June 14, 2025 • 20 mins
The Rockets agreed Saturday to extend the contract of veteran center Steven Adams for three years and $39 million. Our rapid reaction podcast explores motivations for the deal and its implications, both for next season’s rotation and the potential of larger deals this offseason.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Cheers, Rockets fans, Welcome to the lagger Line, an exclusive
podcast from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety.
The logger Line. It's proudly served to you by Carbox
Clutch City lagger It is good Yeah, Red Nation, get Ready, Ready,
(00:25):
get Ready. The lagger Line starts now.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome aboard, Welcome back to yet another episode of the
logger Line, as always served to you courtesy of Houston's
Carback Brewing. I'm benju Bos, your host, editor of USA.
Today's Rockets are contributed to Sports Talk seven ninety, official
(00:50):
flagship Prodociation of your Houston Rockets. We had an episode
go live earlier today talking about the Kevin Durant trade negotiations,
which appear to be entering the final stages. Rocket's certainly
still an option for Katie and the Sun's time will
tell as to whether they are the team that actually
gets his services for next season and potentially beyond. If
(01:11):
you want to check out insights on that, just hit
up our archives today. We've got a second episode because
there's some breaking news that actually went live just as
I was posting the first podcast, and that's that the
Rockets have re signed or agreed to re sign veteran
center Steven Adams for next season and beyond. It's a
three year deal worth thirty nine million dollars, first reported
(01:32):
by ESPN Shan Sharania. According to Kelly Eco at the
Athletic there's no player or team options and the deal
is fully guaranteed. So if you are a logger line listener,
you know that. A few days ago, we had an
episode projecting some of the internal free agency negotiations that
the Rockets could have with their own players who could
hit the market, and I had guessed that Steven would
(01:55):
get somewhere in the ballpark of three years, forty two
to forty five million, because that's approximately the non taxpayer
mL He actually came in a little bit below that.
So I think this is a very good deal. It's
understandable because with where he is in his career now
thirty two years old or will be I think later
this summer, he's not someone that has a ton of upside,
(02:18):
at least in terms of the eighty two game grind.
So I don't think you were going to see a
young team treat him as a building block type of player.
He's someone that fits on a playoff team. So the
non taxpayer mid level exception, which is about fourteen fifteen
million dollars annually, was always going to be the high
end of his market. It was also the floor when
(02:39):
you consider how good he looked in the playoffs, and
so to see him come in a little bit below
that perhaps because in this new collective bargaining agreement era
of the NBA, there's more cost pressures than ever before.
So maybe teams didn't even have full access at least
not to this stage, to their full non taxpayer mL
(03:00):
And the way I'm told it went down, Stephen and
his agent basically Canvas the league saw what offers were
out there. Of course they can't officially negotiate, but we
know unofficially parameters have been talked about for some time.
They went back to the Rockets and basically had this deal,
and the Rockets had the choice to you know, match
it or let him go. And obviously they matched it,
and he wanted to stay, and he is staying, and
(03:22):
for it to be a little bit below the MLA,
that's a win. I mean, it's not a massive win
to go from forty two to forty five to thirty nine,
but look This is a payroll that because of the
new contracts for all for Engin Goon and Jalen Green,
it's escalating, and so the Rockets could be a luxury
tax team this year. If they make a big time
trade acquisition such as Kevin Durant, they might end up
(03:43):
being capped at the first apron. There's going to be
financial pressures starting this season and only accelerating in the
years to come as guys like Jabari Smith, Tarry Eason,
and Men Thompson get contract extensions. Assuming they all stay
on the roster, the payroll is going to get tight,
and so every dollar you can save on your veterans
is important, especially when so many young guys starting with
(04:05):
Shingoon and Jalen Green this coming season, are getting raises.
So for Steven to come in below the mL and
his starting salary, we'll see how they structure the deal.
It could actually be a decrease compared to last year.
That was another reason why I expected a three year
deal in this range. He played last year the final
year of his previous contract at twelve point six million.
