Two-week review: What we’ve learned in Rockets’ 4-3 start

Two weeks into the new 2024-25 NBA season, the Houston Rockets are 4-3 and tied for the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference. In Wednesday's episode, our Ben DuBose and Paulo Alves break down some of the key early storylines. Topics include the increasing importance of Amen Thompson and Tari Eason; inconsistency from Alperen Sengun and Fred VanVleet; and areas of both concern and opportunity entering the next few games.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Cheers.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Rockets fans, Welcome to The Logger Line, an exclusive podcast
from the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety
rock The Locker Line. It's proudly served to you by
Carbox Clutch City Lagger. It is good. Oh yeah, Red Nation,

(00:24):
Get ready, Ready, Get Ready the lagger Line.

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

(00:52):
station of your Houston Rockets. You can follow me on
Twitter slash x at Ben Dubos. I'm joined again tonight
by my co host and producer Pollo. You can follow
at Palo Alves NBA. As we chat this Wednesday, November six,
the Rockets are four and three after the first seven
games of the season. Back in action tonight about to
tip off against Victor Wimbanyama and the Hated Spurs over

(01:14):
at Toyota Center. As for us here at the Logger Line,
we have had a couple of mini cast episodes the
last few days that I've posted using my interview segments
from seven to ninety. But this is the first show
that Powell and I have had since the regular season began.
Definitely got a lot to get to. I know the
mini casts are not exactly the long form that you're
used to. Well, that's what you're gonna get today, and

(01:35):
certainly there's a lot of highs and lows. The sample
size seven games in is large enough. I think that
have some real takeaways. We'll start with thirty thousand foot
few thoughts, and then as we move our way through
the podcast, we'll do one area of concern, one area
of encouragement for both myself and Powo. We might have
some back and forth in there, but I think to

(01:56):
lead off to me, the good outweighs the bad the
way I'm framing it, and you know, there's a glass
half full, a glass half empty. Way to look at it.
The glass half empty would be there four and three,
but it's a weaker part of the schedule. They've been
favored in five of the seven games, and the three
games they lost, they were within a couple of points

(02:17):
in the last two minutes of each of them, So
you could easily be five and two, even six and one,
seven and zero, and you let some games slip away,
and in a tough Western conference that could eventually come
back to haunt you. I understand that, and for a
team that doesn't yet have an established superstar, it is
fair to sort of have a watchful eye on whether
or not they can close out games that are really

(02:38):
really tight in the last minute or two. But for me,
the good outweighs the bad because the majority of that sample,
and specifically the three losses, you had your two best
players from last season, all for In Shangoon and Fred
van Vleet, playing well below their standard. Shinggoon is first
six games shooting below forty percent from the field and
becoming unplayable in the fourth in overtime of most of

(03:01):
those games, because if he's not shooting well, if he's
had a fishing offensively, then he may Udoka is going
to trust the lineups with Jabari Speth at the five
and Tarry Easton at the flour because you have more
defensive length, versatility, athleticism, floor spacing. So Shingoon was your
best player last year, he wasn't playing well. Fortunately he
did against the next and that's one of your most

(03:21):
impressive wins of the season. Same could be said for
Fredman Vleet. He was shooting below thirty percent overall thirty
percent on threes for the first six games. He shot
well against the Knicks, and again that's the game the
Rockets won. Despite the fact that they shot below thirty
percent on threes. The Rockets out rebounded the next by
fifteen and ended up winning by double digits, and so

(03:42):
rebounding defense, I'm sure we'll get into a men Thompson.
All of that leads to a very promising win over
a good Knicks team, and I would actually argue that
for this particular Rockets team, the upside matters a little
more than the downside because we saw last year it
felt like the first year of he made Udoka. It's
had a lot of tryhard wins where they went out

(04:03):
and grinded their way, but they couldn't beat the really
good teams to be able to go out and be
two and Oho is underdogs with a couple of statement
wins early in the year at Dallas and then by
double digits at home against the next Even in the
game that you didn't shoot well. To me, that shows
you what I would call the upward mobility of this team,
that they do have the gear that can get them

(04:24):
to a level where they can compete with anybody in
the league. And there's some questions because you don't have
an established hymn to where you know who's going to
be that go to player every night. But you have
so many potential hymns that all it takes is two
or three then getting it going on a given night
and you should be fine. And again, the fact that
they were able to hover at five hundred despite Fred

(04:46):
van Fleet and all for in Shongoon probably your two
best players from a year ago being unsustainably poor. I think,
by and large, that's a good sign. And now even
after a stretch in which you know, we look at
the four and three record and we say, wow, they
should be better, but look, they're tied for the number
four spot in the Western Conference and there's only five
teams in the NBA. I was looking at this earlier
today that have better point differentials. So I find it

(05:10):
hard to complain too much about the record. I will
say that we can only push back the record discussion
for so long, and I think this upcoming schedule. Five
of your next six games against the Spurs, the Pistons,
the Wizards, the Clippers twice. You also got the Bulls
and a back to back against the Trailblazers before Thanksgiving.
You need to make some hay in that run. So

(05:32):
while we're saying it's okay that they are only a
game above five hundred hour, at least, I'm saying that
I do think by the time you get too closer
to let's say the twenty game mark and the quarter
pole of the season, they need to make some headway.
But for now, when you consider how close they were
in those games that they lost, and how unsustainably poor
your two best players from last season in all par

(05:54):
Eenshion Goon and Fred Denfleet were in those games. And
you look at the Western Conference, there's only three teams
that are better than the Rockets, four and three, which
tells you that it's not like you're going to have
to win fifty five games to avoid the play in
tournament or something crazy like that. By and large, all
the underlying metrics suggest this is a very good team.

(06:14):
The record slightly lags that, but when you look at
the performances to date, and now you're freeing up more
minutes for Tory Easton as he's being scaled up and
shows that he can handle the higher workload, and the
young guys are getting better. It feels like a men
Thompson for one game to the next is improving. I
would like to be five and two, six and one.
I think they probably should be, But when you look

(06:35):
under the hood who they've played, how they've lost the
rest of the Western Conference, with them being at four
and three and an easier stretch of the schedule coming up,
I think by marche I feel pretty good about where
they're at.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Costal.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Let me just you know, get it out of the way.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
If my voice sounds different, I'm a little sick. If
I have to take a break into the sentenesis, we'll
obviously cut it out, but it's because I have to
sneeze or something like that. So I'm kind of so
with that, just off the top, I'm fine, just you know,
just so people don't find it weird. I'll also say
I think from actually I have a lot of thoughts
we've I think this is one of the longest times

(07:09):
we've gone or one of the longest number of game
stretches that we've gone without recording. Yeah, I've got a
lot of thoughts. Actually, I'm perfectly fine with the way
things have gone. I think beating the Knicks and beating
the mass in games. I didn't watch the MAVs game,
but I looked into obviously the box going statistics later on.

