October 22, 2025 • 10 mins
Following a tremendous season opener between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets, the crowned champions pull away in double overtime, stunning Houston in the final seconds for their first win of the 2025-26 season. Suffering a heartbreaking loss but showing great strengths in the ability to score, defend, and facilitate on the floor with a bit of ease, Dan and Chris take a moment reviewing some positives from yesterday's Opening Night and pose the question to listeners: Is it now vital that the Rockets begin shopping for a Point Guard following yesterday's narrow loss?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jabaris Smith Junior. How about him?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Sixteen points from him last night, so you see good
things out of him in forty two minutes. Texan's gonna
get back on the practice field today to get ready
for the forty nine Ers Sunday at NRG Stadium. Gordy,
what you teased doubt about the point guard because I
saw a lot of people saying that too, and I
mean it's one of those It's just like, okay, I mean,
(00:21):
I don't have enough to sample size yes to really
you know, believe that this extremely large starting five is
you know, going to be something that's a detriment to them.
I mean, I think we saw last night, at least
for the majority of the game, it was something that
helped them because it's what had it's what had them
in the lead. I mean, you just were not able
(00:44):
to give oka See really clean I mean okay, okay,
see was not able to get really any clean shots
against them, rebounding all of those things definitely going in
the rockets favors. So we can talk about that a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It's also it's it's positionless basketball a lot now, I mean,
you know it's there there were times a men Thompson
was bringing up the court and he was kind of
serving as the point guard. I don't know, I think
you know, they even I think Reggie Miller at one
point was even saying I'd like to see them change
it up because it kept being Reid bringing up the
court and a men's playing the two. And He's like, no,
(01:19):
I'd rather see a men bringing it up more and
Reid hanging in the wings as the as the two
that can knock down three. So again, it's yeah, I mean,
look that that was that was evident last night. If
this team at Fred van Vliet, I think they win.
I mean, that's just the reality. That's what sucks and
we got to deal with that. But yeah, I mean
(01:39):
that that the overall take on. Yeah, look at this guy.
Rockets have everything except the point guard, defensive makeup, half guard,
court score, dogs, elite postplay, size, everything, but they're missing
that floor general.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, I mean, just again, it's one game. I'm not
gonna completely just say, oh, well, you're you're no longer
a contender in the Western Conference because you don't have
Fred van Vliet, you don't have a true point guard.
I mean, do you really think that Rafel Stone if
he believes, okay, we need somebody to have that part
of our offense when he is able to make a move,
(02:13):
is not going to do exactly that. I mean for
right now, as I mentioned, they're going to give Reed
Shepherd every single opportunity maybe even see a little bit
more of Aaron Holliday as a possibility too. I mean
last night's very you know, just a very tight rotation too.
I mean, yeah, I mean Audoka, as I mentioned, outside
of reach Shepherd staying with size, so of going with
Easton Capella and Okogie. So I mean last night against
(02:37):
a team that has a lot of length, maybe when
you play against you know, Golden State or some of
these other smaller teams, then you will see a little
bit more of who I mentioned.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm shocked that I didn't give Aaron Holliday some minutes
because he gave you some good minutes last season off
the bench, and you know he's he's a point guard.
I mean, so that's that's a guy that I think
i'd like to see maybe get some more minutes. Now,
this is funny. I'm seeing this in social media. First off,
everybody's got shows, FanDuel's got a show. They do you
(03:07):
do a pre and postgame show, It says Boogie Cousins.
I like Boogie Cousins. The hell's he ben? He's got
an opinion on something. But this, says Uh Houston, a
twenty three assist of twenty one turnovers. Exactly why Boogie
Cousins says Kad needs to tell management to give Reed
Shepherd more minutes?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Why does Kevin Durant have to go tell management it's
it's one game.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
But also why is why is Boogie Cousins He's on
his desk, like what is his show?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Where does his air? Some FanDuel put together?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I mean, I guess if somebody's willing to pay the money,
they you know, need to be able to fill some
of those seats. So they obviously went to Boogie Cousins
and said, hey, would you want to do it?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And he said, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So I mean, you know, to to the point you
brought up, I mean you will see more of air.
