Rockets limp toward All-Star break with injuries, quiet trade deadline

With widespread injuries up and down the roster, the Rockets aren't at their best in February 2025, as evidenced by six losses in their last seven games. They also went through a relatively quiet in-season trade deadline window, with general manager Rafael Stone only making a pair of moves to acquire future second-round NBA draft capital.

With that in mind, Tuesday's show explores why the time wasn't right for Houston (33-20) to make a big splash, along with insight on why better days could soon be ahead for the on-court product.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Cheers.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
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 o Red Nation. Get Ready, Ready,

(00:25):
Get Ready. The lagger Line starts now. Welcome aboard.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Bendubo's here, Paolo Alves there, Welcome into another episode of
the logger Line. It's always served to your courtesy of
Clutch to the lagger of Carbock Brewing, their beer developed
in collaboration with your Houston Rockets. Since we last recorded
at the end of January, it has not been an
ideal time to be a fan of the Houston Rockets.
As we're recording this on Tuesday, the eleventh of February,

(01:00):
the Rockets are figuratively and literally limping their way into
the All Star Break. They are just one in six
in their last seven games. Fortunately, they snapped the six
game losing streak with a relatively uninspiring win over the
Toronto Raptors at home on Sunday. Amongst the expected rotation players,

(01:21):
more than half are currently limited by injury in some way.
Jamari Smith hasn't played since the start of January with
the fracture to his left hand from Infleet hasn't played
this month after straining his ankle. Both of those guys
won't be back until the other side of the All
Star Break. Rockets have two more games this week, coming
up against the Suns and the Warriors on Wednesday and
Thursday at home. I think they need to win at

(01:43):
least one of those when you look at a more
challenging schedule coming out of the All Star Break. But
they've also been without all for in Shangoon for a stretch.
Missed three games with the calf contusion and then had
backspasms early and Sunday's game only played a couple of minutes.
And then Steven Adams and Tarry Easton are playing through
some nagging injuries and on back to backs, which the
Rockets have a lot of in the near future, including

(02:05):
this past weekend. They seem to be limited for the
time being to half of those. So between Fred Jabari Shingoon,
Steven Adams, Tarry Easton, that's more than half of your
expected rotation. And there's either out all together for multiple
games or is limited in some way. And with Steven Natari.
Obviously they're not going to play much beyond twenty five

(02:26):
minutes even when they are able to play. So this
is a Rockets team. It's not meant to say that
it's all due to injury, this recent downturn, but that's
certainly had a lot to do with it. It's just
been sort of a whiplash effect to go from when
we last recorded at the end of January. By the way,
congratulations to Imo Ujoka, Western Conference Coach the Month, I
mean Thompson Western Conference Defensive Player of the Month for January.

(02:48):
Just an incredible month where you add big time wins
two over the Cast, two over the Grizzlies, one over
the defending NBA champions in Boston, so many awesome things happening,
and then to feel it abrupt shift on the fly
to a six game losing streak and one of six
since that, back to back in Boston and Atlanta. It's rough,

(03:10):
and so I think there's a lot of ways you
can look at it. Again, the injuries are a leading storyline,
and the other day ima Udoka, in his press conference
at Toyota Center, said that he thinks that's primarily what's
thrown the Rockets off rhythm. However, some of the guys
that are out there that have been playing, like him

(03:30):
and Thompson, to a lesser extent, Jalen Green, aren't quite
what they were when we last recorded a couple of
weeks ago. Now, it could be that the injuries are
affecting them by making it harder for them to have
the space or opportunities that they once did. You can
make that argument, but regardless, there's a lot going on here.
Injuries part of the story, but it's not the whole story.
And I think you can argue that the Rockets have

(03:52):
been a below average defensive team since the calendar flipped
to twenty twenty five. Perhaps Shabari Smith's injury plays into that. Well,
I'm sure it does extent. It's just a question of
how much. But there's a lot going on here, and so, Polo,
I guess my question to you is how should we
contextualize and process all of this because there's been a

(04:12):
bit of a whiplash effect for a lot of people,
including certainly me. I was out on the road trip
in New York and seeing especially the Brooklyn game that
they quite literally threw away in the closing seconds you know,
some of those six losses were of the tip your
hat variety. I thought the Rockets played well in Madison
Square Garden, but Jalen Brunson put the knicks on his back.

(04:35):
Anthony Edwards in Minnesota did the same to some extent.
Anthony Davis in Dallas, while he didn't finish the game
due to injury, him being brilliant in the first three
quarters is what gave the MAVs that lead. So some
of the losses the tip your hat variety. Also some
of it the Rockets just giving it away with uncharacteristic mistakes.
Two losses to the tanking Brooklyn Nets. So there's a

(04:59):
lot of things what's going on? But from a thirty
thousand foot view, what have we learned over these past
couple of weeks of brutal Houston Rockets basketball? And how
should we feel about this team relative to when we
last recorded.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
So I actually think my overall thoughts on it do
not match what you would see on my Twitter feed
if you were watching the games along with me. I
think I was I was obviously over react. I mean
I typically like tweet the game. So if you want
true analysis, you'll probably find Motter analysis in the mornings
rather than at the nights of the games, especially because
it's specially emotional for me because there's a lot on

(05:36):
the line. If I stay up to watch the game
and the game is garbage, I can't really go to
sleep if I start watching the game because Adrenolan is
running too high, and so I'll be miserable in the
morning when I get up to her to work. So
I'm double as mad as as somebody else would be.
But I will say I think the game against the
Rizzley is we could have won. We'd put up a
good fight against a good team. Same thing against the Knicks.

(06:00):
Think against them rolls up until if and he Edwards
just went off on us, which by the way, he's
all for six in eight minutes against the Cavs. His
team has scored like three total points. So I guess
we just couldn't be the ones to get that the
reversid of going with him. But I will say in general,
for the Rockets, I think it hurts to watch them

(06:22):
kind of founder out of the fight for the two seed.
But it's not necessarily something that it wasn't kind of expected,
I thought, I tweeted before. I think the Nets game,
that if we didn't win that game, we'd probably be,
you know, out of the fight for the two seed
by the time that we got back up with our

(06:42):
level of play.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
And let me do a quick and he said, and
the standings because they're thirty three and twenty after this
recent stretch. So there are three games back of the
Grizzlies for the two seed, although the Rockets do have
the tiebreaker there. They are only three games up over
the Clippers, who are the current number seven seed, and

(07:04):
that would mean play in range. However, the Rockets do
have the tiebreaker there as well. One thing the Rockets
have done well is play especially well against teams in
this narrow band of two through seven or eight in
the West, really two through seven, because the MAVs are
at eight and they have twenty five losses, and now
Anthony Davis looks like is out for a month, so

(07:26):
I would say two through seven. The Grizzlies at seventeen losses,
Nuggets at nineteen, Lakers at nineteen lay played fewer games
Rockets twenty losses, although by one percentage they are slightly
in front of the Lakers as of our recording time.
Timberwolves and Clippers each with twenty three losses. So there's
this band of which they have now a three game

(07:48):
deficit for the two seed, a three game lead over
the teams in the six and seven, and then tightly
bunched with the Nuggets and Lakers in the three through five.
Go on.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, so I think it will be very tough for
us to go back, and in fact, with the cuizism,
less injuries happened, but it's not as dramatic, and I
think as well, I'm making help you and as as
I was making out to be, because oh, in all,
what really matters is that you don't fall. I think
even sixth is probably as long as we don't follow