(07:30):
It felt like throughout the entire game we weren't necessarily
extremely you know, hot and then fell off or the
other way around. It felt like we consistently beat both
of these teams throughout the game. And to me, that's
a lot bigger of a statement than the game where
we score seventeen the first half and then we struggled.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
To score the second half.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
So those two wins against quality teams our previous statement
wins or losses.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
The Charlotte game obviously just got out of hand. Obviously,
what was problematic that game was offensive rebounding, and we
didn't really have a go to guy to score down
the stretch. Kalen wasn't, you know, the best, even though
he had fine games, but we really needed alpron single
because Jaalen. I think Kevin's made tremendous stress this year
as a defender with how smart he is playing the

(08:18):
shots he's taking, but she is still not quite your
you know James hard and level solo attented creator that
you can just give him the ball in his spot
and he'll get a bucket, right, Keileen needs to you know,
get a good matchup or have the other team give
him in a space on his underpittn roof so he

(08:41):
can pull up for the three. You know, the closest
thing he has to way go to shot is the
step back three and that's you know, head and miss.
It was hit in the next game, but you know
obviously it's not. He's not an instant, you know, the
way just off the top of my head, the way
you know CTM McCollum gets or the market roles and
get to their middling shots and whenever they want and

(09:03):
let's start your fine taking. The way Daron Fox gets
to the rim, the way GLAMs started and would used
to you know, operate the pick control and or or
in ISO and going to step back threes. All of
these guys have, you know, their go to moves that
are reliable down the stretch in every single game, no
matter what the defense is doing, our guy for that
is opproaching good giving opronhingn the ball in the post

(09:26):
is our go to, you know, our most reliable way
of generating in the advantage and in given offensive possession.
And it's the closest thing we have to someone who
we can give the ball possession after possession down the
stretch and close out a gate. Uh. And because Apron
up until this last game hasn't been himself, and without him,
we don't have that go to way of generating buckets.

(09:48):
You go through these really big offensive you know, bells
where you can't score the ball at all, and unless
you create a turnover you can generate something in transition.
You're mostly relying on threes which are volatile, or just
breakdowns in the defense which are not happening quite as much.
And so I think that's what caused us to lose

(10:08):
some of these games, or have so much variance between
first halves and second halves, and so I think that's
something that's fixable, I think. But from a thirty thousand
foot few Another reason why I'm fine with this is
that to me in the West, the picture is very,
very very different from where it was last year. So

(10:30):
Forum three to me doesn't look too bad, even if
a schedule is supposed to be easier, because first of all,
I think the sports are better one of our losses,
I think the sports are better than what they're supposed
people expected them to be. I think the Warriors at
six and one that does that does not represent what
they're going to be unless but they heal. Is NMDP
canded from here and Outh?

Speaker 1 (10:50):
I mean he's doing this every single game, and.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
So you look at the top of the West and
I see one clear powerhouse, a Thunder who can score
with the best of them, and that've been holding many
teams to under one hundred points a game.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
And unfortunately, Rockets play at the Thunder on Friday night,
so that's san It's undio games tonight. It's a deal.
But if you're right, yeah, it'll be fun and it'll
be good to actually have a game where it feels
like it's a bonus if the Rockets win, but not
that harmful if they lose, because so many of these
early games there's been so much pressure, it feels terrible
if they lose because it's like, oh, we need to
win these games. Looking at the schedule, Thunder game, you know,

(11:26):
it's a bonus and you get to see where you're at.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, And to complete the point is, I think the
Killer are in the opperdential and by themselves, then the Celtics,
maybe the Cavs. I don't think the Sun is being
six in the sustainable. I don't think the Warriors being
six and one unsustainable. And teams. I think the Kings
are not the powerhouse they were two years ago, when
they're confirming the suspicions from last year that they're just okay,

(11:51):
you know, can be a contender on a good day,
probably just the playoff team caliber type of team. The
Nuggets have clearly taken a step back. I mean their
FOURUM three, but I'd say their plays, their play shows
a worst record than that. Aaron Gordon is now injured
as well. They've lost so many pieces. I don't think
the Nuggets will be a contender this year. The Grizzlies are,

(12:15):
you know, just terrible defensively. Their stars have been in
and out of games with injuries. I'm not sure what
to make of them. The Timberwolves me should be better
than four UM three, but aren't we just beat the MAVs,
the Lakers, I'm not sure they're sustainably you know, top
cherer contender either And so to me, there's three teams
ahead the Rockets in the record, the Sums, why I

(12:37):
don't think are sustainable at all, the Warriors, who I
don't think are sustainable at all, and then there's a
dest thunder, and so to me, any seed from what
I've watched the Rockets play a matter of rocks to
the rest.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Of the West play.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Any seed from two to ten is up for grabs
for any of these teams, and so I don't think
the West is as stuff as it's been in years prior,
and so I'm not as worried about giving up these
losses to teams that you're supposed to win against, because
I think that this Rockets team's plenty good enough to
beat the Lakers, plenty good enough to beat the mass

(13:09):
plenty good enough to beat the Wolves, plaity be good
enough to beat the Kings, plenty good enough to beat
the Nuggets, plenty good enough to beat the Grizzlies, and
could enough beat the top the two seats ahead and
the Warriors or the SAMs on any game a night.
I mean, how terribly were we playing in the first
two quarters against the Warriors, and we still came back
through hustle play. It wasn't even hot shooting, We're just
hustle play. That was the entire difference from the first

(13:31):
to the second half. And so to me it's I'm
actually more optimistic than I was to start the season
because to me, the Antotibo contenders have become just one
and I was ex fucking that. I get said the
Timberwolves to be total contenders, so they don't look like it.
And the tougher playoff teams look very beatable basically all
of them, no matter the talent. And so my thirty thousand,

(13:54):
thousand and fift few boils down to and I know
I can't well tied on this boils on to Yes,
it's Ortal Street is out great, but all of these
teams will beatable besides the Thunder and so it's not ideal.
But there's plenty of potential to be for the season
to be even better than what I expect that but
they're so for it to be worse. But we'll get
into specific players later, but that's my general overview.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, I would largely agree with that. The obvious asterisk
to put on that analysis is that in the next
couple of weeks. I do think that if this team
is capable of that type of leap from eleventh in
the West standings last year to getting let's say, clearly
in the top six and maybe playoff basketball without having
to go through the play in tournament. As I was
referencing earlier, the Rockets by tiebreakers now apparently are at

(14:40):
four in the West, although technically there's teams all the
way from four through nine that are all four and three.
Rockets do have the second best point differential of the bunch,
so that's one source of encouragement. But we noted going
into the year that this is where the schedule was lighter.
I think if you look under the hood, you can
find reasons and the small sample just seven games to
this point for why the Rockets haven't gotten much. But

