest of
his game picked up alongside that uptick in three point shooting,
and he nearly won Western Conference Player of the Month
honors in March when the Rockets won eleven straight games

(13:57):
and went thirteen and two. It all came together at
the same time, and so I do think that you
can make a case that it's not just random, there's
a stylistic change that's working to his benefit, and perhaps
this is just carrying all of that over into the
new season, exactly what you'd want to see between year
three and your four. We know John Lucas, longtime Rockets
assistant coach now for an office guy, mentioned this time

(14:19):
a year ago that it wasn't your three, it was
year four that he thought that Cherylyn would get to
that job Morant type level. Maybe that's exactly what's happening.
If he's anywhere near the ballpark of that thirty seven
percent figure on threes, there's just too many tools for
him not to work out. If he's shooting high volume
threes and making thirty seven percent or better, he's going

(14:43):
to be at least in the low twenties, maybe the
mid to upper twenties in terms of points per game,
and assuming efficiency is reasonable, which it almost certainly would be.
If he's shooting threes at high volume at a good clip,
I don't know how he wouldn't have a good true
shooting percentage. If he's making threes at vallume at a
respectable rate. He does seem to be reading defenders better

(15:03):
on drives as well, so I'm caustiably optimistic that he'll
get to the free throw line a little bit more
this year. I know that's been an emphasis for him,
also finishing through traffic, all that kind of stuff. The
bottom line is he's going to put up the type
of numbers if the threes are falling, that are going
to get into the contract he wants and secure his
future in Houston. Now, to emphasize that's not to say

(15:25):
it's for sure going to happen. It's one preseason game,
and even last year we're talking about just a couple
of months after the All Star break. But the fact
that the trend did seem to continue, the fact that
he looked like still the same guy with the same approach,
even playing with all pro in Shan Goon, I do
think it's fair to be encouraged. I kept going back

(15:45):
to the Rafel's Stone interview from the trade deadline when
Jalen is actually really struggling, and Rafel said that Jalen
has a skill set that nobody else on the roster
can really replicate, and reading between the lines, it felt
like he was justifying wide seen was getting such a
long leash and hadn't lost his spot in the starting lineup,
even though a lot of fans were wanting him to

(16:05):
be benched at that time. But when you really think
about it, it makes sense because nobody else can really do
what Jalen does in terms of being a perimeter based
scorer that really creates his own offense out of tough spots,
not just in transition, but the half court as well.
I know some folks will say that Cam Whitmore can
do the same thing, and he's even bigger and maybe

(16:27):
even more athletic, but I don't buy that, at least
not yet. Cam gets most of his buckets in transition,
obviously Monday they were the facials of the ad against
Walker Kessler. And in the half court. Cam's a good shooter,
he's a good off ball cutter. Shangoon got him on
the back door cuts a couple of times. But Cam's
not really a creator. He's not really making advanced reads,
he's not kicking it out, he's not scoring a ton

(16:50):
in isolation. Now, that might come in time. He's still
in just his second year and Jalen is entering year four,
so there should be a gap. But right now Cam
is that guy. Jalen is and he's basically the only
guy who can be with the way the roster is
currently constructed. And so when I see a game Mike
last night and I saw the way the Rockets ended

(17:10):
last season, it makes me think that, you know, Jalen
probably isn't their best player. I think at the moment
that's either Shangoon or Fred. Probably Shinangoon. But it's worth
noting that the second half sort of went off the
rails because Fred wasn't playing. That's the trend we saw
last year too. So while Shingun is clearly the highest upside,
you could certainly make an argument for Fred, and the

(17:31):
advanced stats still love him. And so until Jalen does
what he's done since the All Star rate for a
much more sustained period, I'm not going to put him
in the class of all Pe or Fred, they are
the best players. I do think you can make a
good argument that Jalen is the most important because with
him as the tip of the spear scorer, that's what

(17:54):
really takes this team from mediocre the forty one and
forty one version they were last year year to being
really good. Let's not to say he's a finished product
because there's obviously still a ways to go. Sample size
is small, He's got to do it consistently, all those caveats,
but when he gives you what he did late last
season and what we saw to start this preseason, the

(18:16):
team's just got too much talent and depth elsewhere on
the roster not to be really good and unlike the
other spots where you know Fred's a good player, but
you do have Reed Shepherd behind him in terms of
verrstatile wings that can defend, shoot, do a lot of
different things, which you've got him in toops, and you've
got j Boy Smith, You've got Tory Ethan. There's not
really a drop in guy for Jalen Green can what

(18:38):
more might be? I don't think he's there just yet.
And so all that leads me to say that Jalen's
performance is sort of makes him the ultimate variable. And
we sort of saw this offseason like before. We make
it seem like that, you know, we're just gushing over
Jalen when in reality it's a small sample. I get it. Look,
we know this offseason the Rockets flirted with potentially making