(08:21):
six I'll be okay. As long as we avoid Nuggets,
Thunder and Brizzlies in the first frondle though the Brizilies,
you know we've beaten them, I think I'll be okay.
And the most important thing to me is getting to
the playoffs really healthy. I think this team has been
just completely destroyed by injuries and key players as well.
Fred brings to me that we don't have anybody else
on the Ross that can bring the same thing. Shengun

(08:42):
has been out for a few games. I think it's
just back spasms now, so maybe he'll be back by
by the time we play the Suns. And I think
you can't really discount the fact that Killen Green is
very quarly playing Kurt. He's very clearly hanging on to
that one hundred and sixty or whatever the maybe games
played streak, and he you know, it's I don't know

(09:06):
what injury he has, but it's clear that it bothers him.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's a conclusion to his knee. And I think with
so many other guys out quite frankly, they had to
win that Toronto game, and they don't if Jalen doesn't play.
Let's be honest, if he's not out there in the
fourth quarter, they don't turn that around and salvage it
on the second day of a back to back. And
so I think part of it's the streak, but part
of it's all these other injuries piling up and they

(09:31):
desperately need a win and so he just needed to
be out there. And by the way, one critism of
the Rockets that I think is fair from sort of
a management perspective is how they're staggering or not staggering
in some cases these absences on the back to backs
because the loss they had in Brooklyn. And what's most

(09:52):
frustrating to me about this recent stretch is if you
could just flip the two games they lost to the
Nets and they're three and four in these last seven,
we'd all be okay and understanding of it. The extent
of the struggles and the abrupt falloff from number two
in the West, they were, I think at number two
in the NBA dot Com Power rankings now seven or

(10:14):
eight overall, four or five in the West, depending on
the day. The extent of the fall was because you
stacked losses. You could have avoided that if you simply
prioritize beating the Nets and for example, use Tarry Eason
on that half of the back to back instead of
in Madison Square Garden against the Knicks, a team that
without Shamgoon, without Fred, without Jabbari, you were unlikely to

(10:37):
be even if you played at your best, which to
the Rockets credit, they did. They led for a lot
of that game before Jalen Brunson took it over down
the stretch. So if you're the Rockets and you can
load up for some of these easier teams, and the
same could be said for the way they managed the
MAVs Raptors back to back. They played Steven Atari on
the front end, not on the back end, and so

(10:57):
because of that, that put a little bit more pressure
on some one like Jalen to say, Hey, I need
to be out there, because if not, we could lose
this game and we could be on a seven game
losing streak, and that would be freaking terrible for a
team that looked at itself as something of a contenders
recently as the start of this month. Now, I don't
know if we fully bought in on them being a contender,

(11:17):
but I think internally there was, at least in the
locker room, that degree of confidence, that degree of swagger
you want them to believe if they're beating the best
teams in the NBA, which they were, And so I
think the streak for Jalen is part of it, but
also it just comes down to they needed him to
win that game, and without Jalen being out there, even
limited Jalen, they're not able to do it. I think

(11:39):
the larger point is valid. Powlo. I just wanted to
jump in and sort of give some of the background there.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, I think I think perhaps not necessarily right now,
because I.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Do agree with you.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
We don't win those games without him, because as inefficient
as he might have been, it was a difference between
inefficient and just not scoring it all because nobody was. Jeff
Green had a rear night and that kind of saved
us there in the fourth quarter, like we had nothing going.
Kem Whitmore made a couple of really tough trees laid
down the street, but he was like one for seven,

(12:10):
one for eight, like nobody could put on the back.
The man had one shot at the half. And you know,
there is something to just getting a bad shot up
versus not getting a shot up at all, which happened
a lot, or just you know, a tough shot for Jail.
It's better than a tough shot for basically everybody else
on the team because he's kind of the only one

(12:30):
that can kind of make him even if even if
they're not at you know, normal efficiency standards. That being said,
my biggest over our team point in the fact that
as long as they get healthy, we've seen that the
system works, and the fact that Labody got injured showed
us that the system can work even better with a
man function in plasive Delon Brooks, and I think I'd
be confident saying that. I think when Lewari comes back,

(12:54):
if he is as good as as he was before,
he is as important that he was before, Dylan will
go to the bench. I think Dylan's just been playing terribly.
We saw this last year IFICI he kend of fell
apart and he's just ticking terrible shout after cereble shout.
All all the offense is doing it in general, but
Dylan's just not picking any of them like we're doing.
There's good fradaways and bad fadaways, and you can tell

(13:16):
by the by the time that he's going to shoot
if it's a good one or a bad one. If
it's those short ones, he sometimes makes them. If it's
the long ones, he doesn't make a single one of them.
It's just crazy. Sorry to get back to the point,
as long as they get healthy. I think Kebodi's impact
is really really underrated, and I think simply what happened
was well in January, Jalen Queen was unconsciously hot, and

(13:39):
we've talked about on this podcast time and time again
that the difference between us having a good half court
offense or a B or a bad half court offense
is how good children's playing. And so if you have
a good half court offense, you don't really rely on
as much on the on the defensive rebounding, the offensive rebounding,
the stops and the extra opportunities on that from rebounding.

(14:02):
When Javari went down, Jimon started to pick it up,
and so you kind of you were still winning games
because you were no longer that terrible half guard offers
if you were prior to that. And now Gien has
come back to earth right, He on his good games
will score high volume one fifty five percent through shooting,
which looks like something like twenty four points on twenty

(14:24):
one shots in two three rows or something like that.
But that's no longer enough from half court perspective, especially
without Fred there and then with dab Sheengun for some
of the other games. And you've also lost that rebounding
component to it. And I think we kind of saw
with Steven Adams and Upron Schengul, which you know, I

(14:46):
was really surprising, although it should have had because he
may has played Robert Williams and all Harford together. Robert Williams,
And don't quite recall who the other standard was with
the Celtics back then. Maybe it was all her.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
That was it was Robert Williams, al Horford.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, yeah, all right, because nowadays I kind of think
of Al Horford as more of a spaceater than he
was back then. I'll go back and he kind of
could kind of do it.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
And by the way, we will talk before the episode
wraps up. I should have set up the lead with this,
but the relatively quiet trade deadline, we're Felstone making a
couple of deals to sort of build back up the
future asset pipeline hashtag asset management by taking on bad
contracts or second round draft picks, but not really bringing
in any upgrades to the current team, be it star

(15:31):
level or rotation level. I know Robert Williams was one
guy who was specifically mentioned potentially as an option for
the Rockets. We will get into that before the episode
winds down. Just want to start by talking about the
you know, abrupt change in fortune for the team on
the court, and then before we wrap up, we'll get
to the trade deadline and everything that comes with that.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah, one hundred percent, And so just to put a
bow on it. I'll just say it makes all the
sense in the world, and it's easy to explain what
happens here. You have a team that was highly reliant
on offensive rebounding, on defensive rebound, on check and have
opportunities in and in transition buckets because the half cart
offense sucked and then you lost a lot of that
component other team, but you gained on Fire, Jail and Green.