And that's the thing too that Dick I talked about again.
You know, the conversation I was listening to with Matt
is the starting lineup you threw out there last night.
That was the starting lineup for that game. It's not
necessarily gonna be a game the game thing. A lot
of it's going to be matchup, you know, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Predicated forget Twin Towers with Hartenstein and and Cheded Holmgren
out there.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
The way I thought about this last night, Heart and Stein,
doesn't he kind of look like.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Jj Watt a little bit, got a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And like it's the thing like I kept like, you know,
whenever they show him, I'm like, it kind of looks
like jj Watt's kind of freaking me out.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I just remember when he was here and he uh,
he did a whole lot of nothing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It was like, yeah, we just go to New York
and he hey, here's that guy.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah he was a second round pick here and you know,
played overseas and then played in with the Grand Valley
Vipers and then you know eighteen nineteen twenty was a
rocket but did a whole lot of nothing.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So it was kind of like just a guy and
he's developed into something.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So holding out on the rockets a little bit, you know,
he he he wanted to get somewhere else and then
show off what he could. A few of those the years,
Colleen get to you in just a second, but you
mentioned Reggie Miller, and the Internet started to really chirp
at Reggie Miller when they were talking about the banners
and they showed, of course, the championship banner there at
the arena and OKC going up the pay Com Center.
(05:12):
I remember that because it's pay Course Stadium is what
I got it confused with in Cincinnati where the Bengals play,
but the pay Com Center. So they raised the banner
and then they were talking about the only retired jersey
currently is Nick Collison there in ok SE because I
mean time well, I mean and I'm sure they probably
(05:32):
even have like some of them carried over, Like I
know when I worked in Atlanta, the Hawks had even
some of the guys that were Saint Louis Hawks with
their retired jerseys up there. So I'm sure they, you know,
even have some of the Sonics greats up there. But
then they were going through, you know, who should have
their jerseys retired there in OKC, and one of the
(05:53):
ones that he mentioned, and Mike Turko pushed back on
it was he said Serge Ibaka was one of them,
and he said James Harden and Taurrico was not was
not so plussed on that. Turrico was like, I don't know, man, Like, yeah,
I think I think he kind of made his bones elsewhere,
Like he was a good player here, but like Reggie,
I think you're kind of feeling yourself a little bit
(06:14):
on this.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
That was the That was the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And if you watch this Starting five Netflix documentary, Harden
talks about how they were all shocked when they found
out he got traded and Harden unhappy. He was like
because he thought they were gonna it was him, Russ
and KD and they thought they were gonna build this
thing for years to come because they had made these
deep playoff runs and they thought, oh, this is only
gonna build from her. Because Harden was a bench guy.
(06:37):
He was coming off the bench for a good bit
and then the expectation was he was gonna start being
the starter.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
But but yeah, that's that's.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
A little bit revisionist history because it wasn't until he
got to use like we thought he could be good,
but it was those first few games in a Rocket
uniform and went, oh, yeah, he could be really we
just brought in Jeremy Lynn. We thought Lynn's sanity was
gonna be here. No, this is Harden sanity, this is
James Hard hard and drops like forty.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
We're like, oh, this guy's legit.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Okay, yeah, now definitely, at least on the offensive end,
worked out someone three two, one, two, five seven to
ninety clean, what's to weigh?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And good morning clean?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Hey, good morning, Thanks for taking my call. He should
boy clean aka cash out, don't crash out. But I
was calling because I wanted to speak on Ree Shepherd. Man.
I believe Ree Shepherd needs to go back to wherever
we got it from, because I think he's garbage really,
because if you watch the game, we had a lead,
(07:34):
it was like sixty seven to like fifty seven or
something at one point, and then he come in the game,
and we should have been running away with the lead
at that time, but they came right they got to
they got into one. I think they were like damn
one one point one square point possession after he came in,
(07:56):
and he like jacking up shots when he should have
been passing the ball.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But I don't know when he was openeen.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
That's the thing. You're an NBA player. First off, he
was the number three pick in the draft of twenty four.