(18:59):
it trade for a more proven commodity at that position
and a superstar like a Dodvan Mitchell or Devin Booker.
And this is the reason the Rockets know that if
they can get elite production out of that role, out
of that position, then you surround it with the infrastructure
they've got at all those other spots, you can be
really good. Right now. You can take the kind of

(19:21):
leap that OKC did a year ago, going from forty
to forty two to fifty seven to twenty five. You
might could even contend. It's honestly not that far away
if you have that type of dominant scorer at the
shooting guard spot. Now, as we learned this offseason, none
of the Devin Booker Donovan Mitchell types are actually available.
And so from there the Rockets decided the next best

(19:43):
option was just stay the course with Jalen and maybe
he reaches the next level himself. I mean, at this
point that's clearly the hope. And in that scenario, maybe
you don't even need a super splashy trade to eventually contend.
Maybe the Rockets just develop everything organically. And while that
maybe the pie and the sky goal, it's not i
employed possible, we can certainly hope for it, and I
guess to bring this discussion full circle before I hand

(20:04):
it off to you. Polo, Again, no victory laps. We're
not even remotely close to a point where we should
be celebrating Jalen Green as on or back on that
starlight trajectory. But I do think that even within the
limited confines of just one preseason game, when you see
how the Rockets perform as a team when Jalen plays

(20:26):
at that type of elite level, it's just a great
reminder to me of why he's the ultimate variable the
way this team is currently built. He's not the best player,
but I think he's the most important. Pallo, what did
you think of Jalen last night, not just in terms
of the one game against the Jazz, but also the
framework I laid out in terms of how he fits

(20:48):
into the bigger blueprint that we know they're trying to
put together.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, so when it comes to Jollen a lot, like
you said, we we have to see him, you know,
do this for all period this time to be able
to trust it be that has been you know, there's
been multiple long switch of his career where he's been
really good and then followed it up by not being
as good afterwards. It's obviously a preseason game. It's obviously
what's protected to be a bad team. But there's no

(21:15):
way you don't like what you saw, and there's some
intangible things that that you can still look at through
this game. I felt like the game in general was
pretty low effort, even defensively. I mean, you know, within
the realm of what is Rockets basketball, I still felt
like guys weren't giving it there all.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
And it's you know, it's preseason.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
It's understandable, but I really thought that Jewen was one
of the guys that was, you know, trying the most
to get around screens and.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
All of that yettitude.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
You made a good but that usually when he's going offensively,
he's also better defensively. I think historically or for three
years of his career, that has been the case. But
also regard a few games where she wasn't getting it
going offensively and offensively she was trying to make up
for it.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
That being said.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
I think with Jallen, we know he has the tools
to be a good on ball defender, and he's shown
throughout long struggle that he can be that, so that's
not new. We know that he has the speed he
has the handle already.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
He flashed the passing last year. I think he had
stressures of the season where.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
He's shown the ability to shoot and then different stretches
for he shown the ability to finish her on the rim.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
I you know, were you watching the game because I
didn't want it five.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
I thought that even though the Jazz have a room
protector and Walker Kessler, there weren't many examples of Kiln
driving at him, so I could see, you know, how
he's he finishing or how is he dealing with room protection.
She did have a couple I think was there were
a couple you know, reverse sway ups. One of them
was an end one. So he's shown a little bit

(22:49):
of flashes finishing there obviously were over analyzing just a
very small sample, as you said, so I definitely, you know,
was paying attention to that and thought that was great.
But with Chile, it's you know, it's about doing it
over over a long stretch of time. And I do
agree with you that there's nobody on distrust that they
can do with Chilender's killing. Is our only you know,
true guard in the sense of you know bread, I mean,

(23:15):
for it's a true god I don't really consider Fred as.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
He's a general. Yeah, he's not a tip of the
spirit of scorer. That's the way I look at it.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
I think you know, when you can tell and you're
you're thinking of the top of what you're thinking of,
you know, obviously these shift a little bit. You know,
there's not exactly like competitioning of Bradley Beal. You're thinking
of the Aaron Fox Fan Mitchell that's in Booker, that
that type of play. That they can be lead ball handlers,
but they are shifty.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
Guards, right, they are a true guard. Came with more.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
While he can play shooting guard. I he can move
well enough. His game is more I'll call it vertical
in the sase that he's not really getting around you,
he's getting through you more kind of like a wind
more like whate a he small forward or or or
power forward in this in a he used to score
more like Auldjayson Tatum or Jillen Brown rather than you know,

(24:05):
defant Bookers out of the midsals of the world.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
To make your point on the difference between Jalen and Fred,
Fred didn't make a shot last night. He didn't even
play in the second half again, just fifteen first half minutes.
Didn't make a shot, but he still made a clear
impact because aight assists to no turnovers. He's setting up
his teammates, he's leading, that's his role. The difference for
Jalen is you need him to actually create for himself

(24:29):
out of very tight spots. I mean, we can talk
about the transition game. That's important, they are playing with
more pace, but he's also the one guy that they
can really trust to create himself and bail them out
against tough half court defenses when you just need a
bucket late in close games, like you know, Tonight's going
to be a good example when we see him in

