November 4, 2024 • 9 mins
After a statement win at Dallas and a nearly historic comeback versus Golden State (which fell short in overtime), the Rockets (3-3) remain stuck on the launch pad as they hover near .500 early in the 2024-25 NBA season.
Prior to Monday’s home game versus New York, this interview segment explores the highs and lows leading to that inconsistency. Voices include The Lager Line’s Ben DuBose and SportsTalk 790’s Chris Gordy and Stan Norfleet.
Topics include promising signs by Tari Eason; potential counters as teams increasingly commit defensive resources to Jalen Green; and reasons for slow starts by Alperen Sengun and Fred VanVleet.
Prior to Monday’s home game versus New York, this interview segment explores the highs and lows leading to that inconsistency. Voices include The Lager Line’s Ben DuBose and SportsTalk 790’s Chris Gordy and Stan Norfleet.
Topics include promising signs by Tari Eason; potential counters as teams increasingly commit defensive resources to Jalen Green; and reasons for slow starts by Alperen Sengun and Fred VanVleet.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Rockets bad. I thought they had it on Saturday night.
They took it to overtime down thirty one versus the
Golden State Warriors without Klay Thompson. Still looks weird, but
they found a way to rally to help us success.
Where the Rockets are back in action tonight out the Rockets,
some weird ass start time seven forty five at the
(00:22):
Toyota Center to night. I don't know what the Semn
forty five local time is. Nonetheless, here the Knicks Jalen
Bryn saying who they have now, They've got Karl Anthony Towns.
Of course, the Rockets, led by Jalen Green to assist
us with previewing not only tonight's matchup, but recapping what
we may have missed over the weekend. Ben Dubo's Rockets
(00:42):
analysts for us here at seven ninety, editor of USA
Today's Rockets Wire and a contributor to the Locker Line
podcast here on Sports seven ninety dot com. Being good
morning to you, hope you will rest. The brother headed
over to a seven forty five tip Nix in town.
Let's start there, you know what, Let's not start that.
I'll come back to that. Over the weekend, I mentioned
(01:03):
the Golden State down thirty one, how'd they get back
into it?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Korea Night for Tari, Yeah, Tarry Ethan was a big story.
His energy just almost single handedly got the Rockets back
in that game in the second half, especially when you
pair him with Vin Thompson. That duo gets some turnovers
that you wouldn't believe. At times, it looked like a
high school game the way they would just press the
Warriors at half court, and it felt like one turnover
(01:29):
return into two, two turned into three, and that thing snowballs. Unfortunately,
the reason why you don't see too many thirty plus
point comeback what often happens is that even if you
do climb the mountain and get all the way back,
you use up so much energy in doing so that
at some point you run out of gas. And that's
what happened in overtime. They use so much energy to
come back from down thirty one that by the time
(01:50):
they sort of caught their breath that three through and
a half of a break between the fourth quarter and overtime,
they just never looked right in ot They shot just
one to twelve, and it felt like they had to
use up all their legs to get back in the game.
So kudos to Tory Easton and men Thompson both played
fabulous off the bench got the Rockets back in it.
But yeah, you can't start down thirty against a good
(02:11):
team and expect to win the game. Yeah, that's it's
so weird.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I mean, we've become conditioned to know the Golden State Warriors. Oh,
if they don't have Stephs and they don't have Clay
and they don't have this guy, they're not any good.
And it's like Steve Kurrs pretty damn good coach. They
just I don't know, if they just win it sucks.
Buddy Heal goes there and just start scoring.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, and I will say that Buddy Heel feels like
having Klay Thompson again. I May Udoka made that comparison
before the game, and I think he's spot on. So
even if they don't have Clay and name, it feels
like when you see Buddy Heill go out there and
drop in six or seven threes whatever it was. And
I think the Warriors started nine of eleven from three.
I really think the Rockets aren't that concerned about the
(02:50):
defensive end. I'm sure May Udoka in the film room
will point out that, yeah, they had laughses in rotation,
their effort could be better, but look, you shouldn't shoot
nine of eleven on three that shoot around, and they
did it to start that game. So in terms of
how they fell down by thirty plus points, I think
the defense you just sort of have to tip your
cap to the Warriors and bide your time until they
eventually missed some shots, which they did in the second half.
(03:11):
Better energy from Charnie Easton than then Thompson certainly contributed
to that. I think the bigger story is offensively, guys
like Alper and Shanoon fred than Fleet have not got
going yet this season. That's where I think the Rockets
really got off to a bad start on Saturday, down
seventy one to forty three and a half, and that's
what they got to try and fix as they get
ready for a good next team tonight.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, I'm looking at this thing, gentlemen. Seven points from
Dylan Brooks and seven points from Jalen Green to starters
on Saturday night. You mentioned the legs probably not being
there to finish that thing. So here the Rockets are
three and three on the season, one and two at home.