(16:11):
That got your half card offense to an acceptable level
and so you could and that plus the amoend thumption boost,
you could now just win like a normal elite team.
And then Helen came back down to earth. I mean,
thumbption is very good still, but it's situational well when
he can be used as an offensive option or not.
And that, coupled with the injuries that we've had, has
caused the slide to happen. What I'm looking for right now,

(16:34):
it's just let's just survive until the deadline with no
more injuries. If we can play five hundred Paul into
the deadline, I'll take it.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Sorry, until the All Star Bridge, I'll take it. And
hopefully during that time these guys can can take a
moment to really get back to as coosay as they
can two hundred percent, hopefully will be able to play
after the All Star break, and then we truly see
what this team is made of, because that will probably
be the best version of the team that we have
seen all year, because you will have to worry. You

(17:05):
will be able to start the men, and you will
have all those interviews back and hopefully we will have
a more kind of a less war now Kalen Green,
because you know, the sixty games sounds impressive, but these
last few games, it's everything's on him, right Kaylen has
to be a part of every single possession. He has

(17:27):
to and he's obviously doesn't have the frame of an
Anthony Edwards, and he's having to play through contact, he's
having to, you know, play a lot of minutes, and
hopefully he gets a little.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Bit of rest.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
So, as I said, all in all, just let's just
survive unto the deadline. Let's at least play five hundred basketball.
Let's be you know, within four games, I'll call it
of the two seed and hope that it's not too
late by the time they also break us past so
that we can kind of bounce back, because it's not
an It's not hard to explain why this team has

(18:00):
had kind of the fall from grace that it has.
It's also that they got a lot better really really quick.
And it's kind of understandable that once you lose a
couple of pieces, the entire scheme falls apart because you
don't have your Anthony Edwards, your look at Armstig, the
guys that can, you know, regardless of what the team

(18:21):
is around them, just cardy the team through the finish
line and make up for some of those losses. It's
kind of the entire group makes every single piece of
itself a lot better, and as you lose more and
more pieces, you know, that kind of that effect goes away.
I'll call a I'll call a the Texans reference since

(18:41):
it's both Super Bowl and I'll say that swarm mentality
that I think also characterizes the Rockets kind of fell
apart a little bit because of the of the lack
of talent. But yeah, that's my you know, with you,
it's nothing to panic about.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Alar back to yeah, and I will note that even
after the Toronto game, Rockets still have the second easiest
schedule in the West for the remainder of the season.
The only team with an easier schedule is Dallas, and
they're not gonna have Anthony Davis for several weeks, it
looks like, so all in all, they're still in a
pretty good spot. And fortunately they won all those games

(19:17):
in January, even in a stretch that looked very difficult
on paper, because that's given them a buffer to where
even after losing six straight games, they're still in a
pretty decent spot. I think at the end of the day,
we would both agree or correctly from longpollow but as
long as they get to the playoffs, it's a success

(19:38):
or at least has a reasonable opportunity of success. Now,
if they get swept in the first round and lose
by like twenty five points a game, like that's silly.
But the whole idea of not making a big move,
and we'll get into this when we talk about the
trade deadline, but the idea is to use this season
to gather more information about the young four, stress test
them under high level bridge situations. I think, at a

(20:02):
bare minimum, and this is still very much in play.
You want to get to the playoffs, get at least
one best of seven series, and we've talked about you know,
do they go out in the first round, do they
advance deep into the playoffs, potentially the Western Conference finals.
A lot of it's going to depend on matchups. It's
the last home versus road. Obviously, you'd like for the
Rockets to be in a position where they have home

(20:23):
court advantage, but this is a team that's played well
on the road. Quite frankly, you might prefer instead of
being four or five and being on the side of
the thunder to where with the bracket you would play
them in the second round. Maybe you'd be better off
at six so that you're not slotted to play Oklahoma
City in round two, depending on who you draw in
round one. But I guess are we in agreement that

(20:44):
as long as you avoid the play in tournament, because
the play in tournament puts you in a world where
you could be out in a game or two, as
long as you get to a best of seven series
and have a reasonable showing at that point, you've accomplished
your primary goals.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Right, yeah, I think you get you get a top
six seedy, you get to be you, you get a
you gotta you get a top five seed. As long
as the Lakers are the four seed. You gotta you
gotta be plus you gotta you get adopt the bee
seed each other to day.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
That's yeah, okay, So with the buffer they gave themselves
by starting thirty two and fourteen and getting to the
number two seed to where even with things falling apart
like they have lately, to still be in a decent
spot as of our recording time, number four in the West,
although they may fall in number five in a little

(21:36):
bit depending on what happens with the Lakers game later
on with the Luca debut. All in all, it's a
pretty decent spot all things considered, and another reason to
be optimistic. Most of their injuries are the type that
especially with over a week of rest over the All
Star Break. The last game before the break is this Thursday,
the thirteenth. They don't play again until Friday, the twenty first.

(21:59):
Most of their injuryies are not of the soft tissue variety.
With Jabari obviously, it's the broken bone and it's left
non shooting hand. With Jalen Green, it's a bruise to
his knee. With all friend Shongoon, now we'll see what
happens with the back, but it's primarily been a bruise
to his calf. It's not the Anthony Davis type injuries
that can linger, not just from the standpoint of how
long they're out, but how effective they are when they

(22:22):
come back, because we all know with soft tissue injuries
in the NBA sometimes it can take until the off
season for them to fully heal. I will be watching
that carefully with Fred and Fleet in particular, but for
the most part we're talking about bone issues bruises, with
Jabari his non shooting hand, So I think these are
the types of injuries that when they are healed, and

(22:43):
with Jabari, thankfully he's been able to keep up with
his conditioning because obviously it's not a lower body injury.
I think those are the types of injuries that, while
frustrating now, by and large, they'll be all systems go
when they return on the other side of the All
Star break. And with Fred perhaps being the only exception
to this, well, I guess you can say Steven Adams
and Tari Easton are exceptions as well for different reasons.

(23:05):
Tari because he's had ongoing issues with the leg. But
I think those are guys with a slightly lower role.
It's not as important than being full health, because you
can scale down the role a little bit if you
need to it still use them in some capacity. It's
the thirty five minutes per game tier guys that you
need to be at full health or as close to
it as possible. And in the case of guys like

(23:26):
Jalen and Jabbari and hopefully Shongoon, I think by large,
after the All Star break, they'll be themselves and so
we'll have something closer to the version of the Rockets
that we saw in January when they were at their
best and they were winning these awards and they were
stacking wins over really good teams. To your point on
how it all fits together, I think Imo Udoka has

(23:48):
had some really revealing comments in recent days that I
want to highlight. After the loss in Minnesota, he commented
on it being great to have a guy or would
be great because the Rockets don't someone like Anthony Edwards
that can just take over a game down the stretch.
And then prior to the Toronto game, when the Rockets
got back to Houston, part of this, I think they

(24:09):
were a bit road weary. They had played eight of
nine away from Houston a lot of back to backs,
a five game and seven day stretch, so there were
a lot of things that were adding up on top
of the injuries. And so with the team being on
the road so much, there hadn't been a lot of
media availabilities with reporters here in Houston. Sunday there was,
so we got to catch up with Emay on some

(24:31):
bigger picture topics, and he mentioned a term that he
used at least twice, called a fragile ecosystem, and he
didn't elaborate too much on it, but I think it's
what he's referring to with that is many of the
dynamics that you just laid out, which is that when

(24:51):
you don't have someone like in Anthony Edwards that at
least consistently can take over games. Now, for a stretch
in January, Jalen Green did that, and I guess you
can argue a Men did for a few games as well,
certainly in Boston. But I think you know with Jalen
it's the knee contusion with the men. I mean, he's
just year two, so there's gonna be a lot of

(25:14):
ups and downs and volatility to his performances. You can
also argue that maybe playing a men forty minutes per
game instead of the thirty to thirty five that he
was at before. That might be overextending him just a
little bit to where you can't get the peak version
especially well. I say especially offensively, but defensively as well.
I think he's there's been some fall off there that
hopefully can be improved once he goes back to a
more normal usage pattern when you get your Bary back.

