Amen Thompson debuts as summer Rockets make big impression

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Cheers, Rockets fans, Welcome tothe Logger Line, an exclusive podcast from
the home of the Rockets, SportsTalk seven ninety. The Lugger Line.
It's proudly served to you by CarboxClutch City logger It is God. Oh
yeah, Red Nation. Get readyto get ready, Get ready. The

(00:26):
lagger Line starts now. Welcome aboard. He has them open, throws one
up in the air. Smith caughtit for the wing and improbable Supper League

(00:48):
opening victory for the Houston Rockets.Wow. Great call there from the ESPN
broadcast. Of course, that wasthe final second Houston's thrilling win on Friday's
opening night of twenty twenty three SummerLeague in Las Vegas. And spoiler alert,
that's largely what we're going to bediscussing today here at the lagger Line,

(01:10):
your source for analysis and commentary ofall. Thanks Houston Rockets Basketball.
Served to U courtesy of Clutch City. Lagger developed in collaboration with the Houston
Rockets Carback Brewing, that is,and with support from Sports seven ninety,
the official flagship radio station of theteam. As always, I'm your host,
Ben Dubos, editor of USA Today'sRockets Wire, and a contributor to
seven ninety and I'm joined by agood friend, producer and co host out

(01:32):
of Portugal, Polo Alves. Youcan follow me on Twitter at Ben Dubos
Polo on there at Pollo Alves NBA. And look, we're recording this to
peel back the curtains Saturday night,so we'll see what happens Sunday night.
When the Rockets resumed Summer League playagainst the Pistons, they will not have
Ama Thompson, who looked very goodin the opener but then sprained his ankle

(01:53):
in the final minute. Of course, that will take him out for the
remainder of Summer League because it barelylasts more than a week total. So
we've seen what we will see youfrom Amen, and who knows what the
team will look like when they won'thave their floor general, their engine out
there. The Pistons do have anumber of talented prospects, including Amen's twin
brother, but also Jade and Ivy, Jayleen durn, James Wiseman. Who

(02:15):
else is on that Pistons team.I'm forgetting, but they have a pretty
strong summer roster, right, yeah, they do. I think he named
off basically all of them. Yeah, I thought there was somebody else not
missing. But the point is theyhave a lot of talented players and so
we'll see what happens. But eventhough it was just one game, nobody's
ever going to forgive you for whoyou forgot about? Who was it?

(02:37):
Marcus Sasser? Ah, there wego, Houston legend. I knew it
because I was putting together for Rocketswhere the starting lineup an hour ago,
and so I was looking through andwhen I did the Pistons lineup, I
was like, m these are somedamn big names and it's unfortunate that the
Rockets won't have their floor general outthere. And so we'll see what guys
like Jabari Smith Junior and Tor Eastonand Kim Whitmore look like without an engine

(02:59):
to really drive that offense. I'msure Trevor Hudgins will step in at point
guard and he's on a two way, but of course he's not anywhere nearer
the prospect or playmaker that Im andThompson is. So it's not all positive.
They did lose Aman Thompson, butI will say, by and large,
it was such a feel good nightand for me above all else,

(03:20):
it just reminded me of why thefuture is so bright for this organization and
why quite frankly, some of thelittle misgivings that we've had over the past
week about how free agency played out, and some of the things about not
getting brook Lopez and then the pivotto basically creating cat flexibility that you didn't
fully need by offloading young players andsecond run picks to move them at the

(03:42):
right time, and then you didn'tget Lopez, you just got van Fleet
and Brooks without completing the trifecta ofveteran targets. And there's been all this
talk about asset management and could RaphaelStone have done better? Should he have
done better? And I'm not goingto say that anyone is wrong in their
assessments. I think objectively, theRockets did not get a good return,

(04:04):
even if I understand the reasons behindit and the process that led to that.
But I also think the bigger takeawayand Friday night really reminded me as
to just how small those other debatesare in the grand scheme. If the
Rockets have prospects like I'm and Thompson, Jabari Smith Junior and Tari Eason hit

(04:26):
at a high level, that otherstuff shouldn't matter at all. The Rockets
have a core six in place,two top prospects from each of the last
three draft classes Jalen Green and allPrinshanoon in twenty twenty one, Jabari Smith
Junior and Tari Eason in twenty twentytwo, and I'm and Thompson and Camp
Whitmore this year twenty twenty three.If even two or three of the prospects

(04:47):
within that group hit at a highlevel, meaning let's say second or third
best player on a contending team,you're going to be in an amazing place
a few years from now. Andthat's even if none of them develop into
a true Alpha, an MVP contender, the type of guy who can be
the best player on a championship teamthemselves. Even if you just get two

(05:10):
or three really strong supporting pieces outof that group, then you can be
the Miami to someone else's Damian Lillardin a few years if you need someone
else to put this group over thetop. And again, I'm not saying
that guys like Amen or Jalen Greenor Jabari can't develop into the lead guy
themselves. They absolutely can. Butthe bottom line is, even if you

(05:34):
just get a couple or three veryvery good players out of these recent draft
classes, you are going to bein an unbelievable spot. When you combine
that with the infrastructure that Houston hasin place, as far as it being
a fairly large market, desirable freeagents dude generally want to be here.

(05:54):
There are some institutional advantages that theRockets have, and so when you see
what happened Friday night, Aman Thompsonjust looked really in command on both ends
of the floor. Sixteen points,five assists. I think he had seven
steals and blocks combined. He wasreally a two way difference maker. Sbari
Smith Junior twenty nine points in thesecond half, including that buzzer beating three

(06:17):
in the final zero point six seconds, which was just absurd. Tarry Easton
with another efficient twenty points and tenboards, shot fifty percent overall, fifty
percent from three. Kim Whitmore,even though he didn't shoot well the tunnel
vision's a problem, he still hada double and he showed a lot of
promise in terms of his athleticism andhis ability to make plays. I mean,

(06:38):
it's at this point, it's sortof like a bowl in a china
shop. But you can see thetalent. You can see the power or
the explosion, the elite athleticism whenyou see guys like that execute. And
I know it's summer League, butthat was a quality team they went up
against. There's a reason why itwas nationally televised on ESPN. The Blazers
had Scoot Henderson, who played verywell before he left early with an injury

(07:00):
of his own to his shoulder.They also had Shaden Sharp, who,
like Jabari Smith, was a toppick in the twenty twenty two draft.
They also had a couple of otherquality players that were from their NBA team
a year ago, so again,this was high profile. There was lots
of talent on that stage, andto see the Rockets succeed with the young
guys, it was just really reallyrefreshing, and to me, it just

(07:21):
hit home how small some of thesethings, at least on social media that
we've been debating really are. Ifthese guys hit at a high level,
that other stuff isn't going to matterat all. To me. That was
what I came out of Friday nightfeeling that, you know, it's not
so much that anybody's right or wrongwith the other stuff, but it's just

(07:42):
a reminder that if they were rightwith these guys, they drafted like Amen,
like Jabari, like Tari. Itultimately the other stuff isn't even going
to matter, right. I thinka lot of a lot of places in
put right. I think the factthat we haven't watch basketball besides but besides
yesterday for a while. The factthat everybody knows how important this tree can

(08:05):
see is in the fact that somuch is happening at the same time,
so much lang makes it so peopleare just focused on this, right.
I think people are going to overannoye this and then and I think the
truth of the matter is the Rocketsmade a couple of bat rates objectively.
Bat rates essentially you know, burningassets away, small assets, but burning
assets away with that which is incorrectand the process is awful. And I

(08:26):
understand why people are triggered about itbecause usually in a trade, even if
it's a bat rate, there's somesort of upside to both sides. There's
no positive outlook to look at thetrades, the two trades that the time
the trade and the pending meals tradethat the Rockets made right um, And
because of that, people are reallyfocusing on that, and I can't blame
them, but what I can dois say that two things can be true

(08:48):
at the same time that process wise, those were two awful trates that we
know. We're justified one of themby the fact that Um the Rocket thought
they had the comment commitment from bookLoops and the other one from the fact
that both that and they rather theyvalued Kant over Patty Meals and two and

(09:09):
two second round picks because that's theoffing that they had. They eithern included
the shantaid in the in the segmentradio with Dylan Brooks, or they did
what they did, which is takeon Patty Meals for one second and then
at his salaries the trade instead oftakes um you know for in order to
make a sur and matching work.And they spent three seconds studios and then

(09:31):
that of two seconds. So that'sdecisions. Do I agree with it?
Probably not, but you know it'sI don't agree with. I don't agree
with with a lot of the decisionsthat they made personnel wise, but I
understand I'm not the coach and ifemail thinks that date may have a role
on this team, that's worth morethan two second round picks. Then we've
I mean, we've got to believethem in and we'll jild them. But

(09:52):
when the steam's on the floor andwe see how much they contributes, right,
Ultimately, as I say, itis effectively correct that they got bad
value with those strikes. It's alsoeffectively correct that in the Graham scheme of
things, it's not that big ofa deal. I have. I had
an analogy about it earlier, whichis, listen, what the Rockets lost

(10:13):
is they lost some disposable assets.Right. The core is still the core,
it's still there. They just losta lot of the things that they
would easily give up if they needto tak something with the right. If
they're targeting a player that's not wortha Brooklyn for trunk pick right now,
that it's tough for them to makethat deal because they don't really have a
lot of assets smaller than that tomake that really happen. Unless they make

(10:39):
the Brooklyn pick protected or something likethat. There are some ways to achieve
that, but it's generally tougher.If they want to make a deal right
now, it's likely will involve acore piece or a really valuable pick or
a pick of their own, whichis always a risk, as we are
about to find out the season,So that's what they lost, right,
But at the same time, theygot two by three kets that they wanted.