(24:50):
Oklahoma City. That was the ultimate example last year near
the end of the winning streak when he bailed them
out late in Oklahoma City against a team that did
have rem protection. Both making the threes and also finishing
through contact and around contact near the rim. That's Jalen
at his best. That's what he could do that no
one else on the roster can do. Right.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, I definitely agree as the meals that I noticed then,
just given the specific I thought Jillen was a lot
more aggressive in you know, recognizing that he has a
mismatch and attacking it. I think throughout his career something
that I've really struggled watching him is he often has
as the mismatch and passes off of it. Listen, you're
you're quick enough, you can just blow by. You know,

(25:31):
ninety percent of the league are faster than you could
just blow You have blow by speed for ninety percent
of the league, and a lot of the times he
has that mismatching and doesn't premiss it. I thought there
were a couple of occations last night that that you know,
in which he did that, and so it's it's fortelling.
It's mostly about you know, keeping this up and for

(25:53):
the team. As you said, I do agree, it is
massive that if Kilan can become that type of player,
because all of a sudden, if if he is that
type of player, you're no longer looking at Bradley, at
Devin Bookers and Mitchells of the world. You can focus,
you can shift your thems towards some other positions.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
You have to show up.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
And the point that I really want to get across
some jailin is but it will can all be right.
You wish you know that, there's very clear weaknesses. You
wish I'll be could be a part of riom protector,
and you either that'll be more switch or we'll get
into all being a little bit, and you wish that
he could be a rival three point shooter. Those are
too clear, witnesses. And then obviously his strengths are so

(26:32):
good that that they make him a better bullet than
Yellen at this moment. But you know, those are kind
of in the red, very much in the red as
skills for him, as opposed to jailin where I think
he has a lot of skills in the orange or
a lot of skills in the yellow, and it's about
turning some of those into into the green in the
spectrum from bad to good. And so with Geleen, it's

(26:54):
not it's not like, for example, make it the parallel
without be. Again, we saw all be and he needs
this transition. We saw all p you know, shoot just
catch and shoot a contested three and it was nothing
but nothing but net And I was like, oh, okay,
seeing in a preseason name in a small sample, seeing
him do that once signals oh, there's a shifting advatus.

(27:17):
You can see more of this going forward with Jail
since he's not going to show us anything new because
there's nothing new for him to show us. It's about
consistency over a larger sampole because Flas is for Jal
and don't really you know, make a difference anywhere. We've
seen all the flass as. We know that he can
do basically anything. It's about being able to do that
consistently and putting together multiple of those upgrades from yellow

(27:40):
to green to become that type of player.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
And one last point on Jayala, I like your allergy
of his laws, some of them being in the orange
or the yellow and transitioning them to green. The reason
I keep coming back to the three point shooting in theory,
it's so fixable. We're not asking for anything drastic. We're
not asking for a men Thompson to go from ten
percent or whatever he was last year to then being

(28:04):
a knockdown shooter. No, we're talking about a guy who
has had flashes, as you mentioned, as a shooter at
times over his NBA career and over his first three
seasons as a whole, he's been somewhere in the range
of thirty three thirty four percent. Just take that with
a little better shot selection, a little more confidence, perhaps
with pace plaguing goose skills a little bit more. Just

(28:27):
take that thirty three to thirty four and push it
closer to the thirty seven percent that he's been since
the All Star rate last year. That is not that
hard to do. And if he's making threes just at
a thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight percent clip, then
all of a sudden, that's going to unlock so many
other layers to his game than we feeling better about himself.
He's going to compete harder defensively, as we've talked about,

(28:48):
and so to me, that's why the Jalen improvement is
just so tantalizing. It's not that far away, it's right there.
If he can just hold the three point shot in
the upper thirties, that's just going to open up so
many other elements. And you combine that with his elite athleticism,
with his ability defensively to be a top shelf on

(29:09):
ball guy, with his confidence getting better, it can just
lead to so many other things. And even though Jalen
has a ways to go to be a so called
winning player, overall, I just feel like it can come
together very quickly. If he hits the threes at a
good clip. And so that's why I keep focusing on that.
It's a very attainable goal. And if he attains that goal,

(29:29):
then I feel like a lot of other stuff is
going to fall in line. It's not a fair characterization.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah, I honestly don't even think that he's you know,
I think just fix you. If you bump threes from
thirty four percent to thirty seven percent, I think that's
enough to make him, you know, a positive player, a
winning player, and for this team, the impact will be massive.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
And he'll because in terms of his contract, he'll be
averaging twenty three, twenty four to twenty five points per
game just by doing that, because he'll take more shots,
he'll be out on the floor more because he's not
getting benched. I mean, it will all come together very
quickly if he can shoot at a respectable level. And
you know, some of it is mechanics. We know Ben
Sullivan's been working with him the same way he does
with all those guys. We know the Rockets are trying
to adjust the system to his skills. He's now in