He just turned twenty one years old. So and look,
the Rockets had him at great as the best player
in that draft, so they're very high on him. I
think they didn't play him enough last year to like
kind of get his feet under him. So he's kind
of getting his first real dose of heavy minutes.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It's all.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I mean, this is basically his rookie years, So he's
gonna he's very green. Look, he's got to grow into
the role. And if he if he continues to shoot
like that, they're not gonna be able to play him
as much. But the hope is, look, you're playing in
a hostile environment on the road, Katie and those guys
were trusting him. They were giving the ball, Saint, shoot
it if you're open. So but if he can start
(08:46):
to knock down those open looks, it's just gonna make
the Rockets sound much better.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Yeah, but it was a good game.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
I really believe the Rockets have a really good chance,
a really good piece future ahead of them for this season.
And it says, boy, we just got to get that
point guard situation taking care of bad. I believe a
man can't run the point at some with some of
(09:15):
these games. But man, oh man, that was a good game.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'll tell everybody to enjoy enjoy the ride, Like, because
media everybody starts going to you couldn't even win a title.
Can say, look, let's let's worry about that when we
get there. Enjoy the ride. That was the best part
of the James Harden years was you know, yeah, it
got to a point where we came in, we came
to expect it and it was like, oh, well, yeah,
but this ain't gonna work in the playoffs, and I
(09:40):
was enjoy the ride. It's a long season. It's October
still like it's a long season.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Enjoy the ride.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
There's gonna be a lot of fun moments, a lot
of big marquee wins. I'm sure they'll have some heartbreaking
losses along the way, but just like, enjoy the ride.
And when we get to April, we see what this
team looks like, and yes, they the hope is their
championship caliber. But yeah, just after the first game, people
are jumping to I don't know if this team could
win a final.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It's like, let's freaking pump the brakes a little bit.
Enjoy the whole season, I mean, and that's just it.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I mean, you only have what fifty eight minutes to
go off of from last night, so there's gonna be
a lot more than fifty eight minutes in a season.
So well, we'll continue the Rockets conversation. I mean, you know, Gordy,
you brought it up to about the NBA on NBC.
I definitely want to get into that too, because I
just I thought, for an absolute for a first impression,
(10:31):
just an absolute stellar job last night.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So we'll get into all of that too.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You want to get in on the Rockets discussion Sebon
one three two one two five seven ninety against Someone
three two one two five seven ninety as we continue
here on the seven ninety morning show Sports Talk seven
ninety
Jabaris Smith Junior. How about him?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Sixteen points from him last night, so you see good
things out of him in forty two minutes. Texan's gonna
get back on the practice field today to get ready
for the forty nine Ers Sunday at NRG Stadium. Gordy,
what you teased doubt about the point guard because I
saw a lot of people saying that too, and I
mean it's one of those It's just like, okay, I mean,
(00:21):
I don't have enough to sample size yes to really
you know, believe that this extremely large starting five is
you know, going to be something that's a detriment to them.
I mean, I think we saw last night, at least
for the majority of the game, it was something that
helped them because it's what had it's what had them
in the lead. I mean, you just were not able
(00:44):
to give oka See really clean I mean okay, okay,
see was not able to get really any clean shots
against them, rebounding all of those things definitely going in
the rockets favors. So we can talk about that a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It's also it's it's positionless basketball a lot now, I mean,
you know it's there there were times a men Thompson
was bringing up the court and he was kind of
serving as the point guard. I don't know, I think
you know, they even I think Reggie Miller at one
point was even saying I'd like to see them change
it up because it kept being Reid bringing up the
court and a men's playing the two. And He's like, no,
(01:19):
I'd rather see a men bringing it up more and
Reid hanging in the wings as the as the two
that can knock down three. So again, it's yeah, I mean,
look that that was that was evident last night. If
this team at Fred van Vliet, I think they win.
I mean, that's just the reality. That's what sucks and
we got to deal with that. But yeah, I mean
(01:39):
that that the overall take on. Yeah, look at this guy.
Rockets have everything except the point guard, defensive makeup, half guard,
court score, dogs, elite postplay, size, everything, but they're missing
that floor general.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, I mean, just again, it's one game. I'm not
gonna completely just say, oh, well, you're you're no longer
a contender in the Western Conference because you don't have
Fred van Vliet, you don't have a true point guard.