(11:01):
They still have the core six,and they nail the head coaching higher
than they nail the draft. Andgoing forward, it's really as we've talked
about this, I'm not going togo too long into it, as we
said in the last podcast list,and now it's about how well they can
they play, how can they answerto the questions that everybody's asking If they
come in and the EK cast andthey make the play, and nobody's going

(11:22):
to be thinking about this if orsome people will, because attendance are always
a thing, but for the mostpart, nobody, nobody will be will
be talking about. If they don't, then it will look a lot uglier
in a year from now, becausethey'll likely be looking to make some move
on the margins, and to doso, they'll have to give up someone
that they don't want to give up, which means either they will have to

(11:43):
protect a pick or they'll have toaim to a hire, to a target
that's more expensive than they originally wanted. Regardless, you know, it's bad
process, but as I said,not epic of all, But to move
on to what we actually want totalk about, which is yesterday's game.
By the way, I do wantto read off the tweet from our friend

(12:03):
beam Thug on Twitter. Of coursehe's David Winner in real life. But
an analogy that he made that thoughtwas perfect for it was, let's say
your friend gets a fifty thousand dollarsbonus, but then they light five hundred
dollars on fire. You can bothbe mad about lighting the five hundred dollars
on fire and also realize that itpales in comparison to the fifty thousand dollars

(12:26):
that he brought in. And that'sbasically where we are with this situation.
I think there's so much of afocus on social media that it can be
easy to lose context. And theimportant context is that when it comes to
what actually matters in terms of willthis rebuild be a success and can the
Rockets get back in a few yearsto a championship contending level, the signs
are still really promising even if theRockets squandered that five hundred dollars. Yeah,

(12:48):
and I guess I'll take that tosay the system there really quick,
because I think a lot of peoplein the current climate of Huston Roca's discussion
think that you're either a dumer oryou're clearing there, and there's a place
to be somewhere in between, whichis what I think I am at and
where I think Ben's at, whichis, Hey, stuff went wrong,
some stuff went wrong, but overallthe picture is still is still promising,

(13:11):
and so we're not gonna, youknow, spend too much time going on
what went wrong, because there's alot of things that went right and and
that's what's going to impact the feelure. Um. I think that, at
least personally, I try to provideand biased analysis on the podcast especially,
but at the same time, Ido realize that I'm a fan, and

(13:31):
in order to be a fan,you have you have to kind of you
know, if you're not optimistic,and if you don't have faith into in
the teams, in the teams directand moving forward at least to some extent,
Right, if you don't see someways out, even if you think
that the situation is terrible, thenwhy are you're just going to lose interest?
Right, And it's it's not goingto be as enjoyable. So yes,

(13:52):
I'll overrate Rockets players some time totime. That's natural. It's being
a fan. Even when I'm tryingto be an analyst and put test up
to sometimes it happens. H doesn'tmean, you know, doesn't mean that
I'm doing it all the time,and doesn't mean that all of my opinions
are biased in that in that scenario. So to as I get into looking
at what last night's came looked like, Hey, I was someone who was

(14:16):
lower than most on Amy and Thompsonum as the draft process was going was
going was happening because I had thisidea that I hope that they could,
you know, either Scoot Henderson fallsor they could for him. And and
to my to my credit, heshowed everything and everybody expected him to show.
Yesterday he's you know, just ashout out to to Scoot Henderson and

(14:39):
Plazer sense. I'm really excited fortheir young core. I'm kind of jealous
that they get to start off.They're rebuilt with two pieces like Scoot's Henderson
and jaydom Sharp. We had towatch John Wall and Victor all the people
for like an entire season, whichwas pretty tough. But he was already
thinking everyone expected at him, andat the same time, while he had
all the hype, I don't thinkAmy and found and had the worst game

(15:00):
than he did um And I thinka few things were kind kind of stood
out to me as I was watchingthe game. The first one is a
m. Thompson's a huge guy,Like he's massive. He's every bit of
six foot seven. He if yougo in you watch the game, he
looks like a win. He doesn'tlook all that smaller from just the centers
on the floor. It's not oneof those situations where oh, I have

(15:22):
six foot six but in reality orwax six Withoot four right, but you're
you're shooting guard or something, andthat people want to say you're six foot
six. He's huge, which isgood winxpense huge. So that's my first
point. My second point is defensively. First, all talk about defensively.
First, he got blown by byScoot in the play early in the game,

(15:43):
and it kind of woke him upa little bit because right after that
he had two sequences where he wasjust clamping him up and heyman, Thompson's
known for playing up in guy's faces, and early in the game he wasn't
doing it. And then as timemoved on, he eventually started doing it.
And I think it's good to havea guy at at a guard position
that does that, especially if he'sa high draft pick, you know,

(16:03):
supposed to be a leader. Ithink that that was a huge deal.
I was impressed by the way henavigated screens. I'm not gonna say he's
you know, incredible, but hehas you know, he is good at
making himself look skinny and getting throughscreens, and even when he does get
caught on a screen, he's soquick and so lengthy that he recovers fairly

(16:25):
fast. There were multiple instances whenhe got screened off of the main ball
handler and the team even switched thataction, and he managed to recover and
get back to the guy entire alot of times scause Henderson and get back
to the guy in time to contesthis shot or to switch or to swittly
action back right. So I wasreally encouraged by his by his defense he
did have, which I think iscrazy for a guard. He had four

(16:48):
blocks and three assists and it reallysteals, I mean, seven stocks in
a twenty eight minutes in a game. It's insane. And will and will
and botes well for the role thathe will eventually play for the Rockets at
least year one, where he's comingoff the bank and having those extra things.
Those are things that are going tokeep you on the fought even if
the offense istem going the way youwanted to. And I'll ask it off

(17:10):
to you to talk about the offense. The lasting I'll mention, um is
I think there's one play, theplay right before it twisted the Zanc that
was absolutely insane. So he's basicallyin the dunker spot right and the opposing
team's center. I'm not sure ifit was if it was badly or the

(17:32):
other guy that I don't remember thename of, was going up for a
dunk and Amy Thompson is in thedunker spot at a stand still like that,
there's no there's no run up toit, and he just jumps straight
vertical and he blocks what's got tobe at least six to eleven or seven
foot your point guard, just purevertical block a center at the That's not

(17:57):
normal, No, it's not likethat was pretty instant to me. I
was looking at him, was like, dude, see that's probably better in
protection than we've had in the lastthree years, like we had Christian Wood
there and in that same position,Christian was not only is not getting that
block, he's getting done on onthe ordoking out of the way. And

(18:17):
sorry for the Christian Wood slander,but I thought I thought he was really
impressive defensively at the very least.Yeah, And I think where he stood
out to me, and honestly,it was on both ends of the court.
It's just how incredibly high his basketballIQ and his awareness is and that's

(18:37):
something that has been an issue forhonestly, most of the young prospects the
Rockets I've had on the roster thelast couple of years to see the level
of awareness that Amen already has.One of the big questions going into this
was about the transition from OTE tothe NBA. That didn't seem like it
was much of an issue at all, granted summer league, but it was
definitely NBA caliber talent that was outthere, and he was you could hell

(19:00):
on both ends of the court.He was often several steps ahead in terms
of figuring out what was coming next. He didn't check out when he was
off the ball the way we've seena lot of young players do. The
past couple of years. That's defensively. Offensively, the five assists don't do
it justice. He had so manyhockey assists. I think back to the
one player early in the game wherehe hit a cutting cam Whitmore through just

(19:22):
a microscopic hole and then Whitmore kickedit back to the top to Jay Hoff,
the big guy who hit a three. He was just in command on
both ends and it just seemed likethat he was just a few seconds ahead
at all times, which number one, it's important to have the IQ to
be able to do that, andthen secondly, it's important to have the

(19:44):
willingness to stay in that mindset evenwhen you don't have the ball yourself or
if you're not guarding the ball ondefense. So I thought he showed a
lot of poise, a lot ofmaturity, and I think it's such a
good fit because a lot of theyoung guys other than Tarry Easton when we
talk about this corps, a lotof them really need the ball in their
hands to be successful. They needto go out and score and shoot at