(30:12):
year two with Eve Joka. But a lot of this
just comes down to you know, Jalen getting more confident,
comfortable in his own skin, and it just I guess,
more than anything, what it felt like to me with Jalen.
The vibes were still the same to open this preseason
that they were to end last regular season. And if
the vibes are the same, then I feel like that's

(30:33):
a pretty reasonable goal.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
I think listen to put it very simply, if he
shoots instead of thirty four percent, I think he was
at thirty three percent last season, but if you evers
had this career is at thirty four percent, if he
bumps that up thirty seven ten. Also, theen you're looking
at forty four percent from the field. If he remains
eighty percent from the line, you know that's like a
twenty two five and four guy with a steel basic

(31:00):
is still a game. So basically maintaining the numbers he
had last year, bumping down three point percent by three percent,
if you're looking at a guy that and in his
twenty two year old season, that's not a thefest viability
that can stay in front of guys that's averaging twenty
two five and four on forty four thirty seven eighty splits,

(31:21):
You'll give you max that guy ten or or seven times.
There's no TV in the league that doesn't max a
guy like that unless he's playing on a ten win
team or a ten win team.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Obviously you don't.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Obviously you have to have team success to go with it.
And unless there's some outlayer outlayer thing like he's all
of a sudden five turn over the game or al
of then he can't defend anyone, or he has an
injury or something like that. If you will book that
those starts on paper, just increasing that three point percentage
and the trickle down effect that that it has on
his other steps he's going to get, especially from the Rockets,

(31:52):
he's going to get a MAX extension the next offseason
if he gets that. So I think it's really that
close for him between being you know, yeah, massive question
mark to just someone who's overwhelming with positive and I
think dictum sensus.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
To be agattended. All right, one guy who is already
overwhelmingly positive and you mentioned him a little bit already
is all per in Shangoon also extension eligible. We might
touch on that, although I don't want to get too
deep into the contractual elements. I mean, we'll have a
resolution in under two weeks anyway, and I do suspect

(32:29):
for reasons we let out in the past, if extension
gets done, would you consider how low his cap hold
would be as a mid first run pick. My guest
is that if it gets done, it's because he's giving
something back, So it's pointless to speculate too much until
we know what that is and what that looks like.
We can talk abstractly, but there's so many possibilities as
far as what that would be, it's hard to get

(32:51):
too deep on it, at least more than we already
have in previous episodes. But what I will say about
Shin Goon, you know, it certainly caught me off guard
able bit when not only did Shingoon express optimism at
media Day about a deal potentially getting done by that
October twenty first deadline, but also the next day Jonathan
fag and the Cornicliver exciting a team source that there
was a legitimate chance of a deal getting done. He
definitely raised my eyebrow. And then fast forward to last

(33:16):
night's game, seeing the way Shingoon move, we can look
at the box score and he adds seventeen points, four assists,
four rebounds, three seals in twenty two minutes, six of eight,
shooting one of two from three. You mentioned the catch
and shoot, which was a twenty five footer from the wing. Boy,
would that open up a lot of options If he
can reliably make that also four to four from the
free throw line, that's an encouraging sign as well. You know,

(33:38):
all the usual caveats that we threw out for Jalen Green,
they apply to I'll pee discussing his opener in Salt
Lake City as well. But I think what stood out
to me most and I think their implications beyond just
one preseason game, was how well he moved. The biggest
compliment that I can give him is that the defense

(33:59):
changed dramatic in a bad way when he was removed
from the game midway through the first quarter and replaced
by Steven Adams, who you know, that's not really an
insult to Stephen. He's coming off a yearline knee injury.
He's thirty one years old, he's the big prototype, the
traditional so we know he's going to be a little
bit slow footed, and the Jazz attacked him in the

(34:21):
pick and roll. John Collins shot at three out of
the quarner because Stephen wasn't able to close out. I
think the Rockets, you know, they know it comes from
the territory of having the traditional center like Steven Adams,
so they'll have to pick and choose the batch up.
Maybe there's a few games ball baal Jabori or Jack
Landill makes a little bit more sense. But the fact
that Shongoon, who over his first three years was occasionally

(34:42):
a liability on the defensive end in terms of not
really being able to switch, was able to switch in
a way that was daggeringly different than how the Rockets
defended with Steven Adams on the floor. To me, that's
about the highest compliment you can pay to all per
Inchhomoon because we know the story of his first three seasons.
He's been great offensively, defense has been where the questions

(35:02):
have been. And yet I'm reading from Fagan's postgame story
on Yutah's first sixteen possessions, the Jazz made just one
of twelve shots and had five turnovers. Shinegun was far
from a loan in his defensive performance, but the way
he moved, particularly in helped defense, and then the racket
switches showed how far he had come. And so we
heard from me may Udoka postgame. I tweeted that it

(35:24):
looked like Shinegun was a little bit lighter, he was
more agile, and he May confirmed that post game, said
he had a great summer, that he's lighter and so
that helps him to play in space more. He's also
got more lean muscle mass. So it's not just you know,
vibes and this is what we think is happening, and
maybe our eyes are you know, playing tricks on us. No,
he objectively is a lighter, more agile player, which will

(35:48):
help him on the defensive end. And so to sort
of take it full circle, but yeah, just the fact that,
oh he had some shots go in, and yet it'd
be great if he's a catch and shoot big and
you can play five out. You know, those are a
little more pie in the sky aspirational time will on that.
What is most encouraging to me about LP is the
way he clearly took his body seriously this off season.

