Summer League recap and Jalen Green’s big offseason

Sunday’s episode breaks down all the key Rockets takeaways from a 5-1 stint at the NBA’s 2023 summer league, including impressive showings by Jabari Smith Jr., Cam Whitmore, and Ben Sullivan. The episode closes out with a look at a pivotal offseason for third-year guard Jalen Green, who is joining the U.S. Select Team to participate in training camp for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Episode Transcript

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

(00:26):
lagger Line starts now. Welcome onboard. Welcome in to another new episode
of the logger Line, as alwaysserved to you courtesy off Clutch City,
logger of Carback Brewing. I'm yourhost, Ben Dubos, editor of USA

(00:48):
Today's Rockets Fire and a contributor toSports Luck seven ninety, the official flagship
radio station of your Houston Rockets,joined by my good friends co hosting producer
out of Portugal, Paolo Alves.We're recording this Saturday night to twenty second.
The Rockets are just a few daysremoved from Summer League Action, which
concluded earlier this week. They lostin the championship game to the Cleveland Cavaliers,

(01:08):
but by and large, it wasa wildly successful run for the Summer
Rockets. They went five and one. Cam Whitmore won Summer League MVP,
and even though they lost that finale, a game in which the Rockets very
shorthanded, noah'm In Thompson due tothe ankle sprain, no Jabari Smith Junior
or Tarry Easton. They were shutdown for rest after the first two games,
and yet the rest of the Rocketsstill got all the way to the

(01:30):
championship, won five of the sixgames they played in total. So a
lot to like from what we sawfrom the Rockets in Las Vegas over those
six games, and it will bethe last we saw of them the Rockets,
that is until training camp opens inearly October. So at least they
left us with something positive to Iguess look back on over the coming weeks,
the dead period on the NBA calendar. Of course, they'll have content

(01:53):
looking ahead to this season, butthis is our last chance to do some
basketball analysis, if you will,So Paulo, let's start here. What
were your biggest takeaways from Summer Leaguefor the Rockets and what you learn from
this past two weeks. Man,Yeah, to me, the biggest takeaway,
it's it's about the coaching staff,I think, because I refuse to

(02:14):
believe that this team was damn muchmore talented than the previous two years of
Summer League, and they just andI'm talking about besides the top prospects,
right because amn Thalmson only only playedthe first game, Kimario Ontario only played
the first two. Even past thosegames, when the only you know,
NBA talent that was out there wasKevin Whitmore, they looked like a very

(02:35):
competent team and they and they wereplaying you know, basketball right way.
They were whistling on defense, theywere running a transition, they were you
know, they were checking up threesto some extent, right But I think
that was part of the game plan. When you don't have the talent,
you take whatever chart you can get. And sometimes that's not a great job,
but it's better than a terrible shotthat you might get later in the
possession. But I really loved,you know, I think it's a comparable

(02:57):
amount of talent what we've had beforein Summer League, and it was a
completely different approach. And it kindof gives you a taste of what Ben
Sullivan, who was the Summer Leaguegoa too, and what he may dka
have planned for this team as faras accountability goes. And I know we'll
get into into Jabari Tari and campwith more and all other guys, but
Actually I want to talk about theother guys because I was impressed by a

(03:23):
lot of a lot of guys,and with the NBA now increasing the two
way limit to three and the Rocketshaving one roster spot left that they,
you know, could use to giveone of these guys that think especial,
you know, the non guaranteed dealfor four years at the minimum um.
There were rumors earlier on that variousdays. May can't think he's special,
and I would be, you know, finally that he's he's a he's a

(03:46):
terrific shooter. He can project tobe a three in new wing. He
played with Taris and at LSU,so I think he may get that.
But then, and I know alot of people were really impressed by Jermaine
Samuel's. Me not so much becauseI don't trust the shop. It looks
funky, it takes a lot toget off, and I don't think at
the NBA level it'll will be asgood he impressed in other presses of the

(04:08):
game. But still I love MatthewMeyer and he can bring I mean,
he's you know, the typical youknow, the Garrison Matthews side, but
he's actually six foot nine with aBLUs wingspan, and so he's probably not
going to be a great defender anyways, but he applicly has some tools and
he's a knockdown here and he getsit off like really easily, you know,

(04:29):
with that winks when only with thatsize. I would also point out
by the way that he was akey contributor on the Baylor team that won
the national championship in twenty twenty one. So even though that's college, I
do think there's something to be saidfor guys to have accepted, especially at
the role player level, doing thelittle things to win, even though it's
college. The fact that he hasthat winning experience at a high level and
has done it in that type ofenvironment, to me, that means something

(04:53):
in terms of his projectability. Yeah, he was really impressive, and so
if I'm the Rockets, I thinkhe should be, you know, the
main game today to get one oneof the three two way spots, I
think O Hurting is going to getone. Not really because he protects to
be anything at the NBA level,because he is an undersized Garthie's a really
productive at lower levels a competition.He was a Division two god, but

(05:13):
it's you know, it's not.With these two way spots, they're mostly
for the T league team. Mostof them are not going to play in
the NBA. By the way,keep in mind that because the Rockets offloaded
so many guys early in free agency, the controversial moves involving Moose, Fan
Garuba, Tie Tie Washington, JoshChristopher, Jasian Nix, and so on
and so forth, they actually aresubstantially below the roster limit of twenty in

(05:36):
the offseason, which has expanded whatyou can bring to training camp and the
preseason. So beyond the two ways, you can give some Exhibit ten,
training camp invites to a lot ofthese guys. Nate Hinton is someone that
could be in consideration as well.So just beyond the additional two way,
I think you could see some ofthese guys brought to camp simply because the
Rockets have room for it now.Yeah, precisely, And as I was

(05:59):
just finishing, I think Trevor Hurtinsis really productive, right, And sometimes
you use the two way spots towork with some of the better guys to
your hilly team, even if theydon't really protect PNPA guys down the line,
because if they make the game easierfor whatever role players you're trying you're
trying to you're cycling through the DLeague, and I think Trevor Hurtins is
very much TI one who does thatas a lead ball handler. Um,

(06:20):
it's worth it to give him thetwo way, just, you know,
because that's basically the best contract you'regoing to get as a as a Keiley
guy, just to you know,keep him here, keep him, you
know, making the fiber successful andand keeping and helping keep that team as
good at at developing town as it'sbeen for the Rockets. So I'm guessing
he gets one. If ifull workedme as I said, my Matthew my

(06:43):
route, get the other. Andthen I guess it's a toss up between
Jermaine Samuel's and and Nate Hinton,and I would actually go in Nate Hinton.
He was really impressive on defense runningthe break. His glim shots is
also a little funky, but it'snot nearly as funky as Ermine Samuels was
and here as a U of eightrother so you know, he was like
three years ago at this point.But still he protects to be if he

(07:06):
ever made it in the NBA,to be a three and D wing and
you know, if you're basically givinghim earlier on, I would have rather
given one of the one of thetwo AY spots to k Huff because we
can kind of need his arch typeand we don't really have it on the
roster, but knowing that he's nothere, giving one to travel teams to,

(07:27):
you know, help the Vipers staya good team. Giving one to
Matthew Mayer, who's more of aGarrison Mattive chart shooter archetype, and then
giving one to Nate Hinton or evenArthur Man Samuels who are more of three
in D types. To me,it really makes sense as the allocation of
those three sources, and I thinkthose guys who will kill it in the
T League as Vipers have done fora long time, and some of them

(07:49):
have at camps of being something becauseas you said, the Rockets moved a
lot of the lower tier prospects,and so once you get past the core
six plus Dylan Brooks was was forevent lead, it is possible that with
injuries these guys could get some pointin time. It's not like last season
where in order for Trevor Hudkins toget any running with the first team.