(20:07):
a high level. And Jalen hasdone that. Jabari can do that.
We saw that at times late lastseason and he certainly did last night.
We hope that Jabari's defense comes alongto what it was expected to be during
the pre draft process. But thebottom line is a lot of the young
guys they have Jalen, Jabari,Kim Whitmore is clearly in this group as
well, at least at this pointin their careers, they need to be

(20:32):
optimized a certain way to extract theirvalue, and Shangoon is in that grouping
as well. Even though you knowShanoon is more of a playmaker, still
there's certain ways, and we've talkedabout this in the past, that you
have to use all for in Shangoonin order to unlock the most of his
value. Where I think guys likeAmon and Tarya Easton have so much value

(20:53):
is that even when the ball isn'tin their hands all the time. And
I thought it was interesting last offensively, there were a lot of sets where
the rockets actually initiated their actions witheither Tari or Jabari bringing the ball up
the floor and having at least initiallyand off the ball, and they would
try to give them a better angleon a screen coming around a curl something

(21:14):
like that. Maybe that's getting readyfor the way they run offense during the
season with all pren Shingoon, Idon't know, but the point is there's
a lot of different ways. Whenyou have the overall skill set and the
IQ that guys like Amen and toan extent Tari as well have, then
that's really important because again you're tryingto blend this puzzle together, and I

(21:37):
think the Rockets the last couple ofyears have generally had players that all needed
to be utilized in a certain wayfor them to have positive value. And
I think it also led to aton of peaks and valleys and that you
know, if Jalen and or Alphave a bad night, then it's going
to be bad for the offense becausewhat else are they going to provide value
with. There's only certain ways atthis point in careers and with the team

(22:00):
that young, that they can beused as opposed to again, guys like
Amin and Tari. What I thoughtwas so refreshing is that even when the
ball wasn't in their hands, evenif they weren't scoring themselves or creating,
be it what they're doing off theball, be it their value defensively,
just the overall approach that they have. It's so important because in terms of

(22:23):
building out the puzzle and putting thistogether, now it feels like you have
multiple guys who have the utility tobe used and provide value in a lot
of different ways. And so that'snot again, that's not necessarily to talk
down on guys like Jalen and Shangoon, because let's be clear, Aman does

(22:44):
still have a question with the jumpshot. He did make the only three
pointer he took late in the game, which I thought I was about to
say, you cannot say that he'sshooting a yeah, but now you know
where I'm going with that. Thereare questions about can he score at a
dynamic enough level to be, youknow, the thirty plus points per game
alpha on a contender the way weknow Jalen potentially can be. Not saying

(23:07):
he is, but we know thathe has that talent. It's just a
matter of whether he puts it alltogether. With Amen, there's a more
diverse skill set, but in termsof the high end scoring and the shooting,
there are questions regarding if he canget there. So it's not like
Aman is just clearly a better prospectthan these other guys, No, I
mean, they had their strengths aswell. But I just think that,
as with anything, you need abalance, and the fact that you have

(23:30):
guys like Amen and Chari that canprovide value in so many different ways,
even if it's not them scoring,even if it's not just their on ball
defense, then to me, that'sgoing to make for a much healthier mix
than the last couple of years,when so many of your prospects have to
be used in one specific way toreally maximize their value. Does that make

(23:51):
sense? It does, And I'lltake that and I'll flip it around,
and I'll talk about how impressed Iwas about him offensively and S'm just talking
about him and so far. ButI was really impressed, right I You
talked about his assists, right,he had, so he talked about the
one to came with more. Iwas. So there were some that happened,
and usually so the rockets that havebeen so bad play making wise over

(24:15):
the past three years, at leastthe cards and no himsilt Okay, As
I said, I think he'll behe'll be great this year, but that
I mused, watching the game andbe screaming at my television, this passes
open, Please make it not happening. So with the man. What happened
was I was not seeing the passesand he was making them anyways. He
was. He was, you know, he was making reads on the floor

(24:37):
that I suspected or looking at thefloor did not see. One of them
was actually similarly to to the clipthe rockets shared of practice a couple of
days ago. He had an assistto Jabari not at the dunkers popped pretty
close to it that it just whippedthe ball to him on the inside,
and I was like, I didn'teven see that it was an opening and
he not only so Jabari wasn't whiteopen, but he saw that he was

(25:00):
close enough to the rim that helikely could make something happen, and he
was in a position of strength offensivelyright. It wasn't something obvious, but
he saw it, didn't he capitalizedon it because he made the rid the
read quickly enough. There was anotherone that I was really impressed by,
which was he I think he missed, he missed a turn around clarifound no
mistake, and I think this isthe sequence. He grabbed the rebund or

(25:22):
someone grabbed the rebund and give itback to him, and he drove and
he got under the basket and whilehe's under the basket, he like it's
it's kind of like a dump offpast but not really, and he wraps
his arm around and it makes apast like from under the basket to Tari
Easton and to me. To me, I didn't see that pass either,

(25:44):
and it was open, but itwasn't that open. And I think if
you look at any player on therockets this year or that was a nice
swept and cut by Tari Easton toget back to the point I was trying
to make in terms of providing valyou in other ways, it was exactly
and it just surprised me because thelast couple of years, nobody in that

(26:07):
situation. Everybody's going up and tryingto finish that at the basket and aim
and saw it, you know,early enough to adapt and go under the
basket and they do that rap aroundpast that I was really impressed by.
He also had a kick out tothe corner to Japari, which and not
to came with money, And nohe didn't make the shot, but I
was really impressed by. I wasreally impressed with his abilities to see the

(26:29):
pass and he said ability to executethe pass, uh like to the correct
spot and quickly and quickly enough.Um, And I think that pulls really
well going forward. Um. Anotherthing that I that I was really happy
with him was he had I thinkit's his first bucket of the game if
I'm mistaken, which is a floaterwithin a massive deal. If he can

(26:49):
knock down Flourish consistently, then theneed for a jump shot decreases substantially because
now you can't play as far backand I'm not and I'll get into it
into a little bit of a fire. I don't think they can anyway,
but you won't be able to playas far back in the pick and roll.
You'll have to respect it. Andit's it's basically like having a jumped

(27:10):
out. I mean, the floorwas pretty far out. I think if
you extended the three throw line towhere he was at, it's basically the
same the same distance. Um.So I was I was really happy to
see that. His stuch is somethingthat's going to be really important going forward.
Then, speaking of a touch,he had a lot of tough finishes
around around the rim, and hedoes get a lot of hang time,
so he gets a lot more getsa little bit more margin than the most

(27:33):
players, but he was finishing stuffthat I don't think. I mean that
ley One certainly wasn't finishing his rookieseason. Um we have once again,
it's he will notice that the thingsI'm noticing at the rockets kind of black
in those departments. Because another thingthat we're not that good at as a
team is finishing at the rim.Rossi Moon gets a lot of offensive rebounds

(27:56):
that he can't, you know,make the money afterwards. Reason does the
same thing. Kild and Dreams gothim better at it, but he's still
somewhat of a doesn't have a lotof English in his finish. In his
finishes, it either it goes reallywell or seidterably wrong. Kiki was really
good at it the first season hewas here, but then the last couple
of seasons he's finishing as he shouldn't. Got better, but his finishing has

(28:17):
kind of fallen off. So Iwas really impressed, and it's good because
he was finishing I would say,not really like a guard, but more
like a wing, like the sameway Case and Data finishes at the room,
which is not getting to the actualrim, but being really good at
bouncing the ball off the backboard andknowing the angles to make it go in
and make it go over Chad Walker'shead um. So that was another thing

(28:40):
that was really encouraging for me.And to tie into it lasting out touch
on offensively for a man is Therewere a couple of times this game where
teams were giving him a little bitof a runaway and he wasn't pulling up
for the for the folder like hedid early on, and he was trying
to kind of go around people.And that's what showed this is finishing right.

(29:02):
But I think as we go forward, as we as he goes forwards
in his career, he'll have tolearn to go through because he's big enough,
um and he'll draw a lot offouls that way. And I'm not
sure if he's confident. Maybe he'snot confident in three or four. Was
just you know, if he can'tshoot seventy five for his career, that's
great, that's I think that's somethingthat he'll have to work on, which

(29:22):
is not not going around the defender, but going through the defender when he
gets ahead of steam, because that'sthe way Jannist gets the rim a lot.
And that's a lot of the differencebetween a guy like Ben Simmons and
a guy like Yiannist who both aren'twhether we athletic and both can go through
people, but work uses now tooand the other one just does it all
the time. Um, So that'skind of I think that's the last thing

(29:44):
that I have on Amen. Yeah, the one slight criticism I had.
I thought at the Rim he showednice touch from time to time, especially
in the first half with his finishing. I think he needs to trust that
war. I think a couple oftimes that he didn't finish at the rem
were when he just tried to goright over people. And I think that's
where there can be a big jumpbetween OT and the NBA is at the

(30:04):
bigs. Here they're both a moreathletic and be the technique gets better,
they're more able to go vertical withoutfoul. Like I think in ote,
either you can just directly shoot ordunk over somebody or be they're so undiscipline
there's a good chance that you're goingto get a foul simply because you're in
the advantaged position. As opposed tothe NBA, they're a bit more discipline.