(04:27):
It could be that he actually takes a slight pay
decrease this year because depending on how they structure it
that year one salary could be as low as twelve
million dollars. So to see someone who played as well
as he did in the playoffs take a slight pay decrease,
potentially worst case it will be about the same. Yeah,
that's a huge win because look, he was I would argue,
(04:49):
one of the five most valuable players in a playoff series,
a high leverage seven game grind in which you had
big names all over the place, Step Curry, Jimmy Butler,
Raymond Green, A Men Thompson, Fred Van Fleet, all for
in Shangoon, I would argue, and I think the stats
spared out Steven Adams was one of the five most
(05:09):
valuable players in that series. And to bring him back
for blow mL money, and when you consider that the
Rockets didn't really have any options to retain him if
he went elsewhere, and it was at least a risk. Look,
there are some players. I would point to one example,
Theonis valentunas a guy who in some ways is analogous
(05:29):
to Steven. I don't think he's as good as a player,
but similar body type, traditional big men who haven't seemed
to care as much about being in a winning environment
and they opt to just go where they can play
the most or max out there, counting stats, whatever the
motivation may be. And I'm not going to blame them,
because you know, if they want to play more, I
get it. You're not going to hear me criticize anybody
(05:51):
that wants to bet on themselves and just play as
many minutes as possible while they have this limited window
to be a professional athlete at the highest level. So
there was always a risk that with Stephen, even though
clearly he can impact winning in Houston, look cause minutes
were always going to be a little bit limited because
even if his role can be scaled up, even if
(06:13):
they can use double big at times, Look, he is
the backup behind all Perache Shongoon, who was an All
Star last year. It's just twenty two years old. It
would not have been unfathomable for Steven to go to
a place where he could be the starter. He could
get a little bit more of the limelight. The Lakers
need a starting center. My god, would he be a
huge upgrade there? And yeah, there are some other scenarios.
(06:36):
Steven could have played this until closer to the start
free agency and seeing if someone eventually could have gotten
more money. He could have, knowing the Rockets had bird rights,
perhaps asked them to pay a premium to outbid whatever
the external offers are because they're asking him to take
a little bit of a lesser role. But to his credit,
he didn't. He wanted to stay. I'm sure he wanted
the security to get done as soon as possible after
(06:58):
going through the injury hell that he's gone the last
couple of years. And you know, even if we thought
based on you know, all the interviews we've done with
Steven this year and those of you listening have seen,
he's never seen like a guy who necessarily wants the spotlight.
But you can't rule it out. And these guys inter
free agency knowing that they don't have too many years.
It's unrestricted free agents in their primes, and so if
(07:21):
you followed the NBA for any length of time, you
know that you shouldn't rule anything out and things can
get unpredictable. So for the Rockets to be able to
bring him back on a reasonable deal, I mean, it's
very good to keep the rotation cord of fifty two
and thirteen that finished number two in the West together,
but Beyond that, it really mitigates a downside scenario because
(07:42):
they retained him with bird rights. If you had let
Stephen go, a guy who was undisputably one of the
five best players in a playoff series, the most you
could have cobbled together, because the payroll is increasing as is,
would have been mL money. We talked about someone like
Brook Lopez as a backup plan. I don't think Brick
Lopez is quite as impactful as Steven Adams, and he's
also thirty seven years old, and I'm not even sure
(08:04):
the Rockets would have had the money to do that.
I guess you could have combined the expiring salaries of
Jack Landel and Aaron Holiday to try and bring in
someone that way, But number one, you'd be taking them
out of play for any bigger deals like Kevin Durant
if you do that. And secondly, I'm not sure a
player of that salary rage that you could conceivably get
for expiring contracts would be anywhere near as impactful as
(08:27):
Steven Adams. The bottom line is, if Steven had left,
you did not have any realistic way to bring in
a player comparable to him in total value. The only
way you could have is if you had traded significant
value i e. Young players or future draft assets, and
in that scenario you're sort of, you know, harming your
(08:48):
future options because rather than just doing an add on,
which Steven is for Felstone, gm of the Rockets did
a great deal when Stephen was injured in the twenty
three to twenty four season to bring him in the
deadline for basically two second round picks, and so he
was basically an add on to the current core. If
you had had to dip into your war chest of
(09:08):
either young players or draft picks to replace him, then
that would have been a hit to some of the
bigger options you potentially have down the line. So even
if we were all optimistic that Steven would stay and
the Rockets said after the season that all indications they
had were that he liked being here and obviously they
had bird rights, look until a deal was reached, you
(09:28):
had to worry at least a little bit because there
was no easy way to replace him. So beyond the
money being good for his production, it's also a huge
sigh of relief because the Rockets would not have very
easily been able to replace his level of production and
to do so would have significantly harmed your optionality to
(09:49):
do other deals in the future. So this deal is
a big win and I actually think it's very interesting
in terms of what it means for the rest of
the off season. A lot of time when you bring
back a key rotation player, the takeaway is, oh, the
team is running it back, that it's the status quo.
And if that ends up being the case again, that's fine.
Rockets fifty two and thirty very young team number two
(10:11):
in the West. There's nothing wrong with staying the course.