They're obviously in the Toyota Center, and here it comes
(03:53):
the Knicks. I'm just noticing. Wow, I didn't realize Buddy
Hills twenty seven was off the bench. I didn't realize
that in real time. Crazy and then sorry, off the
ban at twenty seven. M all right, mix in town tonight.
I mentioned you know who headlines for them? What can
you say? What's going on with this funky time? This
start time seven forty five? What is that?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah? So the NBA has all thirty of its teams
playing tonight because they're all off tomorrow for Election Day,
and then everybody's in action. It's sort of experimenting. We
know the NBA likes to try a new thing this year.
It is the second year of the Cup. These are
not Cup games, but along the same lines of I
guess experimentation. What they're doing is starting every game from
(04:33):
six in the nine or six to nine thirty, exactly
fifteen minutes apart. So like one game starts at six,
another at six fifteen, another at six thirty, and the
idea being that, yeah, with every team in action, then
teams can you know that fans can sort of flip
around an NBA League pass and see all these games
that they get to a finish at different times. So
they're just sort of trying to see what happens if
(04:55):
they faggered, right exactly, that's right, that's the idea. Who
knows if it will work. But I see why Adam
Silver is, you know, JUICID as a worthwhile attempt. Look,
the one thing I'll say about the Knicks, this is
the opportunity for the Rockets to really get all for
Chhin Gooon going. They don't have Mitchell Robinson. They start
(05:15):
prol Anthony Tallons who can put up points, but no
one looks a cat at the dynamic defender, and so
this is the ideal spot in my opinion, to get
him going. He's shooting below forty percent from the year.
That's not good enough. We've seen late in close games,
including Saturday against the Warriors, the Rockets aren't playing all
for inchon Gun in winning time. He did not play
a single minute in the fourth quarter or overtime on Saturday,
(05:37):
and I think the reason for that is Imo Udoka.
He sees these Jabari at the five, Tari at the
four lineups, Jabari Smith providing defense better four s facing,
more versatility. There are advantages on the defensive side of
the court. It's just when all for Echion Goon is right,
he provides enough offensively to counteract that well, when he's
(05:59):
shooting below forty percent from the field, he's not giving
you what he typically does offensively. Then all of a
sudden you have to look at the other end of
the court and say, look, we're probably better off going
for more defense, more athleticism, more force facing, which is
what they do with those front court lineups of Jabari
Smith at the five and Tarry Eathen at the four.
So at some point you've got to get all for
(06:20):
Engion Goon going. I think it's a very delicate sort
of balancing at for ima Udoka in that you want
to reward the guys who are playing well, and on
Saturday that was clearly Jabari and Tari. However, should and
Goon is really important to the long term formula of
this team. There's a reason you're paying him almost a
max contract, and so you want to play who deserves
to play. But you also need to make sure that
(06:42):
Shoogoon's leash isn't so short that he doesn't have an
opportunity to get himself going. He needs to get shot attempts,
to get in rhythm, see the ball go through the rim.
Because if he starts shooting, you know, close to fifty
five percent the way he did last year audition out
five six assists per game, then all of a sudden,
he's going to be in those closing lineups. And that's
what they need because you know, Jalen Greens started off
(07:02):
that year hot, but as you would expect, teams are
starting to, you know, defend him with more resources. You're
seeing more blitzes, you're seeing more double teams. We saw
it even in the win against Dallas. We saw it
certainly early in the Warriors game. So the Rocket's got
to have somebody other than Jalen step up. Your two
best offensive players last year were all Friend Schangoon and
President Fleet. Shingun is shooting below forty percent Fred below
(07:24):
thirty percent. So if I get one of those guys
going at least and I think Shingoon Againstkarl Anthony talents,
to me, this is a good spot to really emphasize
getting him going for the first time this season.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
All right, Ben Dubo's analysts here for US at seven ninety.
When it comes to rockets, I'll get you high on
this one. I peek in every so often on exactly
what Reeve Shepherd is doing just over eight minutes a
game in two and a half points, what's going on
with Sheppard out of Kentucky, the rookie third Overall, a
lot of us were excited and like less than thirty seconds?
(07:55):
Is this the plan? Or is he not developing and
earning minutes at the rate that we thought he might.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's just tough to play ten guys, and I think
he may said going into the year that that would
be the challenge for him, and so somebody's going to
get the short end of the sticks, depending on who's hot,
who's cold. Cam had a couple of good games, Cam
whitmore early in the year. I do think that the
longer Fred than Lead struggles, the more they're going to
have to look at reed Shepherd because of that shooting stability.