(25:37):
But I think the idea is that when the Rockets
had those big games, it largely came at a point
in which you had Jalen and a Men being transcendent.
And now that you know it's not that either of
them has fallen off hard. Jalen's still been pretty good.
It's not like he's gone back to November form or
the first half of last season and he was bad.

(25:57):
But even if he just goes back to being a
good player but not a great player, it's not enough
to overcome the issues defensively with all the pieces they've
lost the propensity to have more turnovers. Now that you
don't have Fred bin Fleet to help organize you on
both ends of the court, the transition defense has got
in the leak year, you just don't have that one

(26:18):
guy that can overcome it. And so I think that's
what EMA is referring to with his fragile ecosystem comments,
especially in light of the comments he had about Anthony
Edwards and it being great to have a player like
that that can just take over a game and when
you need a bucket, when it gets tight the fourth quarter,
you can trust him to go out and make a play.
And I think that's something that you know in Houston,

(26:40):
we've been spoiled over certainly to James Harden years, but
especially James Harden, Chris Paul then James Harden and Russell
Westbrook and I always joke about it, but Russ still
was an All Star for that one season that he
was in Houston. You had multiple guys that It's not
that the team concept didn't matter. Obviously, you needed enough
versatile defenders where you can get cooked. You needed enough

(27:02):
floor spacing to where James and Ross or James and
Chris could go out and do their thing. But ultimately
you wanted to give one or two guys an opportunity
to be transcendent, to be great, and that's what a
lot of Houston Rockets basketball was over the past decade,
and you can even go back before that with you know,
Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming obviously the nineties with the

(27:23):
keem incline. This is an organization in a fan base
that's become accustomed to having transcendent star level players, at
least when healthy, and when they haven't been healthy. Then,
while we pointed to that and said, well, if not
for Chris Paul pulling his hamstring at the worst moment
right now, that you don't have a player of that caliber. Now,

(27:44):
you know, we've talked a lot about the strengths of
sort of this sometimes you sometimes me always us approach
this mantra that the Rockets have adapted. They're less predictable
in theory, you're not at a point where one injury,
one ill time, hamstring pull can cripple you the way
it did with Chris Paul. But the problem is your

(28:06):
ecosystem becomes very interconnected because you don't have that one
guy that can lift you above the sum of the parts.
So if you're missing Shabari's impact with his size, as
far as your defense, your switchability, your rebounding, and all
of a sudden, that prevents your defense from being you know,

(28:26):
the top five foundation that it was for most of
the first two and a half months of the season.
Then there's a whole chain of ripple effects, and I
think that's what we're seeing when you don't have that
transcendent type of player. And you know, congratulations to all
pri In Chagoon on being an All Star for the
first time, but he has not been an All NBA
player this season. That's the type of difference maker I'm

(28:47):
talking about, especially with the amount of shots he's missed
near the rim. We've talked about him missing bunnies, and
perhaps the injuries there are a factor as well, the
calf and now the back. The point is when you
don't have that one player that can lift you up
the way Anthony Edwards or Jalen Brunson did during this
recent skid for the Rockets, Anthony Davis with the MAVs
as well, then all of a sudden, these little things

(29:09):
like the organization and the limiting turnovers of Fred than Fleet,
the defense, the rebounding, the switchability of Jabari Smith Junior.
When you take pieces like that out of the chain,
it becomes much more pronounced. When you don't have a
James Harden or a Chris Paul or even a February
twenty twenty Russell Westbrook to lift you above it, and

(29:32):
for a time in January, the Rockets had that with
Jalen Green and a Men Thompson. Neither one of them
has become a dramatically different player this month, but even
just a slightly reduced version of what they were in January.
When combined with losing these other elements in the chain,
it's led to a lot of coin flip games that
went their way in January all of a sudden not

(29:54):
going their way in February. So I think that's what
EMA is referring to here, and that's why I think
there's that once you get back to full strength, and
you know, we hyped up during the year the depth
the guys they have at the ten through fourteen spots
on the bench, like Jeff Green, like Jock Landale, like
Jay Shuntate, like Aaron Holliday. Kudos to Jeff and Jock

(30:15):
for getting them a win over the Raptors, but I think,
especially against better teams, losing guys like Fred and Jabbari,
even if your ten through fourteen are better than ten
through fourteen on other teams around the NBA. At the
end of the day, it's not Fred and Jabbori. It
is a hit. I think, you know part of what's happened,

(30:39):
and this is sort of how I've made peace with
it myself. The Rockets were pretty fortunate with injuries the
first two and a half months. I know they had
the situation with Tari, but we largely expected some of
that going into the year after what happened to season ago,
and he's never been a piece that's played above twenty
five minutes per game anyway. By and large, the Rockets
have been healthier than a lot of their rivals in

(31:01):
the West for the first couple of months of the year.
Obviously that slipped over the past month. Now everyone's a parody.
And you know, I keep telling myself, Look, if if
someone had told me before the season started that, hey,
February tenth, they're going to be thirty three and twenty
number four in the West, would you take it? I
think everybody would take it. It's just coming off of
thirty two and fourteen. That's why it feels the way

(31:22):
it does right now. But perhaps some of this is,
you know, the Rockets getting the same bad luck with
injuries that everybody does, or most teams do over a season,
and now they're sort of coming back to where they
should be given the composition of the roster, where they
are in the rebuild all of that. So for me,
that's what I think Emay is referring to with the
whole fragile ecosystem, it's that when you don't have that

(31:42):
Anthony Edwards level guy, you can't as easily overcome the
issues in the chain to where you know, if the
same thing had happened five years ago, where you lose
a role player for a few games, well, okay, James
Harden can just go out and bail you out and
keep you afloat to where you don't really feel it
in the standings as much. And right now it's just

(32:03):
the way the roster is put together, and especially with
Jayalen Green all Forrinch and going to Men Thompson all
dealing with snagging injuries and not being at that level
to begin with, it's just not realistic for the Rockets
as curtly constructed to overcome it. I think that's what
he's referring to. I think that sort of messes with
your comments on the injuries and how that's played into
the recent slide. Anything else you want to add on

(32:25):
that before we turn our focus to the trade deadline. Yeah,
I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
I think when you quote it in the tweet, right,
I'm referring to the it's nice to I remember to
the exact quote, but it's nice to have someone who
can go and get you know, the fuckets or whatever,
or have a go to guy whatever may be. Then
you look us at it's read a lot more passive
aggressive than I think it was. Like, if you listen
to me to speak, it's more of a you know,

(32:52):
I don't think it was kind of a shot that
Rafell for us not having it it was. I think
it was more of a challenge to the end guys
that we have that hey, we need this guy. So
which one of you is to begin this guy?