But I actually think this opens up more options. I
think in terms of especially bigger moves, someone like a
Kevin Durant or a Giannis or anyone else that might
hit the market. The Rockets are more likely to go
after those types of players with Steven Adams in the
fold than they were if he had left, and saving
(10:32):
a little bit of money relative to the mL and
maybe relative to last year's salary, that helps a little
bit when it comes to filling out the roster. But
the bigger thing, the Rockets are very aware of the
concept of windows, and I've talked about it in recent pods,
with this being why the Rockets would not use Fredman
Fleet as matching salary and a Kevin Durant deal. The
(10:54):
Rockets do not feel that they are good enough for
a major move to be worth it if Fred isn't
on the team, Hence he's staying and they'll probably negotiate
his deal at a lower figure. Time will tell as
to what that is. You can check out that recent
pod we had if you want my speculation on that.
But where this fits in with Steven Because you bring
(11:15):
back a very good player and on a very good
contract as well, the Rockets still have a path to
actually contend for a championship next year, so they are
going to be more likely to explore the market for
the types of big name trades or additions that can
take them to that next tier. If you had lost
(11:35):
Steven Adams and had to replace him, you know, go
bargain basement shopping. I guess you would have seen the Rockets,
in my opinion, take a longer term view with their
timeline because the championship window there wouldn't have been a
realistic path at least not next season and probably not
two years from now without Steven Adams. Not saying that
(11:56):
Steven Adams alone makes sure contender. Let's not get crazy.
But what I'm saying is that retaining his skill set,
just like retaining Fred van Fleet, is important to the
Rockets being close enough for that window to potentially be
open and for it to be worthwhile to bring in
a Katie or a honest that's not me saying they're
going to do it, but I do think that while
(12:18):
on some level the reaction is going to be, oh,
this is great, let's you know, keep the band together,
there's going to be some of that, and that's spare.
You can certainly argue for that, but I don't think
you should take it as an indication that that's what
the Rockets are going to do. They might, but I
also think that bringing back Steven gives them optionality to
push in their chips sooner because with Fred and with Steven,
(12:39):
those are the types of veterans that have you close
enough that, hey, if you can bring in a Kevin
Durant to supplement most of the young core which would
be staying, you might can actually make a legitimate run
a year from now. So that's just something to think about.
Steven Adams on a reasonable deal. It's good on a
number of levels, but it also keeps your options open
for something bigger this offseason at the ideal materialize. Now
(13:01):
the last thing I'll say, so Stephen's market was interesting,
and even though in the regular season the counting stats
weren't there, it was his first year back from knee surgery,
and he had always called it a two year recovery process.
So in the regular season he only played in fifty
eight of eighty two games. Earlier in the year, he
was on minutes restrictions, didn't play on both ends of
(13:22):
back to backs, and he only averaged a little over
thirteen minutes per game. So fifty eight games averaged thirteen
minutes per game, and he wasn't quite himself early in
the year, you know, working his way back to health.
And so you can argue, and there's some truth in
this that not only are the Rockets bringing back a
guy who was so critical in the playoffs, but that
actually Stephen Adams in twenty five to twenty six, there's
(13:46):
some untapped potential in terms of what it means for
your regular season success because he didn't do all that
much in the regular season last year, in large part
because of the restrictions. And so now I mean conceivably
you could double his minutes. I don't think you expecting
to play twenty six minutes per game, but if he plays,
you know, closer to seventy games than fifty eight, and
maybe twenty minutes per game rather than thirteen. There's a
(14:08):
world where his overall minutes played in the regular season
could come close to doubling from last year. And based
on how good he was in the playoffs, you know,
that could be you know, a little thing that could
further boost your chances next season, along with you know,
the obvious factors, such as the continued development of your
young players. There is some truth in that. However, I
(14:29):
would caution I think both the Rockets and Steven, even
if he's fully cleared medically, are going to be very
cognizant of the concept of mileage. He's a very large
human being who's played more than a decade in the NBA.
I think he's going to be load managed even if
he plays. I don't know if he'll go all out
(14:52):
like a good example. What started to open my eyes
to the possibility of playoffs Steven Adams. At the beginning
of January, there was this game again the Lakers, in
which he just went off. He dominated, and this was
before the Luca trades, so the Lakers had Lebron and
Ad and AD was helpless trying to keep him off
the offensive class. That was something that suggested to me.