(15:00):
when you look at the even weaker schedule coming up,
the astroisk guy would put on all this analysis is
the Rockets do need to by the time we're talking
two three weeks from now, to be at least a
few games above five hundred for this analysis to hold.
But yeah, I do think in terms of projecting based
on what we know to this point, there's a lot

(15:21):
more to like than not like. Because I mentioned all
princh and good and fred Rienvleets shooting unsustainably poor. That well,
it's already started to turn around. We saw it in
the win against the Knicks. And then that leads into
my biggest area of encouragement, which is the increased minutes
for Amen Thompson and Tarry Eesen and what that means

(15:42):
for the Rockets relative to these other teams, because I
don't think and we know the reasons that both of
those guys are coming off the bench. There's some politics
involved in terms of entrench charters from a year ago.
Also with Tory Easton, he's coming off of leg surgery.
But the Rockets are in a unique spot were objectively,
by any measure, two of their best players were not

(16:03):
playing as much to start the season as they will
be assuming health at the end. We all know Aman
Thompson and Torrey Eastern are going to get scaled up,
and they already are. We've seen the last couple of
games they've been combining for about sixty minutes a game
to start the year. Against Charlotte they played just thirty
five and I know internally that was a sort of frustration,
how do we get them more minutes? Now some of it.

(16:24):
Tori was playing at that point just three five minute
burst per game, so we only played thirteen fourteen minutes.
A little bit of nerves in his first real game
coming off of leg surgery. But now that he is
fully cleared, and I think that Warriors game a blessing
in disguise of the way that went down, the Rockets
were certainly not going to take him out even if

(16:45):
he blew past their intended minutes total. With the historic
comeback they were on. If the Rocket had completed it
being down thirty one, they did briefly take a lead
and force it to overtime, it would have been the
biggest comeback in franchise history. Of course, you're not going
to pull toy when he's posting a career high twenty
seven points and making an impact on both ends, hitting
threes offensively and defensively, pressing the hell out of everybody,

(17:07):
forcing turnovers, doing what he does in the open floor.
He ended up playing thirty five minutes in that game,
and I do think that for the Rockets and for Tari,
that was an important milestone that starter's level minutes and
to see how he responded to that, how he felt
the next day, and the fact that he was good

(17:28):
to go he was cleared to play in the next
game on Monday against the Knicks is a really encouraging sign.
And so with a men Thompson and your two increasingly
getting more minutes as is the expectation, and we've seen
a men taking out even more of a playmaking role
late in close games. With Tari getting scaled up coming
off the injury increasingly being freed to play more minutes.

(17:49):
Emy Udokas said before the next game that there were
no more limitations on him anymore. He is fully cleared.
The Rockets are in a unique spot where two of
their best players are objectively or were objectively playing less
than they should be at the start of the season.
We're already seeing them play more, and in my opinion,

(18:10):
it's strongly linked with them playing better. They've won three
of their last four games as of our recording time,
and two of the three wins they beat the MAVs
and Knicks to legitimate title contenders in the eyes of
most around the NBA, and then nearly over Kavi a
thirty one point deficit in the Warriors, largely because of
Tory Easton and Amen Thompson. So the fact that the
Rockets have two young guys that they can scale up

(18:34):
the roles for as the season progresses, that gives them
more upward mobility. That's the phrase I'm going to keep
coming back to. Than a lot of teams they're competing with,
and we're already seeing them start to reap the rewards
of that. Now does it mean that down the road
one of them potentially needs to start to play them
the minutes that they deserve. Maybe, but that's a conversation

(18:54):
for another day. I think right now is just trying
to maximize their minutes off the bench. Part of that
was Tara just proving that he could be healthy. Another
low key thing I like that Ima Ujoka seems to
have trimmed his rotation from ten to nine. It's sort
of alternated based on the game, whether it would be
Read Shepherd or Cam Whitmore that draws the short end
of the stick, or maybe they just play three or

(19:15):
four minutes in the first half. It was Read Shepherd
for a couple of games. Now reads look better of late.
So against the Knicks it was Cam that drew the
short straw. But the bottom line is, if you are
trying to play ten guys and you aren't starting a
men atari, it's going to be very difficult to get
them both in the twenty five to thirty minutes per
game range. It's just very difficult if you're trying to

(19:38):
play five guys off the bench and you're artificially limiting
the minutes because you're saying that they're one hundred percent
not going to play in the first six minutes of
the first and third quarters. So trimming the rotation a
little bit, and I don't think it's giving up on
either of those guys. Injuries are going to happen, Cam
and Reid are going to have opportunities to play. Eighty
two games is a grind, but in the short term,

(19:58):
your ability to win games depends on maximizing the two
way play of Amn Thompson and Tarry Eason, and so
we are already seeing the Rockets start to do that more.
And that's something that relative to the other teams in
the West that they're competing with, that gives them a
disproportionate advantage relative to other teams who largely are what
they are, and that's thought to say that that's the

(20:19):
only way the Rockets can get better. But I think
you know the argument that, oh, young players will improve,
teams will get better chemistry wise, that's always true. That's
true of any team in any season, especially ones that
have younger players, which the Rockets we like the young core,
but they're certainly not the only team in the West
that has young players that can theoretically improve. What's different
about the Rockets is that, for reasons that are understandable

(20:42):
but real, nonetheless, we're artificially capping the minutes for two
of their best players early in the season. We're already
seeing that start to go away, and I think that's
strongly correlated with them being a better basketball team and
playing better over the last week or so. So I
think in the macro that's my biggest area of encouragement.
Anything that stood out to you, Powell, aside from a

(21:02):
man in tari as far as a real sources of
encouragement from the first seven games.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, So, just to add a little bit on to
what you said about a MANATORI A men's defense from
Jalen Brunson was some of the best mates I've ever
seen any player on anybody. Jalen Brunson can literally score
in any way. He can go up an under, he
can you will be decisive going to the midrand. He
can blow buy you. You can pull up for threes

(21:29):
a men. Thompson is insane at govor at not committing
too early to any solution. And and John Berson is
one it's so crassy that he's one of the toughest
guys to guard because of that. Martha Rozen, for example,
although torosm doesn't have the three and a men, Thompson
did a tremendous job. Jail Ronson had twenty nine points,

(21:50):
so he didn't have a bad game, but he made
basically every shot that he got.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Twenty four shots to get twenty nine points.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
But I don't think, I don't think like, I don't
feel watching like when he was being guarded by a
man that if he was generating and attend the clavel
was those were starting to get agree And so I
think he's one of the best defenders in the league
right now. I think he I think the Warriors game
and a little bit little bits of the next game
showed that he's he's transcending the Swiss Army Knife type

(22:22):
of player, and he's starting to show the ability to
generate another off the dribble as a lead guard and
then after generating the event, being able to finish around
the rim. Now, obviously with the Warriors game, some of
those finishes were and once and they were pretty long.
He and you don't know if that's is quite that good,
that that's very's there, but it's really encouraging if you're