(30:25):
So I think it's something that heAgain I'm not worried about it because
I think in time he clearly hasthe touch. So as he learns from
this, I think he's going tolearn to trust that touch a bit more
and be a bit more savvy whenhe goes up near the bucket and you
know, try and go at itfrom an angle, even you've got to
spend it. Then that's what you'vegot to do. If if the defender

(30:48):
is just going to go up andbasically stay vertical and prevent you from just
going strictly above them. But that'sjust little things. Overall, it was
a wildly encouraging debut, and Iknow it's all see before training camp,
but look, I don't think weneed to see anymore. He showed why
he was a top four pick,why the Rockets believed in him enough to
where they didn't want to trade upfor Scoot Henderson even though they had a

(31:11):
need at that position, and eventhough Scoot looked very good in his own
right, I think I thought Almanheld his own and then some and justified
why the Rockets really believe in himso much as a building block. And
it's going to be interesting to seehow quickly he can force his way into
the conversation for a starting slot,because when you can bind his gifts as

(31:32):
a playmaker and everything that he canprovide with his length defensively and the high
IQ that he plays with, it'sgonna be tough to keep his minutes down.
I think with Kim what Moore againI mentioned earlier, the talent is
there, but you can see andhe did just turn nineteen years old today,
happy birthday, by the way,you can see. With Cam it's

(31:52):
going to be a process. Again. I think that's part of why the
Rockets settled on Alman and not Camfor that number four overall pick with Amen,
because he's so advanced in terms ofhis processing on both ends or the
floor. You combine that with theathletic gifts, and he's going to be
making a push, from my opinion, sooner rather than later for more playing
time, especially if that hundred percentmark from three point range proves accurate,

(32:15):
which I know, you know,small sample, but it's a scientific fact.
He's one hundred percent on three pointersin the NBA and it's going to
remain that way until at least October, which is when the Rockets begin their
preseason slate. And thankfully, eventhough a great two ankle sprain is not
great. Look the one sober liningthat I'll take. At least the NBA
calendar is back to normal. Sowith the injury occurring on July seventh,

(32:37):
he can basically do nothing for twomonths if that's what the Rockets think he
needs to do, and he canstart gearing up in early September and still
have plenty of time to get rightbefore training camp, which doesn't start until
the very last couple of days ofSeptember this year. So with the NBA
calendar back to what it was preCOVID, then he's got all the time

(33:00):
in the world effectively to make surethat that ankle sprain is behind him and
it's not a nagging situation like whatwe saw. You know. The Christian
Wood thing is an example that Ithink a lot of Rockets fans always think
about from that twenty to twenty oneseason when he sprained that ankle in early
February and he tried to come backin about four to six weeks after,
but he kept reaggravating it several timesover the remainder of that season and it

(33:23):
never really got ready until the offseason, never got back to full health.
That should not be the case here. Again, this happened early enough that
even though a grade two sprain,it's not great. Look, my guess
is the Rockets and rookie walls arenot an unfamiliar concept at all. My
guesses they were already going to sortof load manage him a bit during this
offseason to get ready for the grindof seven to eight straight months of NBA

(33:47):
basketball. So I think ultimately it'snot great, but it's something that by
the time the Rockets report to campin late September, eight should behind him
and he should be one hundred percent. So from a timing perspective, he
should be all systems go. Andagain, so far, so good.
There's a reason why the Rockets believein him to the extent that they do.

(34:08):
As far as the other takeaways,Look, we played that Jabari Smith
Junior shot off the top, andit almost feels like we're burying the lead
because he scored a game high thirtythree points, including a buzzer beater,
Because we haven't really gone into greaterdepth since we started this episode thirty plus
minutes ago. But boy wasn't encouragingsecond half. It was I know,

(34:31):
as a second year player. It'ssort of like when Keegan Murray scored thirty
nine a couple of nights before thatin the Sacramento Summer League. You sort
of expect a second year player whowas drafted highly to have that year.
But look, we know the rookieseason was not great for Jabari, and
the first half, let's be honest, was that great for him. Either
had just four points, didn't shootthe ball well, So to see him

(34:52):
be able to flip the switch andit wasn't like he just made more shots.
That's part of it. But healso got to the line seventeen times.
He was uber aggressive. And theRockets, you know, every time
I've talked to them, they've consistentlypointed out and they're right about this that
some of the issues that we talkabout with regards to his lack of shot
creation. How much wiggle does hehave as a creator. Look, when

(35:15):
you're almost seven feet tall, andhe said before the game last night that
he's six ft eleven, he's stillgrowing. It's like Kevin Durant. You
don't have to have the most sophisticatedhandle to get a good look. You
just need to rise and fire,especially if you have a quick release,
which he does to just simply gostraight over guys, and you're also going
to draw a lot of fouls whenyou do that, because a lot of

(35:36):
guys aren't prepared for you to shootat a given moment, and so many
times they're going to react a bitsurprised and get a bit too handsy because
you catch them off guard. Ithink beyond just the fact that more shots
went in, to see him playwith that level of aggression, to see
him get to line that much,it was just a really really good sign
after I know, he finished hisrookie season a lot better than he started,

(35:58):
but by and large, it wasstill underwhelming for number three overall pick
that many people expected to go numberone going into the draft. So I
just think, you know, eventhough he'll say he's a confidence guy,
on some level, it had tobe great to see him get the payoff,
right, Yeah, I think hemade it look so as as the
game was going on, and youknow, they'll get a little a little
segment with the announcers, not theannouncers, the booth, the broadcast booth,

(36:23):
and he said something about Labar,who at the time wasn't having the
best of games, which was hewas talking about, though, Jabari plays
too upright and often you know,because of that, when he gets his
the ball, he's not ready toshoot, so it takes him a little
extra second and he's not ready todrive or anything like that, because if
he comes in decisive because of that. And I thought that was a really

(36:43):
interesting point because we've been trying totrying to understand what's going on with this
jump now. Some people say it'snot enough flags some people. Some people
say it's too flat or whatever itis, and it might just be this
that he's not ready to shoot whenhe catches the ball, and that's why
it's it's inconsistent. Then the shaftdoesn't work the same every single time.
It depends on how close it heis to that fluting for me, how

(37:06):
already he is um And he saidthis, and then second half came around
and he absolutely kicked out. SoI don't know. I think with Jabari
right in the first half, Ilet a tweet out out of frustration,
saying, listen, if this,if this first half is any indication of
how him and Tari stack up,then Tari should probably start. And if

(37:29):
there is a Menatocracy, Tari willprobably start and then second half came around.
Then Taris remained awesome. Make nomistake about it. The Kavari,
you know, really took I thinkgetting to the line of seventeen times is
crazy. I think the refs werea little bit quick on the trigger with
the whistle. I'm not sure hedrew out of those fouls, um and
and some of them were just youknow, late in the game he was

(37:51):
getting fouled and he made those freethrows everything, like when the pressure was
on. He missed some early on, but when the price was on,
he made all of them. Somaybe maybe that helps him. I don't
know, um, but he lookedreally awesome and that game winner. To
me, well before the game winner, I was toiling to talk about his

(38:13):
defense and how he may or maynot protect to being a small wall five
before the game winner. The playthat forces the game winner, the law
that's broken up, the ball goesover him, and it's kind of a
situation like you know how you notthe that play that was that was really
probably of Jannis stopping. I thinkit's a Chris bar or Devin Booker law

(38:35):
to deanrey Aden where he stops theball handler, he throws the lab and
he's quick enough and uses his lengthsand blocks the films at the room.
Anyways, so this play happens right, and I'm thinking, Or just did
the exact same thing. He metthe guy, or he pressured the ball
handler and he threw the lab andhe turned around. He he blocked it
at the room. And to me, that's encouraging because that's a play that

(38:59):
not what a centers make. Andif he can combine plays like that with
his abilities to sweet out to theperimeter, I think it's it's just really
encouraging in general, especially because ifyou if a man Thompson is a big
part of your future, I thinkhe can play with a non spacing big
and I think he'll do fine withthing he defined with they have in this
in this game, he's part enoughof a passer that I think he can

(39:21):
you know, threatened the lift needB. But I think eventually if you
want to maximize him, you needYou're going to eventually need a small A
for spacing big and if and ifthat for spacing five happens to be Lapari
Smith, then all the better becauseyou don't have to trade for one,
and you can run. You canrun a lot of sweet schemes if Labari

(39:44):
can be good enough of a mdefender. So and then besides Japari,
he had obviously the game winner,which is crazy. I think, how
are you gonna go two of sevenfrom three and then to jump to thirty
percent three of eight? You that'sthe shot you make. I thought it
was really interesting that something else happenedbefore that play was Ben Sullivan, the