(15:13):
And if you recall, the Rockets at the time were
on a losing streak, they had just lost Jabari Smith
to the broken hand that was going to keep him
out for six plus weeks. Vibes were low. Was a
high profile matchup with the Lakers in town, the only
time the Lakers visited Toyota Center all year, and Steven
Adams turned it up and that sort of told me, hey,
he's got this gear that hasn't fully been unleashed. And
(15:37):
then in the playoffs we saw that much more consistently,
and we saw it on the stretch of the year
when the Rockets went to double bing and there were
some things that the combination of Steven and Shangoon unlocked.
I do think some of the subpar production not bad production,
but it is not at playoff level. During the regular season,
was both the Rockets and Stephen load managing him, not
(15:58):
just because of the injury, but just the nature of
his game, how physical it is. The mileage over more
than a decade in the NBA and saying, hey, we
want to make sure that you can tap into the
peak version of yourself come April and ay and to
their credit, it worked out, and I think that's somewhat
gonna happen again next year. There might not be any
technical back to back or minutes restrictions, but both in
(16:21):
terms of how many minutes the Rockets play him and
how hard Stephen goes in those minutes, he'll still be good.
Don't get me wrong. He's someone that you know, the
basic points and rebounds, the basic box score stats will
never tell the story. It's about how he impacts winning.
It's about the rebounding presence and how he just clears off.
And it's our side of the court. It's about the
screen setting. It's about the little things. Steven Adams is
(16:43):
not a stats player. He's a winning player to some extent,
that's always going to be there. But in terms of
how insanely hard he played in the playoffs on top
of it, to where there were times he was just gassed,
I mean he emptied the tank in some of those
games against the war I don't know if we'll see
that version for like double the minutes in the regular season.
(17:07):
So I would just caution everyone a little bit to
pump the brakes on that you'll see a little bit
of an improvement in terms of his overall production his minutes,
assuming he's cleared, which I have no reason to think
that he won't be two years after knee surgery, but
given his style of play, given his age, I think
they'll be cognizant of managing his load and keeping it
(17:28):
to where he isn't tapped out by the time April
and may come around. Above all else, this is a
playoff signing, and that's where Steven's going to have the
most value and to you know, bring the episode full
circle many episode because I'm about to wrap up. God,
we've had more than an hours worth of content today.
It's that playoff upside that you get from bringing back
(17:49):
Steven that makes the remainder of the off season so intriguing,
because now that you are bringing back the full rotation
from last year, and Stevens should be hell and perhaps
even at a lower salary figure, then it makes it
all the more tempting if the right guy comes available
at the right price to maybe push your trips in
and say, hey, next year is one in which we
(18:12):
might can do a Western Conference version of Indiana and
have everything come together a bit sooner than the outside
world thinks. Not saying for sure it's going to happen,
but bringing back Stephen is the kind of move that
can can push you a little bit more in that
direction if you're on the fence anyway. That'll do it
(18:33):
for this episode and hopefully for today. Now, if the
Rockets swing the KD trade or something crazy like that happens,
of course I'll have another show, but hopefully that'll be
at least a day or two away to give me
time to breathe. Then of course we'll do a full
show with Paolo al So I haven't had on the
last few weeks. He's been busy, but he's chomping at
the bit to return, so we'll get him in on
the KD trade, whether it's to the Rockets or someone else.
(18:55):
And also some draft talk. If the Rockets don't make
the KD trade, then it's at least a little more
likely that they either keep the pick or stay in
the draft. Haven't done a lot of talk on that
because we're waiting to see what happens with Katie first, Well,
one way or another, we'll have some resolution that sounds
like in the next few days. For the reasons in
the timetable, check out the Katie episode in Today's archives
and you can find out why. But yeah, we will
(19:17):
have more content in the near future. Hopefully this will
do it for a busy Saturday, June fourteenth. And if
you want more content before our next show, which again
hopefully we'll have at least a couple of days to
let things breathe, but who knows. It's the crazy time
of the year in the NBA. But if you want
more content before that next show, the best place to
get it is on social media. You can follow me
on blue Sky at Bendubo's you can follow this show
(19:39):
and the Rockets Wire. We're on the editor of USA
Today's Rockets blog. You can follow both on Twitter slash
x at the logger line for the show and the
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(20:01):
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active podcasts covering Houston Rockets basketball. All right, to wrap
up a busy multi episode June fourteen, this is where
we will finally adjourn, hopefully for good, at least for
(20:24):
a day. But stay tuned because it's the if BNBA
off season. It's going to be crazy, and the Rockets
during the conversation for some pretty big moves. Until next time.
This is where we break again. I'm Ben tou Bo's
appreciate you guys so much for tuning in and please
come back soon for more new episodes from the Logger Line.
Cheers, Rockets fans, Welcome to the lagger Line, an exclusive
podcast from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety.