(22:45):
looking at the top end of his potential, which is
as a as a lead, as a lead initiator, seeing
that he can, you know, he's pusually could get the event,
but most of his buckets were him you know, grabbing
rebounds and being and being you know, the Swiss Army kniftife.
He was generating advantages helas two games that I was
really really excited about about that. And then with Darry

(23:08):
I was really confused to start off the season because
it felt like this wasn't quite the same story. He said,
he wasn't as intense. And then the Warriors game came
and he was as intense as ever. And the next
game came and he was once again as intense as ever,
and I think I truly came out of these games thinking,
I don't think the conditionings that yet, and that's why

(23:31):
he didn't start off the season to his typical level,
which is, you know, transcendence role player level. I think
he's You guys know, if you've listened to the pot
over time, that how high I am on him. So
I just want to say it feels like he's back,
and it feels like it's a because he was without
playing for so long and without playing at full strength

(23:52):
for so long, that it's more of a competitive intensity
thing where he's getting there. He's not quite there, and
the Austo games were the closest that he's win and
we start the impact that he had, and so I
was scared to begin the season that you know, maybe
the injury had zapped a little bit of the city
that he had. But though that that's completely back, and

(24:14):
that's great to see because as I said, he's one.
He was one of my keys for the season. Besides that,
the other bright spot that I would point to is
because we have to say this, and I think I
think we haven't mentioned obviously because we haven't. I think
this was more of a talking point before the last
couple of games. But it should still be a talking
point because of how good the games before that were.

(24:35):
Is his kill and Green Children has made good on
a lot of his potential. I think he's been tremendous defensively.
I think he's making the right threes and taking the
right shots. And you're going to look at the box score,
and especially if you are a you know, a maybe
an older fan, and they're going to look at fifteen
threes in the first game you're going to and you're

(24:56):
going to say, oh my god, it took fifteen threes
and he made five of them, and I think that,
you know, that's not a great game. He was checking out.
Their truth is when he's shooting a lot of threes,
they are coming within the rhythm of the offense. You know,
he's getting them off of the big and roll off
of screens. They are open threes. He has to take
those shots. And his efficiency wasn't bad enough for it

(25:17):
to say, you know, thirty three percent. I did the math.
I can remember the numbers of the double in my head.
But for the offense, that's you know, obviously, I think
they're rated top ten right now, But for those first
few games, Rockets offense wasn't better than what they haven't
been shooting thirty three percent on threes for what points
per possession standpoint?

Speaker 1 (25:38):
What that would break?

Speaker 3 (25:39):
You know, for all points for the points per possession standpoint,
Shooting thirty three percent on threes means you're getting one
point per possession, which is, you know, pretty good. And
if you could get one point for possession across the game,
I don't it wouldn't be ideal. But with the little
do the level of defense that the Rockets are playing,
you'd be finally that so compared to the shots we

(26:00):
were thinking we were getting, Killen, I think as much
strides on that as well. I think you can look
at the next game where he it was not a
good game from him. He was not making shots, and
these teams that bring a lot of ball pressures still
bother him. But to close out the game, he had
one clutch catch and shoot three, one clutch step back three,
a clutch dump off pass which Little being in a

(26:23):
system and thumbing in in the in the in that
fake demands to the corner and then gets wide opened out.
But he makes that pass and then the play before
a couple of plays before the transition, he hits Tarisan
to extend the lead, which is a contrast to if
you roll back the bag to the Spurs game where
he had a similar transition pass to Cam with more
and he missed, and he threw the ball behind him

(26:45):
and Cam couldn't you know, obviously turned into it turned
into a turnover. So I think Kevin has been incredible.
I think he's been well worthd this construct thus far.
The last couple of games have kind of thanked his
efficiency a bit, uh, but I still think that he's
been great. The process has been awesome, and he's still not,

(27:06):
you know, a consistent advantage creator against all defenses, but
against a lot of defenses, he is creating a lot
of advantages. And then it it's clear the difference between
when he's playing when he stepped playing in most of
these games. So I just wanted to point to Jalen
as another one of the bright spots in addition to

(27:26):
Turi and a man who out of the clear bright spots.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, I would largely agree with that analysis. However, it
leads into my area of concern, which is something that
honestly traces back to the end of last season, and
it's what the Rockets do offensively when other teams are
focused on taking Jalen out of the game. It could
also be if Jalen's simply having a bad game, but

(27:51):
I think by and large we've seen and the next
game is a perfect example. Jalen doesn't fade the way
he used to. He keeps playing, and I thought it
was great to see eMate trust him, and Jalen rewarded
him with a couple of big shots late in that game.
So I think by and large, Jalen's not the guy
he was at times in his first three years where
if he misses his first two shots in the game,
he's gonna stop shooting, He's gonna get passive. No, I

(28:13):
think he's much more confident. Tom Thibodeau said that before
Monday's game, I think Tibbs is one of the best
defensive tacticians of the NBA if I thought that was
pretty telling coming from him. So I'm not so much
worried about Jalen himself. But there are gonna be games,
as with any player, that he doesn't shoot well. And
more importantly, I think there are gonna be games where
other teams, especially if he has it going, try and

(28:37):
blitz the pick and rolls hard, send additional help, or
maybe it's just like the Warriors and Andrew Wiggins and
the Knicks between you know, Josh Hart, Michale, Bridges, og Nobi,
a lot of long rangey types that can give Jalen problems.
You addressed that briefly. When Jalen isn't able to get
you to the finish line, what is planned be for

(28:59):
the offense. I shouldn't even sy finish line because this
happens in the first half. That's honestly what you look
back at that Warriors game and the one outlier for
the Rockets over the first seven games that first half
against the Warriors, and they fell down by thirty one,
and some of it the Warriors were just unconscious from
three they made nine to the first eleven, and the
Rockets I think missed their first eight, and so some

(29:19):
of that is shot blocked, but it's also the Rockets
just did not execute. They scored forty three points for
the half, and a lot of it felt like when
the Rockets couldn't get Jalen going for one reason or another,
and the Warriors did exactly what they did late last
season after the Rockets had that eleven game winning streak,
they got back into the play in mix. We know
what happened the last week in March, first week of April.