(36:08):
And to bring it back to the contractual discussion, if
a guy that is already as accomplished as he is,
we know the gifts he had offensively, he was a
legitimate All Star candidate last year. He has already played
at a max sovel. He is already far outperformed his
draft slot. It would be easy for him to rest
on his laurels and be happy the fact that this

(36:29):
off season he got healthy, he worked back from the
ankle injury, and he has his body in shape. Last
year as heavily as he was leaned on offensively, you know,
there was some defensive slippage as the year progressed. The
fact that he took this off season more seriously than
ever before and it's in great physical shape. That's one
of those things that speaks well to his mental makeup.

(36:50):
And so maybe that's the kind of thing if you're
on the fence about, well, is it really worth it
to give him the contract extension a year early and
take away from some of your flexibility. It's a tough call.
There's a million little things that could, you know, nudge
you one direction or the other. But if you really
believe in his mental makeup, if he is mature, if
he is taking his body seriously to the extent that

(37:11):
it appears he is, then that's just the kind of
little thing that might sort of tip the scales a
little bit when the rockets have to make this final
decision over the next couple of weeks. So all in all,
I thought a very encouraging night for all p and
beyond just the typical one game things. I think the
fact that he took his body so seriously this offseason
just speaks very well to I guess, his character in

(37:33):
either the likelihood of him ultimately achieving all of this
potential long term right.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
And I definitely noticed that he was lighter if you
will look at any of the so obviously I've watched
the game the day after, so I had already seen
some tweaks about it, and I was like, Okay, let's
see what this is about. He definitely looks slighter. He
definitely looks a lot better switching for his you know,
physical for his physical ability earlier first three seasons, it

(38:01):
was better than you would expect the guy that looked
like him obviously, you.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
Know, more of a ground and found, you know.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Post guy to be able to switch like he was
better than you would expect. I think, see, and he
looked so much more mobile than he did previously right now,
I think he was a very big difference and bigger
than and as Rivers said, it makes me wonder how
he would work in a in a you know, more

(38:30):
switch heavy scheme than what will be even right now.
And I wonder if if that's the reason why the
difference looked so different with him versus other Stivel albums.
Is a drop pick, There's no two ways about it.
He's not right that being out of you know, he's
not getting anywhere close to the fleet awler, so which
in good potentially becoming that more type of.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
Switch pig.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
And with the personal that the Rockets currently have with
the men thombs, then with our reason, especially those two
as you know, help defenders as someone as guys that
can help because obviously you're not expecting shan gun to
lock down guys ins in front of everybody, but you
expect them to sit in front of bigger guys and
to at least bunnel guys away from the rim or

(39:13):
you know, have them take one step to the right
when they're driving, when they're driving right.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
As opposed to being straight to the bucket.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
So you give a chance to guys like a man
pumps to the excellent added for a reason will turn
to p escel and added and potentially read shepherd as well,
because he has shown tremendous ability for a guard and
when it comes to help defense and blocking shots, and
then you've seen his vertical and even for events for
a guard obviously not plocking shots, but stripping guys when

(39:40):
they're driving. If Shagun can be you know, a lot
better than he was last year, which I think he
is right now, that's a complete game sinder for him.
It's a You're you're moving from looking at him as
a brook opas type of big that you can't have.
You can't have step up because both he's too slow
and he's not tall enough to make up for that's fullness,

(40:01):
and you start looking at him as more of a Parma,
the biotype of the obviously never as good as Parama.
The Biopi is the epitome of this, but as someone
who's good step for the roupe and make up for
the fact that he's on Mistic said, Bam is not
changling with that.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
So that's it.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Like if he if he can sustain this, that's a
complete game changer. I'll also say, just trying, you know,
Katie spins off quickly. I still think we and obviously
it's more simple size. We don't know how how much
of this is is an example of what the season
is going to be. But I still think we don't
go to the post enough. Although left me change in

(40:37):
close games. Obviously, maybe it was because they had the
chess that are pretty big team with with marketing.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Right, I thought that was the factor last night marking
it in Kesseler.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Yeah, I would say that. Obviously you have to mention
the contested three that he took. He took a couple more.
There was a couple more you don't take again. But
that's how we're going to go away from his game
because he's able to put the the bond the foe
and both bass guys that are his size. The concern three.
As I said, as I was making the point before,