(08:11):
You had to go through Kpta Kalenum, and then you had you had to
go through Titile Washington and Dation Nicks, and only then would Trevor Hookiins get
played. This definitely your will bedifferent. So while these are not,
you know, the main things totalk about with Summer League, I think
they're worth referencing because these are notthat you might keep, you know,

(08:33):
keep you might keep hearing as wego through the season. Yeah. Absolutely,
that was actually my biggest takeaway too. I thought you would go in
a different direction, but the performancefrom the depth guys is what really really
stood out because the last four gamesyou didn't have any of the super big
names. You did still have CamWhitmore who won MVP, but you didn't
have Aman Thompson, you didn't haveJabari or Torii, and yet the way

(08:54):
they sustained their performance. You mentionedthey shot a lot of threes. They
did, but for the most partthey came with in the flow of the
offense. Look at the percentages onhigh volume. Trevor Hudgens attempted more than
nine per game, made over thirtyeight percent. Matthew Mayer, as you
mentioned, nearly six threes per gameat forty three and a half percent.
Nate Hinton and Jermaine Samuels at aboutthree attempts per game on average from three

(09:18):
both at thirty five percent or better. Darius Day is nearly six attempts per
game over thirty nine percent. Thoseare very efficient figures and these are the
types of things. They also dida good job by the way of not
fouling, and to your point onthe coaching staff, beyond just how organized
they looked offensively in contrast to pastyears and past generations of Rockets Summer League

(09:39):
teams, I think you can tella lot by how discipline they were defensively.
There was no panic. You lookat Cam Whitmore, who for all
the explosion he showed offensively one ofthe most amazing stats. In six Summer
League games, he averaged one pointthree fouls per game. That's stunning for
a nineteen year old who clearly wantedto play the passing lanes and did with

(10:00):
of success average two and a halfsteals per game. We saw him getting
a ton of runouts scores. Theyhad the record tying eight steals in one
of those games, I think theone against Golden State. But you look
up and down the roster, Natehnton two point eight fouls per games remain
Samuel's one point eight. These aremain stays. I guess the only guy
that consistently played the gout in alittle bit of foul trouble, not that
you can foul out in summer League, but just in terms of projectability would

(10:20):
be Darius Days at three point eight. So in terms of how organized they
were, it's not just that we'resaying this based on the fact that they
won these games. No, whenyou look into the numbers, clearly they
got a good amount of healthy threes. Based on the percentages, clearly they
did a good job of defending andmore organized. You can see it's not
just that the opponents miss shots.No, they did a good job of

(10:41):
doing what almost no one does insummer league, which is staying out of
foul trouble. Teams and players knowthat since you can't really foul out,
you can be super aggressive. Alot of these guys are trying too hard
to make an impressive, to makean impression so they can test everything,
and the Rockets under Ben Sullivan didnot do that at all, and I
think that's a big win. ForEma Ujoka. One of the questions,

(11:01):
of course, with his assistant coachingstaff, they're all so young. There's
no one proven like a James Barrego. They went young. It's what he
wanted to do. And even thoughEmay has such a strong track record from
Boston, he was just in thelead job for one season. It was
a great season, but one seasonnonetheless, so it is relatively inexperienced in
the context of an NBA coach,which is one year of previous head coaching

(11:24):
experience. Yet so far, sogood. They seem to have that group
bought in, and that might beeven more important than what you learn about
the top prospects, because you expectthem to be good, especially Jabari and
Tari, guys that are year two, to see the lesser tier shouldn't say
lesser, but let's call him thesecond tier. The non elite prospects to

(11:45):
be as cohesive and organized as theywere. Yeah, that speaks really well
to the coaching, to the organization, and I think you know to take
it in a different direction than youdid. I mentioned the controversial moves earlier
with Garuba and Tai Tai and Joshand Dasion Nix and all offloading the rockets
did while the process wasn't great,we can all agree on that. We've
talked about that in past shows.We don't need to relitigate that. What

(12:09):
I will say is that for Ratholsona'sGM, part of the process is projecting
the future results. And if youare able to replace some of those young
guys like Hi, Tag, Garuba, Josh, those guys would have been
somewhere in between. I'd say,like positions eleven through fifteen on your roster.
If you can fill those roles internally, you have roster spots now that

(12:33):
you didn't in previous offseasons because youknow your log jam, your glut of
prospects from previous first rounds and secondrounds, now those are gone. kJ
Martin to the Clippers as well,although you did get two second round picks
for him, so he brought inpositive value. Look, if you can
replace some of those guys internally withthese summer league types, that takes away

(12:54):
a little bit of the sting.Not gonna say it makes it to where
you should feel great about everything thathappened July first day two a free agency.
But I will say that for Rafel, part of the business. Part
of the process is projecting results.And if the guys they left don't turn
out to be that great and someof these guys from Summer League are able
to step in and fill those opportunities, then to me, it's one of

(13:18):
those things. It's not going tomake you feel like those deals on July
first were great, but it mightmake it feel a bit more tolerable in
the grand scheme. Is that fair? Yeah? I think so. I
think those most this thing because ofthe process, right, But if we're
being honest in the grand scheme ofthings, if if this team ends up
being you know what we hope thatthey can be, nobody's going to remember

(13:41):
that, and if they aren't,likely people are not going to remember that
and specific at a point two asthe reason why. So while it's while
it's not great, it's just youknow, yeah, in my opinion,
the people that were outraged to theextent of basically arguing that heads need to
roll, they fall into one oftwo camps. One of them are people
that had misgivings about the Rockets frontoffice or ownership already. In other words,

(14:05):
for various reasons, they already hadsome sort of ax to grind or
Felstone or tilmun Ftida. And I'mnot saying you can't make those arguments,
but at that point, the peoplethat are sort of using this as the
cherry on top of the Sunday,there's some agenda pushing to it. There's
some narrative pushing, and that's fine. You can certainly make those arguments until
the Rockets win games. It's fairto be skeptical. But at the same

(14:26):
time, if you're one of thosepeople, it's important to note that you're
not really that upset about this particularsequence of moves from July first. It's
about other things and that's fine,but let's not blow out of proportion.
When we actually analyze the sequence ofmoves in July first, at the end
of the day, it may notbe that meaningful, and we should also

(14:48):
note that, you know, that'spart of it. The other part of
the equation. I think there's alot of casual fans that just tune back
into the Rockets as far as freeagency because it was so pivotal, they
had so much cap space, YadAYadA, and people that don't really follow
the MBA that closely see guys likeGaruba and tie Tie that were recent first

(15:11):
round picks Josh Christopher as well,and there's some sticker shock to moving on
from them so quickly, especially ifyou're following leagues like certainly the NFL to
an extent, Major League Baseball aswell, where there's a much higher expected
output from first run picks, evenlate first run picks in the NBA.
It's important to remember that a lotof these guys do bust, and while

(15:33):
you know it's too soon to declear any of those guys lost causes,
at the same time, look,they haven't shown anything yet. It is
worth noting that it's not just theRockets that tried to move them. A
week later, the Hawks tried tooffload them and had to pay a premium
as well to the Thunder. Nowthey traded one second round pick instead of
two because there was a bit lessof a time crunch since the first wave
of free agency had passed. Butthe point is they were not viewed as
positive assets or even neutral assets.That Hawks had to incentivize the Thunder to

(15:56):
take them on, and the Thunderwere one of the few teams still with
cap space they were able to doso got some second round draft capital and
you know, we've talked about thatbefore. But the bottom line is that,
you know, the people that wereextremely upset it seemed to be either
a people who already had misgivings,which is fine, that's completely valid,
but then you're not just upset aboutthat, you're trying to tie it into

(16:17):
something bigger, or I think peoplethat just lost contexts with regards to how
relatively small this is in the grandscheme. The best way I would characterize
it. You know, you lookat some of the front offices that we
agree are really good around the NBAteams like Miami, Boston, Denver,
Memphis, you would not bat aneye if they end up moving on from

(16:37):
a pick they made in the midto high twenties, because it happens even
to good teams, and ultimately thosereally good teams, it's also not a
big loss because you're looking at sortof role players in that range anyway,
and in many cases you can developthose from undrafted guys, pickups from the
second round, Summer league types,and so on and so forth, and