(08:24):
I don't think six games is the point at which
Shupanic can say Fred's not the guy, he's too old,
he's out thirty, blah blah blah. But if this continues
for two or three more weeks, then I don't see
how Red doesn't get more opportunities with Fred continuing to
shoot below thirty percent from the field, Should that continue?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
All right? That's been Dubo's editor of USA Today's The
Rockets Why are also featured on the logger Line podcast
Talking Rockets here on seven ninety follow him at being
Dubo's du Bosc. Thank you for your time and being
flexible before it's being.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Really appreciated, Bron some good things for having me, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Man, enjoy yourself over at the TC tonight again. Seven
forty five Tip Nicks in Town versus The Rockets
Rockets bad. I thought they had it on Saturday night.
They took it to overtime down thirty one versus the
Golden State Warriors without Klay Thompson. Still looks weird, but
they found a way to rally to help us success.
Where the Rockets are back in action tonight out the Rockets,
some weird ass start time seven forty five at the
(00:22):
Toyota Center to night. I don't know what the Semn
forty five local time is. Nonetheless, here the Knicks Jalen
Bryn saying who they have now, They've got Karl Anthony Towns.
Of course, the Rockets, led by Jalen Green to assist
us with previewing not only tonight's matchup, but recapping what
we may have missed over the weekend. Ben Dubo's Rockets
(00:42):
analysts for us here at seven ninety, editor of USA
Today's Rockets Wire and a contributor to the Locker Line
podcast here on Sports seven ninety dot com. Being good
morning to you, hope you will rest. The brother headed
over to a seven forty five tip Nix in town.
Let's start there, you know what, Let's not start that.
I'll come back to that. Over the weekend, I mentioned
(01:03):
the Golden State down thirty one, how'd they get back
into it?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Korea Night for Tari, Yeah, Tarry Ethan was a big story.
His energy just almost single handedly got the Rockets back
in that game in the second half, especially when you
pair him with Vin Thompson. That duo gets some turnovers
that you wouldn't believe. At times, it looked like a
high school game the way they would just press the
Warriors at half court, and it felt like one turnover
(01:29):
return into two, two turned into three, and that thing snowballs. Unfortunately,
the reason why you don't see too many thirty plus
point comeback what often happens is that even if you
do climb the mountain and get all the way back,
you use up so much energy in doing so that
at some point you run out of gas. And that's
what happened in overtime. They use so much energy to
come back from down thirty one that by the time
(01:50):
they sort of caught their breath that three through and
a half of a break between the fourth quarter and overtime,
they just never looked right in ot They shot just
one to twelve, and it felt like they had to
use up all their legs to get back in the game.
So kudos to Tory Easton and men Thompson both played
fabulous off the bench got the Rockets back in it.
But yeah, you can't start down thirty against a good
(02:11):
team and expect to win the game. Yeah, that's it's
so weird.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I mean, we've become conditioned to know the Golden State Warriors. Oh,
if they don't have Stephs and they don't have Clay
and they don't have this guy, they're not any good.
And it's like Steve Kurrs pretty damn good coach. They
just I don't know, if they just win it sucks.
Buddy Heal goes there and just start scoring.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, and I will say that Buddy Heel feels like
having Klay Thompson again. I May Udoka made that comparison
before the game, and I think he's spot on. So
even if they don't have Clay and name, it feels
like when you see Buddy Heill go out there and
drop in six or seven threes whatever it was. And
I think the Warriors started nine of eleven from three.
I really think the Rockets aren't that concerned about the
(02:50):
defensive end. I'm sure May Udoka in the film room
will point out that, yeah, they had laughses in rotation,
their effort could be better, but look, you shouldn't shoot
nine of eleven on three that shoot around, and they
did it to start that game. So in terms of
how they fell down by thirty plus points, I think
the defense you just sort of have to tip your
cap to the Warriors and bide your time until they
eventually missed some shots, which they did in the second half.
(03:11):
Better energy from Charnie Easton than then Thompson certainly contributed
to that. I think the bigger story is offensively, guys
like Alper and Shanoon fred than Fleet have not got
going yet this season. That's where I think the Rockets
really got off to a bad start on Saturday, down
seventy one to forty three and a half, and that's
what they got to try and fix as they get
ready for a good next team tonight.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, I'm looking at this thing, gentlemen. Seven points from
Dylan Brooks and seven points from Jalen Green to starters
on Saturday night. You mentioned the legs probably not being
there to finish that thing. So here the Rockets are
three and three on the season, one and two at home.
They're obviously in the Toyota Center, and here it comes
(03:53):
the Knicks. I'm just noticing. Wow, I didn't realize Buddy
Hills twenty seven was off the bench. I didn't realize
that in real time. Crazy and then sorry, off the
ban at twenty seven. M all right, mix in town tonight.
I mentioned you know who headlines for them? What can
you say? What's going on with this funky time? This
start time seven forty five? What is that?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah? So the NBA has all thirty of its teams
playing tonight because they're all off tomorrow for Election Day,
and then everybody's in action. It's sort of experimenting. We
know the NBA likes to try a new thing this year.
