Which Rockets have most at stake in 2023-24 season

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
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 CarbocksClutch City lagger It is good Yeah,

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Red Nation, get ready to getready, Get Ready. The lagger Line
starts now. Welcome on board,Welcome in to another new episode of the
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(00:44):
Back Brewing. I'm your host,Ben Dubos, editor of USA Today's Rockets
Fire and a contributor to Sports Talkseven ninety, the official flagship radio station
of your Houston Rockets. Joined onthis early August day as the NBA's offseason
turns to I suppose the roverbial dogDays to help get through it. I'm
joined by Paolo ALVE's, my cohost and producer, good friend out of

(01:04):
Portugal PLO. How's it going.How are you surviving these three months or
so without MBA activity. Well,it's tough because last year I was surviving
it through vicariously living through Jeremy Peniaand how he sucks. I guess so
I'm kind of sad. That's ours. He did go to the White House
today and was asked to raise hishand by President Biden, of course,

(01:26):
referring to winning MVP of the LCSin the World Series. But that's of
course a tribute to twenty twenty two. It's not based on his twenty twenty
three. We should note though,that towards the end of twenty twenty two
he went through some scuffles over thesummer, and then it was late August
September that he made some changes tohis approach at the plate, and then

(01:47):
of course it really took off thelast couple of weeks in the regular season
and throughout October. So hopefully historyrepeats itself and he gets ready for another
run in October, which coincides withthe opening of the twenty twenty three to
twenty four Houston Rockets seat. Sothat's sort of the glass half full of
view, is that, you know, the astrocid, a lot of things
go wrong, painus regression and allthe injuries, and yet they're still within
a couple of games with the Rangersin great shape as it pertains to the

(02:08):
wild card standings. So October shouldbe a fun month obviously for the Rockets.
That's what we talked about here.But for the astroid as well,
it's a good time to be aHouston sportsman, right. Yeah, it's
just it's just the pressing to goon. You know, I've been taught
by everybody on baseball Twitter that allI have to do to determine if someone's
good or not is go on baseballsufant and see how red the little balls

(02:30):
are. And his are mostly blue. Someone makes the talk about blue balls.
So it's so it's just it's notgoing well. But at the very
least Ultuve and Yordan airbacks. Iguess it's kind of fun again in a
way. And now apparently Chas mccormiit's also really good, which he was

(02:50):
already last season, but it waskind of an underdog back then. I
don't know, it's it's been moreand more fun obviously with with them trading
for for JP again, it givesit gives more of an incentive to watch
at the very least, like onesay, for you at six days.
So yeah, and perhaps he canget going. I know everyone is down

(03:10):
on Jeremy Pania because he's well,he's just been bad as a hitter this
year. Let's just be honest.But there's been a lot of talk recently
should they bat him second? Ofcourse, that's where he was during the
postseason run last October. And whenhe's struggling like this and you're batting him
second high in the order and gettingso many bats in the game, it's
brutal. But if you dig downinto the numbers, he actually does bad

(03:34):
even with the recent struggles, substantiallybetter at number two. I think that's
because he's got protection on both sideswith al Tuba in front of them and
Jordan or Kyle Tucker right behind him. So it's tough to really hitch around
him in those circumstances. You haveto throw them a lot more strikes that
he can do something with, beinga fastball or a breaking ball. It's
easier for him to predict at leastwhere it's going to be because he knows

(03:57):
they're not going to risk walking himat that spot in the order, and
so I think that placement would bea lot easier to stomach if you have
a deeper lineup overall. So ifthey can get Jose a Bray, you
going again. Chas McCormick can sustainwhat he did in July, they're calling
up John Singleton for tomorrow's game.Then, ultimately, I do think the
two spot is better for pain you. It's just about whether the lineup as

(04:18):
a whole is deep enough to sortof survive that and to spend it back
to basketball. So John Singleton whothey're bringing up. I know this pre
date sure Astro's fandom, but hewas a top prospect in twenty thirteen twenty
fourteen, ended up washing out ofthe league entirely, had multiple drug suspensions
I believe related to weed, althoughdon't quote me on that act to go
back and look the particulars, Basically, he was out of baseball for four

(04:40):
years and now in his thirties,has basically had a late career renaissance,
got back into the minor leagues,hit at an extraordinary level with the astros
Triple A affiliate, the Sugarland SpaceCowboys, and now he's back and maybe
he's going to be a part oflengthening that lineup. He'll either play at
first base or is designated hitter.But it's so bizarre, like I think
back to base ten years ago.He was a top prospect and somehow he

(05:03):
went out of the league, entirely, and now he's back as a potential
contributor, even a starter in anumber of games. They definitely needed a
left handed bat with some power.Don't have any of that on the bench
because Michael Brantley has upen healthy enoughto play all season long. I was
thinking back to Rockets history. Iguess the parallel would be, you know,
one of their top prospects in twentythirteen twenty fourteen were guys like Terrence

(05:26):
Jones Denatus monty Unis, who arelargely at least out of the NBA.
I know monty Unis is still playing. I believe that's basically what this is
like. It's like bringing freaking demoback to the Rockets. It's the most
bizarre parallel. Let's see, whatis what is Denatus monty Unis doing right
now? He's always playing in Europe? Yes, he is playing in Lithuania.

(05:47):
Oh no, no, no,he's playing now. He's from Lithuania.
Of course, he's playing in theFrench League, the top tier in
France. So yeah, he isstill playing. So congratulations, folks.
If you've made it with us tothis point, you know we're in the
dog days of the NBA. Offseason, because we're talking about Denatus Monty Units
who has outplayed for the Rockets inmany years, essentially having a late career

(06:11):
sean Singleton style renaissance. Not countingon that, because of course, the
Rockets as currently constructed have all sortsof young prospects for ema Udoka to choose
between as he puts together his optionsfor the rotation in this upcoming season and
beyond, and as we transitioned tomore serious NBA and Rockets analysis. Look,

(06:31):
even though we're in the dog daysof the NBA calendar, as I
mentioned leading off the pod, it'snot like there's nothing going on. This
is a World Cup year for FIBAbasketball. And so there's a US national
team which is going through its trainingcamp in Las Vegas right now and over
the past week. And there's alsoa US Select team, a group of
young prospects that was brought out totraining camp to play against the national team

(06:57):
and scrimmages and practices, and potentiallyif there's an injury or any other withdrawal
from the national team, then someonefrom the select team could be promoted to
the actual World Cup roster. Oncegames begin for the US and every other
country participating I believe, towards theend of this month and then continuing into
early to mid September. That's partof the reason I believe the NBA is

(07:18):
starting its training camps a bit laterthis year, as opposed to the last
week of September, which is theway it's been the last couple of years,
It's going to be the first weekof October this year, and I
think the World Cup is a reasonfor that. Anyway, the Rockets connection
to Team USA is with Jalen Green, who, as we mentioned on one
of our recent pods, is onthe Select team, which at the moment

(07:41):
does not position to him to actuallyplay in World Cup games, but it
does have him competing against the bestof the best against the national team,
and there's a lot of benefits tobe taken from that. I think,
first and foremost, Iron Sharpen's ironand so going up against the best of
the best elite competition. Anthony Edwardsis on the national team, and everybody's
talking about how and it honestly hasfor over a year now, wanting Jalen

(08:03):
Green in the Houston to take theAnthony Edwards leap that he did in Minnesota.
Well, I can think of nobetter way for Jalen Green, the
number two pick in twenty twenty one, to try and do that than regularly
facing off with the guy he's sofrequently compared to the number one overall pick
where you're earlier in twenty twenty andso in the select team versus national team

(08:24):
matchups, then yeah, you seeJalen Green going up against a lot of
elite guys, but most notably AnthonyEdwards, and so you certainly hope that
iron Sharpen's iron. And while it'snot as if you know, if there
was no Select team, I supposeyou can point out that it's not like
he'd be sitting on his couch.There's pro ams, there's GEM runs,
there's basketball camps. I believe Jalen'shosting his again in Fresno in the middle

(08:50):
of this month. That's his hometown, so it's not like he would be
doing nothing. But number one,you don't have the volume of elite competition
that you do at a Team USAtraining camp. And secondly, at these
ProAm type events, a lot oftimes you have guys that are going at
seventy five eighty percent to try andavoid getting hurt as opposed to Team USA.
With a World Cup less than amonth away, the stakes are raised.

(09:13):
These guys are taking it seriously andso you hope that as long as
he's able to stay healthy, thatit's going to put Jalen Green in the
best physical form and hopefully mental formas well to feel confident and ready once
MBA training camps open in early October. And the good news. While there
have not been any statistics released,I think they guard those pretty closely.

(09:35):
In terms of the intrasquad scrimmages,there have been some reporters allowed into the
gym to watch those practices and thosescrimmages in recent days, and the reports
I've seen are pretty positive for JalenGreen. Mark Jones of ESPN this was
the most notable one. Let mecall up the quote right now. If
I'm the Rockets, I'm thrilled withhow Jalen Green is playing for the select

(09:56):
team. He gave the varsity somework yesterday. Mark reported that over the
weekend, and there were other reportsthat said the select team actually beat the
regular team on Friday, which wasthe first day of scrimmages. Now,
I think that changed over the nextcouple of days and the national team got
wins over the Select team. Ithink some of the more veteran latent types
probably took it a bit more seriouslyafter Jalen Kate Cunningham, Chet Holmgren and

(10:20):
the rest of those young guys thatthe Select team is comprised of rapps for
a bit more ready than some ofthe veterans expected them to be on that
first day of scrimmages on Friday.But the point is, according to Mark
Jones, according to Joe Varden atThe Athletic, who wrote that Jalen Green
is very effective against Team USA,it sounds like things are going very well.

(10:41):
So it's not just iron sharpening iron. While we don't have statistics because
they keep those closely guarded, it'snot like these are real games. These
are people that are watching the gamesthat are very credible or the scrimmages,
I should say, and reporting thatJalen Green is more than holding his own
and that's a very signed going upagainst the best of the best. And
I think what's perhaps most noteworthy aboutit, it sounds as if Kaide Cunningham

(11:07):
is basically the engine of the Selectteam. He's operating even though he's not
a full blown point guard. He'sbasically their point guard. He's the guy
initiating the offense, and so that'sallowing Jalen to take on more of an
off ball roll. And I thinkthat's part of the case for optimism with
Jalen this season with Rockets. Allthis talk about is he a winning player?