(17:00):
so I think the end of theday, it's really not that surprising.
In Houston. Again, I thinkit's a combination of not having the context.
The Rockets haven't done a rebuild ina while, so some of the
contexts is getting lost, and peopleare comparing it to other sports where the
equation is a bit different in termsof what you expect from your first round
picks. And also I think there'ssome sort of tying in with previous misgivings,

(17:21):
which you absolutely can. But thenit's worth noting that you're not just
upset about the Usbung Garuba and ThaiTie Washington deals. It's part of something
much broader, which is fine,but at that point we're having a much
different and broader discussion. So interms of what that means as far as
summer league, look, if youcan replace these guys internally, it's something

(17:42):
that I think we can look backon in a few months, worst case,
a few years, and you know, there's still a lot to be
determined. I mean, if Grubaor Tie Tie go on to be really
good players and you had them rightunder your nose and you didn't determine that,
then yeah, it can absolutely bean even bigger black mark. But
if nothing really happens with those guysand you can fill the roles internally,

(18:06):
in terms of promising young role playersthat you can sort of have as cheap
internal replacements, guys that can godown to the Vipers and keep the system
running there and so on and soforth. And to me, there's a
case and after Summer League, I'mmore optimistic that maybe this is the way
it plays out that ultimately it's somethingthat a year from now we look back
out and we look back on asa minor annoyance and nothing that in the

(18:27):
grand scheme is all that meaningful.Yeah, I think to add on to
that about the case as well,But Titian Garuba situations is, Listen,
these guys were not going to getminutes here, so even if they pan
out on other teams, you cansay that they will pan out if they
stayed here. So it's really justit's a crap shoot. But I didn't

(18:47):
want to mention one other thing becauseyou know, it's Brian. It's like,
now we are in the depths ofthe off season. Nothing's going to
happen for three months, and sopeople are going to keep talking about this
among the other things because it's typicaloff seasons, right. Um. But
I actually really wanted to fight thenotion that Raphael Stone's draft record is a

(19:08):
product of making easy decisions and justtaking the guide at the box. Listen
people and people say he gets lucky, right, he got lucky to get
Kim with more at at twenty calledlucky that always in Felt seventeen, you
know, called lucky in the inthe lottery to get Kevin Green or j
R. Smith that they were theobvious picks whatever. The sixteen I mean

(19:33):
that one they give, they givecredit to him, like on that one
because it's a trade. And Ijust want to say that I disagree so
much because you know what they sayabout luck. But my first talking about
this is exactually that it's people alwayssay it to in preparation meets opportunity,
right, Ken Kim with more pickdoes not happen. If Rafael Stone doesn't
refuse to tread their recording for alate first and last year's draft and then

(19:56):
turns around and this year trades itfor the swap, he is not an
obvious trade to make. Most ofour officers don't do this with lect rooms.
It's either two second round picks thatare protected at first that jumped the
rockets from the bucks pick at thirtyor twenty nine two twenty, and we
know the Pacers are trying to moveup and couldn't. We know they're all

(20:17):
more yet recently revealed that he wastrying to trade up and couldn't. So
just because you have the assets doesn'tmean that there's a team that will take
them for whatever you want to get, right, So they are recording trade.
We've talked about it in the past, skip the step. So he
kind of made his own work ina sense that he was there at twenty
because he made a trade to bethere at twenty before anybody else could see

(20:40):
that being at twenty could be bettervalid than getting another first. Because I
can tell you right now it's notsources, but I can tell you right
now, if you had picked twentynine or whatever it was, and pick
twenty three and you offered both totrade up to twenty, I bet you
the Pacers are tring to do theexact same thing, and so what the
sixers and they couldn't do it.So it's that And it's also I really

(21:03):
despise the argument of he just followedconsensus and too who has fallen, because
if the guy is falling, there'sa reason for it. Kem with Moore
fell to twenty because I'm not goingto say nineteen because it was kind of
reasonable for him to fall until ten, even though people considered a top five
prospect. But from ten to nine, the team speaking from ten to nineteenth,

(21:25):
that's nineteens, the consensus was notto pick him. Yeah, the
consensus not to pick him. Soit's you know, just because something seems
obvious some social media and I wasprotected to go out higher, but it's
falling. Doesn't make the decision anyeasier when you are in a phron office
because other pronoficies they are as qualifiedas anybody, and they're more usually more

(21:45):
qualified on Twitter, and they're choosingto pass on him. So it is
a gutsy move falling, and therecan be some panic when there's only five
minutes between picks, and people werewondering, is there something we don't know
about why this guy is falling?And I think in real time it can
contribute to, you know, likea stock crashing effect. Whereas the Rockets
did their homework, they knew themedicals and they were comfortable with them,

(22:06):
and there's something to be said foragain, you know, luck being where
a preparation meets opportunity, and Ithink that's what happened with Cam. And
to go back to the point Iwas saying earlier about you know, the
NBA, these late first round picksnot having nearly the expected value that fans
who may have been more focused onthe astros of the Texans the last few
years, and thinking about drafts andother sports like the NFL and MLB,

(22:27):
the correlation between success and late firstround picks not nearly being as strong.
Beyond that, even if we avoidthe contextual arguments, then we can still
pronounce that even if we say,Okay, he missed on these late first
well, yeah, then you havethe mid first where he's just had unequivocal

(22:48):
success stories between Easton and Chongoon andnow Cam Whitmore, who was MVP of
Summer League and played in all sixgames. I thought they got better as
it went along. I thought theexplosion was there. Certainly. You know,
I love seeing on Twitter everyone callhim medical issues, because boy,
he did not look like he waslimited at all from an athleticism standpoint.
And yeah, in terms of thetrack record for Raphael Stone, even if

(23:11):
he's missed on these late first okay, well he's swung and come through in
a big way with these mid firstguys that were following for various reasons,
and yet the rockets stopped their slide, and then each case to this point
he's been rewarded. And while Idon't think that makes him, you know,
all of a sudden, have agreat track record in the draft,
it definitely offsets and then some ofmy opinions, you know, these misses

(23:34):
that have come from the end ofthe first round and the second round outside
of kJ and so on and soforth, and so what it means to
me is that as long as atleast some of the first round picks,
particularly the high ones that is betweenJalen Greene, Ry Smith Jr. And
AM and Thompson, as long asat least a couple of those guys are
very good players. And ultimately,I think we're going to look back on

(23:56):
these draft classes from twenty twenty threeand say that by and large, it
was a good job. I mean, it's still to be determined. You
still have to have, especially atthe high end, some of those guys
pan out, and that's a lengthyprocess and it's one of those things check
back in a few years. Butas long as one or two of those
guys pan out, then ultimately it'sgonna be a success. When we talk
about these threes rafts and phase oneof the rebuild in my opinion, and

(24:21):
even then, right even even thosetop guys, people constantly say, hey,
Kiln Green, I mean gilably notso much because there was a debate
between Molwi and Green, but peoplealways say, oh Jr. Body was
the obvious picket three or Amon Thomptonwas the obvious picket for Like, I'm
not saying that they are peniuses becausethey pick the guys that seem obvious to
the outside. But I feel likepeople on social media, like it's really

(24:44):
easy to be valuable moves because theyseem obvious. Like people often discome from
offices that aren't like but they aren'tthe blake to do what we find out
this though, Like the perfect exampleof this is Charlotte this year with Brendan
Miller. Right, Like, justbecause it was obvious to most people that
Scoot Henderson was the second best prospect, it doesn't mean that the teams are

(25:06):
going to take them. And soyou still get points. You know,
you're not going to be called theteenus, but you look at points for
making the obvious decision if it isthe correct one, because Charlotte would be
would be I mean, I thinkCharlos Fanners would be more than happy if
the team made them or compared towhat they are now, if the team
made what is considered the obvious decision. So you can't take the obvious decision