(40:07):
Rocket's head coach in Summer League,was best at the referee. So when
they told him that he wasn't goingto get to bring to you know,
advanced the ball after the time out, and he drew up that play.
That was what I think that's whathe drew up, right. I think
at the charity at the end ofthe game said he's going to be He
told him he's going to be hisquarterbacks to skills, And I was like,

(40:29):
where was this planned? Like didthey intentionally throw a massive love this?
Because Javar is the tallest cout onthe floor, he happens to be
our best chulter and so he's that'sgoing to be our best shot at doing
it. And I don't know ifit was intentional. What it was hilarious
that it happened that way, andI'm happy for they because he needs moments
like this, and he had agame winner to quote at the end of
the season last year. But heneeds moments like this because if it is

(40:51):
a confidence issue, then this thisdoes, you know, wonders for him.
And before that, I think talkinga little bit about kem way more
nothing oldvision issues are real, right, there are a little bit of handle
issues and a little bit of youknow, maybe a little bit too much
overconfidence with some of the shots thathe took. But this is summer league,
right if he I'm finally didn't thinkingthose shots as long as when when

(41:13):
he actually plays for the team andI was trying to win games, he
knows as role um. But Ithink Sanford KP on Twitter had had a
good point. He really reminds youof Dylan Brown parly in his career.
I don't know if you see that, but I definitely see it. And
if it's the same thing that he'llneed a few years to develop into into
what eventually is a scoring option.Um. He tries to go through,

(41:37):
perhaps contrary to a man. Hetries to go through people too much,
right, he's yea, yeah,he's too happy going through people. Heed
he needs to, you know,look around. He really there's there's a
lot of people on you when you'restruggling in someone's open. But it wasn't

(41:58):
encouraging. I don't think he'll getminutes to hear it will be you know,
it'll give us an incentive to watchthat the league at least. And
and okay, there's two more guys. And I wasn't going to talk about
Jay Huff, but I gotta Iwas impressed by him. He is a
seven food shock blocker. He wasn'tafraid of getting tag on. He got
four blocks, he fumbled the nameand a man bumps and pass on the

(42:20):
pick and roll, which you know, it's not great, but it's fine.
I think with the Rockets having threetwo way spots this year, I
think one of them should definitely behim because Bave Gosh Lingun and Jock Lindell
and I think they're considering Jeff Greentheir their third big or their third center,
which would be a small ball option. I think it would make sense
to get a guy like him ona two way left they can um.

(42:42):
And then lastly, I think we'vegot to talk about our reason. I
think he was the most consistent playeron the flour from the beginning to the
end of the game. He's stillan absolute menace on the boards. He's
still an absolute menace defending guys.He has four blocks as a six eight
forward, which is pretty insane.There was a line from one of the
commentators, um that I'm trying tofind it, but I think I'll just

(43:06):
have to remember it, you know, by heart, which is I found
it. He just he said,Tar Eason just finds a way, And
I think that's that's the that perfectlyencapsulates everything that that Tar Eason is.
He finds a way. The ballfinds its way to him. On the
offensive boards, he just finds theball. When he's guarding people, he
finds the ball blocking shots something thatI was impressed by him. He had

(43:29):
five assists to almly two turnovers,and he wasn't really on ball creating.
This was just him making the correctcreat quickly enough and generating generating an open
shot from it, which is thenext step. Right. We talked about
earlier when we were talking about theDenver Nuggets and their role players. You
know, you can be a threeDY wing, you can be just a
shooter, you can just be adefender. You can be a three dw
wing and eventually, if if youprogress enough, you become a three D

(43:51):
plus, which is a three Dwin. You can defend, you can
shoot, but you're also good atmaking the correct decisions when the ball finds
it sway to you, whether thatis attack, shoot or basketball to the
open man in a quick manner.Right, And I was really impressed by
him. He had twenty ten andfive with four bats, an incredible game
by him, and email book isjust gonna love this guy. And I
would be really surprised if he doesn'tget at the very least twenty five minutes

(44:15):
a game. Yeah, I thinkhe will too. And ultimately some of
the stuff when it comes down towho starts and who doesn't, that's what
training camp is for. Look,we all know there's certain players that need
the ball more to be successful.Certainly all for Insanon is one of those
guys. And when you look atJabari Smith and r Eason, Look,
I think at least for now,shot creation is more of the profile for

(44:37):
Jabari Smith Junior. When he's athis best, you need to let him
at least shoot the ball more.I think for him shooting in shot creation
could be a bit of one andthe same, and it just depends.
We'll see who the other starters are. I suspect Dylan Brooks, who you
just paid him eighty million dollars mostlyguaranteed. So my guess is that he

(44:58):
is in the starting lineup and he'ssomeone that doesn't need a ton of shots.
Now, he may want some shots, but I think ideally Emay would
be able to hold those down.So perhaps that gives you a little more
runway to start someone like a JebriSpit junior next to him. Of course,
if he's starting on the front linenext to all pre engine and Goon,
then that's another factor to consider.The look. The bottom line is

(45:19):
they have different skill sets and asfar as who starts, that's what training
camp it's for, and ultimately itcan also vary. Not saying you can
just switch up your starting line upevery game, but if you think you
need a certain combination on a certainnight, then you can pull somebody at
the eight nine minute mark of thefirst second quarter and try to stagger the
minutes appropriately and just sort of mixand match who makes the most sense.

(45:39):
The bottom line is the Rockets havethe most options, and that's why you
bring in a qualified head coach,which email Udoka is to try and sort
that out. So I don't seeit as a problem at all in terms
of, oh, these guys areboth playing well, who starts who doesn't.
No, I mean you take itas a bonus, and ultimately I
think there's a path for them bothto play twenty five minutes per game,

(46:00):
and as far as what groupings thosetwenty five minutes are with, we can
short that out later and see whathappens in training camp. I think that's
pretty much everything I had from SummerLeague. Is there anything else that you
wanted to add in before we moveon to some of our other topics.
Yeah. I also say I hopethat they keep Kavari and Sorry. Oh,
I hope they keep Clavari and Sorryplaying Rex a couple of games the

(46:22):
right kind of year. It's gonnabeat the camp with more show for three
games in a row, and that'sgonna be tough to watch. But I
also wanted to mention that the quote, I think it was Kelly Eko who
who asked the question and he probablysaid like it was about why he was
playing in the t league. Sohe said, I'm twenty years on why

(46:42):
he's playing in the summer league,right, And he said, I'm twenty
years old. Why wouldn't I play? We were twenty two and sixty last
year. My rookie year wasn't perfect, So why not get out get out
here and get reps play with mynew team? Makes uncoaches, And I
think this is an amazing mindset tohave. Like the guess Worth the third
worst team in the league, tiedfor second worst team in the league.

(47:04):
This is the mindset that guys haveto have. They have earned nothing,
they're not above anything. And andI'm not blaming Daylan for not playing.
He's a year three guy. That'sthat's even you know, going to easy
three, that's even more remote ofthe possibility. But I really like the
like the mindset that Tibari had thatyou know, he's coming in, he's
going to play, he knows heneeds to get better. And credit to

(47:27):
him for approaching it so so professionally, being so so honest with himself.
Yeah. Absolutely, all right,Now, as we wind down a couple
other topics, we're going to getto the NBA within the past hour of
our recording has released the groupings forits in season tournament. That's basically what
the NBA is trying to turn into. I suppose the US version, the

(47:49):
NBA version of the FA Cup,the League cups, some of your in
season tournaments that you see a lotmore in European football, where in this
case it will actually still be thanthe championship game a part of the regular
season. You'll just be leveraging certainresults to eventually get to a knockout stage,
including the Final Four that will bein Las Vegas in early December.