(11:28):
The true shooting percentage is below fiftyfour, even though he put up
more than twenty two points per gamelast season, which easily led the Rockets.
The raw data in terms of shootingpercentages and then the advanced stuff like
true shooting percentage, it was allfairly pedestrian. And you've seen these storylines
if is he at schalker? Ishe ever going to contribute to winning by
being able to channel it in ateam construct And we've made the case that

(11:52):
a lot of it simply because whoelse on Houston was going to take those
shots. They haven't had a pointguard over Jalen's first two years in the
NBA. Kevin Porter Junior has beensort of forced into that role, and
he's also missed twenty plus games ayear due to injury as well. And
then when you go from year oneto year two, they traded Christian Wood
away in the offseason, they tradedEric Gordon away at the deadline. They

(12:13):
got substantially younger, with Jabari SmithJunior basically taking Christian Wood's spot in the
starting lineup, and then kJ Martintaking Eric Gordon's spot. So it's been
an incredibly young team. It's beenone that's had one of the worst records,
and so it's forced Jalen Green totake on a role in terms of
on ball creation and beyond that,just simply being the top guy that every

(12:37):
opposing team has leading their scouting report. Every opposing defense is trying to stop
Jalen Green because quite frankly, hardlyanyone else on the Rockets has posed much
of a consistent threat at all otherthan Alpern Shangoon, and of course he's
an interior player. So in termsof the perimeter attack of the Rockets,

(12:58):
it's been Jalen Green drawn most ofthe coverages from opposing defenses. He's been
leading those scouting reports, and that'sa lot to ask of a twenty year
old and his second NBA season onone of the NBA's worst and one of
its youngest teams. So in manyways, he's been set up to look

(13:18):
inefficient and the hope for him totake a leap. And now you've had
this big offseason, You've brought inveterans, guys like Fred Vanvley, Dylan
Brooks. You hope Kevin Porter Juniorcan stay healthier next season and perhaps take
a little bit of the load offof Jalen, let him do a bit
more off ball, and by doingso, put him in opportunities that make

(13:39):
him more efficient, to give himthe window to do things in twenty twenty
three to twenty four that he couldn'tdo last season. And there should be
some growth anyway. I'll acknowledge thathe's in his third NBA season and he's
twenty one years old now, sohe should be getting better as any prospects

(14:01):
should at this point of his development. And there is going to come a
point we throw out these architects forhim like Devin Booker, and yeah,
at some point by year five,year six, year seven, just as
Booker did. There needs to comea point in which even if Jalen Green
is the headliner on the scouting report, he's still able to go out and
give you thirty points per game onstrong efficiency. If he's going to be

(14:22):
the guy that we all wanted himto be when he was drafted number two
overall in twenty twenty one. Thenat some point he's going to need to
actually be able to handle that andnot just thrive in an off ball role.
But that's something that may take years, and it has for players of
his archetype over the last five toten years, and so there's no panic.

(14:43):
I think what you want to seein the short term, can you
get that efficiency up and let himgradually develop as opposed to throwing him into
the fire too quickly, potentially developingsome bad habits and or confidence associated with
that. I think get times we'veseen that the last couple of years.
I think the hope is that withthe real point of guard and fred Van's

(15:03):
lead and these veterans you brought inthat when you have him in an off
ball roll, all of a sudden, some of those efficiency metrics are going
to pick up relative to the rolehe's had to take on the last couple
of years. And so while it'sa small sample for sure, I think
seeing him flourish next to Kate Cunninghamin an off ball roll, to me,

(15:24):
it has be more optimistic that allthese things we're talking about on paper
as reasons to believe your three isgoing to be better for Jalen Green,
it sounds like that it's actually translatingto the court and hopefully that continues in
October. Right, you obviously havea limited knowledge of what goes on.
I was able to find basically thefull game from the from the Friday's practice

(15:46):
and then like the only watch highlightsof the rest of the practices the hail
throughout the weekend. But I didwatch the entirety of the of the Friday
one, and well, the firsttakeaway is he was guarded by Mikael Bridges.
That was his primary matchup, whichis, you know, a good
test one of the best defenders inthe league three new wing at that.

(16:08):
But my first thing takeaway from itis he doesn't look smaller than Mikael Bridgiess
who's listed at six six. Sowe need the NBA to, you know,
go make hear him again because I'msure he's not six four, as
I'm sure that KPT is not sixfour. That's more of a fan like
a triggered thing, but come on, Dud's not six foot four. That

(16:30):
being said, my takeaway is isa lot of the same, the same
stuff that you said in the firstgame. Kick getting him was just you
know, cooking tyres Olibert and cookingwhoever was in front of him. He
looks a lot bulkier than than hedid coming into the league, and you
know, if he at the pointcard positions, it's just tough to stop.

(16:52):
He's going to be stronger than mostpoint cards out there, which lad
as you said, you'll be playingmore off wall and the main takeaway him
it is just that it confirms whatwe've been saying on here for the better
part of not I'm not going tosay the full year, but past you
know, the first third of theseason, which is at least for me
ideally, Kevin Green has a littlebit of a shot selection or the split

(17:15):
between off ball and on ball andthe way he's used off ball to what
Steph Curry does. A lot ofpeople like to bring up, you know,
Devin Booker, A lot of peoplebring up cyc Lavine, Bradley Beale
who early on, to his credit, when he played with John Wall,
was played a lot of off ball. But to me, you can use
Jelen in a lot of those sameways that Steph curries us is obviously not

(17:37):
not as good as a shooter,but just the split, it's it's basically
a fifty fifty spot interrupt sec youdo have designated for him between him being
on ball and him being off ball. A year one, we saw a
lot of encouraging things as far ashim relocating and staying active even when he
gives the ball up, which gotlost in year two. Well, I
think some of it because they theteam to split. There's a there's a

(18:00):
I think there's an interview before thisseason even starts with Killings which basically cautioning
fans to, hey, we're probablynot going to be good. And if
you're going into the season with thatexpectation already, and I wouldn't be surprised
if they did, because I betthat it also comes a little bit from
higher rope and the expectations that atthe front office and the coaching stuff for

(18:21):
the season. Basically, he didn'tshowcase those same abilities year two, and
that's basically not what was asked ofhim either, And so because of that,
seeing him in this scenario where he'sjust surrounded by much better players than
he was last season, with theRockets and not just skate Kenningham chat Home
Grin was that level, and Durinwas there, Tree Murphy was there.

(18:42):
You know guys are that are ornot Chet because he hasn't played yet,
but there's the guys that they aregoing to find success in the NBA.
This season, it showed how mucheasier the game is for him when you
simplify it right, because he hasall of the athletic tools. He has
worked on inslam clat which is alot quicker now, not that then it
was in this last season, butwhen he came in very early on,

(19:04):
he has like a lot of easegetting it off. And so if you
can simplify the game for him asto he only has to make the decision
whether he's open, he's going toshoot if he's not. He has a
speak to blow by guys there andhe's shown to be able to make the
extra pass as well when he getsto the rim, and he's become more

(19:26):
calculated at that. He has allthe tools to be, you know,
one of the best off ball playersin the league, because it's just really
tough to guard like that's that shiftywith that much at criticism that's also able
to shoot the ball. And sogoing into this season, hopefully we get
back to and I'm sure, I'msure we will because i mean email,
you don't played with Daylon Brown,a guy that can get it off the
dribble, but with his limited thehandle has to get a lot of reps

(19:49):
just you know, from sets.Hopefully he may look at institutes a system
where he is closer to the fiftyfifty fifty split as far as on ball
off ball goes. And we sawa lot of that. We saw him
like a lot of three. Wesaw him cash value. We saw him
going around screens and you know,he has, as we know, a
really easy time if he and hisdefender are you know, starting off from

(20:12):
basically the same spot. I'm gettingI'm getting a step on people and just
finishing at the room. And wesaw the police he didn't get the biggest
amount of usage, but in thosesmall little tidbits that we saw, we
saw him still be able to dothat against you know, great competition.
And so Toms just retreats the pointthat he is more of a step cry

(20:33):
type of player than he is thegame startan or a C game, a
column or something like that and sohopefully that hopefully that's something that we see
going forward this season. And evenif he didn't improve, if we changed
his you know, the way he'sused a little bit his he would,
I think, with the skill setthat he had last season, would easily

(20:56):
dally gaverage through shooting wise, justby in the shot diet. Because early
last season or throughout the entire season, he was you know, I would
say, what sixty forty maybe onball off ball. This last season he
was like ninety ten, which isjust a lot of responsibility and you know,

(21:17):
hopefully, and this is what wewant as Rockets fans obviously and always
been advocating for. With a pointguard that you know, has average seven
eight assists a game throughout his careerwithout Prince chingun there, who you know,
hopefully will be more featured with Emailudoka, he can swat or he can
have more reps off the ball,which will increase his efficiency. And that

(21:37):
a couple that with his you know, developed ability to get the free throw
line when he's playing on ball,and now you know, we're starting to
see something. And in my opinion, if we're looking at this team for
next year, if we want tomake a playoff push, I think Kyle
Green has to be the best playeron this team. You know, maybe
not the best overall player, butat least offensively. I think he has
to be the best player on thisteam. I have to trouble, you

(22:00):
know, picturing a team whose bestplayer is Fred van Leads or even operation
and making the playoffs, because overFred van Fleets, we saw him with
the Raptors, he wasn't even thebest player yet Pascal Siaka, who is
you know, an All star playingnext to him and Obi and he still
couldn't do it, or they couldn'tdo it last season. So I doubt

(22:21):
that that's the path. But ifwe want to make the player or the
playoffs, as I said, it'sgoing to take a lead from Jaylan,
and I think the it's all goingto be mostly on the defensive event where
I think just from a commitment standpointand you know, actually caring about the
result of every single game and fightingfor something, I think that we will
improve it from from him because hehas the tools. We know he has

(22:42):
the tools. We saw flashes ofhim stopping down with the middle in the
quilt and the guys like that.So I think most of the improvement will
come on the defensive event and thenon the offensive, and I think he'll
get to at the very squeak averagejust as a product of better shot selection
and you know, actually having theoffense somewhat tailored to what he's good at

(23:04):
rather than you know, just throwthem into the fight and hope he gives
that on top. Yeah, andI should mention if any of our listeners
want to track down footage, ifyou haven't watched it already, go to
YouTube, go to Twitter and goto your social media platform choice and search
for Team USA, search for JalenGreen. You can go to Rockets Wire
and look at the story that Iput together on it. That's compilation of

(23:26):
highlights. They're not too difficult tofind, both the full games as well
as the select highlights of Jalen doingwhat he does. If you're really start
for basketball and you want to seewhat's going on out in Las Vegas with
not just the national team. Theyare going to have some of their exhibitions
in the coming days, including onetonight televised, but also these practices,
these scrimmages and stuff that actually involvesmembers of the Select team. Most notably

(23:49):
Jalen Green with your Houston Rockets,and really it's so important and it's why
I let off the podcast discussing it. This is a massive year for Jalen
Green, and so to see growthfrom him, even in a small sample
on some of those fronts, it'sreally encouraging because honestly it's needed. Some

(24:12):
of the red flags surrounding his firstcouple of years, Again, there are
legitimate reasons for that in terms ofthe supporting casts, the way he was
used, the lack of competitive environment, the coaching staff, all of that
is completely reasonable to say. Butthis year the excuse is run out.