The logger Line. It's proudly served to you by Carbox
Clutch City lagger It is good Yeah, Red Nation, get Ready, Ready,
(00:25):
get Ready. The lagger Line starts now.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome aboard, Welcome back to yet another episode of the
logger Line, as always served to you courtesy of Houston's
Carback Brewing. I'm benju Bos, your host, editor of USA.
Today's Rockets are contributed to Sports Talk seven ninety, official
(00:50):
flagship Prodociation of your Houston Rockets. We had an episode
go live earlier today talking about the Kevin Durant trade negotiations,
which appear to be entering the final stages. Rocket's certainly
still an option for Katie and the Sun's time will
tell as to whether they are the team that actually
gets his services for next season and potentially beyond. If
(01:11):
you want to check out insights on that, just hit
up our archives today. We've got a second episode because
there's some breaking news that actually went live just as
I was posting the first podcast, and that's that the
Rockets have re signed or agreed to re sign veteran
center Steven Adams for next season and beyond. It's a
three year deal worth thirty nine million dollars, first reported
(01:32):
by ESPN Shan Sharania. According to Kelly Eco at the
Athletic there's no player or team options and the deal
is fully guaranteed. So if you are a logger line listener,
you know that. A few days ago, we had an
episode projecting some of the internal free agency negotiations that
the Rockets could have with their own players who could
hit the market, and I had guessed that Steven would
(01:55):
get somewhere in the ballpark of three years, forty two
to forty five million, because that's approximately the non taxpayer
mL He actually came in a little bit below that.
So I think this is a very good deal. It's
understandable because with where he is in his career now
thirty two years old or will be I think later
this summer, he's not someone that has a ton of upside,
(02:18):
at least in terms of the eighty two game grind.
So I don't think you were going to see a
young team treat him as a building block type of player.
He's someone that fits on a playoff team. So the
non taxpayer mid level exception, which is about fourteen fifteen
million dollars annually, was always going to be the high
end of his market. It was also the floor when
(02:39):
you consider how good he looked in the playoffs, and
so to see him come in a little bit below
that perhaps because in this new collective bargaining agreement era
of the NBA, there's more cost pressures than ever before.
So maybe teams didn't even have full access at least
not to this stage, to their full non taxpayer mL
(03:00):
And the way I'm told it went down, Stephen and
his agent basically Canvas the league saw what offers were
out there. Of course they can't officially negotiate, but we
know unofficially parameters have been talked about for some time.
They went back to the Rockets and basically had this deal,
and the Rockets had the choice to you know, match
it or let him go. And obviously they matched it,
and he wanted to stay, and he is staying, and
(03:22):
for it to be a little bit below the MLA,
that's a win. I mean, it's not a massive win
to go from forty two to forty five to thirty nine,
but look This is a payroll that because of the
new contracts for all for Engin Goon and Jalen Green,
it's escalating, and so the Rockets could be a luxury
tax team this year. If they make a big time
trade acquisition such as Kevin Durant, they might end up
(03:43):
being capped at the first apron. There's going to be
financial pressures starting this season and only accelerating in the
years to come as guys like Jabari Smith, Tarry Eason,
and Men Thompson get contract extensions. Assuming they all stay
on the roster, the payroll is going to get tight,
and so every dollar you can save on your veterans
is important, especially when so many young guys starting with
(04:05):
Shingoon and Jalen Green this coming season, are getting raises.
So for Steven to come in below the mL and
his starting salary, we'll see how they structure the deal.
It could actually be a decrease compared to last year.
That was another reason why I expected a three year
deal in this range. He played last year the final
year of his previous contract at twelve point six million.
(04:27):
It could be that he actually takes a slight pay
decrease this year because depending on how they structure it
that year one salary could be as low as twelve
million dollars. So to see someone who played as well
as he did in the playoffs take a slight pay decrease,
potentially worst case it will be about the same. Yeah,
that's a huge win because look, he was I would argue,
(04:49):
one of the five most valuable players in a playoff series,
a high leverage seven game grind in which you had
big names all over the place, Step Curry, Jimmy Butler,
Raymond Green, A Men Thompson, Fred Van Fleet, all for
in Shangoon, I would argue, and I think the stats
spared out Steven Adams was one of the five most
(05:09):
valuable players in that series. And to bring him back
for blow mL money, and when you consider that the
Rockets didn't really have any options to retain him if
he went elsewhere, and it was at least a risk. Look,
there are some players. I would point to one example,
Theonis valentunas a guy who in some ways is analogous
(05:29):
to Steven. I don't think he's as good as a player,
but similar body type, traditional big men who haven't seemed
to care as much about being in a winning environment
and they opt to just go where they can play
the most or max out there, counting stats, whatever the
motivation may be. And I'm not going to blame them,
because you know, if they want to play more, I
get it. You're not going to hear me criticize anybody
(05:51):
that wants to bet on themselves and just play as
many minutes as possible while they have this limited window
to be a professional athlete at the highest level. So
there was always a risk that with Stephen, even though
clearly he can impact winning in Houston, look cause minutes
were always going to be a little bit limited because
even if his role can be scaled up, even if
(06:13):
they can use double big at times, Look, he is
the backup behind all Perache Shongoon, who was an All
Star last year. It's just twenty two years old. It
would not have been unfathomable for Steven to go to
a place where he could be the starter. He could
get a little bit more of the limelight. The Lakers
need a starting center. My god, would he be a
huge upgrade there? And yeah, there are some other scenarios.