Speaker 1 (33:05):
And that's why I think it's important to mention that
comment with the additional contact a couple of days later
of the fragile ecosystem, because I think those are interconnected
in terms of what he's referring to. It's not so
much that he's saying, oh, Rafell needed to go get
me that guy, right, now it's also just sort of
explaining why it's more difficult with the pieces they have

(33:27):
and what they're trying to do with these young guys.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Yeah, and I think that's a perfect segue for the
trade deadline sult because that's exactly why I would have
wanted a guy like a Robert Williams or maybe one
of those like refree of the rotation type of pieces.
But I didn't quite want a big trade for a
big start. And then with the trade deadline, and if

(33:53):
you go into it especially, what you'll see the most
is you'll see people see other teams get guys and
get over these what the comes up of a guy
may walk on a team and have that fear of
missing out, and you know the NBA ED especially, it's
just a lot of drama and you'll see just people
just say crazy stuff and forget the point in the
rule where we're at, and you touch on this on

(34:16):
you know, on your previous point, which was, which is
there's so much and I kind of wish people look
at it this way. There's so much data to collect
on the team that we currently have, and if you
go and get someone, you might be putting yourself in
a position that if you get someone, they're gonna take
a sorry from somebody else, and you might move that
somebody else while they have value because you're not going

(34:37):
to play them, it would make sense to move them.
And the worst feeling in the world for a team
that thanked for three straight years is to feel that
they let the guy that they shouldn't have let go.
They let him go to world. Because even if it's Leven,
which is the guy that's got on the most chances,
the most opportunities, if Kleven went to another team now
and turned into Donovan Mitchell, it would stink so much

(35:01):
as Rockets fan if our porticle is obviously already good,
but if this happened with Japari Smith, what if Kibarty
Smith Albos have been turned into Chris wash Like or
hell call it Case and Tatum Mike. I know it
probably won't have happened, but you can make that argument
for for a lot of the guys that we have
currently on the roster. And how much differently would you
look at a call Kill and Green if all of

(35:23):
a sudden in the playoffs he's just a killer, like
he's one of those guys and when it comes to
the playoffs, the whites are brightest, and it just clicks
for him, like he's just better in that situation. Like
Timmy Butler is okay in there at your season here,
but are in the playoffs is a goth and so
you we don't know either Kail and Japari. Even a
man which we know is good in any setting. But

(35:43):
let's say even single who's already good, if he goes
to the playoffs and he's just onla, he might you
can't stop him from scoring thirty and having six assists. Again,
like we don't know until we see is at the
very least once. And even if you went and collin sex,
then that's probably going to take minutes away from from
guys either on the bench or even Hiven Beings minutes

(36:05):
in some situation. I just want to see, like there's
there's just this enormous amount of data that we haven't collected,
and just one playoff series can give us so much.
Obviously it would, it will still be a very small sample,
but at that point it's just completely like, how do
these guys perform in the playoffs is just a completely

(36:25):
different world than than how they will perform in the
regular season. Now it might be the same for a
lot of guys, but you have to see it before
you make a major move like that. And just think
about all of the stars in the NBA, right, and
how their performance in the playoffs completely shifts the opinion
that we've had of them as star players.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Right.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Look at even James Salvon, for example, Or look at
a guy like Jason Tatum, or look at a guy
like Joel Ebiid. Like if you took Joel Embiid purely
off his regular season numbers and perhaps not the injuries,
just think like, oh my god, this guy's one is
like top three player in the league, but when you
factor in how he performs in the playoffs, different conversation.

(37:09):
Look at Paul George. If Paul George was regular season
Paul George in the playoffs, he'd probably he'd probably have
a few rings, and you'd probably be talking about him
in the same breath that you're talking about James Harden
and so and Hey, you could probably make the argument
if he have like three rings or or and I
think that he could have if he were that good
of a player in the playoffs, it's not be talking

(37:31):
about him in the same breath as you know, Kevin
Durant or someone like that. It's just so different. Like
guys in the regular season in the player, the way
you guys play in the playoffs is so just makes
such a massive difference that you really can't feel good
about yourself, not at least giving yourself a chance to
collect an information before you make a drastic decision and listen,

(37:52):
if the Rockets were not on place to make the playoffs,
right and or you know, I think it's so quarantee,
but a little bit I likelihood that they will, then
you could make the argument that, hey, to get the information,
you've got to make the playoffs, So make a trait
to actually make the playoffs and you'll get whatever information
you can about the guys as remained. If you were
struggling to make that lump, I think it would make sense,

(38:14):
but you aren't. This is you know, the first season
where they've you know, really got on a real chance
at making the playoffs, and they are going to make them.
And so it's there's just very little cost. And I
don't think the Rockets missed out on any major opportunities.
And I think the one that you could argue about
is maybe the Aaron Fox. But it struck to me

(38:36):
as that he only requested the three because he already
had somewhere he wanted to go. There wasn't I don't
think there was really a bidding war. It was like, oh,
he wants out, Oh he has a team in mind.
The next day it's all that team's the Spurs. And
two days later, oh, he's a spurt. Like there was
no oh, there's other teams involved. People kind of said, oh,
the Rockets may be involved, or the Heat may be involved,

(38:59):
but there was no real rumors about that. That's probably
why this sport's got some sweet such a sweetheart two
for him.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Well, and I think from the Rockets perspective, the concern
and I've had a few conversations on this is about
the next contract. The same is true with Jimmy Butler.
So many of these discussions on social media are just
abstract and that, hey, this is a team that can
struggle to close out games in the fourth quarter. Let's
put Jimmy Butler or junoron Fox on this roster and
you'd address that problem in the very short term. Yes,

(39:29):
that's fair. However, when it comes to building a sustainable
contender giving Jimmy Butler a two year extension for one
hundred and twenty one million dollars at age thirty six
or all of his mileage. That's tough and Juron Fox, look,
he's a good player, but we've talked about it before.
He's probably not a great player. He's probably top twenty five,
top thirty. He's not really an All NBA level guide

(39:49):
yet he's about to get a four or five year max.
That's the only way you're going to keep him. And
you don't trade for a player like that. You don't
give up the asset capital, even at a little bit
of a reduced cost, if you're going to let him
go in a few months and it's just a trial move. No,
you trade for a player of that stature if you're
gonna make them a cornerstone of your future, and for

(40:10):
the Rockets, as good as they are already, does it
make sense to commit the future of your franchise to
a guy like that, who, while they would help you today,
is not of the tier that they are a slam
dunk value moving forward, especially if you think you are
set up with these assets to go after someone like
a Devin Booker, even a Donovan Mitchell. Should things go

(40:32):
sideways in Cleveland over the next year or two, you know,
some will undoubtly argue, hey, are they trying too hard
to thread the needle to get the perfect guy? Maybe,
But at the same time, if you are good enough anyway,
you have the luxury to think top of the line
in terms of fit. When the status quo is as

(40:53):
good as it is, and when you're trying to be
the best team out of thirty, yeah, you do sort
of have to thread the needle. You do have to
think upside. It can't just to be about getting a
little bit better and helping mitigate a current weakness. No,
if you actually want to win a title and to
have a sustainable contender, which is the two words I

(41:13):
hear more than any out of Toyota Center, it requires
making some cutthroat decisions. And I just don't think they
viewed any of these guys bit contractually. In the case
of Jimmy Butler and Kevin Durant, there's the age considerations.
I think that went into why they looked at but
ultimately didn't go after Paul George's last offseason. I just think,

(41:33):
especially in light of how the team has played this season.
There wasn't the guy at the star level that checked
all the boxes. And so that's where I land on this.
I know in the moment, especially after the Brooklyn game,
I was frustrated on social media and wanted them to
make a move. Look, Twitter is not you said this
earlier in your spot on Twitter is not. It's a