(24:33):
He's got to I don't want tosay be a finished product, because it's
too soon for that at twenty oneyears old. Year three, but he's
got to be much more of awinning player to use the I suppose debate
term that gets thrown out at leaston Twitter or x or whatever you want
to call it, all the timeamongst NBA fans, this debate of is
Jalen Green a winning player? Weshould see some signs of it this year.

(24:56):
I think we will, But ultimatelyit's time for j at least to
an extent, to put up orshut up, and it sounds like to
this point in Las Vegas he's puttingup and hopefully that continues into training camp
with the Rockets. And when Iwas putting together our agenda for the podcast,
it got me to thinking about whothis season is most important for because

(25:18):
it's not equal across the board forstarters, the Rockets do not have realistic
ambitions to compete for a championship thisseason. Let's just be honest, it's
still a young, rebuilding group,even if they're closer to the play in
mix and being competitive with guys likeFred VanVleet and Dylan Brooks leading the way
and trying to teach the young guyslike Jalen, like Alp, like Jabari

(25:41):
Smith Junior like Torry Eason and soon and so forth how to win.
Ultimately, it's not going to beat a contending level just yet, so
really, organizationally, in terms oftwo, three, four years down the
road when they actually do have apath to contention, the most important thing
is going to be individual development,and especially from some of your young prospects,

(26:03):
and Jayleen is at least from aninvestment cost, the top one you
have drafted number two overall in twentytwenty one. That's the highest pick that
the Rockets accumulated in this tanking window, and so of course there's a lot
of interest in him. And yeah, it led me to think about who
is this season most important for andI put together a list of my top

(26:26):
five. I'm going to go throughmine, and then Paulo you can do
the same. I'm sure there maybe some overlap. I'm guessing there's going
to be some differences as well.I'll say for me the criteria I used.
I don't think it's an especially bigseason for your super veterans, think
Fred van Fleet, Jeff Green,because those guys largely are what they are.

(26:49):
Sure you want to see in Fred'scase, in particular, that there's
not some huge regression that he livesup to the contract. But look,
he's spent nearly a decade in theleague, He's won a championship, he
makes a huge impact defensively, He'sa good shooter. When the shot diet,
the shot profile is right. Weknow who Fred is, we know

(27:10):
who Jeff Green is. Conversely,I don't think it's all that important of
a year for Am and Thompson andCam whitmore simply because they're not likely to
have super huge roles immediately, andso whether they're really good like Scottie Barnes
a couple of years ago, orthey're just not quite ready at the end

(27:30):
of the day, who they areas rookies isn't going to have that much
of a correlation with what their endoutcome is likely to be. Sure,
I still want to see him play, I still want to see some flashes,
but I don't have them near thefront of my list for this being
a huge season in terms of theircareer trajectory, just because no matter what
they do, I don't think I'mgonna leave this season finishing or feeling dramatically

(27:56):
different about who they're going to beor who they're capable bull of being at
the NBA level. And then withguys like Fred and Jeff Well, I
certainly hope I'm not. I'm notruling it out because it could be this
is the year that Jeff Green finallyfalls off Cliff. Maybe Fred isn't as
good with the infrastructure in Houston ashe was with the team in Toronto that
as you mentioned, Paolo had afew more veteran difference makers like Pascal Siakam

(28:18):
and og And and Nobi. Butat the end of the day, I
feel like I know who those guysare and there's a reason the Rockets signed
them, and Fred's case in particularto the deals they did, they're fairly
well established. So when I lookat this season, being maybe make or
break is too strong, but veryimportant to the player and their long term
trajectory, my list is much moretilted towards the young guys with the asterisk

(28:41):
of not the rookies, guys whoare a bit more advanced in their development
and thus it's more realistic to seesomething of a leap, if not in
their overall game, at least incomponents of their game. So I'll start
with my list. This is goingto be slightly different from the criteria that
I just laid out, but atnumber five, I actually have Dylan Brooks.

(29:04):
I know he's twenty seven, Iknow he's something of a veteran,
But unlike Fred, there are someconcerns, or at least it's been reported
that there are. We know thedialogue and the discourse surrounding Dylan on social
media about the antics, about theshot selection, about some of the things

(29:25):
in Memphis that led to him notgetting all the recognition that he earned by
being one of the league's best perimeterdefenders every single year. And a guy
who is definitely a capable three pointshooter. This is not Hory Brewer,
a guy who certainly has the athleticismto be a pesky defender and can make
some plays defensively, but just doesn'thave the ability to shoot. No,

(29:48):
Dylan can absolutely be a good shooterin the NBA. The issues with these
percentages are related to the shots selection, and so with Dylan transitioning from the
Grizzlies, a team that's been nearthe top of the Western Conference the last
few years, to a team inthe Rockets that's been near the bottom of
the West. Look, there aresome people that are going to and I've
already seen this question raised. They'regoing to point out if Dylan couldn't corral

(30:11):
and stay on top of these issueswith the Grizzlies and a competitive environment,
or you have established alpha's in place, like John Morant and Jaron Jackson Junior.
Although we should pint out, ofcourse that in the case of John
Moran, he was not available formuch of the second half of this season,
and I think maybe that played intosome of the antics we saw from
Dylan Brooks. I've seen it hypothesizethat maybe some of the things Dylan did

(30:33):
was as somewhat of a cover todistract, to keep the focus away from
John Morant and all the things hewas dealing with off the court during the
second half of last season. Nonetheless, it is fair to ask, look,
if Dylan has these issues for avery good team like the Grizzlies that's
in a super competitive environment where everymargin is put under the spotlight and they're

(30:56):
trying to win every game, whathappens in Houston where they don't have ambitions,
at least in the next year ortwo of winning a title. The
stakes are not that high. There'snot really an established alpha in place,
at least not to the extent ofJohn Morant before things started to go haywire
in terms of the guns and thesocial media concerns and whatnot. Is he

(31:18):
going to revert back to those habitsor perhaps even accelerate some of them.
I personally don't expect that to happen. Again. The reporting this offseason has
indicated that Dylan was a priority targetfor Ema Udoka in particular, who carries
a lot of weight his name thatis in NBA circles, and I think

(31:40):
he has the type of presence that, unlike Steven Silas, had be very
concerned about bringing Dylan Brooks into aSteven Silas locker room. I think ema
Udoka carries enough respect from NBA playersthat it's going to be a little bit
easier for him to relate to Dylanand hopefully get him to buy in on
everything the Rockets need from him,not just in terms of action on the
court, defense, taking the rightthrees and not getting too carried away with

(32:04):
the shot profile, but also interms of keeping the antics in check.
Some of them are good. Ithink that every team can benefit from a
Pat Beverley type that's willing to dothe dirty work and occasionally try and get
an opponent's heads. But as withanything, you can do it a bit
too much to the point where itcan be a little bit of a distraction.
So I think this year, ifDylan goes out and we don't hear

(32:25):
nearly as much about the extracurricular aboutthe antics, then honestly, I think
it's going to be really really goodfor his long term future. With the
Rockets because look, he's under contractfor four years. They gave him more
than eighty million dollars. He's justtwenty seven years old. It's entirely possible
that Dylan Brooks is still a roleplayer for you in three four years,
when we hope the Rockets are seriouslycontending for an NBA championship, it's possible

(32:49):
he's still there. So even whileeven though he's not a young player,
it's highly possible that Dylan is stillaround and in the prime of his career
when you're trying to win at thehigh level. And yet there are reasons
why literally no one expected him togo back to the Grizzlies once free agency
began this offseason. He did wearout his welcome and while you can have

(33:10):
optimism that with Ema Udoka and anew environment in Houston that things are going
to be different, at the sametime, he needs to show it.
So while it's not necessarily a bigyear for Dylan from the standpoint of developing
his game, I think we knowwhat his skills are at the NBA level
and what he needs to focus on. I do think if he has a
productive year without a ton of let'scall it extracurricular activity. Then that's going

(33:36):
to go a long way towards makingRockets fans feel like, hey, this
is a guy who the team wasjustified and signing for four years and someone
that hopefully can be a quality threeand D type role player or the Rockets
over the coming decade is they tryand transition to consistent contention. So he's
number five on my list, numberfour. The rest of the way,
these are going to be your youngerguys. I've got Jabari Smith Junior at

(33:58):
four because I think Jabari has someclear momentum. Right now, we know
how his rookie season started. Itwas really bad, but the second half
of the year we did see somegrowth in a number of areas. He
had the game winner against the Pelicans, and now he went into the off
season, he made it a pointto play in Summer League and looked absolutely

(34:20):
brilliant. I think clearly would havebeen MVP had he continued to play with
the Summer League team. And it'sjust it's hard to quantify, but there
are certain points in the development ofa young player where you can just feel
the momentum and they need to buildon that. This is more at like
a team level. But think backto Devin Booker when the Suns went eight

(34:42):
no in the bubble, nearly madethe playoffs, but it felt like,
Okay, they found something, andso next year they add Chris Paul and
before you know it, oh,Devin Booker's a superstar and the Suns are
a perennial contender. Not saying it'sgoing to happen that quickly for Jabari Smith
Junior, or that his run thelast few months, the way he concluded
this season, and of course whathe showed in Summer League over the past

(35:02):
month or so is anywhere near theextent of Devin Booker in the bubble.
What I'm saying is that on asmaller scale, you hope that you can
capitalize on this momentum, and withJabari, look expectations are higher. Being
number three overall pick, I pickedJabari and not Tari for my list because
quite frankly, Tari has already shownenough in your one that we know Tari
is going to be a good roleplayer at the NBA level. Perhaps he

(35:27):
turns into more than that, buthe impacted winning already as a rookie.
I feel pretty good about what he'sgoing to be and what he can do
With Jabari, there were some clearhighs, there were also some pretty low
lows, and so with much ofit in my opinion, especially the shooting
being a confidence thing, and Ithink him getting off the wrong on the
wrong foot really held him back fora while. Conversely, now that he's

(35:52):
had a run of good form andhe's had some things go his way,
then you want to see a guywho's still one of the youngest guys in
his draft class at twenty years Youwant to see him build on what he
did at the end of last seasonand in summer league and become something closer
to, if not Paolo Bankiro,definitely worthy of a top three pick in
a decent twenty twenty two first round. So while I'm not going to say

(36:15):
that if Jabari doesn't take a leapin year two that he's a bust,
at the same time, I dothink that he's got clear momentum, and
we've heard about him taking this offseasonseriously in terms of yoga adding strength.
He had a great interview on theBrad and Will Show last week talking about
that. All the vibes around Jabarriare positive. He's got a new coach
and emy Udoka who seems to havea clear plan for him. He talked

(36:37):
about Emay putting them in different spotsthan Steven did, and that should benefit
Jabari as well. We've also heardrumblings that Emay likes Jabari as potential small
ball five. So I've got allthese positive things. Can Jabari take advantage?
That is a big storyline, evenif at year two he's still relatively
young in his sort of career trajectorythree, I've got all princing goom.