(25:27):
for granted. So it's, asI said, you don't get to be
called the teens for making the whatit's the obvious picking claparty for example back
in that draft. But if youtook at points for making it and not
going out and or not going outand drafting Jail and Suggs at two,
just because close in the last weekof the draft to the draft it was

(25:47):
down to Moulie versus Green, doesn'tmean that two weeks prior Kevin Suggs was
into the conversation because there was therewere reports that there that he was and
news. You know where consensus comesfrom from people who have sources who who
are telling them, Hey, theteam speaking between these two guys. So

(26:07):
the consensus is coming from the teams, but it's not. It's to me,
it just doesn't make it doesn't makesense as an argument because well,
obviously the team's going to take whatit's consensus at the top of the draft
because it's it's really clear cut,based on sources that people have and reporters
have what that year is going tobe. So it's always going to be
it's always going to look up,it's always going to look at the obvious

(26:30):
pick with the with the red exceptionof what the charld orders said this year,
because teams are feeding the this informationto reporters, and reporters are you
know, obviously figuring it out withsources from multiple angles, and that's how
they they boil like the draft downto several tiers because they know, Oh,
teams speaking in this range are tellingme that they're like this prospect and

(26:52):
this prospect in this project. Sothese prospects are this tier. And if
and if I crossed that information withother teams and they say the same thing,
then I'm placing a tier here.It's it's wildly information based. The
consensus to the outside is based onwhat teams are thinking and what teams are
putting out there, which is whyJabarius Smith was the consensus number one overall

(27:14):
big and now when he wasn't takinglike number one, number one overall,
that this was more like a atier thing because until that point, if
you go and look back at ESPNand all of the guys that have sources,
they were all having Tabari number oneand then are end the shock the
world. So it's it's just alittle bad peeve of mine when people say,

(27:36):
yeah, that drafting the obvious guyor what seemed like the obvious guy,
you don't get credit for it whenwell, what seems like the obvious
guy often is seems like the obviousguy because teams put that information out there.
If that makes sense, yeah,absolutely, Well, to close the
loop on Summer League, I wantto apologize to Ben Sullivan and the staff.

(27:57):
When we last recorded, it wasexactly like two weeks ago. It
was the night after the Rockets opener, and I was actually pessimistic about what
they would do moving forward because weknew a'm and Thompson was out with the
ankles frain for the remainder of SummerLeague, and we knew that Jabari and
Tari weren't going to play that muchlonger. And so I mentioned not knowing

(28:18):
and having a ton of confidence andhow it would look without almin as your
point guard, Trevor Hudgins stepped upand then especially without Jabari and Tari and
yet Ben Sullivan coached his ass offover those two weeks and they absolutely did
hold up. So we didn't havean episode in between because I've actually been
on vacation. I'm back now andgetting back to it. You know,
first and foremost, I just wantto say, man, I underestimated those

(28:41):
son of Rockets. They had somethingspecial, and you know, you hit
the nail on the head with regardsto the coaching staff that would just look
night and day different compared to RickHiggins and some of this stuff from past
years that was installed with the coachesunder the Steven Silas administration. I think
it's another reason to have confidence inEmai Udoka and his vision for the Rockets.
And you know, we talked aboutthe depth already, and some of
it's the talent, some of itshow we were organized. That was the

(29:03):
biggest thing is that the roster wasn'tas top heavy as we thought. These
guys and the three through eight rangein terms of the rotation, or I
guess it'd be like five through ten. If we look back to the opener
when everyone was fully healthy, we'reable to step up and accept bigger roles.
But beyond that, also Kim Whitmore, the MVP. We touched on
him briefly earlier, but I wasjust struck by how much more composed he

(29:26):
seemed as Summer League moved along.Think back to that opening game we talked
about it against Portland. He wasso nervous, and even in that game
he seemed to settle in by thesecond half. And I'm not going to
say there was never any just sortof jacking threes at a rhythm of the
offense for the remainder of Summer League, but for the most part he was
a far more composed player, playingwithin the flow of the offense. And

(29:49):
that, to me was the biggesttakeaway is that, you know, the
athleticism was always there from Cam,but he seemed to harness it much more
productively as Summer League went long,and to me, it just it ties
in almos perfectly what we're saying aboutthe rest of the supporting cast, which
is that ultimately the coaching staff gotthrough and I think that's as responsible as
anything for Cam Whitmore. I mean, the coaching staff got through to everyone,

(30:11):
and Cam Whitmore's the MVP simply becausehe has the most athletic gifts,
right, Yeah, I think Ithink that makes a lot of sense.
I think he impressed me on bothends of the floor. He you know,
he's a nineteen year old. He'snot going to be the most consistent
performer, right, He's going tosay tough shots. He's you know,
he's the problem with him, orwhat supposedly is the problem with him is
his playmaking and him being somewhat selfish. But they managed to you know,

(30:36):
keep that in check, and helooked really really promising. Um, I
didn't see any of the any ofthe hes with with whatever Manny GOLs or
whatever it was going on. ButI do think that he may the go
will finding him a lot of whathe found or more of a more raw
version of what he found in Kailand Brown. With the Celtics, I

(30:59):
think it's it's it's actually a verygood comparison. And and the more you
want to employ, the more itlooks like it is. And I wonder
if there's any camps that he playsover, it's going to be tough because
I'm I'm supposing that they're going toerr on the sort of caution and maybe
send him to the DA League.But I wonder if he impressed enough that
he'll get that he is earned orwill earn in training camp minutes in rotation

(31:22):
from day one, because if youask me to protect right now, I
would say that gets the fourth forwardminutes behind Jabariitari and Dylan Brooks. But
I wonder if he's done enough.But I also, I mean, we
haven't talked about the biggest starting inSummer League, the guy that would have
easily won MVP if he had playedthe five games, which is which is
the Jabari Smith Junior. I mean, a lot of people were talking about

(31:44):
going into Summer League. Right.We just need to see Jabari play good
basketball at any level at this point, right, because he was one of
the worst plays in the NBA lastseason. And we can try to shape
the narrative and say that he wasgood towards the end, Well, it
was good for a week and ahalf towards the end, and then but
he was so good and he wasmaking so many shots at that point that

(32:06):
he could combine that week and ahalf with the rest of the season and
it still looked average, Right,but the truth was he got hot for
like a week and a half andthat was it. So even though it's
just somewhere a lot of art wasriding on on some week forta pari,
at least from a public perception standpoint, I mean, and he knocked it
out of the park. We sawstuff that I didn't I didn't think we

(32:30):
we I mean, he took thoseexpectations and he just scaled it up like
three leapts. We saw handles,We saw his instincts defending the rim.
We saw how nimble he was andhow in control he was with his movements
on offense. We saw him drawa shit on the faust, which is
not really I mean, he throughtat Auburn. He did draw out of

(32:52):
fouls um on jump shots, andwhen when he tried to drive, you
know, he tried to drive solittle that when he did usually it was
with a big adventage so he couldget fouled a little bit. But he
was actually drawing foul as the start, and to me, one of the
biggest takeaways, and it transitioning intoone of the one of the other things
we want to talk about, whichis the discussion of him as a small

(33:15):
ball five. I really like thegame against the Pistons. The mismatch that
he was for not only Wiseman,who is a typical five for, but
Kayl and Duran who was supposed tobe a switch five as well. He
was a complete mismat. He wasblowing by guys in I soo coming off
the screams whatever it was. Heeven cutting as well. His passing was

(33:38):
impressive as well. I think fromit. From the perspective of this guy
as a small ball five, usuallywhen we're talking about defensive players, Wari
is protected to be. People thinkthat the big adventage of a small ball
five is the fact that on defenseyou're going to be able to switch and
you're going to be in Tamario sixfor eleven. Right, Yet he has
a size to play the five,but people usually make the big deal out