(29:39):
They lost through in a row to Western Conference heavyweights
the MAVs, the Timberwolves, the Warriors, and it felt like
all the game plans were fairly similar in that those
teams were not going to let Jalen beat them the
way he did most of the NBA during that incredible
month of March, and especially with all Parisian goon out
at the time, it just made sense for teams to
approach the Rockets in manner. So we've seen that happen

(30:03):
early in the year, and I think especially when Shingoon
was playing poorly, it was even easier to do that
because if Shinoon's not making his shots and Imi Udoka
isn't even trusting him enough to put him on the
floor late in the second half of competitive games. But
does the potential defensive liabilities compared to the Jabari at
the five lineups, then why wouldn't you try and slow
Jalen in the half court and dare one of these

(30:25):
other guys to beat you? And so that to me
is still the question. The Rockets have to answer. In theory,
the answer is pretty obvious, all for in Shangoon on
paper is your best advantage generator, as you put earlier.
But I do think that laid in close games, the
Rockets need more reps with Shingoon out there in high
leverage moments so that they can get used to how

(30:49):
the offense actually flows, because I think, you know, against
the Knicks. So the Rockets won that game by twelve,
that's great, but honestly, a lot of it came down
to Jalen making a couple of really tough shots at
the into the game. The stories will tell you, oh,
Shangoon scored ten points in the fourth quarter, but it
was shit really early on and on putbacks, and he
crashed the offensive class, which is great. I don't think

(31:12):
the Rockets, especially down the stretch the final five or
six minutes, made a concerted effort to run offense through him.
Now some of it, you know, the Knicks head an
Anobi on Shingoon and so he tried to front a
little bit, but there are ways you can counter that,
and it felt like the Rockets didn't even really try.
They defaulted to what they've been doing with the Jabbari
at the five lineups, which is, get the ball to
Jalen up top and run some sort of screening action

(31:36):
and use Shingoon out of the dunker slot more as
a diversion than actually being part of the action. And
to me, that's what's got to change, because Jalen is
not to the level, as you said, if someone like
James Harden were regardless he is, he will get you
to the finish line every time he asked, in an
admirable job of making plays and top shots to this

(31:58):
point in the season. But I think as the competition
gets steeper, he's not to that level just yet. He's
getting better. It's a part of why other teams are
defending him much more aggressively, sending more help, and so
by and large, I think Jalen's contributions clearly much better
this year than last. I think most of the jumps
since the Ulstar break that we've talked about, you know,

(32:19):
throughout the preseason, after he got his extension in the
last spot, all of that is real, buy and large
it has been in encouraging seven games for him. In
terms of what it means for the Rockets, I think
the question is going to be what do they do
when other teams And it's going to become even more
of an issue if the schedule gets tougher and if
Jalen gets it going make a concerted effort as games
get more close to take Jalen out of the action

(32:41):
and dare someone else to beat them. And so that's
where I want to see some more creativity from emi
Udoka with his schemes, and honestly think a lot of
this will just come down to having more reps with
Shindoon in high leverage spots period. I think some of
what happened against the Knicks was probably that the Rockets
just didn't have much experience with Shindoon on the floor
leverage games this season, so they didn't know how they

(33:02):
wanted to attack and run the offense in those stretches
because he hadn't been out there. It's been almost exclusively
Jabbari in the close and late situations. And so with that,
then yeah, you're going to have the high screen action
involving Jalen as your go to play. Whereas now and
I should say, they've had some possessions with the men
Thompson starting to create and so there've been some promising
signs on that, but you haven't really run offense through

(33:23):
a playmaking big man. To me, that's the counter especially
as the schedule gets tougher, and so it's something I
want to see Ema Udoka, you know, point out on film,
and you know there's various ways they can swing the
ball and get it to Shangoon in his spots. But
I also think some of it's going to be you know,
just trust Shin Gooon more in the fourth quarter and
play the long game. Again. I understand why Shingoon got

(33:45):
benched from time to time in those first six games.
If he's not shooting well, then he's not giving you
enough offensively to sort of offset the defensive limitations. But
at some point to get where the Rockets want to go,
if they want to actually get to the playoffs and
perhaps even win a series down the road, they need
to have the right version of all For Echion Goon,
there's a reason you're paying him in your max salary,
and so to unlock that version of Alp, it's gonna

(34:07):
take not just reps for him. I'm sure all P
is still confident he said that, but it also depends
on other guys knowing how to best play with him
on the floor in high leverage moments, and so I
think the next game was a, you know, a starting
point to that. I think there are things that they
could learn from that, But in the games ahead, I
hope that, if not just for that game in and

(34:27):
of itself, for the long run, the Rockets emphasize playing
all for Engin Goon laid in close games simply as
a teaching point for how the other four guys in
the court with him can sort of use him to
unlock some of those defenses that you know are increasingly
paying more attention to Jalen Green. So I say that
as a concern not to say that the Rockets can't
overcome it. On paper. They definitely can. I just think

(34:50):
it's something that for the most part, they haven't done.
And even in the next game, where you look at
the box score and you'll see that Shingoon scored ten
in the fourth look at how he scored those points,
it doesn't feel like late in the game the Rockets
knew exactly how they wanted to use him in their
half court offense, and so the NIXT forced Jalen into
some very tough shots. Thankfully, he still made them, but

(35:10):
I think as the games move forward, you want to
see Shingoon leading on a little more heavily in those spots,
and so concern might be strong. But that's my area
of monitoring as these next couple of weeks progress. Powell,
what are your thoughts on that dynamic and any other
areas you've seen to this point that concern you a
little bit? Yeah, I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
I think the clutch. You know, our clutch offense has
definitely been a problem, and we basically play as well
as our defense allows us to play. If we are
generating through thirdovers and can catching the other team off card,
we are finding it easier. There's been a couple of
spots where we've had We've had the Spurs game with Jaylor,

(35:50):
you know, consistently bidding things man off the dribble. We've
had I think with the next game, we have, you know,
a couple of possessions where they were intentionally feeding them
both with which entring one was was making it work,
especially when they were targeting girl Athny Towns because he
had four files. I'm almost taking at at the time,
obviously not at the very end of the game, but
you know, that pre quets time, and it seemed to work,

(36:14):
and it seemed like albren Ingud had his touch back
because he was these you know, he wasn't scoring exactly,
you know, with those two moves, he was getting bumped
a lot, and he was finishing through it rather than
you know, the clean hooks and the clean spins and
and and the and the layups right, and so it

(36:35):
felt like his touch was back, even if he wasn't
entertaining the identities that he usually does. He is definitely
my or the clutch I drew to my negative point
is definitely what our clutch offenses look like. But other
than that, you have to I think you have to

(36:55):
point to to Frevan Fleet. I think her he's shooting
out of shooting out of games way too Loston. And
it's sometimes.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Hard playing for wins not for Twitter. Did you see
that postgame quote?

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I did not.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Did he say that quote? I'm playing for wins, not
for Twitter. Yeah, I mean he needs to go out
with a merch line for that, but anyway, go on,
he should He he did have.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
That really really clutched the both was against this Burt
Sun I'm mistaken.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, yeah, the one two pick and roll action that
they used a lot late last year when Jalen got going,
and Jalen actually called it their go to play after
the game. So yeah, he did make that shot, even
though he struggled for much of that game and really
much of this season the Knicks excluded.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yeah, And actually I looked, I think I looked at
his stats like four games in and his three point
percentage was actually not as bad as as it looked.
But then obviously the Warriors scheme was just terrible. Though
next game was a little bit better. But if he's
going to be taking those shots, he has to be
making more of them, and we can't be okay, Like
I struggled to look at those plays and I pleted it.