(37:00):
The biggest reason. Look, thethird season is big on a number of
levels for first round NBA prospects,in particular because after year three is when
teams oftentimes are forced to take stockof where a player is at in his
development and how he fits into thelong term puzzle. Because it's after the

(37:24):
third season that you can offer contractextensions. Now you don't have to offer
a contract extensions. You can takea player to restricted free agency after year
four. That's the fourth year ofthe four year contracts typically given out to
first round draft picks. But byand large, you want to at least
have an idea by the end ofyear three as to what your first round

(37:45):
pick is could be and certainly youknow year three, it should be a
lot better than they were as arookie. I think that's step one,
and both Jalen and all p interms of the highly drafted twenty twenty one
guys, have done that to thispoint. We want to see them continue
to improve. But also with allPe, look, there's clear deficiencies,

(38:05):
especially on the defensive end. There'sa reason why the Rockets prioritized Brook Lopez
in the off season. There's areason why they've talked about Emay in particular
adding different types of bigs. Theyhave concerns about his rim protection and Palo.
You've talked about in archives about howdifficult it can be to build a
contender without having a room protector atthe five. I think that maybe why
you've heard him talk about potentially usingJabari Smith Junior as somewhat of a lightweight

(38:30):
five, but someone who definitely hasthe length at six foot eleven, and
then you could play Tary Eason atthe four or even Cam Whitmore. As
the years progress, there's lots ofoptions, and so with Shingoon, we
know what he can do as aplaymaker, we know what he can do
offensively, but can he continue toimprove his three point shot and can he
become a passable defender. Can emailJo could find out how to best use
him, be it and drop coveragesor switching, and what matchups are right

(38:53):
to pick out, what configurations interms of the rotation and lineups are best
to optimize Shingoon play to his strengthsand minimize his weaknesses. We know that
going into the offseason they certainly didn'tlook at all p as a guy that
he's clearly thirty five minutes per gameand entrenched starter. No, there's a
reason why they went after brook Lopez. Unfortunately they did not get him.

(39:13):
But one of the silver linings isnow you have no choice but to play
all Prince Shangoon. He's gonna getsome tough love from email Udoka, who
stylistically should be a lot different interms of the culture he sets relative to
Steven Silas. How does he respondand ultimately, while it's not that the
Rockets have to offer a contract extensionto Changoon, to Jalen, to any

(39:34):
of their extension to eligible guys nextoffseason, you want to at least have
a good idea because at year three, or I suppose going into your four,
if you're uncertain how a guy fitsin, be it financially, basketball
reasons, or a combination the two, into your long term puzzle, that
may be the time to trade themat peak value because the acquiring team would

(39:58):
then have the remainder of their rookdeal and then full control over negotiations,
restricted free agency and what have youfor their second contract, which is typically
very team friendly based on the restrictedfree agency dynamic and how that holds down
offers. We just saw that withAustin Reeves and the Lakers this summer.
So I think the Rockets want tohave a better idea of all prins and

(40:19):
goon his strains, how much canthey mitigate the weaknesses by next off season,
And so I think because of thosedynamics, this coming season is big
for him. Two on my listfor a slightly different reason Kevin Porter Jr.
His contract is more set because obviouslythey got that four year deal with
tons of team options prior to theseason starting last year. He's a case

(40:45):
of a guy who after year three, they did use the restricted free agency
status or the potential restricted free agencystatus as leverage and they got the best
deal they ultimately could, and itwas very team friendly. I think KPJ's
baggage played into his willingness to takethat a contract with tons of to your
option. The Rockets already picked upobviously the option for this coming season that's

(41:07):
staying in effect, and then bythe end of twenty twenty four, the
Rockets have to make a choice.By the end of this coming season,
I should say the Rockets have tomake a choice by June twenty twenty four
of whether you pick up the nextoption on Kpja's contract, which is for
two years. So that's a bigdecision for the Rockets. Do they want
to keep him for two more years. I think this season's performance is obviously

(41:28):
going to show whether that's worthwhile.And then for Kpja, obviously he's incentivized
to try and continue to stay onthe straight and narrow, continue to play
well and prove worthy of the Rocketspicking up that option. So because of
that, it's a big year forKevin. Certainly, the finances are obvious,
but I think in terms of hiscareer trajectory, look, we know

(41:49):
why the Rockets got him for basicallyfree in early twenty twenty one from Cleveland,
despite the fact that he was supertalented. You hear top players around
the league, Kevin Durant, DamianLillard, they all rave about KPJ's talent
all the time. He was afirst run pick in twenty nineteen, and
yet the Cavaliers gave him away forfree. The concerns are real. The
anger management issues are real. Thesoup throwing, all the off court things

(42:09):
that happened when he was with theCavaliers, that's real. That doesn't just
happen. It's not that common.Those issues are real. It's not they
can't be overcome, but they're significant, and as recently as nineteen months ago.
We know what happened on New Year'sDay twenty twenty two, when I
know Christian Wood was the instigator ofsome of the chaos that day, But

(42:29):
Kevin Porter Junior was so frustrated thathe literally drove out of Toyota Center at
halftime. Not only did not returnto the bench to even support his teammates,
let alone play well. I thinkSteven Silis made clearly he wasn't going
to play based on how he did. Things got during halftime, but he
was still out of control. Theanger management got the best of him that
he literally drove home midway through agame and the team felt they had to

(42:51):
issue and the internal suspension. Now, to KPJ's credit, since then,
there haven't been any issues, atleast not that I know of. It's
largely been about the basketball, andwhen it's about the basketball, look,
Kevin Porter Junior may not be agreat point guard, but his true shooting
percentage from about mid December onward lastyear, the last thirty five or forty
games was at sixty percent or slightlybelow. That's very good and very efficient

(43:17):
for a six foot six guard whocan play multiple positions. He can shoot.
His catch and shoot numbers from threethe last couple of years are amongst
the best of anybody in the league. The talent is there. He's got
the length and athleticism to guard playersof different positions. Allen has never been
the issue. It's just been puttinglargely the off court considerations behind him.

(43:38):
He also does need to stay healthier. It's not like he's had a chronic
injury, but he's had a tendencylast couple of years to pick up just
a few knick knacks here and therethat have cost him twenty to twenty five
games a year. If he canplay seventy plus, I'll go a lot
further towards establishing his long term value. If the team feels like that he's
going to be more reliable in termsof his availability. I do think he

(44:00):
needs to show that, but Ithink the clear headliner is the off court
issues. He's come a long way. And while the question is out there
with Jalen we talked about earlier,is he a winning player? It's out
there with KPJ two, but ina different way. With KPJ it's not
about the efficiency. The efficiency numbersare actually good. They're a decent bit
better than Jayleen, even though they'refairly similar archetypes in terms of how they

(44:21):
play, their physical conditions, theway their bodies work, the positions they're
going to occupy on a floor,and so on and so forth. With
KPJ, it's war. Can ateam in a super competitive environment trust this
guy to not make it about himself, to not have a relapse. And
while the last couple of years havebeen promising, it's been a year and

(44:44):
a half and to my knowledge,it's not like anything has happened like the
stuff in Cleveland or even New Year'sDay twenty twenty two. At the same
time, it's been a super lowleverage environment the Rockets. They haven't been
trying to win, and everything hasbeen largely catered awards KPJ. He's been
the point guard without much competition.He's got the giant double locker in the

(45:05):
locker room, his name is calledlast in pre game lineup introductions. Everything
has been sort of geared towards him, and to an extent, I understand
it. Even though he's young,he actually is one of the more tenured
guys, especially once Eric Gordon lefton the current roster. So it's not
like they're giving him deference that theyaren't to other young player, just more
he's just had a bit longer inthe league and with the team relative to

(45:28):
guys like Jalen and alp that you'vedrafted in twenty twenty one and wor Shibari
Andari last year. But look,there hasn't been that much pressure. Steven
Silas is apparently laid back coach,and because you're not trying to really maximize
every margin, it's not like,well, if KPJ misses a rotation defensively,
or if you know, he wentviral a couple of times putting his

(45:50):
hands on his hips and sort ofchecking out of a possession hardened style when
he did at the ball in thehalf court. It's not like Steven Silis
was going to gang him from thegame on the spot for that type of
thing. Because the pressure just isnot there. The expectations weren't there to
win that much. Starting next seasonwith Emai Udoka, that changes. The
expectation is there to win. Sohow is he going to respond to a
coach that's more in your face,that gives him more tough love. How

(46:12):
is he going to respond when he'snot the starting point guard, when there's
an uncertain role, when things aren'thanded to him. We may not have
the double locker, he may notbe the last guy called in the starting
lineup intros. If he's in thestarting lineup at all, that's a fair
question. If Kevin Porter Junior cango out there and accept these changes without
having any issues, then it's goingto be all the easier. I think

(46:34):
next off season, be at theRockets or any other team that might want
to trade for him, to lookat Kevin Porter Junior just based on the
numbers, and so you know what, this is a really talented young player
who's an efficient score If we talkjust about the numbers, Kevin Porter Junior
is a desirable guy right now.But the reason he's such a lightning rod
both within the Rockets fan community andin terms of the way players around and

(46:58):
not just players, I should saymedia types around the NBA evaluate him.
No one knows if they can reallytrust him. And so that's why you
see some people that look more atthe numbers and say, wow, the
Rocket's got to steal in that KPJAcontract. There's other people that still won't
touch him based on some of thepast bagage. And I think to this
point, again he sheds some ofit the fact that he's improved. I

(47:19):
know he's taken the anger management stuffin particular. Seriously, He's done a
lot of personal work and to thispoint it seems like it's paying off.
That's a really good sign. Butagain it's paid off and sort of a
certain construct. Now what you wantto see is whether he can take that
growth and it still applies even ifthings are a bit more difficult on him

(47:40):
in terms of the situation. Therole. If it does then yeah,
it's going to be a lot easierfor the Rockets or any team interested in
acquiring him trading for him, becauseat twenty million dollars a year or close
to it, he could be avery valuable trade piece in terms of tradable
salary down the road for the Rocketsas well. The bottom line is if
KPJ and flourish under emay Udoka andthese changes, then I think this time

(48:05):
a year from now, it's gonnabe much easier to say, hey,
that stuff in Cleveland that really isin the past, and so we can
truly judge Kevin based on the productionand not have the questions of, yeah,
but how is he going to reactto this? What's his attitude going
to be if so and so happens. If KPJ can survive this year and
adapt to these changes, again,it's sort of like the jailing question in

(48:27):
a different way. With Jayalen,you want to see the numbers improved,
you feel pretty good about the attitude. It's more about just seeing the growth
in the numbers and defensive intensity.With KPJ, it's more like, Okay,
the numbers are there, but let'ssee what happens in terms of these
changes on the team, and doesit affect all the growth he's shown personally
the last couple of years. Ifit doesn't, then by next offseason,
even though you know again he's yearfive, it's not like this is a

(48:50):
year where you expect to see aton of basketball growth from KPJ. You
still can. It's not like he'sa finished product, but it's not like
you're seeing the same growth you wouldfrom your one to year two, year
two to year three, year threeto year four. Not quite like that
you are closer to your peak.But I just think based on the unique
circumstances and the mental side of KevinPorter Jr. This is a really big
year for him, and if hecan come through with all these changes,

(49:12):
then all of a sudden next summerhe could be a much more desirable commodity,
both for the Rockets and other teams. Finally, number one on my
list, Jalen Green, It's obvious. I don't need to spend much time
on it. We laid out thereasons earlier. There's a lot of talk
out there about whether he's a winningplayer or not, and I think there's
perfectly valid reasons as to why hehas not come through on some of the

(49:34):
metrics to this point, and whyit's likely to change when he's used in
a different way by email Udoka relativeto Stephen Silas. Now it's on Jalen
to show it. It's that simple. We already talked about why. I
just think that with Shalin in particular, the dynamics are similar to Shingoon in
terms of by next offseason you haveto decide on whether you're going to offer
him a contract extension, how much, and so on and so forth.