(48:12):
And the idea I've had so manypeople ask why, Look, the NBA
has a lot of inventory to sell, and we've seen from time to time
that there can be a certain pointin the regular season early on. There's
a lot of people who brag aboutfor example, but they don't start following
the NBA until Christmas. Well,that's not great for the league in terms
of maximizing its earning power with thatinventory that they already have. So this

(48:37):
is a way to get people moreinvolved and give more teams the opportunity to
have success. And maybe this isthe type of thing that a young team
like the Rockets will value more asopposed to some teams may say, oh,
this is just one of eighty two. Maybe the Rockets do go extra
hard for these games because it's somethingthat as a relatively young group, they
feel like, hey, we're probablynot going to be able to contend for

(48:59):
a championship season, but maybe wecan make a push with this. Now
the downside, they do have apretty tough group. The way it works,
each conference has a group. Eachconference has three groups of five,
basically like divisions, but it's notdivisions in this case, it's new groupings.
The Rockets have the Nuggets, theClippers, the Pelicans, and the
Mavericks. On paper, all ofthose teams profile to be better than the

(49:21):
Rockets based on the rosters at thiscurrent moment. So Houston's decided to lead
underdog. But who knows if theRockets really prioritize these games. And it's
a small sample, some things gotheir way. Crazier things have happened,
And the way it's going to work, it's that from the thirty teams,
you're gonna have eight advanced to theknockout stage. The winners of each of
the three groups and one wild card, basically the best record amongst the second

(49:45):
place teams in each of those groupswithin the conference, and so the Rockets
are underdogs going in, but look, I'm looking forward to it. To
me, it's something that again theNBA does need some extra juice from time
to time to get through eighty twogames. There's increasing competition, not just
from other sports but entertainment at large. And if it doesn't work, there's

(50:07):
no harm in trying and failing.You can always go back to just the
standard eighty two games. But thisis trying to add a little bit of
juice, a little bit more incentivefor younger teams, give more fan bases,
hope, give more people a reasonto care. I see only positives.
I don't have a ton of optimismabout the games within that group.
As far as the Rockets versus theNuggets defending champions, of course, the

(50:27):
Clippers, the Pelicans, the Mavericks. On paper, those are all very
good teams who are ahead of theRockets, but again there's a reason they
play the games. It's a smallsample. I don't see any negatives.
I only see potential positives. Soin general, I'm a fan of the
concept and we'll see what happens asfar as the rockets when these games actually
start in October and November. Yeah, so you said, the first place
of meat group goes on and thebest second place is also going through,

(50:52):
the best second place from the restof the conference. Yeah. Yeah,
So basically four teams will advantage tothe knock cat stage, the three group
winners, and then the best ofwhatever is left basically everybody else. At
that point we get thrown into howmany teams would be left? Twelve?
So yeah, you got to bethe best of the twelve non group winners.

(51:14):
And this happens every time. I'mso, y'all know, I'm from
Portugal. So we have the WorldCup and we have the Euros and portgal
always gets the group of death.We had Germany and friends, like two
years two two editions in euro wegot the group of death again. I
mean in a competition where the firstonly the first place to guarantee you to

(51:34):
go through. We got the bestteam in the league within the Denver Nuggets.
And even if we're even, andthen if even if you look at
the rest of the group fighting forthe best second or easily has the best
step. I mean Dallas, theClippers, especially if they get hardened back,
not if they get hardened at all. And the Pelicans are all teams
are going to be fighting at thefay least for the play and probably for
the playoffs. And in any otherteam, I mean when in Group C

(51:59):
has Okay, see the Spurs andthe Wolves were all you know, I'm
gonna say they're all garbage. Andif they got the Group A as the
Placers are going to be thanking.If they're treating Damian Lillard and the Jazz
where you know, they don't thinklast year, but they'll probably will this
year, so they're not great.I don't get it, but we always
get the worst group. Thenning said, talking about the tournament in general.

(52:21):
Right, I love the concept.I think people when it actually starts happening,
people will like like it more andmore so as someone who's watched you
know, Europeans European football for andit pains me to European football, but
I get um the fun part ofit. It's like if your team's out
of the white the way it's funin our competitions, if your team's out

(52:44):
of the league, which is youknow, the NBA regular season, right
if they're not, If you're not, if you're not in the race for
first place, then it starts.You know, some teams are fighting for
European position or whatever, but that'snot really the good I guess for the
NBA, that's the playoffs, um. But it reaches a point where it
gets dull, it gets dope becauseyour team's not fighting for anything, and

(53:05):
so you're walking, but it's justwalking for watching. There's no overall goal
anymore. And that's the fact inthose clubs that are out in the are
out of contention in the league,but are still in the Cup, those
are games that that fans really lookforward to because they're fighting for something.
I think this can be exactly thesame thing, and I think then they
did a really good job in makingit so it starts wise and legacy wise

(53:30):
and those types of things. Itaffects as little of the of the of
the league as possible because they're stilljust regular season games. There's no extra
games, so there's no extra wordquote that NBA seasons are still going to
be eighty two games. So legacywise, and when you're comparing errors,
it's still easier to compare, it'sstill as just as easy to compare because
it's the same amount of games.If you pumped it up to ninety two

(53:52):
games, and there there would beyou know, some some all time historic
um consequences to that. There's onlyone game, which is the actual championship
game, I think, right yeah, and that's the only one that doesn't
count towards the eighty two game recordexactly, and so the the the one
game that they have extra that wouldbe the a thirty instant count stats wise

(54:14):
for for whatever you lead, forwherever your season average is. So it's
basically like a it's kind of likea friendly, I would say, but
with its comminates in a friendly forfor some money for the players. I
think it's it's really interesting. Andthe Rockets, you know it, there's
a possibility that the Rockets are notfighting for the play it um hopefully they
are, but that's that's a that'sat said back, and I think the

(54:37):
this makes mortbid count. And I'lljust say, shame on you if you
don't watch the NBA until Christmas,because if you're if you only start at
Christmas and knowing that by you know, the last ten games of the season
are basically all garbage because nobody.Nobody's like, all right, three teams
are thanking, and it's it's it'sit's kind of all get the way to

(54:58):
get in the losses you get.I mean, the my favorite part of
the end gay is the beginning ofthe season, seeing you know, what
teams shape into what like, what'sthe new what's the new baking order in
the NBA. I think that's reallyfun. But whatever, it was the
suspend, Yeah, and that's certainlynot listeners to this podcast by any means,
but I think it's actually in America, where American football is king,

(55:19):
then yeah, it takes people untila bit deeper, at least in a
national scale, to truly start talkingabout the NBA. And it's just again,
it's a creative way for the NBA. I just don't see any downside
If it doesn't work out, whoreally cares. It's still counting towards the
eighty two games and you can alwayspivot back. But maybe this takes off.
Maybe it gives hope to fans inmore markets. Maybe it gives talk

(55:40):
radio shows around the country more totalk about in October and November and December.
Maybe the extra tickets you sell fromthat Final four in Las Vegas when
you get to the knockout stage canreally do something in terms of your revenue,
and it can grow your brand inLas Vegas before the NBA actually has
a full enfranchise there. There's apositives from this. I don't see negatives.

(56:01):
Is their guarantee it's going to workout, No, But I just
don't see any reason for fans tobe bothered by it. It's something that
the NBA they want to try becauseclearly you want to have as much revenue
as you can. That's how youcan keep this thing growing and make the
game as attractive as it can possiblybe. You need more money. This
is a way to make that happenand hopefully it works out. The last

(56:23):
thing I want to touch on beforewe close out, so Jonathan Fagin just
put out an article in the Chroniclethat's going to be in Sunday's paper.
It's an interview with rafel Stone,who can now talk about the deals that
he made in the first weekend offree agency because they're now official. I'm
going to skip what he said aboutJack Landale and Jeff Green veterans who they

(56:46):
like when the case of Green,the veteran Landale. I know he's just
in his thirty year, but he'stwenty seven. They've tracked his career internationally.
They like his presence, they likehow he plays, YadA YadA,
And of course as far as theguys like Hoospun Guruba and Thai Ti Washington,
he's not going to come out andsay what we now pretty much know
to be the case that Brook Lopezmore or less told the Rockets he was
coming and backed out and that's whythey did some of those cap clearing moves.

(57:08):
No, he's gonna say, andhe framed it as look, they
didn't have playing time for guys liketo Loosmond and Tie Tie anyway, so
now it's a win win. Theycan get opportunities to play somewhere else and
perhaps take their career to a levelthat it wouldn't have reached in Houston.
I don't think that's entirely accurate,but what else can he really say to
me? The more interesting quotes fromRafel were on Fred van Bleed and Dylan

(57:30):
Brooks, and I'm going to readyou scrolling up to try and get to
it now. Talking about Fred,I think he's a little unique and that
obviously he's a very good offensive playerto help get the team organized, make
sure everybody's where they're supposed to be, but he's also someone that has really
flourished off the ball. They're reallytalented three point shooter and someone who has

(57:51):
been truly excellent defensively. With Fred, we feel like we're lucky. We
get somebody that really has a bunchof strengths and no weaknesses. To me.
This goes back into talk about thisin May and June, and ultimately
they came to the conclusion that asfar as blending with Aman Thompson, it's
easier to do with Fred Man's leetthan with James Harden, because with Harden
there's the questions of how he succeedsoff the ball, as opposed to if

(58:13):
Amen is ready, and we've spenta lot of this podcast talking about how
great he looked. If he's readysooner rather than later, then you can
still have a lot of value fromFred playing off the ball in a way
that maybe you couldn't with James.And so I think it explains that thought
process, even if, of coursehe's not going to use James his actual
name, since he's still under contractwith another team. Then, talking about
Dylan Brooks, from our perspective,his body of work is something we've paid

(58:36):
attention to and thought highly of.He has consistently guarded the opposing team's best
player and has done a good jobas possible second team All Defense last year.
That's me talking that Rofell to getback to her Fells quote, that's
obviously a very valuable trait, andthe teams team were on were very good
defensively, and he was a hugepart of it. I think there were
a lot of people in the firsttwenty four to thirty six hours of free
agency that pointed to Dylan getting fouryears and eighty million, and then Brown