(38:00):
That's when I was tilted about the Warriors game. But
whenever we're whenever we're faced with teams are kind of
face guarding, as he can't blow by people, and when
he does get by the primary defender, he's so short
he cannot do anything at the rim, and so when
the when the three isn't following, there's really not much
else to his game unless it's just getting the offense

(38:22):
in motion. And when our police are getting face guarded,
jailing against the words, getting hugged before he even caught
the ball. Freedom of movement was not a thing. And
when the offense looks plunky like that and he is
forced to just dribble into into like he's so short,
he's drilling into guys's like collapse and it's it's really

(38:42):
frustrating because there's no chance in the hell he's getting
a shot off, even less so an efficient shot. So
with him, he's a really good floor general. He's a
good vet right but going into if if this doesn't
get better as the ear goes on that bayer, it's
gonna hit big because he's not worth the money that

(39:05):
he's currently making. And obviously he offset that with some
of the guys being better than their rookie contracts, but
it's it's a very real problem that he's not shooting well,
he's not get reading good looks. I think his assists
are the way down this season as well. Obviously he's
still running less pick and roll with Chenguan, which obviously
is going to decrease his assist numbers. But he's definitely

(39:27):
my number two when it comes to kind of negative things,
And obviously I don't think Reeve has been great. I
don't think can with more. It's been great, but they're
playing such little roles and I think it's hard for
us to really project anything out of the first few
games that we've watched.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
So I will.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
Definitely look into or quad offense and frevent Vleet just
his play in general. Obviously he was fine against the Knicks,
but if you's gotta have five terrible games in one
hot shooting game, it's not gonna like, it's not gonna
be good enough. And he made down the strat needs
to be willing to win. Fred's not playing well to

(40:05):
not play him because he's not enough, He's not enough
of a defensive plus to offset how terrible he is
an offense. Sometimes and if we're not going to work
in the half court anyways, you might as well just
you know, go for one on a defense, try to
generate or an over then scar off of him. As
crazy as it sounds, I'm probably more confident with Torrey

(40:27):
Easant driving the ball in his weird you know, dribbling
with his left hand kind of you know, kind of
doing a large circle around the defender, bumping into him
all the way to the rim. Probably collapses defense better
than Fred, you know, going around the screen and just
bumping into the first offender, but that is in front

(40:48):
of him. And then obviously because he's so small, he
gets cut like the guy stretches his arms like around
and over him when he spends like four seconds doing that.
Obviously he was played it without efficiencies. But he's to
me basically able to play a belief the three points.
It's not at least at a thirty six per century
and it's I think at twenty seven now if I'm

(41:10):
not mistaken, and so I think he may anyally trust Spread,
but he needs to be willing to let that go
when he's not playing well enough, and he hasn't been
playing well enough, and he's been playing a lot of
minutes regardless.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Well. And I would say, as an extension of that point,
I think that if the rotation stays at nine, which
it feels like it's mostly been the last few games,
I think that even more tips the scales towards Reed
Shepherd over Kim whitmore, because Reed is someone that as
the year progresses, can be something of a drop in replacement,
at least to some capacity, depending on the matchups. Obviously

(41:47):
there are some where read as a rookie might be
a little bit of defensive liability. But I think we've
seen Red improve definitely the last week Compared to the
first week. He looked a little raw, He looked a
little nervous. He also had a back injury or in
the year. Now he looks a lot more common. He's
hit some big threes the last two games. I think
the ability of Reed to do many of the same

(42:09):
things that Fred does if he doesn't turn it around,
if it does turn out that some of this is
you know, a guy who's now in his thirties and
has been leaned on very heavily over his career. If
Fred doesn't get back to the guy he was a
year ago, that I think, having read available and ready,
which he's only going to get more ready by playing,
it's a very useful hedge in a way that Cam Whitmore.

(42:32):
It's not just about comparing Reed to Cam, it's also
what is their role potentially going to be on this
year's team, And there's other guys with similar body types
to Cam Whitmore that play the same roles. That's saying
he had the same style of play. Obviously, there's things
that Cam does in terms of just the fluidity and
the power that his athletic profile allows him to make

(42:54):
plays in transition that very few other guys on the
roster can do. But you do have other guys that
can fill a similar role and absorb those minutes as
opposed to if Fred is something of a liability unexpectedly,
and you have to at least keep your mind open
to that possibility as guys get into their thirties. I
think that's part of why the Rockets have a team

(43:15):
option on Fred's deal after this year, because they are
one hundred sure exactly how he's gonna age. In that scenario,
there's more utility to developing Read and having him because
he can handle the ball. He can play something of
a similar role than there is Cam because there are
other guys at you know, the two, the three, the four,
basically the wing spots, which is where I think you
would pencil in Cam. And so because of that, I

(43:38):
think for this team that should make Read a little
bit of a higher developmental priority. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (43:47):
And the better Read is the more level that you
have in a in a contract negociation with with and
a fleet Moving forward, to it as well, and I
think I think the vision is that ultimately read you know,
takes over that spart eventually. But I'm also confident that
and I mentioned this earlier in the pot, I'm confident

(44:07):
that when Thompson didn't be trusted to run some of
those actions, and for a season in which it was
clearly stated that the intentions was was refred we to
played west minutester last year. He's playing more. He was
at thirty six point eight last season. He's at thirty
seven points ago. He's playing like nearly a full minute
more than he was, and he's not playing close to

(44:29):
the same level. He was forty two thirty nine eighty
six splits last season. He is thirty two twenty eight
eighty five.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Splits this season.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Like kid, it's a showering difference, and I'm not sure
he's a positive on the floor if he's not, you know,
shooting at least thirty six percent on three, and that's
already another ungry from what he was last year. And
I understand all the intenable value that he brings, but
as the team matures, that intenable value decreases, and so
you can't have the intendble five decrease and your player

(45:01):
decrease as well. So yeah, Tread's definitely been littlewhelming, but
hopefully he can pick it up.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, and I guess as we transition to our final
segment of this week's pod, we'll call this miscellaneous because
we've been through areas of encouragement and concern, We've been
through thirty thousand foot view thoughts, so this will be miscellaney.
It's basically the news and notes. But the one that
I want to make sure we show some love too
is Dylan Brooks. I don't want this to be one

(45:29):
of those pods where it's so easy for Rockets fans
to fall in love with the core seven and whenever
a veteran plays poorly just say, oh, we need to
discard him and give more minutes to the young guys,
because we all know that over the next few years
that's probably where the Rockets go and some of these
young guys will get phased out, but or some of
the veterans will get phased out. Excuse me, but for
this season, the stability of guys like Fred and Delan