(06:36):
Steven could have played this until closer to the start
free agency and seeing if someone eventually could have gotten
more money. He could have, knowing the Rockets had bird rights,
perhaps asked them to pay a premium to outbid whatever
the external offers are because they're asking him to take
a little bit of a lesser role. But to his credit,
he didn't. He wanted to stay. I'm sure he wanted
the security to get done as soon as possible after
(06:58):
going through the injury hell that he's gone the last
couple of years. And you know, even if we thought
based on you know, all the interviews we've done with
Steven this year and those of you listening have seen,
he's never seen like a guy who necessarily wants the spotlight.
But you can't rule it out. And these guys inter
free agency knowing that they don't have too many years.
It's unrestricted free agents in their primes, and so if
(07:21):
you followed the NBA for any length of time, you
know that you shouldn't rule anything out and things can
get unpredictable. So for the Rockets to be able to
bring him back on a reasonable deal, I mean, it's
very good to keep the rotation cord of fifty two
and thirteen that finished number two in the West together,
but Beyond that, it really mitigates a downside scenario because
(07:42):
they retained him with bird rights. If you had let
Stephen go, a guy who was undisputably one of the
five best players in a playoff series, the most you
could have cobbled together, because the payroll is increasing as is,
would have been mL money. We talked about someone like
Brook Lopez as a backup plan. I don't think Brick
Lopez is quite as impactful as Steven Adams, and he's
also thirty seven years old, and I'm not even sure
(08:04):
the Rockets would have had the money to do that.
I guess you could have combined the expiring salaries of
Jack Landel and Aaron Holiday to try and bring in
someone that way, But number one, you'd be taking them
out of play for any bigger deals like Kevin Durant
if you do that. And secondly, I'm not sure a
player of that salary rage that you could conceivably get
for expiring contracts would be anywhere near as impactful as
(08:27):
Steven Adams. The bottom line is, if Steven had left,
you did not have any realistic way to bring in
a player comparable to him in total value. The only
way you could have is if you had traded significant
value i e. Young players or future draft assets, and
in that scenario you're sort of, you know, harming your
(08:48):
future options because rather than just doing an add on,
which Steven is for Felstone, gm of the Rockets did
a great deal when Stephen was injured in the twenty
three to twenty four season to bring him in the
deadline for basically two second round picks, and so he
was basically an add on to the current core. If
you had had to dip into your war chest of
(09:08):
either young players or draft picks to replace him, then
that would have been a hit to some of the
bigger options you potentially have down the line. So even
if we were all optimistic that Steven would stay and
the Rockets said after the season that all indications they
had were that he liked being here and obviously they
had bird rights, look until a deal was reached, you
(09:28):
had to worry at least a little bit because there
was no easy way to replace him. So beyond the
money being good for his production, it's also a huge
sigh of relief because the Rockets would not have very
easily been able to replace his level of production and
to do so would have significantly harmed your optionality to
(09:49):
do other deals in the future. So this deal is
a big win and I actually think it's very interesting
in terms of what it means for the rest of
the off season. A lot of time when you bring
back a key rotation player, the takeaway is, oh, the
team is running it back, that it's the status quo.
And if that ends up being the case again, that's fine.
Rockets fifty two and thirty very young team number two
(10:11):
in the West. There's nothing wrong with staying the course.