(49:57):
It's true with any year three prospect, but it's even more impactful with Jayalen
because of the investment costs. WithShangoon he was number sixteen overall pick.
With Jalen, he's a number twooverall pick. So that's why I have
Jayleen. I had a Shingoon.It's just the dynamics are similar in terms
of the contracts, the ages,the year three factor. But with Jayleen
you invested more in him than anyoneelse in the organization in terms of number
two overall draft pick and what's turnedout to be a very strong twenty twenty

(50:21):
one draft class. Kate Cunningham,Vid Mobiley, Scottie Barnes at this point,
Mobile picked right behind Jalen has clearlybeen better. Again, I think
there's some extenuating circumstances. There's reasonsto believe that Jaylen, used in a
different way and with better supporting piecesaround him, can be a lot better
and take the jump. Well,now it's on him to do it.
And the final point all throughout therefor Jalen, if he's still somewhat of

(50:44):
an empty calorie scorer, it's notunforeseeable that there's a scenario where Kevin Porter
Junior on a super team friendly contractwith a fairly similar body type player archetype,
still very young himself. It's notimplausible that if Kevin Porter Junior goes
out and has a very good yearand Jalen Green still looks to be something

(51:07):
of an empty calories volume scorer,that all of a sudden the Rockets look
at Jayalen potentially as a trade showthat you could see next summer what you
get for him on the trade market. Again, keep value is if you
trade a guy after you were three, and the acquiring team gets the player
on the remainder of his rookie deal, Plus you have full control over whatever
you do with that second contract.I'm not saying I expect that scenario.

(51:30):
I definitely do not personally, butI do think you have to keep at
least a small sliver of an openmind to at least the idea that look
with Kevin and Jalen, there isa certain overlap in skill set. That's
part of why I think a lotof us have been sort of down on
KPJ this offseason is that even thoughhe's talented, players have to see exactly

(51:52):
where he fits in, will acceptbeing a six man. He's not gonna
be the point guard with Fred Benfleet, and he and Jalen are both two
guards. And now it looks likeDylan Brook is going to be in trenched
as your small forward guy bringing thethree, especially d the defensive intensity.
So people have been down on KevinPorter Junior despite the fact that statistically he
was more efficient than Jalen Green thispast year. And I think you know

(52:12):
tiebreaker is going to go to Jayalen. You invested more in him, you
trust him more, there's less baggage. All of that is true, and
my strong suspicion is that Jalen hasa strong year three and we're not talking
about anything next offseason other than arethe Rockets offering Jaalen the max or something
close to it, and the debateis resolved because Jayalen goes out there and
plays at a level it's quite frankly, it sounds very similar to what he's

(52:34):
already doing right now with the TeamUSA Select Team. But if he doesn't,
If for whatever reason, Jalen doesn'ttake the leap this year and the
Rockets have another six foot six guardwith similar skills on a very team friendly
deal, it's not unfathomable to wherethen you start shopping Jalen because he'd be
the most attractive trade asset you have, particularly given his age and contractual status

(52:58):
and all the control, and basicallysay, look, we've got a cheaper,
more efficient, in house solution inKevin Porter Jr. Not saying I
expect that to happen again, Ipersonally don't, but that's what's at stake
for Jalen Green this year. Ifhe goes out and plays really well,
then he's going to secure himself asthe star. He's going to be the
focal point of your future the sameway we've envisioned since the moment he was

(53:21):
drafted in July of twenty twenty one. But conversely, if he doesn't,
if he falls short, in myopinion, there's absolutely a world where next
summer the Rockets aren't sold on exactlywhat they're going to offer him in terms
of an extension, and maybe theyeven look at trade possibilities because you have
an internal replacement who's not that differentin terms of his profile and his talent

(53:45):
base. So the point is there'sa lot of variability. There's a lot
of volatility. Ultimately, I'm abeliever in Jalen. I think he's going
to take that leap, but he'sat number one on my list of guys
that this season is most important forbecause we can say all the reasons about
why this should happen, why don'twe expect it to happen, But it's
on him to actually go out thereand make it happen. I have confidence

(54:06):
that he will, but he's gotto do it. It's on him.
He's gotten off on the right footand now he's got to continue that going
into training camp and beyond. SoI know I was long winded there,
but again that's sort of a broadquestion. That's my top five. Dylan
Jabari alp KPJ and Jaylen with Jaylenat number one, Paula, what's your

(54:27):
list? Yeah, so I thinkthe only one we got in the same
spot is Killing at number one.Yeah, finally enough. So for for
the same reasons you listed, Idon't have any of the events in my
top five, even Dylan Brooks.While I do think it's a big deal
for the perception of him around theleague, I think for his career overall,

(54:51):
in the trajector of his career,it's mostly Semstone. I would say
he has a four year contract andit's all guaranteed, so I don't think
there's much true risk for him.I do think that, you know,
as I said, from my perceptionaround the league, that it could be
a big year, especially if youknow, the Rockets become relevant again and
he's somewhat holding them back with thisshot selection or whatever. It could become

(55:14):
a narative again. But other thanthat, I don't have any of the
fats in my top five, Sostarting by fifth, I actually have KPK
fifth. I think at this point, whether it is under this contract or
not, I think it's fairly likelythat KPK sticks around the league going forward.

(55:35):
He has something that you know,he was just as wildly misused by
Salas as any other player on thisteam. He was also given too much
responsibility. He was, you know, also one of the focal points of
the offense, and as the leaguebohnd or every single I had a lot
of responsibility. He was also forcedinto a shot creation role, which is
adequate for him, but very littleof it or very little persented to his

(56:00):
shots would actually get in field withis what he thrives at. And so
because of that, I think hewas good enough last year that I think
if the Rockets waved him right now, he could get the Emilio with some
other team, so the way Iwould put it with KPJ. A year
ago, there were still a fewquestions about whether he would even be an
NBA player, based on some ofthe baggage and the stuff we've referenced ad

(56:24):
nauseam in this episode and plenty inour archives. The concerns are real as
recently as a year ago. Certainlyearly twenty twenty two after the New Year's
Day storming out incident, some peoplequestion if you could stick in the league
at all. I think at thispoint he's shown enough maturity and enough talent
and consistency that, yeah, he'sgoing to stay. There's clearly a role.

(56:45):
It's just now about can he beyondjust simply stay in the league and
have value. Can he be consistentenough on and off the court to be
trustworthy for a winning team. Tome, that's the variability with KPJ.
Yeah, So I kind of havehim fifth because I'm from his standpoint right

(57:05):
I think he's already guaranteed that he'sgoing to be in the league, and
so I don't think the upside forhim as far as contracts go. You
know, if you were Freedland rightnow, I don't think the upside would
be as high as any of theguys that I have listed above him.
And I also think the town sideit's kind of mitigated compared to the guys
I have a boom because he's moreof an own quantity. So from from
his perspective, I think there isa lot riding on the season. He

(57:30):
could be. He could still proveto be a starter somewhere. He could
still prove he could be a sixman. I would bet on most teams
in the league, but it's hecould also fall off and just be a
guy that lingers around rosters as asa microwa scorer of the band, kind
of like Chel Williams did in thelater years of his career after you know,

(57:52):
he wasn't under Clippers anymore. SoI have KPJ there. I considered
putting Amen Thompson there as the fifthjust because we haven't seen him play like
actual NPA level or compared to mostprospects. I think most people would say
the overtime you league is worse thancollege, it's worse than the league,

(58:13):
right, and so just because wehaven't seen him in the more traditional even
the league is not really traditional.But if since we haven't seen him in
the more traditional league, I thinkthere's a lot riding on his rookie season
as far as what the perception ofhim is going to be. And we've
seen with young players of all thetime, you know your first impression is
the one that lasts basically throughout yourentire rookie deal or verily until you're on

(58:34):
a winning team again, which formost guys that are picked at the top
of the first round, they don'tget to winning teams for a while,
which is why you know a guylike Lavant care the first three months of
the season really left a mark onpeople, and people thought that he carried
it out rout in their ear eventhough he didn't. Versus the guy like
Killen Green, who was you know, terrible for the first three months and

(58:55):
then was actually really awesome for therest of his rookie season. People kind
of forgot about that, And he'sjust kind of slaughtered him to slaughtered him
into an archetype and into a narrative, and he won't be able to get
out of it until he is ona winning team. So I ended up,
you know, leaving email off ofit because he's going to come off

(59:15):
the bench more than likely because there'sreally not much pressure. I mean,
he could, you know, comein and just not be good enough or
to even earn minutes and good tothe league for a year or whatever it
is. But ultimately, he's onthe first year of his rookie deal.
There's a lot even if this yeargoes wrong, there's a lot more years
to come, and so from acareer perspective, from his perspective, I

(59:37):
don't think there's there's a lot that'sobviously there's a lot riding on the season,
and not as much ESKPJ fourth,I actually have Kem with Moore.
It kind of contradicts what I justsaid. Interesting, Okay, I'll hear
you. I have kem with Moorebecause I think he fell in the first
round, right, so he kindof lost the right or the or the

(59:59):
ben fits of being a top orstrong pick, which is you're going to
get reps no matter what with themain team because the team manifested the top
pick into you, even if you'renot good enough. Prime example is Cleave
one Sex, who has been gotoff over the first two years, but
he's still going to get minutes withthe main squad because it was a huge
investment by the team and they're goingto happen to want to take something out