I mean, do you really think that Rafel Stone if
he believes, okay, we need somebody to have that part
of our offense when he is able to make a move,
(02:13):
is not going to do exactly that. I mean for
right now, as I mentioned, they're going to give Reed
Shepherd every single opportunity maybe even see a little bit
more of Aaron Holliday as a possibility too. I mean
last night's very you know, just a very tight rotation too.
I mean, yeah, I mean Audoka, as I mentioned, outside
of reach Shepherd staying with size, so of going with
Easton Capella and Okogie. So I mean last night against
(02:37):
a team that has a lot of length, maybe when
you play against you know, Golden State or some of
these other smaller teams, then you will see a little
bit more of who I mentioned.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm shocked that I didn't give Aaron Holliday some minutes
because he gave you some good minutes last season off
the bench, and you know he's he's a point guard.
I mean, so that's that's a guy that I think
i'd like to see maybe get some more minutes. Now,
this is funny. I'm seeing this in social media. First off,
everybody's got shows, FanDuel's got a show. They do you
(03:07):
do a pre and postgame show, It says Boogie Cousins.
I like Boogie Cousins. The hell's he ben? He's got
an opinion on something. But this, says Uh Houston, a
twenty three assist of twenty one turnovers. Exactly why Boogie
Cousins says Kad needs to tell management to give Reed
Shepherd more minutes?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Why does Kevin Durant have to go tell management it's
it's one game.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
But also why is why is Boogie Cousins He's on
his desk, like what is his show?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Where does his air? Some FanDuel put together?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I mean, I guess if somebody's willing to pay the money,
they you know, need to be able to fill some
of those seats. So they obviously went to Boogie Cousins
and said, hey, would you want to do it?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And he said, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So I mean, you know, to to the point you
brought up, I mean you will see more of air.
And that's the thing too that Dick I talked about again.
You know, the conversation I was listening to with Matt
is the starting lineup you threw out there last night.
That was the starting lineup for that game. It's not
necessarily gonna be a game the game thing. A lot
of it's going to be matchup, you know, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Predicated forget Twin Towers with Hartenstein and and Cheded Holmgren
out there.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
The way I thought about this last night, Heart and Stein,
doesn't he kind of look like.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Jj Watt a little bit, got a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And like it's the thing like I kept like, you know,
whenever they show him, I'm like, it kind of looks
like jj Watt's kind of freaking me out.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I just remember when he was here and he uh,
he did a whole lot of nothing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It was like, yeah, we just go to New York
and he hey, here's that guy.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah he was a second round pick here and you know,
played overseas and then played in with the Grand Valley
Vipers and then you know eighteen nineteen twenty was a
rocket but did a whole lot of nothing.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So it was kind of like just a guy and
he's developed into something.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So holding out on the rockets a little bit, you know,
he he he wanted to get somewhere else and then
show off what he could. A few of those the years,
Colleen get to you in just a second, but you
mentioned Reggie Miller, and the Internet started to really chirp
at Reggie Miller when they were talking about the banners
and they showed, of course, the championship banner there at
the arena and OKC going up the pay Com Center.
(05:12):
I remember that because it's pay Course Stadium is what
I got it confused with in Cincinnati where the Bengals play,
but the pay Com Center. So they raised the banner
and then they were talking about the only retired jersey
currently is Nick Collison there in ok SE because I
mean time well, I mean and I'm sure they probably
(05:32):
even have like some of them carried over, Like I
know when I worked in Atlanta, the Hawks had even
some of the guys that were Saint Louis Hawks with
their retired jerseys up there. So I'm sure they, you know,
even have some of the Sonics greats up there. But
then they were going through, you know, who should have
their jerseys retired there in OKC, and one of the
(05:53):
ones that he mentioned, and Mike Turko pushed back on
it was he said Serge Ibaka was one of them,
and he said James Harden and Taurrico was not was
not so plussed on that. Turrico was like, I don't know, man, Like, yeah,
I think I think he kind of made his bones elsewhere,
Like he was a good player here, but like Reggie,
I think you're kind of feeling yourself a little bit
(06:14):
on this.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
That was the That was the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And if you watch this Starting five Netflix documentary, Harden
talks about how they were all shocked when they found
out he got traded and Harden unhappy. He was like
because he thought they were gonna it was him, Russ
and KD and they thought they were gonna build this
thing for years to come because they had made these
deep playoff runs and they thought, oh, this is only
gonna build from her. Because Harden was a bench guy.