(34:01):
of the defense, out of beingable to switch, which usually typical five
skin. To me, that isimportant, right. But if we think
back and I hate to bring upthis example, but if we think back
to Christian would right, the wholeappeal of playing him at the five was
that he was such a mismatch offensivelyto most NBA centers that you could someone

(34:22):
to live with this defense if itgot to a disent enough level, which
it never did, and if hewas un selfish within Clavari is is.
I think we saw from Clabari someof the things that made Christian Wood as
a five set analyze, the abilityto spread the four, the ability to
take guys off the dribble. Youknow, Labari is not going to be

(34:43):
an isolution scorer like off the dribblegames winks. But if you put him
at the five and he's facing MasonPlumbly or someone or someone like that or
the James Wise, when if he'sto win the league by then and he
and that is a mismatch. Youdon't need to be as good defensively as
Bamada Baio to justify being a smallball five, because Batma is even smaller
than La Parti and this, andthis will sound like I'm kind of taking

(35:07):
a little bit away from Taparti defensively, No, I'm not like there's still
very much a big appeal to himas a small ball five because of the
defense. That's a huge appeal,But I'm just saying that he we saw
things that make it an appeal offensivelyas well, I just think it's it's
really exciting to look forward to.I hope that he may doc you know,

(35:28):
taps into that a little bit.It's going to be tough because I'm
I'm protecting thirte minutes a game ortwenty eight minutes again to Shane Goon,
which leaves you know, eighteen minutesa game left, and you do have
chocolate. I know who I assumewill play, so I don't know how
much Chapari can play. It's notreally worth it to play him, you
know, five minutes again with asmall ball five, because it's it's not
nearly enough of us and ball fizefor you to get any information from it,

(35:50):
but it is enough time to kindof throw him off as this rhythm,
because playing against physical fives is notexactly the same as playing against you
know what in most NBA teams rightnow is a small for that's good to
space the four at least defensively.Well, it could be picking the matchups.
I agree that consistently playing five minutesper game isn't going to tell you
much, but what you could dois potentially play Landale in matchups where you

(36:14):
need more size, more physicality andthen pick the matchups where Jabari is your
backup five and give him a longerrunway and let him play for you know,
fifteen eighteen minutes a game, whateverit may be. I'm sure there's
some copium to this, but look, maybe there's a blessing in disguise to
not getting brook Lopez in that regard. We've talked in the past about how

(36:36):
it basically forces them to let allPerent Shangoon be the guy and see what
you have there in the middle.You're not going to do the time share,
and it does open up the windowa bit more in terms of what
you can do with the rest ofthose minutes at center as well, and
that includes potentially evaluating Jabari Smith Jr. There. And so I agree with
you that you don't want to justconsistently play five minutes per game, because
that's not going to do a wholeheck of a lot. But I do

(36:58):
think that you can perhaps choose yourmatchups a bit more and see if there's
something to tappen to in future seasons, because even if the Rockets do lean
into that more long term, it'ssort of like, you know, you
think back to the past decade withDraymond Green and those death lineups. You
honestly didn't even see the Warriors orteams using a similar template do it that
much during the regular season, becauseof course there's a lot of there's a

(37:22):
physical toll that comes from exposing theundersized or slightly underweight layer to the pounding
at the five during the season.You see them disproportionately use it in the
playoffs, so it could be againjust sort of checking here or there,
how viable is this, and thenall of a sudden, if and when
the Rockets get too relevant games,perhaps as soon as next spring, but
more likely the spring of twenty twentyfive, then you see it all of

(37:45):
a sudden deployed a bit more,and maybe you have the element of surprise
as well. I actually thought therewas a really interesting quote on this subject
from rafel Stone. Kelly Eco hada great article in The Athletic this week
about Jabari's rookie season, his evolution, and there's a lot of insight about
his grow talked to other players aroundthe NBA about their advice for him,
but actually thought the most interesting quotewas from Raffell, and it talks about

(38:06):
what they saw Injerbari before they draftedhim in twenty twenty two. Of course
they went into that draft expecting toget Powell Binkiro. We know how it
played out. But Raffel leans intothis idea of him being a lightweight five.
Here's the quote. It was essentiallythat he's got the size of a
center. He's six eleven with aseven two wingspan, very typical center size,
with a unique ability to move hisfeet on the perimeter, particularly in

(38:29):
the playoffs when people start switching everythingmore and more. He's projected to be
a really interesting big. He hasthe size to be a room protector while
at the same time can move onthe perimeter like someone materially smaller. And
I think that dovetails with what wesaw from their approach in Summer League.
That's part of why when Jay Hoffleft the team, they didn't really skip
a beat because they just went smallerwith Jermaine Samuel's Jr. As something of

(38:52):
a small ball five, and theyswitched everything and it led to a defense
that was in sync. They didn'tfoul a lot, They trusted each other.
They knew that the other person wascapable of holding up their end on
these switches. And I think itcould illustrate what they're trying to do long
term at the NBA level. Andwhile I don't think for reasons you laid
out that it's going to happen aton this season Shongoon as the starter and

(39:15):
Landale Slash Jeff Green as your backups, I think that's going to be generally
the depth chart and the way theyapproach most games. But I do think
that you know, in select matchups, they're going to experiment with this,
and there are going to be injuriesfrom time to time that might force their
hand a bit more. And whileI think it's still you know, it's
a process. We've talked about thisbefore. With guys like Javari that are

(39:36):
a bit underweight, you don't wantthem to put on too much too quickly
in terms of bulk, to thepoint where they sacrifice their flexibility and their
burst. We know that's something thatJar prioritizing anyway, trying to get more
flexible. We've seen him with theyoga this offseason, so it's especially delicate
with him. You don't want himto put on so much bulk that all
of a sudden he has even moreissues with regards to his flexibility there's a

(39:57):
very delicate balance, and so thismay be something that we don't fully notice
until two three years down the road. But to me, seeing how the
Rockets approach Summer League and seeing andreading that quote from Raphel, to me,
it reiterates that even if it's notthis season, long term, Jabari
at the five is something that they'revery interested in. And the last point
I will say, you know,one of the big questions after Cam Whitmore

(40:21):
unexpectedly fell to them at twenty,a lot of people said, look,
this sounds great, but how arewe going to find minutes long term for
all of these guys. You've alreadygot Jabari and Tari at the forward spots.
They kept Jay scharn tape and alot of people were expecting him to
go. Now you've got Cam Whitmoreas well. I know you're one.
You could theoretically playing with the Vipersa little bit, but in the grand
scheme there's a log gym well,hey, if Jabari plays at the five

(40:43):
sum then all of a sudden thatmakes it a lot easier to find the
minutes that Tar and Cam Whitmore needat the forward spots. So to me,
not saying for sure, it's goingto happen. It is going to
be a process. It's not goingto be something where all of a sudden
you get to training camp in Octoberand Jabari is playing mostly at five.
But I do think that in thelong run, it's clearly something they're interested
in, and beyond the interest,beyond the fact that it works out and

(41:06):
meshes so well with how we sawthem wanting to play the coaching staff in
Summer League. I also think ithelps them long term with the roster crunch
a little bit too, because Jbariat the five is the ticket for finding
the minutes you need for guys likeTori and Cam whitmore right. Yeah,
And I think when having this conversationabout the Bari at the five, I
think a lot of people highlight hisability or lack of to be a rim

(41:28):
protector, which kind of misses theentire point to me. And and and
you know, we are always onTwitter and sometimes I'm just walking from the
sidelines to discussion is reading through itand people are talking about, Hey,
like, it's not exactly the mostathletic dude. You know, he's while
he has the side, maybe hedoesn't have the battle maybe he doesn't have
the instinct. Actually think that missesthe point completely. I think if if

(41:50):
he is going to play the five, yes you need you need a basic
level of rim protection, right andI think he has it, or if
he doesn't, he's close enough toit. He had that inc I keep
as I talked about this, Ikeep reminding myself of that play, the
play that forced his opportunity to hitthe game winner, which is a lot
that he presses the ball handler intransition and recovers all the way back to