(01:00:20):
of it. The problem with KenWhitmore is that even though he has the
talent to be a top ten pick, a top five pick, perhaps he
fell to the twenties, which meansthat from a team perspective, it's not
out of the question that he spentsome spend a season in the T League.
And if he spends a season inthe T League, all of a
sudden, a lot of that youknow, how many people or how much

(01:00:43):
will it be reminded how much pressurewill be put in in front office to
remind them that he was projected tobe a top five pick a year ago
if he spends a full season inthe T League. And if you spend
a full season in the league,you're only a bad shooting season away from
being a project and a guy thateverybody qualifies right now as someone who shouldn't
have felt in a year with aseason in the Lee League could be,

(01:01:07):
you know, just a project.Not that different from what Usman Garuba or
Josh Christopher were by the time theyfor the time they spent in the the
league. Guys that you know,obviously kem with Moore will be above that
just from a talent perspective, butit's not it's not too far fat to
see a world where he's not goodenough in training camp. So he spends

(01:01:27):
dating in the te league, andhe spends dating in the TEA League and
he's actually not that impressive. Ofmaybe a parallel to this would be Josh
Primo, who was the eleventh Pig, which and he spent a year and
obviously he had problems, you know, personal problems aside, but he never
really stuck in the NBA and theSpurs were not in a position to fight
for the playoffs or anything at all, but he still didn't get the playing

(01:01:49):
time. And so for kem withMoore, earning that playing time and if
he could does go to the TLeague, playing well in the T League
is going to be a huge dealfor his career moving forward, because he
already felt once. I don't thinkhe I mean, I would hope that
he would get innous with the mainteam flo work to me, probably would,
but a lot of a lot iswriting on his career because it's really

(01:02:09):
easy when people don't get what youplay basketball at the NBA level, you
rise and fall as far as publicperception and as far as what I'm not
obviously not in the room, butas far as what the league thinks of
you really easily. And that's whysometimes it's goes back to the argument that
we made in earlier episodes, whereis it better to play in the league

(01:02:32):
and be terrible or not or beinjured. Well, worse than both of
those is when you play in theG league and you might not meet the
expectations. So when you're not playingin the NBA and you're not injured,
it's your your your value agent shiftsa lot, it's a lot more vote
out in my opinion. So Ihave him fourth, heard I have Lapari

(01:02:54):
just because listen, it doesn't takemuch for Jabari to stick around in the
league for a long time. Butat this point, we saw, you
know, the brightest of flashes inSummer League, but we still haven't seen
a version of the Party that's evena half decent NBA player in the NBA

(01:03:15):
yet and so the seasons would behuge for him to Hey, can you
at least provide value as a threen D role player before we worry about
any shot creation, before we worryabout small will five, before we worry
about anything else. Can you bea three n D win? Can you
knock down your open threes which youdidn't last season? Can you you know,

(01:03:36):
standard control on defense and not beover zealous at times? Did you
put on way to be able tomaybe face some time for matchups? What
is going to be riding on theparty, because just like Jellen sucks,
he can go from one terrible yearto two terrible years. And now people
were mentioning Jevan Suggs as a tradea piece for the for the Drwendo magic.

(01:03:58):
If you thought about if if youyou know, threw it back to
the pick he was, which Ibelieve was fourth two years ago. The
fourth pick is pretty valuable, especiallyin in a great draft like the twenty
twenty one draft was. So it'sgoing to be huge forty party. And
I don't think it's perhaps for hiscareer, it's this is more of a
ceiling or will he be you know, this is will be important to determine

(01:04:21):
whether he can hit you know,the higher end senators of his ceiling or
not. Maybe that's what maybe definedthis season and maybe as far as him
staying in the league, it's notthat pig of a deal. But as
far as his minute minutes ago andas far as the perception of him around
the league, I think this willbe a pretty big season because hey,

(01:04:41):
not much as expected. You're expectedto play defense in knockdown threes. If
you can at least do that,you're going to be an incredibly valuable player.
And we can start talking about thehigher end outcomes of you being a
shot creator. If you being youknow, a guy that's six foot eleven
with another with basically unguardable jump shot, but you know a lot is writing
on the season for Thy Party aswell. Number two I have al frenching

(01:05:04):
good this because plays on their thirdseason are always under the microscope. Albert
Singon, as I've mentioned, youknow plenty on this podcast, ask questions
about his defense, and ask andnot just about the level his defense is
at right now, but questions aboutwhat level can his defense get to considering

(01:05:26):
his you know, physical limitations.He's not exactly you know, a freak
athlete or if have freak measurements asfar as his wingspend goes, which is
you know, very important for ashot blocker, which is what you expect
or what most teams expect out oftheir out of their centers. And so
I think he'll probably get more responsibilitythan he had last season on offense.

(01:05:47):
I think everybody will be used betterunder Emailudoka, But I don't think he'll
struggle with more offensive responsibility. Ithink he's ready for it. He should
have gotten it last year. It'smostly going to be you know, Candace
Teams stay afloat with him at thefive because the other option is Jacque Landale.
So that isn't really Jacque Lindelle isgood, right, But he's not

(01:06:12):
exactly someone who's going to keep youI don't think keep you above water if
Ingun's just browning out there. Soit's a big year for him, thirty
year. As you said, he'sas extension eligible the next off season,
how is he going to do alot of you know, they didn't get
proklope as a lot of responsibilities goingto be on him and Jaylan took one
year to be you know, slottedinto the narrative of he's a shot chucking

(01:06:39):
shooting guard that's not that that cancontribute towards winning well. Opportune Good was
somewhat protected from his you know,not amongst rockets there because we are paying
attention. But from a national mediastandpoint, there were so many problems going
on with the rockets that there wasthere wasn't really the time to pay attention
to the narrative about Changoon, whichis he yeah, because he had a

(01:07:03):
lot of expectations because he was ayou know, not a lot of people
right after it led to ot ofpeople being surprised because he was contributing.
Well, now he's going to befeatured or at the fair least he's going
to start a team that's trying towin, and so a lot of his
falls are going are going to be, you know, put on full display,
and seeing how he deals with that. It's going to be huge because

(01:07:26):
he can go from a fun playeron a bad team that people think would
do better on a better system quicklyto a, oh, it's just another
offensive center that's a microwave score thatyou know, has a lot of post
moves but can't hold zone on defense. And because of that, his team
can stay a full defensively. Andyou know, we've seen countless cases of

(01:07:47):
guys like that, and you knowthat's not necessarily true for something going to
do. It's not necessarily fair thathe gets labeled as that this early on,
but just by Kevin Green, youknow it's it's it's a ruthless league.
And if the Rockets are struggling defensivelyand the signs are and the signs

(01:08:08):
are parting to Changoon, the narrativeabout him will also change. Which is
partly why I was so so infavor of treating him this off season,
because I thought, hey, it'sa big gamble, right. I think
his value next off season is goingto be probably drastically if the Rockets are
as good as they plan to beor anywhere close. I thought that he's
value next off season is either goingto be exponentially higher or exponentially lower.

(01:08:31):
And I, you know, amnot, was not optimistic about it,
and still am not. Uh.And so that's why I advocated towards treating
because this is a big season forChenggoon and for the Rockets who own an
asset or not own, but havean asset like Chenggoon, you know,
in their ranks, and then leadingup to number one, and it has
to be killing Green like Shangon,you know, he for the same reasons

(01:08:55):
that sh that Shanggun was number two. Chillan's number one because he Shan.
But he's you know, further alongthat timeline where he's already been attributed this
the stag of you know, andcontribute to winning. Is not a winning
type of player. And so he'sat the point and he has more responsibility
and more expectation from the front office. So and he has probably more value

(01:09:17):
on the trademarket. So he's atthe point where decisions are going to be
made about him, you know,more drastic ones, and so he has
more responsibility, more is expected ofhim, and because of that, I
have a number one you know extensionthe whole nine years that I just mentioned
about kinguon same thing applies to JailAnd except you know he was a higher

(01:09:38):
pick. He already the narratives alreadyfurther along with him. There's probably more
guys of his archetype out there thatyou can you know, substitute for him.
I mean one of them on hisown team with KPJ. You know,
there's how many CJ. Mccollins,Jordan Clarksons are there out there.
If Kilan doesn't show what he needsto show the season, there's a lot

(01:09:59):
of Malik easily is whatever it is. If Dylan is who we think he
is and I think he is,He's going to set himself apart from those
types of players, namely on thedefensive end, but also just being more
efficient offensively and being able to contributewithout the ball in his hands, which
is where some of those guys alack. So yeah, for me,

(01:10:20):
Dylan's clearly number one. So torecap the list, number one, sleeven,
number two, Shangoon, number three, Slabari, number of horse,
Cam Whitmore and number five SKPJ.That's interesting. I think there's multiple ways
you can go about ranking that typeof list. I think it went about
it from slightly different perspectives. Forme, I was thinking more in terms
of the actual players development, whereasI think the way you did it with

(01:10:45):
someone like Whitmore and definitely your rationalefor Shanoon, while we both had Shangoon
high, the reasoning was slightly different. It sounds like you were thinking about
them not just in terms of theiractual development, but also their liquidity,
their value potionally down the line,because of course, with Whitmore, if
he's in the G League and hehas a poor shooting season, then yeah,

(01:11:05):
it doesn't take much we've seen asa project, especially if he's at
twenty. And with Chingoon, yeah, there's a case to be made that
this year, either the value isgoing to go up a lot or it's
going to go down a lot,that it's probably not going to be level
and so there's a bit of agamble by continuing to sort of play this
out, And of course that couldhave potentially been used and I know you've
made it in the past as arationale to explore trades this off season.

(01:11:27):
Now that's extremely unlikely to happen sincethere's no Brook Lopez. It looks like
all prin Chingoon, Sain Krislanam ispenciled in for a thirty minutes per game
role. But yeah, I thinkultimately that's the difference. You went for
more of a value based approach.I looked at it more in terms of
the players individual development, But ultimatelyI think we had fairly similar lest and
a little bit of difference is good. I think for just a more balanced

(01:11:48):
discussion anyway, that includes more perspectives. Anyway, to wrap up the episode
and Hollow, I kept you inthe dark on this. We put our
agenda out earlier today and I mentionedI wanted to do the top five rankings,
wanted to talk about Jalen Green withTeam USA, and then I said
mystery segment X for the end becauseI wanted to throw this on you and

(01:12:09):
I already tease to it in myTop five rankings. But here's my sort
of off the wall. We're inthe dead period of the NBA calendar.
We're still more than I guess,we're slightly less than two months away from
training camp, but it's still aways away. Who do we think gets
the double lockers for the Rockets,who do we think has their name called

(01:12:30):
last in the starting lineup intros?And I'll give a little bit of background
in both of those. So thedouble lockers in the home locker room,
it's a bit of a status symbol. Basically the way it works the locker
room at too to center, thelockers for players are put together and basically
a U. So you enter theroom and then you know there's one side

(01:12:50):
the U. It curves around andyou have the you know, I forget
exactly I'm any but somewhere, youknow, sixteen to eighteen lockers in total,
and then at the two top pointsof the U are these fancy double
lockers that have obviously more room forshoes, for merchandise, for gear,
for your food, which a lotof players eat at their lockers. Basically,

(01:13:12):
it's just more space and it lookslike those guys are leading the way.
Basically those lockers are in a spotwhere it's easy for them to sort
of address the room, and soin many ways it's sort of a status
symbol. And when I first starteddoing intense Rockets media in the twenty tens,
and I should clarify credential media.The lockers belonged certainly to James Harden.