(41:54):
real time app, and especially if you know, in your
case you're stayed up until all hours in the night.
With me, I travel to New York, spend a lot
of money and time. If you want real time reactions,
you're going to get over the top meltdowns at times.
That's what comes with the drama of sports at the
highest level. It's great when they win. We get really

(42:15):
high when they beat teams like the Cavshwice and the Celtics,
and we get really low when they lose to the
freaking Brooklyn Nets, especially if we travel to Brooklyn for
the game in my case or Polo, if you're staying
up till three or four am to watch that shit
show and waking up on like two or three hours sleep,
that's just the way it goes. That's sports at the
highest level. That's competition. That's the uncertainty. So I know

(42:38):
at times for me and probably for you as well, Paolo,
there may be tweets that sort of, you know, contradict
this sentiment. Yeah, that's what happens on a real time website.
This pod is different. This pod is the idea is
to be a little more long form, a little more
detailed in the analysis. And when you take a step
back and you look at the macro, the thirty thousand

(42:58):
foot view as we put it leading off the pod,
I think it's understandable why the Rockets didn't go after
a big name. The fit just wasn't there. And while
certainly there are guys that would make them better, it
wouldn't make them. It wasn't so clear cut that it
tosses all the other concerns to the waistside, especially when
you consider the Rockets aren't just trying to be a
better team, they're trying to actually win a title, and

(43:20):
I think, you know, that's something else the last couple
of weeks may have played at least a small role
in is realizing that the Rockets aren't as close as
we maybe wanted to think when they were stacking those
wins over contenders. In January, not that it's dramatically different
for the reasons that you laid out, but in a
Western conference where the thunder look like a super team

(43:40):
and aren't going anywhere for the foreseeable future, the Rockets
are good, but they are not at that level. In
the past couple of weeks, it's been a reminder of
how fragile the ecosystem is, to go back to the
way emy Udoka characterized it, and so because of that,
does it dramatically change the way you feel about this franchise?
Know but if you were of the thinking that, hey,

(44:03):
maybe you're close enough now that you just say, screw it,
get me to Earn Fox, get me Jimmy Butler, get
me Katie, get me that guy that's on the market,
this deadline that can address a clear deficiency for this
year's team, and we can worry about tomorrow tomorrow. I
think what we've seen the last couple of weeks is
a little bit of reminder that while good, while you
should feel very confident in what Profelstone is building, they're

(44:26):
not so close that you throw the long term concerns
to the wayside. They're sort of close. They're getting closer,
but They're not at a point now where it's just
make the all in move and worry about everything else
another day. We're not to that point yet, and I
think the last couple of weeks is a reminder of that.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
And it's not like it's not like you can't make
the same moves next off season. More than likely, I
think you often can't cook at Fox. You could never
have gone on the Luka kV is still there if
you really believe that that's the move. But if the
stud of school is going to maintain itself until the
next you know, there was no move that I that

(45:03):
I saw happen, and I was like, oh, down for
the long term of the Rockets, I would have loved
to have that guy.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, the Luca thing. Just to address that real quickly,
the Rockets basically no team outside of the Lakers in
the game on that the Mavericks clearly targeted Anthony Davis.
Rockets had no idea along with the rest of the league,
that Luca was even remotely an option, So it's pointless
they even go down that road. So, you know, I
get the frustration. I think the Rockets are among many
NBA teams that you know are upset they couldn't throw

(45:31):
their hat in the ring. But clearly Nico Harrison and
the MAVs they targeted Anthony Davis. They think he was
the best fit for their situation. We'll see how it
turns out. But from the Rockets perfected, that's just a
non starter. There's nothing they could have done.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
Yeah, and listen you and you'll get to see truly, truly,
it's just you know, knowing about the guys that we have,
we will also know what weaknesses we have to address,
and we'll have all our full you know, pull of
acets to do so rather than make a move and
then maybe even after that movie doesn't work and now
you're left with having to deal with some of your

(46:04):
core guys to try and you know, to try and
fix those flaws, like just going into the off season.
Obviously this is not an a free agency podcast or
anything like it or anything like that, but you're gonna
have free agents of the like John Collins type, which
could be an interesting guy that to play the same
role that Jabbari does, but come off the band because

(46:25):
it doesn't have to be the starter. You have guys
like Darnian Finis Smith or who will be a free agent.
You have Christophus, like Lary Nails, Quny, the guys that
can play that world that Jabari has so that you
next including the next season. Now you know, okay, Jevody
is a key part of this team. If the body
gets hurt, there's nobody else that can play there or
quite like him. We need the guy with size to

(46:46):
play next to him. Or you've tried to be lined
up with Opera and Shangun. That worked well in your season.
Now you get to try that in the playoffs with
Steve Adams and Shang Gun and you'll see, okay, this works.
Now it truly makes one hundred percent of sense. Try
and get a guy like Robert Williams and try to
play those together in certain lineups. If you go into
the off season and you say, hey, Kevin Green is
just in the playoffs, he's just even worse, and you're like, okay,

(47:11):
all right, listen a week I gave, we've given Leman
for years. He's gotten a bit better this season, but
going into the playoffs, listen, the guy couldn't rise to
the occasion, and you know, we have to make a
deal for the shooting guard or a scoring guard and
you can make that deal. There's a lot of things
that you'll get to see that will inform your decision
a lot better. And there's just there's just no time

(47:33):
to rush. And I saw there's just a no reason
for us.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
And I saw on Twitter KP, who's a really sharp
guy who I really respect, making argument that going into
the next few years Rockets, they should make the move
now and try to strike while a high and so hot,
because the Lakers are going to build their own Luca
and you'll still have the thunder and you know, we'll
have all of these contendents that you won't be able
to get past. And I'm like, if the entire aim

(47:58):
of a Bee rebuilt was to have a two year
window because we're scared of how good teams will be
in the future, to me, we felt as a rebuild
and I'd rather, you know, see what these guys turn
into and romain and keep that upside rather than than
thinking short sighted than making it move that. And besides that,
I just don't agree that the West is this dungeon

(48:20):
of you know, teams that are going to that we'll
not have any shot of getting past. I think we
have to if we have really special players, and we
have a really upgradeable guys across the rotation and you know,
as good as Luca with the l boost right of
the refs and and all of that, and the league
wanting the Lakers to be good. While that may be scary,

(48:41):
and and maybe perhaps in you know, two years when
when Yannis is a freecent, maybe they partner up. But
I'm not going to build my future thinking about other
teams are doing unless that is a Golden State Warriors
level dynasty. That's the only way you should be the
only type of team should be considered. If you're going

(49:02):
to change the way you build your own team, try
and beat somewhere. And that seems to be proven that
it's not that it's not all we think this team
might become a dynasty, and so let's just go all
in right now. I don't think that's how it should
be done. And our remind folks, listen, the West since
twenty twenty has had I think it's what it's been.
What it's been four Western Conference finals, maybe five, and

(49:25):
they've had I think eight different teams. Make it so
it's the worst is as wide open as it's ever
been in the East. You don't have the Lebron James Calves,
don't have anything white that, So just say, just be patient,
build this thing the right way. I keep reminding folks,
and I keep reminding myself that nothing stinks more than

(49:45):
thank you for a guy saying through his development, shipping
him off to another team and seeing him have success
over there. Imagine how isn't the Clippers don't put nearly
as much into his development. But imagine how the Clippers
feel having shaven Ship kilch As Alexander excelling and being
probably the MVP on the thunder and thinking, hey, if
we had this guy and he was, you know, you