But I actually think this opens up more options. I
think in terms of especially bigger moves, someone like a
Kevin Durant or a Giannis or anyone else that might
hit the market. The Rockets are more likely to go
after those types of players with Steven Adams in the
fold than they were if he had left, and saving
(10:32):
a little bit of money relative to the mL and
maybe relative to last year's salary, that helps a little
bit when it comes to filling out the roster. But
the bigger thing, the Rockets are very aware of the
concept of windows, and I've talked about it in recent pods,
with this being why the Rockets would not use Fredman
Fleet as matching salary and a Kevin Durant deal. The
(10:54):
Rockets do not feel that they are good enough for
a major move to be worth it if Fred isn't
on the team, Hence he's staying and they'll probably negotiate
his deal at a lower figure. Time will tell as
to what that is. You can check out that recent
pod we had if you want my speculation on that.
But where this fits in with Steven Because you bring
(11:15):
back a very good player and on a very good
contract as well, the Rockets still have a path to
actually contend for a championship next year, so they are
going to be more likely to explore the market for
the types of big name trades or additions that can
take them to that next tier. If you had lost
(11:35):
Steven Adams and had to replace him, you know, go
bargain basement shopping. I guess you would have seen the Rockets,
in my opinion, take a longer term view with their
timeline because the championship window there wouldn't have been a
realistic path at least not next season and probably not
two years from now without Steven Adams. Not saying that
(11:56):
Steven Adams alone makes sure contender. Let's not get crazy.
But what I'm saying is that retaining his skill set,
just like retaining Fred van Fleet, is important to the
Rockets being close enough for that window to potentially be
open and for it to be worthwhile to bring in
a Katie or a honest that's not me saying they're
going to do it, but I do think that while
(12:18):
on some level the reaction is going to be, oh,
this is great, let's you know, keep the band together,
there's going to be some of that, and that's spare.
You can certainly argue for that, but I don't think
you should take it as an indication that that's what
the Rockets are going to do. They might, but I
also think that bringing back Steven gives them optionality to
push in their chips sooner because with Fred and with Steven,
(12:39):
those are the types of veterans that have you close
enough that, hey, if you can bring in a Kevin
Durant to supplement most of the young core which would
be staying, you might can actually make a legitimate run
a year from now. So that's just something to think about.
Steven Adams on a reasonable deal. It's good on a
number of levels, but it also keeps your options open
for something bigger this offseason at the ideal materialize. Now
(13:01):
the last thing I'll say, so Stephen's market was interesting,
and even though in the regular season the counting stats
weren't there, it was his first year back from knee surgery,
and he had always called it a two year recovery process.
So in the regular season he only played in fifty
eight of eighty two games. Earlier in the year, he
was on minutes restrictions, didn't play on both ends of
(13:22):
back to backs, and he only averaged a little over
thirteen minutes per game. So fifty eight games averaged thirteen
minutes per game, and he wasn't quite himself early in
the year, you know, working his way back to health.
And so you can argue, and there's some truth in
this that not only are the Rockets bringing back a
guy who was so critical in the playoffs, but that
actually Stephen Adams in twenty five to twenty six, there's
(13:46):
some untapped potential in terms of what it means for
your regular season success because he didn't do all that
much in the regular season last year, in large part
because of the restrictions. And so now I mean conceivably
you could double his minutes. I don't think you expecting
to play twenty six minutes per game, but if he plays,
you know, closer to seventy games than fifty eight, and
maybe twenty minutes per game rather than thirteen. There's a
(14:08):
world where his overall minutes played in the regular season
could come close to doubling from last year. And based
on how good he was in the playoffs, you know,
that could be you know, a little thing that could
further boost your chances next season, along with you know,
the obvious factors, such as the continued development of your
young players. There is some truth in that. However, I
(14:29):
would caution I think both the Rockets and Steven, even
if he's fully cleared medically, are going to be very
cognizant of the concept of mileage. He's a very large
human being who's played more than a decade in the NBA.
I think he's going to be load managed even if
he plays. I don't know if he'll go all out
(14:52):
like a good example. What started to open my eyes
to the possibility of playoffs Steven Adams. At the beginning
of January, there was this game again the Lakers, in
which he just went off. He dominated, and this was
before the Luca trades, so the Lakers had Lebron and
Ad and AD was helpless trying to keep him off
the offensive class. That was something that suggested to me.
(15:13):
And if you recall, the Rockets at the time were
on a losing streak, they had just lost Jabari Smith
to the broken hand that was going to keep him
out for six plus weeks. Vibes were low. Was a
high profile matchup with the Lakers in town, the only
time the Lakers visited Toyota Center all year, and Steven
Adams turned it up and that sort of told me, hey,
he's got this gear that hasn't fully been unleashed. And
(15:37):
then in the playoffs we saw that much more consistently,
and we saw it on the stretch of the year
when the Rockets went to double bing and there were
some things that the combination of Steven and Shangoon unlocked.