(06:37):
He was coming off the bench for a good bit
and then the expectation was he was gonna start being
the starter.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
But but yeah, that's that's.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
A little bit revisionist history because it wasn't until he
got to use like we thought he could be good,
but it was those first few games in a Rocket
uniform and went, oh, yeah, he could be really we
just brought in Jeremy Lynn. We thought Lynn's sanity was
gonna be here. No, this is Harden sanity, this is
James Hard hard and drops like forty.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
We're like, oh, this guy's legit.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Okay, yeah, now definitely, at least on the offensive end,
worked out someone three two, one, two, five seven to
ninety clean, what's to weigh?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And good morning clean?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Hey, good morning, Thanks for taking my call. He should
boy clean aka cash out, don't crash out. But I
was calling because I wanted to speak on Ree Shepherd. Man.
I believe Ree Shepherd needs to go back to wherever
we got it from, because I think he's garbage really,
because if you watch the game, we had a lead,
(07:34):
it was like sixty seven to like fifty seven or
something at one point, and then he come in the game,
and we should have been running away with the lead
at that time, but they came right they got to
they got into one. I think they were like damn
one one point one square point possession after he came in,
(07:56):
and he like jacking up shots when he should have
been passing the ball.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But I don't know when he was openeen.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
That's the thing. You're an NBA player. First off, he
was the number three pick in the draft of twenty four.
He just turned twenty one years old. So and look,
the Rockets had him at great as the best player
in that draft, so they're very high on him. I
think they didn't play him enough last year to like
kind of get his feet under him. So he's kind
of getting his first real dose of heavy minutes.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It's all.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I mean, this is basically his rookie years, So he's
gonna he's very green. Look, he's got to grow into
the role. And if he if he continues to shoot
like that, they're not gonna be able to play him
as much. But the hope is, look, you're playing in
a hostile environment on the road, Katie and those guys
were trusting him. They were giving the ball, Saint, shoot
it if you're open. So but if he can start
(08:46):
to knock down those open looks, it's just gonna make
the Rockets sound much better.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Yeah, but it was a good game.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
I really believe the Rockets have a really good chance,
a really good piece future ahead of them for this season.
And it says, boy, we just got to get that
point guard situation taking care of bad. I believe a
man can't run the point at some with some of
(09:15):
these games. But man, oh man, that was a good game.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'll tell everybody to enjoy enjoy the ride, Like, because
media everybody starts going to you couldn't even win a title.
Can say, look, let's let's worry about that when we
get there. Enjoy the ride. That was the best part
of the James Harden years was you know, yeah, it
got to a point where we came in, we came
to expect it and it was like, oh, well, yeah,
but this ain't gonna work in the playoffs, and I
(09:40):
was enjoy the ride. It's a long season. It's October
still like it's a long season.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Enjoy the ride.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
There's gonna be a lot of fun moments, a lot
of big marquee wins. I'm sure they'll have some heartbreaking
losses along the way, but just like, enjoy the ride.
And when we get to April, we see what this
team looks like, and yes, they the hope is their
championship caliber. But yeah, just after the first game, people
are jumping to I don't know if this team could
win a final.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It's like, let's freaking pump the brakes a little bit.
Enjoy the whole season, I mean, and that's just it.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I mean, you only have what fifty eight minutes to
go off of from last night, so there's gonna be
a lot more than fifty eight minutes in a season.
So well, we'll continue the Rockets conversation. I mean, you know, Gordy,
you brought it up to about the NBA on NBC.
I definitely want to get into that too, because I
just I thought, for an absolute for a first impression,
(10:31):
just an absolute stellar job last night.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So we'll get into all of that too.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You want to get in on the Rockets discussion Sebon
one three two one two five seven ninety against Someone
three two one two five seven ninety as we continue
here on the seven ninety morning show Sports Talk seven
ninety
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