(50:06):
have every you have every right to believe he was
going to be this good because he's shown he's shown
promises very early on. Imagine how maps fans feel right
out how Baird maybe their star is playing on under
the team, and how much that would stink. So I'm
just I just wouldn't want to run that risk. It
may still happen if you do it in the off season,
but I'd much rather have an extra playoffs of a

(50:27):
sample to say, Okay, you know, at this point, we've
given these guys as many shots as we could have.
We've seen you in the playoffs. If we trade you
and you were restart elsewhere, so be it. As long
as we get the right guy. But the right guy
is probably not thirty plus year old stuff.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah. And then as far as the lower tier deals
that they made and didn't make, I think some of
it comes down to the market. I mean for starters,
but we talked about Rob Williams and someone that could
be a situational matchup dependent guy. Well, Rob Williams wasn't traded.
Alcolm Brogman wasn't traded. So some of the guys, it's
not like the Rightets didn't do anything. It takes two

(51:03):
to tango, and in some of these situations, the teams
that these guys were on just didn't think, for whatever reason,
that it was worth their while to do that type
of deal. The other thing that I would point out,
look the Rockets. For all the jokes we've made about
the asset management crowd, look they did only have three
tradeable future second round picks before this deadline. So taking

(51:23):
on guys like Jaden Springer and Cody Zeller, easing luxury
tax burdens for other teams at the benefit of a
second round pick. I mean kudos to Tilben Fritida obviously
for being willing to rent out space on his salary
books to do that, but also I think from an
asset standpoint, look, this is replenishing the stockpile that inevitably
you lose a big part of when you trade three

(51:44):
future second round picks for a guy like Steven Adams
who is playing a lot better in recent weeks. And
so I think the bottom line for the Rockets when
you look at this team, assuming health and none of
the injuries are believed to be catastrophic in nature by
any means, I think internally they believe by the end
of this month they will be healthy. Look, you get
to the playoffs, you're gonna have the original five starters

(52:05):
to begin this season. Not saying that's gonna be who
starts in the playoffs. I still think the men will
be a starter. But in terms of explaining the rotation,
you've got the original five starters, the three young guys,
a Men, Tari, and Cam who aren't rookies. Read Shepherd
clearly isn't ready yet, but a men, Tari and Cam
I think clearly are in Steven Adams. That's a nine
man rotation of guys that absolutely have to play. Yes,

(52:28):
I do think Cam Whitmore has emerged into that group.
Kudos to Cam. You know I talked about Jalen getting
them to win against the Raptors, which they badly needed.
Kim Whatmore hit some big shots down the stretch as well.
That's nine guys before we even consider the Jay Shun Tate,
Jock Landale. I guess you can throw Reed Shepherd into
that mix if you think that he might get going

(52:49):
as a rookie, although I think that ship is largely
sailed at this point. It would not be easy to
have a clear path too minutes. Now, that's not to
say you can't make an argument for just halving a
better option than Jacques Landale as the tenth guy on
your bench, which Robert Williams, if available, would have been.
But the point is if it's a role that's not
even going to get guaranteed minutes on an every game basis,

(53:13):
and the other team is playing hardball because it's not
like some of these guys that we talked about or
traded elsewhere for peanuts, and you don't have that many
future second round picks to trade because you have made
some big deals in the past for guys like Steven Adams,
who I think we're both optimistic about, not just for
the ranger of this season, but potentially re signing beyond

(53:34):
this season as well. And perhaps the injuries play into
you know why. I saw some arguing when Steven does
at his best in January, could he get back to
being a starting level center in the NBA. Maybe from
a production standpoint, but in terms of will his legs
hold up, probably not in his thirties with more than
a decade worth of mileage, And so this could honestly

(53:55):
be the ideal spot for him where he could have
that Ninae role that he can, you know, be a
very good fifteen to twenty minutes per game backup center,
but not be asked to overextend himself. So, when you
have a deep rotation as it is, you need more
tradable picks. It just didn't make sense for the Rockets,
especially if the prices are high, which I think it's

(54:17):
fair to conclude they were at least relatively highcaused on
the fact that a lot of the guys we talked
about didn't end up getting traded. Then that's why you
didn't see a move around the margins. Well, I guess
there were moves around the margins. It's just rather than
you know, upgrading the current team, it was to upgrade
the stockpile of future second round picks, which you know,
increase your optionality for future moves down the line. So
I think that's why the deadline went the direction that

(54:39):
it did. I think you know, in terms of these
matchup guys, they'll also explore the buyout market. I think
they're very much open to upgrading the ten, eleven, twelve
spots in the rotation. I think you know they were
linked to Ben Simmons, and I think that you know
the Rockets had conversations. It's just Ben Simmons didn't see

(54:59):
a clear role here for the reasons that I just
laid out. Who is he amongst those nine players clearly
going to play over on an every game basis, and
who should the Rockets I guess prioritize less for the
sake of a twenty eight year old Ben Simmons that
appears to have a chronic back injury. Would I love
to have Ben Simmons as the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, guy

(55:21):
on the bench as a situational option guy. Sure, but
it takes two to tango. And that's why I think,
you know, the Rockets will certainly put out feelers, but
they're not at the forefront of the list when it
comes to teams that can you know, offer a chance
to win a ring this season. And they also don't
have a path to clearly offer minutes to wear a
guy like Simmons that even if he's young enough to say, hey,

(55:43):
I don't need to ring Chase, well, they at least
want to play competitive games and have a chance to
build their market for free agency. Simmons didn't see Houston,
at least relative to the Clippers, as being his best shot.
So I think until March first, the Rockets willow the
option to add a player that's bought out somewhere else.
They now have a roster spot that's currently occupied by

(56:05):
Cody Zeller that could easily be upgraded, and so I
think they'll explore and it could be that, you know,
they end up bringing in a guy in the buyout
market along the same lines as a Robert Williams or
a Malcolm brog Then or any of the other names
that we tossed out and ultimately the Rockets didn't bring
in the deadline. But I would just remind people that
it takes two to tango, and so the Rockets, I
think they are very content and believe in the nine

(56:28):
rotation players that they have as currently constructed, the clear
top nine. And so if you're not gonna be able
to clearly upgrade one of those spots, or you don't
think it's worth it to upgrade one of those spots
in the case of a younger player like Tari or Cam,
then it's probably not worth it to trade much asset
capital to bring them in, and it's not worth promising

(56:51):
playing time to someone like a Ben Simmons. So I
think that's just sort of closed the loop because I
think we know address some of the more proven star
level names that were out there, and then as far
as the lower tier, the matchup situational guys, I think
they will explore the buyout market. I think they did
explore the trade deadline. It's just it's complicated as far

(57:11):
as whether one of these actually gets to the finish line.
So does that all make sense to you, because I
know you've talked in the past about the value of
bringing in you know, I'll mention Robert Williams again as
a specific guy, but in terms of whether it actually
gets to the finish line, it has to be a
blend right of not just the short term need but
also the roster fifth.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Yeah, I said before that I think Robert Williams himself,
again specific made a lot of sense as long as
he didn't cost for a shrunk pick. Well, he didn't
get traded for less than a first round pick, so
I cannot make this something that he was available for
less than a first round pick. And then none of
the guys. But maybe I would have liked a guy

(57:54):
like Western Crimes to be a shooter. But clearly them
have want to give up Williams and his you know
salary that's know set for the next few years because
they're trying to shave some some sorry, and so I
don't think that the Rockets were really no opportunity to
kind of we can move for Crimes either. That was
the only guy that did get moutra like them. I
kind of wish we got them, But I will highlight

(58:14):
that I the Rockets had I've talked about this before.
What we do or I do some Mark off seasons
that are pretty detailed on with like thirty plus GMS
or thirty plus people running it. I was gearing the
rockets and I came across the problem that we have
three second round picks that are tradeable right now, and

(58:35):
now we have five, which means that you can make
a three second round pick trade for the guller of
Robert Williams the next time he's available, maybe in the
off season, and still have to remaining in case you
need them for an emergency. And you don't want to
do a deal where you're trading at first round pick
for five seconds, because that's typically the opposite that you
want to do. And I have the quality assets, you
don't want to either want to be exchanging a dollar

(58:56):
for whatever seventy five stems or whatever. Baby. I will
say that it kind of appeases me that at the
very least we were there to take advantage of some
of these opportunities for these secondron picks, because while a
small step, it is a step that will be failable
in the future, and it's a lot better than not
doing anything and not taking advantage of some of these opportunities.