I do think some of the subpar production not bad production,
but it is not at playoff level. During the regular season,
was both the Rockets and Stephen load managing him, not
(15:58):
just because of the injury, but just the nature of
his game, how physical it is. The mileage over more
than a decade in the NBA and saying, hey, we
want to make sure that you can tap into the
peak version of yourself come April and ay and to
their credit, it worked out, and I think that's somewhat
gonna happen again next year. There might not be any
technical back to back or minutes restrictions, but both in
(16:21):
terms of how many minutes the Rockets play him and
how hard Stephen goes in those minutes, he'll still be good.
Don't get me wrong. He's someone that you know, the
basic points and rebounds, the basic box score stats will
never tell the story. It's about how he impacts winning.
It's about the rebounding presence and how he just clears off.
And it's our side of the court. It's about the
screen setting. It's about the little things. Steven Adams is
(16:43):
not a stats player. He's a winning player to some extent,
that's always going to be there. But in terms of
how insanely hard he played in the playoffs on top
of it, to where there were times he was just gassed,
I mean he emptied the tank in some of those
games against the war I don't know if we'll see
that version for like double the minutes in the regular season.
(17:07):
So I would just caution everyone a little bit to
pump the brakes on that you'll see a little bit
of an improvement in terms of his overall production his minutes,
assuming he's cleared, which I have no reason to think
that he won't be two years after knee surgery, but
given his style of play, given his age, I think
they'll be cognizant of managing his load and keeping it
(17:28):
to where he isn't tapped out by the time April
and may come around. Above all else, this is a
playoff signing, and that's where Steven's going to have the
most value and to you know, bring the episode full
circle many episode because I'm about to wrap up. God,
we've had more than an hours worth of content today.
It's that playoff upside that you get from bringing back
(17:49):
Steven that makes the remainder of the off season so intriguing,
because now that you are bringing back the full rotation
from last year, and Stevens should be hell and perhaps
even at a lower salary figure, then it makes it
all the more tempting if the right guy comes available
at the right price to maybe push your trips in
and say, hey, next year is one in which we
(18:12):
might can do a Western Conference version of Indiana and
have everything come together a bit sooner than the outside
world thinks. Not saying for sure it's going to happen,
but bringing back Stephen is the kind of move that
can can push you a little bit more in that
direction if you're on the fence anyway. That'll do it
(18:33):
for this episode and hopefully for today. Now, if the
Rockets swing the KD trade or something crazy like that happens,
of course I'll have another show, but hopefully that'll be
at least a day or two away to give me
time to breathe. Then of course we'll do a full
show with Paolo al So I haven't had on the
last few weeks. He's been busy, but he's chomping at
the bit to return, so we'll get him in on
the KD trade, whether it's to the Rockets or someone else.
(18:55):
And also some draft talk. If the Rockets don't make
the KD trade, then it's at least a little more
likely that they either keep the pick or stay in
the draft. Haven't done a lot of talk on that
because we're waiting to see what happens with Katie first, Well,
one way or another, we'll have some resolution that sounds
like in the next few days. For the reasons in
the timetable, check out the Katie episode in Today's archives
and you can find out why. But yeah, we will
(19:17):
have more content in the near future. Hopefully this will
do it for a busy Saturday, June fourteenth. And if
you want more content before our next show, which again
hopefully we'll have at least a couple of days to
let things breathe, but who knows. It's the crazy time
of the year in the NBA. But if you want
more content before that next show, the best place to
get it is on social media. You can follow me
on blue Sky at Bendubo's you can follow this show
(19:39):
and the Rockets Wire. We're on the editor of USA
Today's Rockets blog. You can follow both on Twitter slash
x at the logger line for the show and the
Rockets Wire for the USA Today blog. And then if
you go to the logger line you have the link
tree you can find links to obviously distribution partners Apple, Google, Spotify.
Please subscribe, leave positive review. That's how we can look
good to our friends. Partners and sponsors whose links, by
the way, are in that same li USA. Today's Rockets
(20:01):
are are back brewing Sports TX seventy ninety again. You
know the idea by now consume their content so that
we can look good to those partners, to those sponsors,
and keep this program running as one of the most
active podcasts covering Houston Rockets basketball. All right, to wrap
up a busy multi episode June fourteen, this is where
we will finally adjourn, hopefully for good, at least for
(20:24):
a day. But stay tuned because it's the if BNBA
off season. It's going to be crazy, and the Rockets
during the conversation for some pretty big moves. Until next time.
This is where we break again. I'm Ben tou Bo's
appreciate you guys so much for tuning in and please
come back soon for more new episodes from the Logger Line.
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