(42:12):
the dunker spot to block it.Very similar to a play to a play
Janis had in the NBA Finals againstthe Stems when they won with I think
it was Chris Paul and Aiden mthat. To me, that's kind of
missing the point. To me,the big thing is you lean into the
strength of having a small ball five. So to me, the biggest part
is not whether he becomes a goodenough room protector. To me, the

(42:36):
biggest, biggest point is does hereach his potential as a Switt defender,
because at times last season we sawhim at balled by, we saw him
be over zealous, and as youknow, the seasons, as cold as
you know, ended and expectations havecalled down. I actually think that some
of it is because we were playing, you know, normally was the scheme

(42:59):
of full but we were playing withnot great defenders around them, right,
And I think if if you area small ball five but you do have
torvs and and Fred VanVleet and DylanBrooks next to you, you don't need
to be you can you can makethe type of gambles that was making,
or be over zealous and expect theother guys to be able to contain somewhat

(43:21):
the drive if you if you doget somewhat beat, you know, if
you if you get loan by,probably not. But if you're just giving
up a small advantage, if thedefenders are good around you, it's not
it's not going to get capitalized uponnearly as much as as it would otherwise.
And so I actually think he'll lookbetter even switching with a better team

(43:42):
around him. Um, but tome, that is the biggest part about
him being able to play the fiveround. It's not really if he can
be you know, we're room protectingcenter. No, it's playing. If
you're playing small ball five, it'susually in stretches and you're doing it for
like, but the high end scenariosof what small wall can bring you,

(44:04):
which is the switching on defense,It's not the room protection. Drum protection
is important more more on a ona high volume thing if you're in the
regular season. I will maybe putit like this, room protection is a
little bit of a floor raiser whilebeing good. Switching as a five is
more of a stealing raiser because ofhow that translates to the play. All
right, so as we wind downthis episode of the lagger line, as

(44:27):
always served, you cour to seea clutch clagger of carback brewing when a
transition from one of the two buildingblocks of the last two years, that
being Jabari Sciet Junior, to theother, that being Jalen Green. Because
outside of Summer League, the onepiece of info that we've had heading into
this dead period on the NBA calendar, not totally dead. The schedule will

(44:47):
come out in early August, andof course we'll have coverage of that,
but I want to show Jalen Green, the other building block from the last
couple of years, or top buildingblock. At least, let's give some
credit to Tari Easton, Kevin PorterJunior, all prend shouldn't, not saying
they're not building locks, but definitelybefore this year's rookie class, Jaylen and
Jabari with the top two talked alot about Jabari even more on this episode,
our last episode, we're going togo into our archives much more about

(45:09):
Mom and Thompson because he was thestoryline of that opener in Summer League,
particularly because that was his first gamein a Rocket uniform and he looked very
good. Today. I want tomake sure we give Jabarri his flowers because
while he was excellent and even moreso against an NBA front court of the
Pistons, as you were just layingout. But there's also some news on
Jalen this offseason. We've seen himworking out with Fred van Fleet ever since

(45:30):
Fred joined the Rockets in early July. I've heard that the last couple of
weeks he's also been working out Jalen, that is, with Kevin Durant.
So he's clearly taking this offseason seriously. And next month we now know,
courtesy of Sham Shrania of The Athleticthat Jayalen is going to be part of
the US Select team along with KaidCunningham with the Pistons. Keegan Marie of
the Kings, Jaylen Williams, andCheck Holmgren of the Thunder. There's gonna

(45:52):
be a few others as well,But basically they're going to report to training
camp with the US World Cup team, and they're basically doing a scrimmage against
those guys, and if there's anyinjuries or withdrawals from the main twelve that
will represent the US in the WorldCup, then the select team will have
guys that can step in and fillthose roles. Think of them as something

(46:12):
analogous to a taxi squad in MajorLeague Baseball the last couple of years during
the COVID seasons. So it's greatexperience for Jayleen alongside the other good players.
I don't buy it as any sortof added injury risk because look,
unless you put these guys in abubble, they are working out again.
He's worked out with Fred, He'sworked out with KD. He's got a
busy offseason. And while you canpoint to everything that happened with Paul George

(46:36):
in USA basketball a few years ago, we can also point to Chet Holmgren,
who we just reference he had hisseason in a year ago. Because
we're a freak accident in a programgame. So unless you're proposing putting these
guys in bubble wrap and only doingrunning drills and cardio, which just isn't
realistic, that's not how much Yeah, yeah to me the risk and I

(47:00):
haven't seen that too many places,but the few people that I've seen pointing
that out, I think that's verymisguided. Look, these guys are going
to play basketball. Injuries happen,it sucks when they do. But again,
it's not as if these guys aregoing to be in double wrap otherwise.
And aside from that, I think, first off, Iron Sharpen's Iron.
He's going to be going up againstreally good players in the off season
and hopefully it'll have him in fineform heading into a training camp where,

(47:22):
look, there's going to be morecompetition now that Kevin Porter Jr. Isn't
the point guard, that's going tobe someone that's not that much older than
Jalen and plays a very similar position, a very similar archetype body type.
I think Jaalen's going to have tobe on top of his game. I
think everyone wants Jalen to win thatjob and be in year three what we
hope to be in year two.In terms of the Anthony Edwards breakout,

(47:43):
we know in year two there weresome circumstances we all wanted the breakout.
In fairness, he did average ateam high twenty two points per game,
also a four assists for rebounds pergame, but the efficiency wasn't there,
and I think a lot of us, you know, we were a bit
underwhelmed. But it's easy to forgetthe infrastructure that Anthony Edwards had when he
took the huge leap in year twowith the Timberwolves, not nearly the same

(48:05):
with the Rockets, who actually evengot a little bit worse relative to Jalen's
rookie season. No more Christian wouldtraded Eric Gordon midway through, had Kevin
Porter Junior miss a couple of monthsmidway through the season, and just there
was just an insane amount of responsibilitythrown on Jayalen at twenty years old,
to the point where it was almostimpossible for him not to be inefficient to
some degree, given the lack ofinfrastructure and how extremely young the team was.

(48:25):
Not as if Steven Silas was aCoach of the Year candidate either in
terms of how he was used anddeployed. So again, while the season
was perhaps a bit underwhelming, there'sreasons for that, and now heading into
year three, I think on paper, Jalen's a guy with a real point
guard running the show. He talkedabout that in one of his interviews from
Summer League, a point guard who'swon a championship before in Fred VanVleet.

(48:49):
I think he's a guy who clearlythis might be the year that the infrastructure
is there in twenty twenty three totwenty four for him to take that kind
of Anthony Edwards leap that maybe ayear ago we wanted him to take,
it was a bit too premature,especially with some of the surrounding issues.
Now he might be able to andto me, it's just it's very important
that he takes this offseason seriously.I've heard that he has, because while

(49:12):
we can make excuses and the wordexcuses sounds harsh, but the reality is,
look, even if they're valid,he didn't take the type of leap
in year two that Evan Mobiley didin Cleveland, and that was a guy
that was taken right after Jalen.So it is fairer in the macro to
have some concerns and we can pointout all these factors, but the reality

(49:32):
is, at some point we can'tjust say, look, the Rockets hid
and put him in the right situations. At some point it is on Jalen
to take that leap himself. Andnow there's no more excuses. The team
is better, they have veterans.It's on Jalen to step up this season,
and so it's a big offseason forhim, and everything I've seen suggest
that he's doing this. He's takingit seriously. Needs to be in the

(49:53):
right shape, he needs to beconfident going into camp and to be this
type type of setting, being onthe select team and working out with these
big names like Fred, like KDthat can only help what's going to be
a very pivotal season for Jalen Green. Because again, last year, we
can make excuses, and a lotof them are valid. But this year