(59:17):
And I will say, you know, props to props with
Tilmen for allowing them to do this. They have done
it pretty consistently throughout the revealed garnered SECONDOD picks for
salary dumps. And so perhaps this time around, and I
mean I'm pretty conferent that this would happen, but perhaps
this time around, when we are contenders, we will go
all the way up to the apron, which is what

(59:38):
is recommendable for a team to do unless they are
like Capsulute, we all win, and which would mean paying
the tax, which I know is contentious amongst Rockets fans
and in their beef with Tilman per se. So yeah,
the re myin main takeaways, I'm glad that we got
those Secondrond picks. They're not game changing, but they're fairly useful.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Yeah, And I will also say that some of these
involving true contenders that spend like the Celtic with Jaden Springer,
are a reminder that it's not just about the tax payment.
It's also about the team building penalties that come from
the second apron, and that's another key portion of the
calculus in my opinion for guys like Dearon Fox and
Jimmy Butler, because as this team gets more expensive the

(01:00:18):
next few years with the extensions. Then to have a
guy on your books who is a good but not
great player yet making max money. That's very crippling to
team building under the current NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement or
the new CBA that's coming to effect the last couple
of years. And so I think that's making teams. It's

(01:00:39):
a conversation that I've had a lot with people in
the front office here in Houston, which is you've got
to be very careful with the guys that you give
those higher tier contracts to, because the worst thing you
can have under this CBA is guys at max level
salaries who aren't close to max level impact players when
it comes to actually winning games and in the case

(01:01:01):
of the Rockets, sustainably winning games, building that sustainable contender.
Pallo in the chat, you just pointed out Bradley Beal
as a perfect example of that. Yeah, those deals are
crippling in today's NBA. Not saying Taron Fox is Bradley Beal,
but I think that's just a very recent, high profile
example of a deal that clearly came to not age well.

(01:01:23):
And I think that's what the Rockets are trying to avoid.
Unless the situation is just so overwhelming in the short
term you're so damn close that you can conceivably win
a title right now by getting one of those guys,
then yeah, you do it. But I think the last
couple of weeks have it's been a little bit of
cold water. If anyone had that idea coming off the

(01:01:46):
Boston game with the end of January, the last couple
of weeks has thrown some cold water on that. And
so when you zoom out, when you look at where
the Rockets actually are, they're not close enough to where
a short term move like that consequences. Be damned. It's
not just about being willing to pay the luxury tax.
It's also about all the implications that come from being
a second Apron team. It also limits who you can

(01:02:08):
go after in the buy out market, for example. I
think that is playing into moves all around the league.
That's why some of these opportunities opened up to the Rockets,
certainly with Jaden Springer and the Celtics. But I also
think that it's a reminder of why the Rockets are
being careful with the types of guys that they bring
in or don't bring in on the trade market. It
has to check a number of boxes, especially when I'll

(01:02:29):
bring it full circle and then we'll wrap up the pot,
especially when the floor is as high as it is. Powell,
you made the point earlier that if they needed help
just to get into the playoffs, then maybe the thinking
is a little bit different, because you desperately need the
ability to distress test the current model, the current players
and see what happens. But right now, even with the
six game losing streak, even with things going so off

(01:02:51):
the rails, they're still in a good spot. They still
have a buffer relative to play in tournament, and they
have a weaker schedule than almost all the teams they're
competing with. So the incentive was not there for them
to throw caution to the wind with regards to the
future of team building. What their upside is down the
line that allows them to be a bit more selective,

(01:03:12):
and ultimately that's what the Rockets did. Can't tell you
for sure that it's going to age well. All I
can tell you is that I understand the thought process,
and while coming off the Brooklyn loss in particular, you know,
I was a lot more trigger happy at the end
of the day when I, you know, take a few
days to decompressed. It also helps I finally got to
win against the Raptors. That helped the vibes immensely in

(01:03:32):
that building. As we're recording late Monday early Tuesday, I
get it, even if it's a little underwhelming in the moment,
and even if the vibes aren't quite as high as
they were more or less recorded a couple of weeks ago. Anyway,
with that, we'll put a bow on this episode and
we'll talk a little bit more big picture over our
All Star Brake pod, which will probably be the end of
this week early next week again. Rockets wrap up the

(01:03:54):
pre All Star break portion of the schedule on Wednesday
and Thursday at home against the Suns and the Warriors,
both five hundred team, and then with a couple of
back to backs on the other side, but fortunately not
until Friday, the twenty first, so that will give more
than a week off for several of these injured guys
to heal up. The expector Bori to be cleared over
the All Star break in because his conditioning is there.
I don't think there'll be a long ramp up period,

(01:04:15):
if any for him. When it comes to playing an
NBA level games, and then we'll see With Fred van Fleet.
I think they're just trying to keep him off the
ankle as long as possible and then reevaluate where he
is on the other side. Keep your fingers crossed, because,
as we talked about throughout the POD, I think without
that transcendent type of player, the ripple effects can become
much more pronounced when you don't have a James Harden

(01:04:35):
to bail you out the way Rockets fans are accustomed to.
I think that's the fragile ecosystem, and hopefully it's a
little less fragile when they are back to full strength,
or we hope they are on the other side of
the break. We'll do one more POD before then, talking
more bigger picture, what have we learned. Will incorporate the
two gates against the Suns and the Warriors, which on paper,
especially at home, should be winnable. I'm not going to

(01:04:56):
say they need to go to and Oero, but I
think one in one is a reasonable expectation, reasonable goals,
something they can achieve, and then there'll be in a
pretty decent spot with multiple games of buffer relative to
teams in the play and range and ultimately getting into
you know, at least one playoff series to stress test
the model for the reasons that we've been laying out.
We'll do a pod more big picture oriented in a
few days, and then we'll get back into the nitty

(01:05:18):
gritty the micro when the rockets get on the other
side of the break have a little bit tougher schedule,
but fortunately that will come at a time in which
they are much healthier as well. All Right, for today,
that's where we'll wrap, and if you want more content
before our next episode's the best place to get it,
as always is online. You can follow me on Twitter,
slash x at Palo Elves or at Sorry. You can
follow me on Twitter or x at the Duvo's polo

(01:05:40):
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(01:06:24):
editor of USA Today's Rockets were based right here in Houston, Texas.
Thanks as always for listening, and please come back soon
for another new episode of the logger Line The Rockets