(45:53):
and perhaps Steven Adams who's still working his way back,
is important for a number of reasons, and if Fred
has under formed a little bit to start this year,
I would say that Dylan has overperformed, not necessarily in
the shooting that's been hit or miss, but defensively, his
ability to guard bigger guys like Wemby, like Karl Anthony
Towns is so so valuable for this team. He's starting

(46:15):
to look like the way the Rockets shoes PJ Tucker
on those great teams in the late twenty tens. Dylan
still has the juice on the premetor He's at times
held his own on switches, and he's looked a little
more fluid than he did playing with the oblique strain
for the second half of last year. We talked about
that in the preseason, but his ability to also guard
the bigger guys respectively is really important on a team

(46:39):
that has a lot of youth and a lot of
question marks when it comes to the front court. Defensively,
we know the concerns with all for Enghan Goon and
if he's not playing well, Jabari at the five is
really light. He can still get pushed around. You can
play Steven Adams if he's healthy, but A he's not
always healthy, and B he t got the most mobile guy,
so he's a little bit limited in terms of the

(47:00):
matchups where he makes sense and a men Thompson is
so good on guards. We saw what he did against
Jalen Brunson, and so his ability to move side to
side the shifty this is uniquely important in putting him
on the best perimeter player on the other team. To
an extent, that can be said with Charry Easton as well.
The obvious question is if you're using them more on

(47:22):
the perimeter to guard those smaller playmakers that are creating
off the dribble and trying to stop the dribble penetration
than who's going to guard the bigger guys. And that's
where having a wing like Dylan who can certainly shoot
but can sort of scale up defensively if really important
for this team, and the combination of the defensive limitations

(47:44):
of the frontcourt guys they have in places Jabari with
the lack of bulk, Shangoon with the issues we've talked
about ad nauseum per years with regards to the foot
speed and how mobile is he and wanting to use
guys like a Man and Tari Moore on the perimeter
to stop the dribble penetration. And I think also, you
know Fred VanVleet, even though he's the smallest player on
the floor when he plays, he's not exactly a guy

(48:05):
you trust to stop trouble penetration anymore. Now that he's
in his thirties. He's not that side to side guy.
So that's another reason why you need to use Amen
and tarian guys like that more up top Jalen Green
as well. Then having someone like Dylan Brooks that can
guard the bigger players and absorb the pounding. I mean,
quite frankly, to play thirty plus minutes a night and

(48:27):
bang with someone like Karl Anthony Towns, that takes a
lot out of you. And so for Dylan to be
able to do that on a frequent basis, I think
is uniquely important to this team and the way they're
put together. And so I think a lot of Rockets
fans are sort of rolling their eyes a Dylan a
little bits of look at three point percentage being a
little bit lower than they would like, but when you
look at what he is giving them defensively, if Fred

(48:48):
is underachieving to this point, which I think is a
fair assessment through seven games. I would say overall, Dylan
is overachieving based on the value of his versatility on defense.
So I think my final point for this spot, let's
give Dylan Brooks his flowers. I think he's had a
low key, very important role in their start through seven games. Paula,
what other news and notes do you have as far

(49:10):
as the rest of the roster and anything else you
want to throw out.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Yeah, I want to say that I'm with you on
Andwan Brods. Obviously the shots that have been falling, but
this team has been using, as you said, has been
using the wings to guard on ball, which means that
we're left with guys that are not doing too great
defensively in Javary's fixt prilishing rule to reguard those you know,

(49:34):
those start bigs. And I think it's a really interesting
analogy to be k Tucker because I do agree although
Dylan seems to have a lot more offensive responsibility than Talcardas.
But regardless of that, I wanted to talk about Calvari
Smith Junior as a little bit of a low point.
I think he's his best game was in the win

(49:55):
against the Spurs. I think a lot of people will
point to that Warriors comeback. But true today he was
a part of the problem as well, and he was
later a part of the solution. But it's it's just
a bit frustrating to me how uncoordinated he is when
he moves like, he can make stuff that simple look hard.

(50:16):
And he's obviously come a long way from his rookie season,
but it's really tough, you know, because even coming a
long way from you rookie season, when it comes to
dribbling and finishing at the rim and your overall coordination
and and you know, your movements, even coming a long
way on those doesn't mean that much because you were

(50:37):
so awful at them earlier, earlier, in earlier in your career.
What really hurts is that you were supposed to be
a knockdown shuter. The one redeeming quality of why you
were such a safe pick was that you were, you know,
a lady dead I knocked down three point shooter, and
that's just not been the case. He's shooting thirty percent,

(50:59):
I call it thirty one percent for the season, even
thirty five percent strong enough. He doesn't bring enough in
other areas of the game to not be at two
thirty eight percent.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
Pepelture and he's just.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
Not close to it. Last year it looked las year
was getting better and now hopefully this is just a
gold start. But the shot looks flat again. I don't
know if he's still using the Noah. I know it's
the name of the system. They haven't lived this facility.
I don't know what it is. All the Rockets have
gotten their shots better. Joe Green shot looks better. I

(51:35):
just I don't know what to say anymore. And it's
frustrating because Gibardi could be such a huge piece of
this team, Like, look at how much better we look
in the stretches when we play him at the five
and we go into those full on, you know, switch
defensive wielubs. If KEYBOARDI Smith could reach what he was
supposed to be, which is a four three through five

(51:56):
guy that can switch and not down three point three
bud shots think Robert Horri for example. That would be
massive for how personal the steam is and through this
I think if it were not for his you know,
draft capital pedigree of sorts, Tarry Eason is clearly a
better player, and the men Thompson is clearly better as well,

(52:18):
especially now that you're kind of comfortable moving Dylan Brooks
to the foe like they are clearly better. And when
you when you talk about earlier in the podcast on
how the team was struggling to find waste give them
entirey minutes, I don't think that those minutes are going
to end up coming from Jail And I don't think
that those minutes are going to end up coming from
open Gundi they have thus far. I think those minutes

(52:40):
are going to end up coming from from Jabari because
he stopped playing well enough. And if you look at
the mixed game, he played twenty two minutes and that
was you know, the Golden State Warriors game was kind
of an outplier because the rodations were completely out of
sorts and so the men and Tarry played, you know,

(53:01):
a ton of minutes, but it wasn't sustainable that theirstation was
that were going to be you don't play England for
basically an entire half. The next one looked a little
bit something that's more replicable, and in that next game
to play twenty two minutes, and I think, well, moving forward,
he's going to be the onele until he steps up
his play. He's going to be giving up his minutes

(53:22):
so that we can play A Man and Tar, it
would look amazing.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Let me ask you, as a quick follow up to
that before we wind down the pod, what's the point
of the year at which you would consider, Let's say
the team is underperforming a little bit and it's one
lost record. I don't think you're gonna if the wins
are coming. I don't think you're gonna take away from
what's working. But if for one reason or another, you're

(53:47):
underperforming where you think you should be, and A men
and Tari are objectively better players than Jabari, and one
of Jabori's most valuable roles is as a five rather
than as a four, or so maybe it makes sense
to have him on that second unit where he can
fill in for Shinoon in certain matchups where either Adams

(54:08):
needs a night off or maybe Adams is just too slow.
At what point is it twenty games, is it forty games?
Is there a point where you would pull the plug in?
What would it take to say, you know what, A
men and or A Tari is so clearly better than
Jabari or a better fit next to Shinggoon that I've
just got to bite the bullet and play who I

(54:28):
think is better. We're not there yet. I don't think
we're there at any point, I would say, barring injury
before the calendar turns to twenty twenty five. But what's
the point where you would consider something on that front?