(41:09):
it's so different from you it typically does that. That
could be a game tinder as well. And if he's
will to pull the trigger quick like, it's not like
there's a big difference between pulling the trigger quick and
shooting thirty five percent and being really hesitant to pull
the trigger and shooting thirty seven percent. I was much
further thirty five and be confident because teams will be
that's good enough for the team.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
You will respect it.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
And when it comes to closing out, if you're confident,
teams will sell out on the close out. If you
pump fake too much, you know, they will do that
the little hesitant close out that a lot of players
do just try to try to bother you. And if
you're a showers full confidence and is sure at first signed,
that's not gone about you. People won't be doing that
to you.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
And I the only thing that I want to say
when you.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Look at the close ups, if you look at you know,
his arm, arms, three throws and stuff like that, he
looks a lot more define like his his muscles are
a lot more defined than they were previous. Yeah, it's
like if you go and pull up pictures from ohou see,
I haven't seen them, you know without a sirt arm.
But just looking at his arms, you don't see a
lot of the fattery next to the muscle that's you know,

(42:14):
if he because he there's never been a doubt that
she Gon's athletic. It was just that he that he
was kind of driving his fit a little bit when when.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
When moving on defense.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
So that's definitely a big parts my Tomnation singun to
be as good as Singun was and still strive to
make that, you know, change in your game, becoming moral
lead an athlete. It's not just chinking how much you
work out, because I think any player on this team
has a leak and elit.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Uh work rate.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
It's about how you behave in your eating habits of
the That's how you lose fatah.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
I Eiver pointed that out off season.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Right and you know, I'm from Europe, obviously good from Europe.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
It's not easy to change those habits, especially when you're
ret million of dollars and you already know this show
are good enough. That's doing the extra mouth when it
changed your habits outside of the court, because I think
it's mentally it's a lot different to to say, Okay,
I'm going to put one hundred dollars more in going
to the gym the saw season. I think that's you know,

(43:17):
gether with athletes said that that's an easy step to
take the extra step to take. That's a lot of
tougher is changing, you know, when you're not in workloade,
still taking care of your body. I think that's massive
and I wonder him being you know that much on
his heels is prosibly because the Rockets are saying, hey,

(43:37):
you haven't not you haven't earned, but it doesn't make
sense for us to give you this contract.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Right, Yeah, you have to work a little bit harder
to get that contract to your early if that's what
you exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (43:46):
And I think and I think I didn't mentioned this,
and I don't I haven't heard. I haven't heard anybody
mentioned this when they were commenting on the Shingun.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Saga throughout summer.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
But it does make sense. And I wonder if if
she had gotten then as soon as he could have
a point.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
So yeah, And the last thing I'll say on Shoangoon
before we transition to our closing thoughts and you know,
some rapid fire discussion on the other players on the roster.
In terms of what to watch for the next three games.
I would love to see him take more threes. That's
one thing that you can extrapolate from the preseason shots
or shots, especially when we're talking about a guy like

(44:22):
Shongoon who's probably going to be open when he's shooting
them in regular season games as well. It's just about
can he make them defenses have to give up something.
It's just is he confident enough to then take that
twenty five footer from the wing, or is he going
to try and create after the dribble or pass it
to someone else the way he increasingly did his last season.
Progress He started off taking some threes, faded away from it.

(44:45):
Look the thunder. Assuming they play everyone as it appears
they're likely to do tonight, that's a really good defensive
team with a lot of length, so it's not going
to be easy to get in the paint. Take some
threes and if he makes them, obviously that's to the
betterment of the offense, and who knows, maybe even unlocks
in a few select matchups, some double big lineups where
you can play both Shingoon and Steven Adams that you know,

(45:07):
he may said that the Rockets have talked about it
is just about, you know, when you play double bigs,
at least one of them needs to be able to shoot.
That's not going to be Steven Adams. So it comes
down to can Shangun shoot? Can he play in space?
Long way to go, but so far, so good. Encouraging signs.
All right, As we went down, the pod wanted most
of this to be about Jalen Shogun I think they're
the most important storylines for a number of reasons. But

(45:27):
there were a few other things that I made notes on,
and I know you did, Paolo as well. So mentioned
Stephen Adams a few times. I picked on his defense
a little bit, but let's be clear, he made up
for that, and then some on offense. The screens he
set for guys like Jalen Green, like Reach Upper were phenomenal.
And then in terms of defensive foot speed, you know,
some of it's probably his age and his prototype, but

(45:49):
some of it. Look, there is some rust after not
playing for a full calendar year, So I think there's
hope that, you know, as he gets his legs underneath
him more, and he was only cleared a couple of
months ago for true five on five. I've worked that
some of this can be improved a little bit. He's
not going to radically transform his body, but he can
be a little bit better than he was against the Jazz.
You can also argue that the jazz playing John Collins

(46:09):
at the five are better positioned than a lot of
teams to sort of attack that liability. But even if
he was a liability, you know, he did make up
word on the offensive end of the types of screens
he sat, and of course he made an impact on
the class, protecting the rim, all the things you would
expect from a thirty one year old Steven Adams. Just
great to see him healthy and back on the floor.
The other thing that I will say is that the
preseason game, especially against a lesser opponent like the Jazz,