It is the second year of the Cup. These are
not Cup games, but along the same lines of I
guess experimentation. What they're doing is starting every game from
(04:33):
six in the nine or six to nine thirty, exactly
fifteen minutes apart. So like one game starts at six,
another at six fifteen, another at six thirty, and the
idea being that, yeah, with every team in action, then
teams can you know that fans can sort of flip
around an NBA League pass and see all these games
that they get to a finish at different times. So
they're just sort of trying to see what happens if
(04:55):
they faggered, right exactly, that's right, that's the idea. Who
knows if it will work. But I see why Adam
Silver is, you know, JUICID as a worthwhile attempt. Look,
the one thing I'll say about the Knicks, this is
the opportunity for the Rockets to really get all for
Chhin Gooon going. They don't have Mitchell Robinson. They start
(05:15):
prol Anthony Tallons who can put up points, but no
one looks a cat at the dynamic defender, and so
this is the ideal spot in my opinion, to get
him going. He's shooting below forty percent from the year.
That's not good enough. We've seen late in close games,
including Saturday against the Warriors, the Rockets aren't playing all
for inchon Gun in winning time. He did not play
a single minute in the fourth quarter or overtime on Saturday,
(05:37):
and I think the reason for that is Imo Udoka.
He sees these Jabari at the five, Tari at the
four lineups, Jabari Smith providing defense better four s facing,
more versatility. There are advantages on the defensive side of
the court. It's just when all for Echion Goon is right,
he provides enough offensively to counteract that well, when he's
(05:59):
shooting below forty percent from the field, he's not giving
you what he typically does offensively. Then all of a
sudden you have to look at the other end of
the court and say, look, we're probably better off going
for more defense, more athleticism, more force facing, which is
what they do with those front court lineups of Jabari
Smith at the five and Tarry Eathen at the four.
So at some point you've got to get all for
(06:20):
Engion Goon going. I think it's a very delicate sort
of balancing at for ima Udoka in that you want
to reward the guys who are playing well, and on
Saturday that was clearly Jabari and Tari. However, should and
Goon is really important to the long term formula of
this team. There's a reason you're paying him almost a
max contract, and so you want to play who deserves
to play. But you also need to make sure that
(06:42):
Shoogoon's leash isn't so short that he doesn't have an
opportunity to get himself going. He needs to get shot attempts,
to get in rhythm, see the ball go through the rim.
Because if he starts shooting, you know, close to fifty
five percent the way he did last year audition out
five six assists per game, then all of a sudden,
he's going to be in those closing lineups. And that's
what they need because you know, Jalen Greens started off
(07:02):
that year hot, but as you would expect, teams are
starting to, you know, defend him with more resources. You're
seeing more blitzes, you're seeing more double teams. We saw
it even in the win against Dallas. We saw it
certainly early in the Warriors game. So the Rocket's got
to have somebody other than Jalen step up. Your two
best offensive players last year were all Friend Schangoon and
President Fleet. Shingun is shooting below forty percent Fred below
(07:24):
thirty percent. So if I get one of those guys
going at least and I think Shingoon Againstkarl Anthony talents,
to me, this is a good spot to really emphasize
getting him going for the first time this season.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
All right, Ben Dubo's analysts here for US at seven ninety.
When it comes to rockets, I'll get you high on
this one. I peek in every so often on exactly
what Reeve Shepherd is doing just over eight minutes a
game in two and a half points, what's going on
with Sheppard out of Kentucky, the rookie third Overall, a
lot of us were excited and like less than thirty seconds?
(07:55):
Is this the plan? Or is he not developing and
earning minutes at the rate that we thought he might.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's just tough to play ten guys, and I think
he may said going into the year that that would
be the challenge for him, and so somebody's going to
get the short end of the sticks, depending on who's hot,
who's cold. Cam had a couple of good games, Cam
whitmore early in the year. I do think that the
longer Fred than Lead struggles, the more they're going to
have to look at reed Shepherd because of that shooting stability.
(08:24):
I don't think six games is the point at which
Shupanic can say Fred's not the guy, he's too old,
he's out thirty, blah blah blah. But if this continues
for two or three more weeks, then I don't see
how Red doesn't get more opportunities with Fred continuing to
shoot below thirty percent from the field, Should that continue?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
All right? That's been Dubo's editor of USA Today's The
Rockets Why are also featured on the logger Line podcast
Talking Rockets here on seven ninety follow him at being
Dubo's du Bosc. Thank you for your time and being
flexible before it's being.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Really appreciated, Bron some good things for having me, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Man, enjoy yourself over at the TC tonight again. Seven
forty five Tip Nicks in Town versus The Rockets
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