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Are you talking about starting Tario or men in place
in Jabari?

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Y so?

Speaker 3 (54:48):
But starting in specific because I will studis human, you know,
the step towards removing him from the starting lineup versus
just taking minutes away. I think I think the way
these line ups line up, you should be able to.
You know, it's tough to give Clipary minutes at the
five because Steven Adams contributes so much, and how are

(55:12):
you gonna play Kingoon and Steven Adams and Clipari's gonna struggle?
But I would still and it's not because of punishing
with how Gibari has been playing. But I think you
can play him twenty two minutes. I'll be willing to
play to start, you know, go along with the next
game and Mexico Games play him twenty two minutes a night,

(55:32):
but he can still start. And it's not about Robari.
It's actually about the bench unit, because I think the
benchinit needs a manatory to be good enough, and so
with Jayalen and chingun On, and I mean this offensively
as well. With Jaelen eenchingun On the four for the
first six minutes of that of the half, you're fine offensively,

(55:55):
and when those guys eventually come off, you're going to
need Manuaary to be the player. So I think, I
think ideally, and I would, I would have no problems
starting doing this now. But I think this is both
the sotion now and the solution long term until the
Wary starts to play well. I don't think the sotion
is going to be eventually not starting him. I think
it's just decreasing minutes while he starts. It's not really

(56:17):
about catering to him or anything like that or making
any type of statement. It's just the way that ludations
line up. I think we optimize lineups better that way.
I would be playing him these twenty two minutes, and
I would increase story and the man twenty five, and
you know, until he plays better, you just use the
Winarian them and earlier. And if if this means that

(56:38):
he comes out of the game at minute five, which
is early for any any rotation pattern, so be it,
but the priority is fitting in a mandory in the
best possible spots because they are the better players, and
Jordi gets to still start as a result of the
Man Andary's best spots. Not exactly beans with stup within

(57:01):
the first few minutes of the game the game in
the starting light. But the main worry is how a
Man and Tari fit within the rotation and then whatever
holes are left. That's what you put Tobartia, and I
think when you want to see to do that, Cabody
happens to be a starter.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Yeah. I just the reason I mentioned it is I
think the overarching theme of these first seven games for
the Rockets, and really this season as a whole, is
how do they get as many minutes as possible for
a men Thompson Atari Eastan Because it was artificially low
to start the year. But I guess and the sample

(57:40):
is small enough that we haven't recalibrated our thought processes,
or at least I have it. There is some low
hanging fruit that you can take advantage of, such as
trimming the rotation from ten to nine, and as you mentioned,
perhaps Dallan Jabari back into the load of mid twenties
that can get you where you need to be at
with Tari and Amen without having to disrupt from the

(58:02):
starting lineup and any you know, associated politics that might
come from something that drastic, and of course changing the
roles and usage patterns for the team as a whole.
At that point, it's just, Yeah, the minutes that Tari
and the men were playing early in the year were
just laughably low for the quality of their projections. And
you know, some of that was just Tari needing to
be medically cleared, which he wasn't. Then he is now

(58:24):
to play thirty plus minutes at his production a given
game warrants it. But yeah, I just think that as
we go forward, finding a way to play those two
guys as many minutes as possible for peak production, that's
soily as many minutes as possible. And I think both
of those guys, Tary in particular, are the types of
players where if you tried to play them Fred van Fleetmant,
you actually could see a point of diminishing returns where

(58:44):
they play so damn hard that you know, if you're
asking me to go forty minutes that at some point
it would take a toll on the overall effort level,
just because they play so ridiculously hard on the defensive
end to the floor, and so you want them to
be able to be the impact players they are in
transition and go balls to the wall for every minute
they're out there. So ideally, I think, you know, something

(59:05):
in the twenty five to thirty two range on a
per game basis, depending on how they're playing and what
the matchup is, YadA YadA is optimal, and so yeah,
perhaps they can do that without disrupting from the starting lineup.
It's just, you know, the way they started the year
trying to play ten guys and being a little more
rigid with patterns compared to last year. Had to be
concerned a little bit. But it has looked better the

(59:26):
last few games, and so hopefully you can continue that
and not have to do anything drastic because certainly taking
to mariad story light that would probably be a hit
to his confidence. Hopefully, this is a discussion we don't
really need to have. It's just something that's been in
the back of my mind. If for some reason this
team underperforms, that's a lever they could potentially pull. But
we'll see. Time will tell. That's not something you to
worry with now. And to this point, the Rockets are

(59:47):
turning up for not just four and three, but they
won three to the last four games. Two of the
wins against the MAVs and the Knicks statement wins against
really good teams with top shelf players. So again, it's
not like you drastically need to change up anything right now.
It's just if, for one reason or another, this team
goes on skid. That's a lever that potentially you could pull,
but not something that you need to be worried about
at any point in the very near future. Anyway, I

(01:00:08):
think that's enough for one episode, so we'll bring this
to a close here. Apologies for the two week break
between episodes, but it's been a crazy time of year,
lots of stuff going on. I promise we'll get back
into normal seven to ten day routine in the very
near future until about next episode, though. This is where
we'll break And so if you want more content from
powow or myself before we're back, the best place to
get it, as always is on Twitter slash x, where

(01:00:30):
I'm on there at Bendubo's Powers on their at powow
OUs NBA and this show is on there at the
logger Line. Of course, if you go to that logger
Line page on Twitter, slash x, you can find the
link tree which has links to our distribution partners Apple, Google, Spotify.
Be kind enough to subscribe to one of those, leave
positive review then, while we would greatly appreciate it, and
you would get the benefit of episodes right when they
come out, before I could even post them to the

(01:00:50):
aforementioned social media platforms. Also on that same link tree
you can find links to friends, sponsors, partners of the program,
USA Today's Rockets, Work, Carbay Brewing, Sports, TAK seven ninety
those links and you can enjoy their content as well.
All right, with those plugs complete, Well a journ for today, Rapallo,
I'm Ben, Thanks always for listening, and please come back
soon for another new episode of the Logger Line.