(50:15):
year three, and by the way, it's the final year before the Rockets
have an opportunity to offer him anextension in the off season, so there's
a lot for him to prove financiallyas well. I think Jalen knows it's
a big year and I see alot more positives than negatives from this.
To me, it's important. Ithink it puts him on the right foot
heading into training camp, and Ithink beyond just Jalen. Oh, look,

(50:37):
I think it's good for the Rockets. So much of the Jaalen narrative
has been out of his control.We know the Lockdown NBA podcast from back
in the day with Matt Moore andthat locked on heat guy trying to act
like he's Dion Waiters or Jordan Clarksin the sixth Man type. And I
do think a lot of that iscircumstantial. But look, at some point,
you know, this is sort ofwhat the losing tax entails. We've

(50:58):
talked about this in the weeks leadingup to free agency. You know,
when you lose that many games,no one gives you the benefit of the
doubt. Everyone looks for the negatives. And so I think to see Jalen
put in that type of group withguys like Kaids, like Keegan Murray who
fair or unfair, seem to havea better reputation around the league, Chet

(51:19):
Holman and Jalen Williams. Obviously,Jalen had a new rookie of this year
season last year with the Thunder.Chet hasn't played yet, but we know
how highly he's thought of an NBAcircles to see Jalen in that group.
It's also a reminder of why Rocketsfans are and should be so excited about
Jalon that even if some of thenational narratives that are perhaps associated with the
losing tax are a bit out onJalen, a bit down on him.

(51:40):
Look, people around the league,people that follow the sport of basketball and
know the type of talent he is. They know why he was the number
two overall pick in twenty twenty one, and so beyond just the benefits of
iron sharpening iron and working with theright guys in the offseason, perhaps there's
some confidence that goes from being putin this type of group, being in
this type of tier, with beingwanted, and so I think both physically

(52:02):
and mentally being in the right headspace. I see a lot more positives
than negatives from Jailan being involved inthis over the next couple of months.
There's no arguing. The only negativevironment that I could make for it is
that Kawen is a confidence, youknow guy, and if he goes in
there and he has mccallbridges guarding himtwenty four seven, he can't make a
shot, maybe it towards this conference. That's the only thing that can possibly

(52:23):
go on. Injuries. Listen,I hate that arguments so much. Injuries
happen anywhere, right, he couldeven not be playing basketball. I mean,
didn't turn wall coming off. Ithink it was an act or an
achilles stair or whatever it was,just fall down the stairs at his home
and be injured for another year.And it's the injury argument makes no sense.

(52:46):
You run a risk every time youeven practice, right, then we're
not going to tell guys to stoppracticing. And this is high quality practice.
So even if the risk of injuryis hiden a little bit, I
mean, so is the quality ofthe practice that he's going to get in,
right. So it's to me thatmakes no sense. But to speak
on Jaylan, I'm actually I'm actuallykind of surprised how, and it's it's

(53:07):
been kind of the reason over thelast couple of weeks, at least on
Twitter, how people are kind ofdown on him all of a sudden.
I don't know if it's because hehasn't played basketball in a while and we've
kind of seen every other guy,you know, at least go to some
Relea can do well, and Imean basketball as in for the Rockets,
right, I'm sure he's practicing,but we're still talking about a guy that
i've twenty two four and four asa twenty year old with a body that

(53:32):
is not developed enough to play theshooting got position at you know, it
was better than his rookie season orit's not. It was still not what
it needs to be as far asabsorbing contract contact goes Kayla. Anthony Edwards
even coming into the league had aframe more ready than Kevin green hat so
Jaylan had it has the athleticism still, he can move his feed, but
he doesn't have you know, theweight to to to public guys around as

(53:58):
a score. That being said,he did make one thing, that one
improvement that you can pinpoint as thisis really important for his progress and it
happened and hopefully can keep building onit. He went from three and a
half three throws a game his rookieseason to six point one the second season.
He still doesn't get quite the whistlethat he probably deserves. Someone like

(54:20):
Anthony Edwards in his second season onlyhad three point nine free throws a game.
So he is making that jump andthat's kind of what saves This saves
saved his efficiency last year. Yeah, and so I think I'm not gonna
say he had a good season.I don't think he did. He was
underwhelming. He know a lot ofpeople expected him to pick right back up

(54:42):
from what he left off post allStart breaker or from the middle of January
forwards last season where he was averagingthe twenty points per game, but he
was being more efficient I think fiftyfive or fifty six percent efficiency through shooting
percentage. He didn't do that right. But to me, the biggest issue
was his effort on defense and himkind of quitting in numerous games. And

(55:07):
there are there are coaching staff,by the way exactly it does. There
are there are circumstances that make thatmore possible. But year one, one
of the things that I kept tellingpeople was, hey, this guy,
this guy was losing by twenty everysingle game, and he was still trying
to fight through screens. He wasstill hypercompetitive, still trying to always get
better. It felt like it battlewar off in the second season, and

(55:31):
it was from very early on becauseI don't know how many people will remember
this, but there was a clipof killing Green before the seasons even started,
where he was already talking about itlike hey, um, like kind
of tampering expectations, like we mightnot make the playoffs or whatever, but
stick with us, will be goodeventually. If a guy is going into

(55:51):
the season or already with that mentality, he already knows what is what is
coming in for um and and Ican't I can't him a player. But
at the same time, I can'tplame a player for you know, the
coaching stuffs terrible, the system's terrible, teams terrible, different office they might
not want to lose, but thatthey absolutely finally doing it. It's tough

(56:13):
to go out there as a shootingguard and and and you know, put
the amount of effort in that isnecessary. And I think it would have
been a major plus if he did. But him not doing so, while
it's a knock to me, it'snot a massive knock now like for most
of this team going into next season, you know, it's it's step up

(56:35):
or step aside. Side Right here, there is a very suitable replacement in
Kevin Porter Junior, who was likelya better player than you are, especially
if you put him as at shutingguard. You know, at that position
right now, what are you goingto do to hold onto your spot and
have and be featured like the starwe all think von can be gome Um.

(56:59):
I think he has, you knowthe structure he has for eventially the
two point guard. He will beable to play off of aprem chingun Hopefully
he'll have suitable spacing. We don'tknow yet how it'll work with Clapari Andtari.
You know what their shots will looklike when it comes to the actually
NBA season. Um, But defensively, he's going to have plus defenders around

(57:21):
him in every position except for center. So if there are problems with perimeter
defense, he will stick out likea serta. And so it will be
on him and and and and everybodywill focus on him to get better.
So he'll be held accountable, whetherhe likes it or not, whether the
coaching stuff wants to or not,just by the factor of everybody around him

(57:42):
is a better defender than him.And so we'll see how he how he
delivers on that, We'll see howhis consistency offense, consistency offensively goes.
Hopefully he'll go back to one ofa fifty fifty split in on ball versus
offball um you know, role inthe offense. But listen, I can't
stop talking about this is a twentyyear old with insane athleticism with still not

(58:08):
to anyone yet correct coming after histwenty year old season. He's still the
same player, and he's shown improvementon both on both seasons that he has
played so far. And I'm notany less excited about him than I was
when he first came in. Imean, people, people seem lower on
him now than they were during thefirst half of his rookie season, when

(58:30):
he looked like he didn't belong atall, And to me, that makes
literally zero sense. Yeah, andI don't think I completely agree with the
strategy of giving KPT a chance tostart in a place of jalone. I
think that that's perfect. You know, if Dylan is who we think he

(58:51):
is, he's going to earn thatspot. And mcnamu's take about it,
KPJ has the potential to be agreat player as well. He's still only
twenty or twenty three years old.He can still be a great player.
And if Kaylan, even if Dylanisn't at that point right now, and
I think most people would point tokpj as the better player today if he

(59:12):
can't handle having to go to thebench because he's not good enough. I
mean, if there were some someif they told him, hey, you're
going to the bench because we can'twe don't want to pass KPJ off,
I'd be mad, right, Andif I were Jay, i'd be mad
as Jillan as well. But youas a player can't be mad about being
sent to the bench because a betterguy is playing for you. And if

(59:36):
Kaylen can't handle that and that doesn'tmake him strive to be better and eventually
beat him out, then maybe heisn't the player that I think he is.
But that being said, I willstill say that I believe that the
start of the regular season, Kaylenwill start because I think he is good
enough, right, because I thinkhe is good enough. But any reports
that he isn't, or that it'sa competition shouldn't be taken as a so

(01:00:00):
to him to be taken as atest. And if he is the guy
that we think he is, andI think he is, he'll pass that.
This. Yeah, competition is good. I know we're sort of conditioned
after the last couple of years tothink that certain players, most notably Jalen
and Jabari a certain level of prospectare guaranteed to get minutes. Look,
that was the situation, then thatwas phase one. This is phase two.