(59:00):
getting what amounted to a one year, twenty three million dollar bloat, and
then the team option after that.Look, a lot of it just came
down to the fact that from theRockets perspective, besides Brooks meting a little
bit bigger, I think what theylike with him, and I think this
appealed not just to Rafel but toema Udoka as well, is that he
has been the guy for a numberof years tasked with guarding the opposing team's

(59:24):
best player and there's warts that comefrom that. Obviously, he's had some
low lights from time to time,including the back and forth he ad with
Lebron during that playoff series between theGrizzlies and the Lakers. Everybody knows that.
The flip side, though, isthat you've actually seen him provide value
in those settings as opposed to someonelike Bruce Brown. Look, I know
he played the integrol role for theNuggets, and he was a good role

(59:45):
player for the Nets the couple ofyears before that. He was also largely
coming off the bench, going upagainst second teamers, where you can pick
and choose the matchups a little bitmore, and so it's very easy to
try and extrapolate guys from smaller rolesand say, well, if we just
put them this bigger role than they'regoing to be able to handle it.
Everything's going to translate just as youwould hope, and maybe it does,

(01:00:06):
but there is some risk as opposedto with Dylan. I think Raphel hit
the nail on the head as faras they're thinking that he has consistently guarded
the opposing team's best player and that'ssomething that's happened for years, and that
is something that is legitimately a plusin the Dylan Brooks column, am I
saying that it outweighs everything else where. It's clearly a slam dunk to give

(01:00:29):
him a twenty million dollars a yeardeal the way the Rockets did for four
years, even though he is justtwenty seven, so conceivably he could age
well. No, I'm not sayingit's a lot. You can make legitimate
arguments against it from a value perspective. I'm just saying there's at least a
defensible argument you can make about Brooksin terms of the value of him having
proven what he does as a guyfor years in Memphis, guarding the opposing

(01:00:52):
team's best perimeter player on again,a legitimate contender in the West the last
couple of years. There is valueyou in that certainty. It is a
higher floor, which is something weknow the Rockets prioritize it going into this
offseason. And then similarly with FredAgain, I'm not going to say that
it was a slam dunk decision.No, I've made the case for James
Harden plenty of times on this podcast. I'm not saying I know it was

(01:01:15):
right. I don't, but Iwill say that I respect the logic that
went into it, and I canunderstand that because he's sort of again it
sort of ties back into what wewere saying earlier about Ari and to an
extent, amin the Rockets have broughtin guys. I think it's very useful
when you look at some of theyoung players they already had in place that
can provide value in a lot ofdifferent ways, and I think with Fred,

(01:01:37):
unlike James, there isn't just oneway that you have to play.
There's multilu ways that you can potentiallystill get a lot of value in him,
and he can fit in a lotof different constructs. And so ultimately
that's what the Rockets decided, andwe largely came to those conclusions when we
discussed it amongst ourselves, but it'snice to have or Fell actually say it
on the record as well, andso my thought on it. I'm not

(01:01:58):
going to guarantee our listeners that goingto work out, obviously, I don't
know that, but what I cansay is that the processes sound. It
makes sense, and I think emailUdoka had a big role as well.
And you spend that kind of moneyto bring in that type of coach,
you have to let him implement hisvision, and he has a certain saying
personalities for guys he wanted and nowit's what you said earlier. You let

(01:02:19):
it play out, and you knowthere's accountability if it doesn't work out.
But right now they got for themost part of who they wanted. I
don't see why you wouldn't give thembenefit of the doubt. And when I
hear those quotes, to me,the logic is sound. Is there anything
I'm missing? Yeah, I can'tunderstand. I've never had the protet from
that perspective, especially in the DylanBrooks stuff. It does make sense,

(01:02:39):
right Dylan Brooks, if you're focusingon what a guy does at an elite
level, that's one hundred percent certainto translate into his next team. Dylan
Brooks defense, compared to any otherguys anything in free agency, is by
far the most certain things. Soif you're targeting someone that you know is
going to give you some I thinkDylan Brooks's defense is something that will translate.

(01:03:05):
And I can understand if you're goingif you're going after it that like
Bruce Brown, you're kind of hopingthat a lot of the stuff that I
need are small volume can be doneat a higher volume on this team.
And I kind of understand that you'regoing to dramatically change whatever the whatever the
situation is for Bruce Brown and hisprevious teamsus this team because of the offensive
town that he always had around him. So I'm trying to understand it,

(01:03:27):
right, and I do. Ican understand the logic they went for.
I'm still not sure if I agreehe's a better player, just because I
wonder how I under what conversations wenton behind the scenes as far as shot
selection, and I wonder we knowthat are incentives. I think a very
telling part of how this is goingto go is what are those incentives based

(01:03:52):
on? Did they get him toagree to incentives based on percentage like shooting
percentages like three point percentage? Becausebecause if they did, even if you
know, it might not mean youknow everything, but it means at the
very least that he's aware that that'ssomething that they want him to correct and
that he's open to correcting because hewas open to making that a bonus,

(01:04:16):
right, it could be he couldhave pushed for, you know, team
based bonuses like wins or something likethat. Yeah, So I'm interesting interested
to see how that's going to gobecause most of my problem with Dylan brooks's
shot selection. Right. I thinkhe's actually a fine shooter. He's a
thirty four I think I think heshot thirty two percent last year, but
he's a thirty four percent shooter.He had a couple of seasons that they're

(01:04:38):
edible for thirty seven percent, Soto me, it's mostly shot selection,
right, And then if you tookaway the shot selection issues, I think
he's easily a better players Brown thanany other of the candidates available. The
question will always be, you know, value factor in With Raphael said,
I think it makes sense that there'ssomething guaranteed to pan out with different Brooks
that he's going to give you nomatter what. I don't know how they

(01:05:00):
factor in the potential downsides as faras thought, so I can, we
are not a concern with with BruceBrown, right, So I think Brooks
is a more It's interesting because he'sboth a more volatile signing because of how
it can go as far as shotso I can goes. But at the
same time, he's also a safersigning because there is at least one skill

(01:05:20):
set here guarantee that's going to translateto your team. So I've never put
that much heart into it as far. I was just jogging them as players,
right, and then how they wouldfit our team, and never it's
it's interesting when when when GM's buildback the curtain a little bit and kind

(01:05:41):
of show a little bit of theprocess that goes into picking which guide that
going after Yeah, and again,I think you laid out a compelling counter
argument, at least to an extent. It's not so much that you're saying
that he's right or wrong. I'mjust trying to present his argument and in
this case, I think it sound. I think it's fair. Just because
I think it's fair doesn't mean Ithink it's right or that you can't make

(01:06:02):
a counter argument. No, youabsolutely can. It's just saying, look,
this is what the thought process was. It makes some sense, but
as with most things, it feltlike there's just one clearly right way and
the other is wrong. No,there's usually multiple compelling arguments when you're talking
about how to do something as nuancedis building a championship basketball team. There's
lots of different paths that you cantake. And now they peel back the

(01:06:25):
curtain a little bit I can understandthe thought process that went into it.
Doesn't guarantee that these are the rightdecisions. I do think it's at least
nice to have some transparency and totry to get fans on board with the
process so that they can understand exactlywhat went into it. That it wasn't
just something that they did Willy Nilloy, they were desperate for certain guys.
No, there was a thought processthat, even if we have some misgivings

(01:06:46):
it went into it. There's somevery legitimate analysis that went on behind the
scenes, and ultimately they came tothe conclusion that these are the guys they
wanted. And now, as yousaid earlier, we just have to wait
and see as to whether it worksout. One final thing before we close
out the podcast, and I wantto touch on so I'm sure some people
listening to us just glow about JabariSmith Jr. And I'm and Thompson and

(01:07:10):
Tari Easton and how great they looked. We'll probably listen and say, well,
why did the Rockets need a heroicbuzzer beater with point six seconds left
to win that game? And someof it again in fairness supportland the Blazers
had a pretty sack summer team aswell with Scoot Henderson Shaden Shark. But
I think another component to it.This Rockets summer League team is very top

(01:07:30):
heavy, and there's a reason forthat once you get past those initial big
names, And we should point outby the way, Darius Days, who's
probably the most intriguing prospect the Rocketshave as far as guys that were with
the Vipers. He was on atwo way last year, he's still on
a two way. I personally findthem a lot more interesting than Trevor Hudgens.
He was out sick for Friday's game. Hopefully he's able to return for

(01:07:51):
Sunday. If not for Sunday,I suspect definitely by the middle part of
the week for those last three games. Other than the recent shrun picks Darius
Days, and I suppose we canthrow Trevor Hudgens into the mix as well
because he is on a two waywith the team at this time. There's
a lot of big question marks andguys that, for the most part,
our listeners have never heard of,and there's a reason for that because the