(01:13:34):
I forget who had it when Ifirst started doing credential stuff in twenty
fourteen. I had done a littlebit of credential work before then, but
my modern era of Rockets coverage startedin twenty fourteen, and Harden had one.
I forget who had the other atthat time, But from twenty sixteen
onward it was actually the Neat thathad the other. And that's interesting because

(01:13:55):
it shows you that it's not justabout the players performance on the court.
It's also about a combination their performancebut also their role in presence in the
locker room as a leader. Andso I think Nanae, even though he
was not the second best player onthe team by a long shot, he
was an important voice that people lookedup to, so he had one of
those lockers. Chris Paul. Actually, now there's little ways to work around

(01:14:18):
it. Chris Paul never got adouble locker. He let Nene keep his.
But what they ended up doing,I think it's during the two Chris
Paul years, they oftentimes for luxurytax reasons, were a man short on
the roster and so they would keepan empty locker next to Chris and so
effectively given him a second locker incase he wanted it, but it wasn't

(01:14:40):
like he had when the high profileit was still James and Nnet. Then
in twenty nineteen it became James andRoss. That was when Nana basically left
the team after the twenty nineteen season, and then actually not sure what happened
the next two years because the nexttwo years the start of this rebuild with
the COVID restrictions, media was notallowed locker rooms. Basically, no one

(01:15:00):
was as part of the protocols.And so this year being the first year
that things are this past season trulyback to normal. It started out being
Kevin Porter Junior and Eric Gordon,and then it became Kevin Porter Junior and
Jalen Green, with Jalen Green takingEg's locker once he was traded at the
deadline, and it became this hugetopic of discussion on Twitter, people saying

(01:15:21):
are the Rockets catering to KPJ toomuch based on the locker based on his
name being last in intros. Honestly, some of it is because amongst the
young players, he was the onethat was there the longest. He's been
there since January of twenty twenty one. The only guy that was there longer
was kJ Martin, and he justwas not nearly the same in terms of
long term potential or is fit withinthe core. I know you can point

(01:15:45):
to guys like Jaylen and LP,but they arrived later than KPJ, and
so KPJ hadn't a bit more experiencein the NBA and more with the Rockets.
I think that's why we slightly aheadin terms of the pedigree to get
one of those special lockers. Andso he had won, and by the
end of last season, Jalen hadwon, and so going into this I
suppose off season and start up trainingcamp on October, they are the guys

(01:16:08):
who currently have those lockers. However, things have changed a lot now you
have a new coaching staff and emayUjoka. They've clearly prioritized veterans Fred Bensley
and Dylan Brooks. As far asthe lineups, we don't even know if
KPJ is going to start. There'sdefinitely scenarios. I'd say it's probably more
likely than not that he doesn't.My expectation of the starting lineup at this
point in time, is Fred Jalen, Dylan Jabari and all printing goon in

(01:16:34):
the middle, with the slight chancethat maybe Tari beats out Jabari, although
I think after Summer League Jabari isa much more level footing to retain that
job. That's my guests at thestarting lineup. So in terms of projecting
who goes last, look, wedon't even know for sure who's going to
be in the starting lineup, andwe should also throw out the caveat that.
While most teams in the NBA finishedtheir starting lineup with the guy that

(01:16:56):
is most highly touted, think backto the nineties when Matt Thomas would bill
to a crescendo of hookey the Dream, oh lii Juan. There are some
exceptions to that. Thiago Splitter,for example, who now is actually an
assistant coach for the Rockets, wasactually the last guy introduced in the twenty
fourteen lineups for the championship Spurs team. But that's a bit of an exception

(01:17:19):
because those Spurs were just Tim DuncanKawhi Leonard clearly did not like the attention
Manu Jernobley, who was perhaps thesecond best player to tim throughout that Spurs
dynasty typically came off the bench,so the starting lineup for the Spurs was
always a bit different based on thecombination of guys who just didn't want the

(01:17:39):
attention. Also, Kawhi didn't reallybreak out the true superstar setus until twenty
sixteen and after anyway, and itwas just sort of like a team construct.
Let's just go out and go powerforward or point guard, shooting guard,
small four, power forward, centerand wrap it up. Most teams
they build to that crescendo. Theywant their star, the guy with the

(01:18:01):
most juice last, and it rubbedpeople the wrong way. This past year.
That was Kevin Porter Junior. Itled into some of those questions of
are than Rockets prioritizing and catering toKPJA too much and so on and so
forth. But again I think someof it was the Rockets viewed internally.
Well. I think it's combination.One that they viewed internally that all these
guys are unfairly similar footing in termsof young guys just trying to find their

(01:18:23):
way in the NBA. Didn't wantto give anyone too much too fast.
And then some of it is theplayers sorting it out amongst themselves, and
if these guys are talking about itin the locker room, then they may
be a bit deferential guys like JalenGreen and all Prents and goon to someone
in KPJA that's been around for ayear or two longer than they have.
So ultimately, I don't think itwas as big of a deal as some

(01:18:45):
made it. But it's an interestingtalking point heading into the dead period of
the NBA calendar. So there's multipleways that you could go about it.
You could keep the status quo withthe lockers as they are, and Kevin
Porter Jr. Stays last if he'sin starting lineup, or I suppose if
he's not, then flip it toJalen who's probably the second most tenured.
What I think actually happens, Andagain this is for fun. This is

(01:19:09):
not meant to make this out tobe super serious. I actually think it's
going to be Fred VanVleet and eitherDylan Brooks or Jeff Green. Probably Dylan
Brooks based on the investment cost slightchance that they give it to Jeff.
That's sort of Anne Elder statesman role. I think Fred and Cheff or Fred

(01:19:30):
and Dylan are the two double lockerguys because you're bringing in veterans for a
reason to make them the tone setter, and then by doing that, you're
not having to decide between Jaalen andKPJ. I think the obvious one would
be to say, look, FredVanVleet is a borderline All Star level player.
He has been an All Star inthe past, He's won an NBA
Championship. He's gonna get paid upto one hundred and thirty million dollars over

(01:19:54):
as much as three years, sohe's got to have one of those leadership
roles in the locker room and thedouble locker that accompanies it. So you
could just sort of give KPJ's lockerto Fred and move on. Basically,
Fred's your point guard. Now KPJis going to be in some different role,
and then the band moves on.However, I'm not sure if the
Rockets want to try and distinguish betweenKPJ and Jalen. To me, the

(01:20:16):
cleanest thing might actually be to deferto the veterans, have KPJ and Jalen
go back to normal lockers just likeeverybody else, and just sort of say,
hey, these are our tone setters, Fred and Delon or Fred and
Jeff, let's defer to them.And then all the young guys are basically
on a similar playing field. That'smy guests as to how they handle it.
And then the starting lineup, Ithink it's got to be Fred.
I know he's not James Harden,I know his name doesn't pop to that

(01:20:40):
extent, but this is not EricGordon. This is not someone who's just
sort of there. This is aveteran who's being paid at a max level
because you actually do believe in him, even if it's short term, as
a centerpiece for the time that heis with the organization. So my guess
is that Fred is the last namecalled out the intros. Also, he's

(01:21:00):
one of the few guys that youknow one hundred percent is going to be
in that lineup. The others,you know, there's a little bit of
risk because you don't know one hundredpercent that really anybody outside of Fred is
for sure going to be in thestarting lineup. And then with the locker
room dynamic, I'm going to guessthey go with the veterans simply because rather
than try and choose between the youngguys, I think the young guys just

(01:21:21):
sort of come to a conclusion.Maybe the coaching staffs hears them in this
direction as well, that hey,we're all trying to prove ourselves, we're
all on fairly level footing. Let'sgive some difference to the veterans that we
brought in here. They're going tolead the way. Let's put them in
the higher profile spots and let's follow. And if Jalen proves worthy of that
bigger locker in a year or two, then they can revisit the situation then.

(01:21:43):
But I think for now, basedon where they are, I think
they defer to veterans. And soI'm going to guess Fred and Dylan with
the double lockers, and Fred withhis name called lastin intros. How about
you? I'm gonna go a littlebit spicier, although I do think what
you said makes sense, right ifthey want to just to tour on the
decision. We've seen that KPK geta little upset over changing his locker,

(01:22:06):
although to be fair to him,I think in Cleveland, like his locker,
he got mad because I think inCleveland the lockers are split and there's
a main locker room section and there'sa secondary one, and he was being
moved to the secondary one. SoI think, well, I think honestly,
what happened there he was just ina bad mental space. It wasn't

(01:22:28):
just that. There were a numberof things that were happening both on and
off the court. So I thinkthis will be much more smooth simply because
he seems to be in a muchbetter headspace now than he was three years
ago when all that was going on. So if they do think or if
they do think that, then Iactually think, well, it makes sense
to not want to make that decisionright now and not ruffle any feather than
just give it to two vets.I'm actually going to say that Kilan gets

(01:22:55):
one and Fred than it gets theother, because then if you think he's
ready, and he is, youknow, open minded about you know,
coming off the bench and everything likethat and doing whatever it takes to win,
then you take advantage of the factthat he's an open mind like that,
and you make the thing now ratherthan asking him to, you know,
come off the bench now and thennext year asking him, hey,

(01:23:15):
can you give up your locker oryou know, Dylan's going to take your
old locker. Or whatever it is. I think it kind of makes sense
to you know, just rip theband aid off and you know, ask
him to be okay with it.Then you know, it's one less thing
you've got to worry about all ofthe I highly doubt that they worry about
it. So I think it's goingto be Jailen and Threadna. I think

(01:23:39):
I think Fred and and Dylan Brookswould make sense. I think Fred and
Jeff Green would makes sense. Ithink Fred's the one who walked then.
But I think they'll give it toJailan just because you know, he has
the most responsive responsibility on this teamgoing forward, and I think they probably
want him to own up to thatresponsibility and prevent Leet has talked about,

(01:24:00):
you know, after getting to gettingsigned by the Rockets, how Kylan,
you know, it's preparing to takeon more of a leadership role. I
think as you know, the yearsgo by and eventually Fred may not be
here, I think Claris and AntibariSmith are two guys that are, you
know, trying to take on roleslike that as we move into contention.