(01:00:21):
In most circumstances, competition is good. Iron sharpens iron, and so
I think going into a camp inwhich Jalen's going to have to prove it,
it helps that he's having to adoptsomething of a similar mindset this offseason
as well, training with the bestand going up against the best in these
practices and perhaps trying to earn aspot on the actual World Cup team depending
on what happens with injuries and withdrawalsand so on and so forth. To

(01:00:42):
me, the positives clearly outweighed negatives. The last point I'll say, as
far as the narrative, I thinka lot of it. In our modern
media culture, people are always wantingto get to the next how could you
mistake storyline? And with Evan Mobileyhaving such a strong year or two for
a Cleveland team that went to theplay offs, and him being the guy
that was picked right after Jaalen,there's a very easy narrative to sell that,

(01:01:05):
oh did the Rockets screw up?And nobody wants to make that argument
with Kate Cunningham and the Pistons whowent one simply because Kaide was hurt.
And so it feels a little bitlike cherry picking there that you're being unfair
to Kade and the Pistons. WithJaylen because he's been out there, it's
easier to sort of milk that storyline. Oh, did the Rockets make a
mistakes? Should they have gone withEvan Mobley who's contributing. And my answer

(01:01:27):
to that, just as I saidearlier, a lot of this is circumstantial
the infrastructure that Mobile has around himin Cleveland which allows him to I mean,
number one, he's not the reasonthey're winning. There's talent up and
down that roster, but too thesurrounding talent absolutely allows him to play to
his strengths and to play to hisrole, and it doesn't ask him to
do too much. In contrast toJalen, who, as we just discussed,

(01:01:51):
was asked to do things the lastcouple of years far before he was
ready. He simply because in Houstonthere was almost no alternatives. Well,
next year, all that goes away. Next year, the supporting cast is
there, the infrastructure should be rightor at least much much more right than
the last couple of years. Andso with that, you know, there's
pressure, but there's also an opportunitythat comes with that. And so the

(01:02:13):
way I think Jalan should look atit, and I think from everything I've
heard, the way he is lookingat it, this gives him the type
of opportunity that he did not havethe last couple of years, and the
process of taking advantage of it startsnow. Yeah, and not just like
like not to slander Evan Mobili atall, but let's be honest about this.
As a prospect, Evan Mowli isnot ready to play the five.

(01:02:34):
He'll get good. The Cleveland Cavaliersdid not have a good defense with defensive
player of the Year caliber guy EvanMowgli at the five. Okay, so
he has to play the flour andputting the floor in a long regular season
gives you a high ceiling because you'replaying two bigs and teams are are going
to prepare. And Evan Mobley isa good switch defender, not gonna,

(01:02:54):
you know, prepared to pinpoint attackevery single one of your weaknesses from game
to game. But when when itcomes to the playoffs. Now you have
a problem because Evan moblike also can'tshoot. Yeah, and so you can't
play the five. You have toplay the four unless you get a fourth
place in five to play on offensewith you, and you play Evan Mobley
at the five offensively and the fourdefensively. There are problems with Evan Mobley

(01:03:16):
as a prospect as well. He'sjust on a much better team with all
Star get there is Carmendance point guardwith all start Donovan Mitchel as shooting guard,
where Jared Allen protecting him at center. Yeah, so he's in a
firfect situation. It's like if youask, if you ask Killen just to
catch and shot open freeze all game, I mean, he could probably do
it. And I'm not saying thatEvan Mobley's role is as simple five as

(01:03:38):
that, but he very much wentto a place where it was sailor made
for him to have the maximum impactthat he can have. All of his
weaknesses are being covered and the shooting, which is one of them, is
likely part of what cost them theirability to go no further in the playoffs.
So it's not it's not like,yes, he didn't make it I'm

(01:04:00):
not sure if he was defensive levelof defensive political leader level, a contention
level Wally, but the circumstances matter, especially when we're talking about twenty one
year old right. Absolutely yeah,And I think that there's still a lot
of scenarios out there where kiln Bredis the best prospect from his class.

(01:04:21):
Absolutely yeah. I think looking backthe last couple of years, it's an
apples or oranges comparison. This seasonit gets closer to being apples to apples,
and while I think it's a storylinethat we want to start and we'll
start paying a lot more attention toin October. Obviously, the performance that
Jalen has this year will also goa long way to determining what the Rockets

(01:04:41):
do and Extension talks with him thefollowing off season. But beyond that,
also, I do think there's somethingto be said from watching his performance this
summer if he does get to playin a few games that hopefully even if
it's not the World Cup, maybethere's some ways to watch these scrimmages,
and if not watch at least hearhow he holds up. Because, again
with the Select team and with theRockets, the excuses that we've thrown out

(01:05:04):
a lot of which are valid.Those aren't going to be there. It
is going to be closer to anapples to apples. There's pressure with that,
I think Jaalen knows that, butthere's opportunity as well, and so
I think that's the way to sortof look at what's going to be a
very important year for Jalen Green.And while it officially starts in October,
unofficially, the process of getting readyfor an NBA season for all of these

(01:05:25):
guys, it starts now. You'vegot to get your body, your mind
right. And I think that's whatJalen is trying to do with this select
team, and I think by andlarge it's going to be much more helpful
than harmful. Anyway, with that, we will bring this episode to a
close. As always, I appreciateall of you our listeners for tuning in.
If you want more content before ournext episode, the best place to
get it is on Twitter. I'mon there at Ben Dubos Palos on there

(01:05:46):
at Palo Alves, NBA, andthis show. The logger line is on
there at the logger line. Ifyou go there, you can hit up
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(01:06:06):
logger line on Twitter, you canalso find Apple, Google, Spotify,
all of our distributors. If you'renot already subscribed to the show, please
do and you can find it atyour distributor of choice simply by going to
that link tree. With that,we will bring this episode to a close.
I know we're entering the dead periodof the offseason that as mentioned earlier,
we are not going to go away. We are a twelve months of
the year podcast, so we willbe doing some shows. We will have

(01:06:27):
the schedule coming out in a coupleof weeks, but beyond that, we've
also got some interviews lined up,some special future ideas that we're working on.
So there is a lot to lookforward to in terms of what's going
to happen the next few weeks.Even though it's going to be relatively quiet
other than World Cup preparation, maybewe'll hear some stuff on the jail and
Greenfront, as I was just referringto. I know it's going to be
otherwise quiet for the Rockets with thesummer League concluded, but we will still
be with you. We will stillbe talking about this basketball team as they

(01:06:50):
grew up for what's going to bethe most fun season in a while,
the first season in four years inwhich they actually enter trying to win and
with the realistic expectations of not beingterrible, of actually having some relevancy with
a new head coach and email Udokaleading the way that everyone is excited about.
So while we are at a periodin which you're not going to see
the Rockets on the basketball floor,no one's gonna be wearing a Rockets jersey

(01:07:11):
for quite some time on a court, at least that we're aware of,
there is still going to be plentyto talk about as we get you guys
ready for what should be a veryfund twenty twenty three to twenty four NBA
season here in Houston. With thatcomplete, we will adjourn for tonight for
Paulo. I'm Ben, Thanks asalways for listening, and please come back
soon for another new episode of theLogger Line.