(01:08:14):
last couple of years the Rockets havebeen so deep in terms of young prospects,
they haven't had the roster spots,and on the few occasions that they
did, they weren't exactly a preferreddestination for undrafted free agents because there's so
many young guys already in place thatthey would be competing with for minutes.
One potential benefit to offloading these guyslike Usman Garuba, Josh Christopher Tie Tie

(01:08:39):
Washington, all these consolidation moves thatwe've talked about, now, all of
a sudden, there is a pathto where the Rockets conceivably could get in
the game for younger players again,as far as filling out the final spots
of their roster, perhaps with theVipers. And in that Fagan article in
the Houston Chronicle that referenced earlier,there's a note that Houston plans to add

(01:08:59):
one or two prospects, possibly notuntil after training camp, if there's a
couple of windows for that number one. The Rockets are second on the waiver
wire, behind only Detroit. Theyhad the second worst record in the league
last year, so they can claimguys that are part of roster cuts,
and they could also along the samelines, trade for them during the preseason
as teams around the league get readyfor having to call their rosters from the
twenty they can have in or intraining camp during the offseason to the fifteen

(01:09:23):
plus three two way slots that youcan have for the regular season. So
there are going to be guys openup, and so I think that's something
that Number one, you should keepin mind over the next week, especially
without Almond Thompson, if things startto look ugly. Was a reason for
that. Again, the Rockets haveless organizational depth in terms of young players,
the types of guys that often fillout these summer league rosters. The
Rockets don't have nearly as many ofthem as many other teams, simply because

(01:09:46):
of the way they've been constructed.They a lot of the young guys that
might have played otherwise, well nowthey just got traded in the past week,
so they're not options anymore for thesummer league. Guys that otherwise would
have been playing, most likely certainlytay Tie Washington and maybe Usvan Garuba and
Josh Christopher entering their third seasons andbeing relatively unproven as well, well now
they're no longer here. So Numberone, I will say, that's why

(01:10:10):
I think it would not surprise meif things don't go well from a team
perspective. That's why the game againstthe Blazer's a big part of it in
my opinion, that it was soclose despite having the individual brilliance. Again,
this Rocket's roster is very top heavy. If you have some big names
that played really, really well,but then you are going to have those
well. I think at some pointit's likely that Jobry Smith and Tarry Eeson

(01:10:30):
are going to shut down as well. And now you take Wayam and Thompson,
all of a sudden, that rosteris going to get hairy. And
even just in the game that theyplayed last night, the minutes in particularly
the amen weren't out there. Theyjust seemed a lot more disorganized without that
engine to run the show. Andso that's why a little skeptical about how
this is going to play out.So I would say keep that in mind
in the short term when you're evaluatingthe next couple of weeks. There's a

(01:10:53):
reason why the Rockets, even withthose glowing performances in Game one, had
the game that close. It's avery top heavy roster. It gets questionable.
But the upside is that because ofthat, there is going to be
an opening for the Rockets to addto that prospect stockpile over the next few
months. It may take. Youknow, the line from Fagan about after

(01:11:14):
training camp makes the most sense becausea lot of teams aren't going to make
moves on their young guys until theyhave to. They're going to want to
see how they perform in camp andtry and keep the guys that are the
most promising. But yeah, thereare going to be some opportunities, and
Houston is going to be much moredesirable because you don't have guys like us
Vangaru By, Josh Postkipper and TieTie Washington already in place. So I
think that's one silver line to keepin mind in terms of roster building is

(01:11:35):
that you may have a window ina few weeks or months to get a
couple of young guys to sort ofreplenish that stockpile. Guys that are I
guess a combination of end of yourbench slash assuming health Rio Grand Valley Vipers
during the coming season. So justkeep that perspective in mind as we go
through the rest of the offseason andleading into training camp. The Rockets to

(01:11:56):
have an opening with these recent movesto add to the roster with young players,
and I fully expect Ruffelstow to takeadvantage of that at some point.
Anyway, with that, we willring this episode to it go ahead.
Maybe maybe they can you know,with the Thunder having twenty one guys on
the roster right now, maybe theycould get one of those, you know,
maybe maybe Tachi Washington or Roosman Rubathrough the waiver wire. That would

(01:12:18):
be hilarious at the end of trainingcamp. And just as as for those
who know the Rockets, can youknow there is a rule that you can't
get players back that you traded away, but if they switch teams one more
time after you trade the especially spiritthe spirit of the rules that they're trying
to stop people from salary dumping andthen having the other team waved the guy

(01:12:38):
and going back and getting him forthe minimum. Right, but if you
trade the guy like the Rockets tradedto Atlanta and then it went it trades
them to Okay, see now inthe runic camp, yeah, you're you're
not exploiting anything. And so ifthey get waive, the Rockets can claim
them and they could even trade forthem if they wanted to. So just
just a heads up. It couldend up being a really funny, funny

(01:13:00):
scenario way or one of those guysofficially slips through the cracks, because I
mean especially Tights. I watched umokay See has like four point cards of
Giddy Kay Kaylan Williams players on theroster, and yeah, it's ridiculous.
They just dropped the case in Walllesslike Ben, they're not in the market
for more guards. He's he's Ithink they even have did Isaiah Joe if

(01:13:20):
I'm not mistaken or something like that. So it's yeah, a lot.
It's really crossed. He's gonna getWave or traded their wave. I don't
think, Yeah, I don't thinkanything like one of the at least ty.
I think either trading them away orwave. They are going to spend
five roster spots or six roster spotson point cards. Yeah. The one
incredibly limited silver lining I will throwout there because Atlanta, for those who

(01:13:44):
did not see it, traded Gurubaand Tai Taie to Oklahoma City along with
the second round pick to dump them. That would seemingly confirm that, yes,
those two players did not have positivetrade value when Rotholstone traded them to
the Hawks a week earlier. Now, again, the Rockets are ultimately responsible,
and we said this in our lastepisode because they're the ones that drafted

(01:14:04):
Guruba and Tai Te in the firstround in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty
two. So even if they don'thave value, then okay, it says
the Rockets wift on those picks andmaybe prioritizing guys like Tatian Nixon Bruno Fernando
ahead of them for minutes played apart in their development being stalled, or
at least their perceived development. Allof that is fair, but at least
with this deal with Atlanta canvassing theleague over a week and at this point

(01:14:25):
they don't have the time pressure.You know, part of the reason the
Rockets had to pay a slight premiumis if you want to do these deals
on day one of free agency,there's opportunity costs for the guys that are
taking your salary dumps. So there'sa bit of a premium as opposed to
now the first wave of free agencyis over and so there's less of an
opportunity cost to the team taking thesalary dump, in this case Oklahoma City.
The fact that after a week ofcamvassing the league. They're not being
that time pressure and the Hawks stillhad to pay a premium to offload Guruba

(01:14:50):
and Tai Tai. It tells youthat at least now it's not like Rathael
Stone paid a price treating them asnegative assets when invalidated or positive ones.
No, for whatever the reason,those guys are not positive value assets on
their current contracts on the marketplace.It just is what it is. That's
not to say that every decision isright. No. Again, even if
they are negative assets, and evenif they end up being terrible NBA players

(01:15:12):
and nothing becomes with them, thenokay, the Rockets drafted them the first
run fixing, they could have donebetter. In the case of Guruba,
they could have drafted Quentin Grimes.Same applies to Josh Christopher. Those were
backed back at twenty three and twentyfour, and the Quentin Grimes, who's
turned into a valuable three and Dtype piece for the Knicks, he was
at twenty five and he's out ofyour own backyard, the University of Houston.
That's absolutely fair to say. I'mjust saying strictly from the perspective of
July twenty twenty three. Those guysclearly did not have positive trade value at

(01:15:36):
this time, so at least forthat part of it, at least for
that part of it, there canbe a small silver lining that it's not
like Rafell badly misjudged their marketplace valueat this time. Atlanta making this deal
a week later would seem to makeit pretty clear that their value right now
just isn't good. That's the reality. Anyway, what's that. We will

(01:15:57):
put a bow on this episode forPawlow and then if you want more from
us before our next show, thebest way to get it is on Twitter.
I'm on there at Ben Dubos,Palos on there at Polo Alves NBA,
and the show. The logger lineis on there. At the logger
line. If you go there,you can find our link tree where it
has links to Hardback Brewing, SportsTalk, seven ninety Rockets Wire along with
Apple, Google, Spotify, allof our distributors. So again, you

(01:16:17):
want to find out where to listeningto this podcast, or you want to
support our sponsors and partners who canaccess all the links, content and information
simply by going to the link treethat's available through our Twitter page at the
Logger Line, which unlike last week, I can confidently say will be up
for the foreseeable future. Funny howTwitter seems to have sorted out its issues
now that there's a new competitor onthe block name threads. Anyway, with

(01:16:40):
that, I'll get off my soapboxagain for Paulo, I'm Ben. Thanks
to always for listening, and pleasecome back soon for another new episode of
the logger Line.

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