(46:32):
between the opponent and the preseason the games tend to
be a lot more ragged, and so because of that,
guys whose game is a little more half court oriented,
think Steven Adams, think Jabriy Smith Junior as well, the
game isn't going to be as conducive to them putting
up numbers as it is the guys like Kim Whitmore,
Amen Thompson that get out and run. There's some guys

(46:55):
just based stylistically on the type of basketball that's being played,
the rust and also in this the opponent that are
going to be, you know, in a better position than
others to put up numbers. I dont think Jamori necessarily
looked bad. I thought he took advantage of opportunities. When
you add them, it's just, you know, it's sort of
like putting you know, Jabouri or all per Ech and
doing something like that into an All Star Game. We
talked about, how you know, shoot, last decade, James Harden

(47:16):
was not always built for All Star Games with his
style of play, and so I think just the preseason format,
especially against a bad team, it just wasn't necessarily the
setting for Steven Adams or even Jabari Smith's to put
up numbers the guys who did Cam whit more legal
in transition, which we knew. It's going to be hard
not to play him Aman Thompson. I don't know when,
but at some point this year, be it because of
injury or just a difficult decision, they're going to have

(47:39):
to put him if they want to get to the playoffs,
and I think they do at some point by next April,
they're going to pick the hard call to get him
into the starting lineup because clearly, with what he can
give you defensively and the verse tility, you want to
max out his minutes as much as possible, and difficult
to do that if you're artificially not having him out
there for the first six minutes of the first and
third quarters. Doesn't have to happen immediately. I know there's

(47:59):
a lot of other serations, but boy, a man looks
like a beast, and so do not envy may Udoka.
Most likely Dylan Brooks is that I you'd have to
slide out of starting lineup. Maybe there's a case that
could Beach Barri Smith junior as well, or maybe he
gets resolved by an injury. And then beyond that, Reaed Shepherd,
I thought he looked solid. He missed his threes, but
come on, Reach Shepherd can shoot. We know that there's
an enormous amount of data. I thought he actually looked

(48:19):
pretty capable running the offense in front of or in
place of Fred Benfleet in the second half, and I thought,
what was really telling? This surprised me a little bit.
I wondered if there would be a little bit of
sort of back and forth between Reed Shepherd Aaron Holliday,
given how much trust Aaron Holliday clearly gained from me
may Udoka as last season progressed. No, Reed Shepherd was

(48:40):
off the bench before Aaron Holliday in the first half
and he was the guy replacing Fred, and the second half,
Aaron Holliday was in that Jay shun Tate role sort
of eleventh twelfth, thirteenth man. You can use him in
a pinch, but clearly not a priority. Rockets like have
him around. They gave him a raise this offseason, but
it's clear that Reid is a higher priority. I you know,
it's not that I didn't I think that was going

(49:00):
to happen, but I wasn't sure how it would look
to start preseason. And I thought last night it was
very clear that, you know, Reid was ahead of Aaron
Holiday in the hierarchy, which is probably a good sign
that you know, the Rockets do have a good balance
between obviously you want to win games. It's also you
know there's still development to be concerned with this well,
and Read is obviously a far higher priority in the
Grant's scheme than Aaron Holiday. So it reminds you the

(49:22):
Rockets do get the bigger picture. In terms of how
Reid played, I thought it was fine. He had some
open threes, he just missed them, and he's not going
to do that most of the time, as we saw
in Summer League. So I think that'll do it for
my comments. Hollow anything else you went throughout as far
as the rest of the roster. Oh, one other honorable
mentioned alter out there. I mentioned this on Twitter, but
I like Jack McVeagh at the end of your bench.
He's not going to play a lot, not going to

(49:44):
be in your rotation. But you need guys at the
end of your bench that have one ready made skill
as opposed to a jack of all trades, and having
a guy who has a ready made skill and his
three point shooting is a veteran, so he's comfortable in
his own skin. He's played in big games. There's some
value in that. I don't wat Jack mcvaye to play
rotation minutes, but whenever injuries iteverably happened, I like having

(50:04):
him as an option. He's a good contrast to someone
like jay Sean Tait, who obviously does a lot of
the other things well, but can't shoot to save his
life from three point range. Jack McVay can, so I
really liked his play as well. Pallo, what are your
thoughts rapid fire as we wind down the pot?