(01:24:23):
But for now, I'll go withYan and Van Leet. As far as
the last name called this kind.My answer would get swayed by whose name
got called last in Toronto. Wasit Siakim or was it Fred van Leet,
Because if it was Siakim, thenI'm going to say that Chilon probably
gets his name called. I'm gonnaif I'm gonna guess it was Siam.

(01:24:44):
I don't know that. But thereason I'm guessing is that Siakam was a
starter before Fred was keep in mindfriend and came off the bench for that
championship team. Yep, I rememberthat. So I'm gonna get I'm going
to go I'm going to go withwith Leon although it's friends and title to
that. Yeah, yeah, andI think, but I do think frets

(01:25:06):
the main leader on this team.I just think, you know, from
an optics perspective, from the outside, Jaylan is the guy on this team
for what it's worth, and withthat the bad things, but the good
things should also come with it.If if I'm going to be the one
facing the narrative and facing the criticsfrom the outside most of the time,
then you should also get a littlebit of extra shine for you know,

(01:25:29):
being what most people consider to bethe most important player on the team.
So I'm going. I'm going toget go with Kilan Froud for the last
name called Also because personality perspective,I think Kilan fits that a little bit
more than Fred Vnplat. He's youknow, more flashy, more you know,
even though even though he can hecan look shy at times, especially
when people ask him to talk,I think he, you know, embraces

(01:25:51):
that type of stuff a little bitmore. So I think they'll and I
think it'll be kind of a messagethat the sense of the Walker room as
well, right because up to thispoint they gave all of these to KPK,
but everybody knew that Kaylhen was themost important player on the team.
And so maybe this is they takestunity to show, hey, you know,
we expect this to be Kailer's teamand if and if he doesn't step

(01:26:13):
up to the plate, then itall if they can also use it as
hey, this is what happens whenyou don't meet expectations. And they may
change it next year depending on howthe season goes. But I think,
you know, given that responsibility towhat most people consider to be the our
franchise player, would make sense.Yeah, I think some of this made
also depend on how much the organizationwants to get involved. Because the way

(01:26:34):
it's been described to me when I'veactually asked about this, not that any
of it's a huge deal, butit does at least reflect the thought processes
used, is that it's not likethe organization decided that that's the way it's
going to be. The last coupleof years. It was more they were
very hands off and let the playersdecide, and the players ultimately landed on

(01:26:56):
this as the arrangement, and theorganization sort of took the mindset of it's
largely harmless, and of course thelast couple of years not like they are
trying to win anyway, so let'sjust let him play out as they see
fit as opposed to now, expectationsare hiring, and of course there's a
new coaching staff led by emay Udoka. Maybe he does want to set a
tone and, while not decide everythinghimself, have a bit more of an

(01:27:18):
active role and nudge them in acertain direction. The reason I think KPJ,
as mentioned earlier, was given alot of difference the last couple of
years is that he had a bitmore experienced relative to those other young guys,
so he was slightly ahead of themin the pecking order simply in terms
of how they viewed each other,all being relatively young in the NBA,

(01:27:39):
but organizationally, Yeah, you makea good point. Jalens certainly the guy
they have the most invested in.He's the centerpiece of the franchise right now.
Maybe you take this as a pointto an opportunity to hammer that home
and put him in a spot whereif he develops the way you expect him
to, it's not like you haveto then carve out a locker for him
in a year or change the wayit's introduced. Maybe you just show you

(01:27:59):
believe even him right now and diveheadfirst into that. And again, it's
not that I think it's that serious, and it's not like should be priority
one or even close to one foremay Udoka. This is way way down
the list, but it's fun totalk about, and I ultimately think that
some of it, you know,my guests on them leading to veterans is
if it's stays similar to the lastcouple of years and they let the players

(01:28:24):
sort of decide it amongst themselves.And my guess is that even though Fred
and Dylan or newcomers Jeff as well. The team has been so bad here
in Houston. I think they'll besomewhat deferential to those guys simply based in
having one in other situations. Andit may be that Emay has a different
approach and comes at it from adifferent perspective. So we'll have to wait

(01:28:44):
and see. I think you're takingthe more Emay friendly view of things,
or maybe not email friendly, butthe more Emay heavy view of things that
he has more of a role.And my guests is if the players the
way they did the last couple ofyears, basically sorted out amongst themselves interesting
to follow. I don't think it'sultimately that meaningful, but it may tell
you a little bit about how handson or off the Emai Ujoka administration is

(01:29:08):
for the Rockets power. Before weclose out, anything else you want to
throw out? Yeah, I wantto ask. I'm not sure how the
Astro's clubhouse is. I doubt there'sa double locker, but if they have
the Rockets locker room, it's obviouslyal tub right, But I'm asking who
gets the second one? Does Daveget it? Get it back? So
I actually I'm actually interested to seeI'm gonna do a few Astro's games as

(01:29:30):
credential media in early September. Ihaven't done any this year. JV had
the biggest one. There's no doublelockers, but they do have corner lockers
that might be a little bit bigger, but the main thing is the corner
so that you sort of have thatextra space as well. And so JV
was the one that was notorious basedon his pedigree for having the biggest.

(01:29:51):
Alex Fregman had another think about alTub. He's so low maintenance, Like
he is the most low maintenance superstarthat I've ever seen in sports, which
of course is just hilarious to thinkabout. With how much Vituli gets from
other fan bases, of course that'smisguided, but the victual he gets,
you would think that he's some primadonna with a huge ego everybody hates.

(01:30:12):
No, not at all. He'ssuper selfless, like not that somebody who
wants a big locker is high maintenance. But I do think that Altube is
such that it's just not a bigdeal to him at all. And other
guys, you know, not thatit's a huge deal to them, but
I don't know, they're just alittle more vocal. So yeah, like
last year, Vierling or Bregman,Corea before he left had one of them.

(01:30:35):
I forget who ended up taking.Actually, I think Altuvee might do
whote me on this. Altuba mighthave ended up taking Corea's. But it's
noteworthy that even though Korea came upafter al Tuba and Bregman did as well,
they ended up ahead of al Tubesort of in that pecking order.
I think more just because I meanPowell, you have to see it watching
the games. They're just more sortof vocal in that way. Altuvea is

(01:30:57):
very easy going, very pliable eyeslike Kraa and Bregman are a bit more
outspoken. What about I guess mynext two on the list would be probably
Uncle Mike ands Legs. Yeah,no, no, no, you're right.
Brantley has a corner. That's whoI wasn't thinking of yet. Brantley
has a corner, and uh Fromberhas one as well. I believe there's

(01:31:21):
almost are well, yeah, there'slike four. Yeah, it's different in
or shoot, there's more. No, no, the way it's set up,
there's like six actually in the astrobecause it's no no, no,
no, no, there's like there'suh, the way it's set up there
six. It's not a U likethere's breaks in the U as far as

(01:31:42):
it's more of like an oval withsome break points like going too like hallways
or different places. So yeah,the Astros have like five or six.
It's not like the Rockets where there'sjust well, there's normally just two.
Now there might be a way thatyou can give somebody an extra locker,
but there's only two that are actuallike big lockers and promote locations and one
final n next point out about theAstros as like, yeah, Berlander,

(01:32:05):
Krea, Brantley, they're more vocaltypes. Everybody knows brant laid after Game
three, I believe of the WorldSeries is when even though he wasn't playing,
he lit into them and that wasthe turning point in the World Series.
Hello, this was before you werea fan. But one thing that
really stouts me about Alex Bregman intwenty seventeen and twenty eighteen, when the
Rockets had a lot of Spanish firstspeakers in the clubhouse, Bregman actually took

(01:32:30):
Spanish lessons himself so that he couldcommunicate with guys like obviously Julie Gurriel was
his infield mate that was most noteworthy. Kreia spoke English well, but I
think he was a Spanish first speaker, and so Bragman to sort of make
himself on the best terms, andBragman actually came up last of all of
them, al Twobe and native Spanishspeaker as well. Bregman came up in

(01:32:53):
twenty sixteen, and so even thoughhe was number two verall draft pick,
even though he had all this highprofile status American Star, LSU top pick
or number two overall pick, hestill went the extra mile. Because so
many of his teammates, especially theguys he works closely within the infield or
Spanish first speakers, Bregman took wentthe extra mile while playing professional baseball to

(01:33:17):
learn Spanish, and so that's youknow, I know this is basketball podcast,
but I think that speaks well toAlex Bregman the person, and I
think that speaks as to why hehas one of those corner lockers, because
he does value being a guy thatcan sort of not just do his own
job but try and support his teammatesas well. And so I think that's
why even if Bregman isn't the typeof raw row guy that you think of

(01:33:39):
with like Verland or Brantley Correa whenhe was here. But I do think
he's low key someone who tries tomake life better in the clubhouse for his
teammates, and that can be somethingthat sort of goes into those decisions as
well. Anyway, I think we'vehad enough baseball talk for one episode.
Don't want to do too much becausehey, we've got two more months before

(01:33:59):
the NBA fully turns and we'll havesome World Cup games and whatnot. We'll
also have some schedule reaction once thatdrops later this month, but it's a
slow time. Of course. We'llhave some interviews in there as well,
but for episodes that's just Paulo andmyself. Yeah, we may need to
sprinkle in some baseball talk here orthere. Maybe some football talk as well.
CJ. Shrouds starting for the Texansin their preseason opener on Thursday nights,
so maybe we'll have some excitement outon the gridiron as well. Time

(01:34:23):
will tell, at least we hopewe will, because again there's still two
long months to go. Rockets alreadysort of shot off their fireworks with the
free agency signings and trades in lateJune early July. Now we're just waiting
until October to see those pieces onthe floor. Anyway, we've talked enough
for one episode, so we'll bringit to a close right here. For
Paulo, I'm Ben. If youwant more content from either of us before

(01:34:44):
our next episode, the best placeto get it is on Twitter or I
suppose on x Pollo is on thereat Palo Alves, NBA, simply his
name and then MBA, I'm inthere at bed Dubos and this show is
on there at the loggerline. Ifyou go to that handle on Twitter slash
as, you can find your linktree, which has links to not just
our distributors places like Apple, Google, Spotify that you can listen to this

(01:35:04):
podcast, but also are our partners, sponsors and friends Sports Off seven ninety
USA, Today's Rockets Wire, CarbockBrewing, where this show is put on
Courtnescy of their beer Clutch to thelagger developed with the Houston Rockets. You
just go to our link tree andyou can find out how to access all
of their content and learn more abouteverything that they have to offer and to
take advantage of any of those opportunities, tell them that the Logger Line sends

(01:35:27):
you bye. We would definitely appreciatethat anyway. With the plugs complete,
we will adjourn again for Paulo.I'm Ben. Thanks as always for listening
and please help back soon for anothernew episode of the Logger Line.

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