Speaker 4 (50:17):
Yeah, so really quick.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
I thought, I meant Sandell look a lot, lot lot better.
I think it's it's as transforming as as Singoom's physical
physical differences were. He's really rubling a lot closer to
the floor making use of his link span, and he
can do it a lot faster and without bending his
body as much.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Last year he wished he wanted to dribble fast.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
What he would often do is he would dribble to
the side, like he would position his body, you know,
but ridiculously the direction that he wanted to go, and
it would be some weird thing when he's just thribbling
with his right hand and he's trying to go up
the floor that way. So none of that saw him
dribbling close to the floor, saw him you know, do
a lot of different stuff, you know, taking directions off
the dribble really like that if you want them, if

(51:01):
you we want him to be a leit card, that
needed to be something that got better.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
It definitely did.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
I was intrigued by how much we ran pick and
roll between men Thompson and Steven Adams. You wouldn't you
wouldn't think that that would work because neither of them
gives placed the floor.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
There were some turnovers that came of it, but I.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Mean, so good at treating the needle on these passes
that one Steven Adams gets enough chemistry with him and
how he you know, how slick he is passing the
ball or or sneaking the ball through the two defenders
defending the pick and roll. I think that that's something
that's worth exploring it knowing theory, it shouldn't be I
thought really was was pretty sloppy, not only the missed shots,
I mean just objectivity in punishing the advantages as if

(51:41):
An Adams was creating for him off screens.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Nervous, Yeah, use a little tentative at times.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
First, Yeah, definitely obviously nothing to do, nothing to worry about,
as I thought the defense held up. He was he
was stuck carding go into the colled section. Sometimes did
a good enough job he could. He got totally stay
in front of him, which is important because we saw
in some league it was getting worn by a few times.
Obviously he played a lot of minutes. I totally could
be that it was cast. But that was something that

(52:08):
I was looking out for and it definitely held up.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
It took some are on holiday.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
Actual he played horrible. I thought his defense was terrible.
He was getting destroyed and he's while you were expected
the last seas that he was playing a lot more physical,
so you didn't see that happen as often and then
I was largely a little bit unimpressed with the offense,
which is something that struggled last year, and obviously being
really good changes that the calculus completely, but I didn't

(52:35):
see a lot of creativity. I didn't see the post
being fed nearly enough. Witching gun obviously preceded game matchup.
I understand that we'll see a bigger, simple size obviousitly,
you know.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
Just very more way more shingoon centric in a couple
of weeks when it matters. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Yeah, So I just wanted to imagine that I helped
sing him to be more more featured, and I'll close it. Oh,
I thought the voice policially built upon what he was
doing last season, did a lot of the same stuff
I was.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
You know, another shot he missed, the one it took
for it was a terrible heat at the end of
the quarter.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Or right, and yeah, three or six otherwise had five rebounds,
I thought, which I thought.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
I thought he offensively was playing as confidence getting to
the rim. The little midthering shots that he takes, I
thought those are fine. Obviously when he jumps to offensive
game plan, what often happens is at the beginning of
the game, you fall was religiously and then you get
away from it as the game goes on. I thought
earlier in the game, we're trying to get to the
postal lot so that they don't work for the first
five or.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
Six possessions, we moved away from it.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Kari was one of the people that were, you know,
by the Zire featured in the post.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
I wondered if that's.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
Something that we should be looking forward to for you know,
the the early doings of the season. And uh, the
last thing I'll say is keim with Moore romains as
sparkedlub that he was last season. Yeah, he needs five
shots to score both points.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
You know, it's of assos insay.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
And last thing that will say, man, I'm also excited
to watch Tari's and plays on basketball and I didn't
get too so I'm sad about.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Get it tonight. You'll get it tonight. But fair point,
as much as last night felt like the return to basketball,
it's not totally the return to Rockets basketball, especially for
you until you get Tari. That's a fair point. It's
sort of a clever right Emudoka that'll leave us wanting
a little bit more heading into Game two because Yeah,
you can fill a lot of those gaps with more
Tori East And it's amazing how he's just such a

(54:30):
Swiss army knife. They can cover a lot of different
weaknesses in a lot of areas and so exciting to
watch him against the Thunder. You're it sounds like you'll
be on the road against a bull shriking team. It's
among the best in the NBA. So Tarry looking forward
to having him back.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Yeah, And speaking of just before we go, speaking of
Tari's and skill set, I will say you will lose
rebounding by having sn look cleaner and be more suitable. Sure,
but I think rebounding was the last issue that this
team ever had.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
And if you have the.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
Thompson, you have a lot of the other sites, Yeah,
a lot. Does you have no problems with the rebounding slide,
it's actually even more ideal. That's see would be Customer Mobile.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Yeah, absolutely, all right, Well that will do it for today. Again,
we'll have more commentary in the days ahead as the
preseason continues and we get a bigger sample size. We'll
also resume our Meet the Rockets Broadcaster series that we've
had going on. Check that out in our logger Line archives,
so you've not seen those already, so we hope to
have Craig Akraman and Ryan Hollins and then your future
and they'll potentially provide some analysis on what we see

(55:29):
in the preseason as well. Again, stay tuned for that
in the days ahead. Until then, this is where we'll
wrap it for today. And if you want more content
before the next show, whatever it is, either later this
week or early next week, the best place to get
it is online. Follow me on Twitter, slash x at
Benjubo's the show at the logger Line at Palo Al's NBA,
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(55:50):
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with those floods complete, we'll join for today for Paolo.
I'm Ben thanks always for listening, and please come back

(56:12):
soon for another new episode of the Logger Line.