Jalen Green’s star rises as Rockets win nine straight

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Cheers. Rockets fans, Welcome toThe Logger Line, an exclusive podcast from
the home of the Rockets, SportsTalk seven ninety. The Logger Line,
It's proudly served to you by CarboxClutch City lagger It is god O Red

(00:22):
Nation. Get Ready, Ready,Get Ready. The lagger Line starts now.
Welcome aboard. Thanks for tuning into another new episode of The Logger
Line, as always served to youcourtesy of Clutch City, logger of Carback

(00:45):
Brewing. I'm Ben Dubos, yourhost, editor of USA Today's Rockets were
a contributor to Sports Talk seven ninety, the official flagship radio station of your
Houston Rockets. I'm joined by agood friend, co host and producer out
of Portugal, Palo Alves. Youcan find on Twitter slash x at Palo
Alves, NBA me. I'm atBen Dubo's so as we chat this final

(01:06):
week of March, let's just behonest, it's an amazing time to be
a fan of the Houston Rockets.With nine straight wins, Rockets are currently
on their longest winning streak in morethan five years, and at eleven to
one in March, they had thebest record of any NBA team this month.
Perhaps most notably, Jalen Green hadthe best plus minus of any NBA
player this month by a wide margin, averaging around plus fifteen per game.

(01:27):
So in contrast to some of theother hot streaks he's had over his career,
this one is directly correlated with winning, and so because of the team's
recent success, Rockets are now thirtysix and thirty five. They're back above
five hundred for the first time sinceJanuary twelfth, and they're very close to
catching the Warriors for a postseason spotin the Western Conference play in tournament.
We're recording this Tuesday night during theWarriors Heat game and also the Lakers Bucks

(01:52):
game, so we don't know ifthe Rockets will be tied or down a
game, but the point is theyhave everything to play for over these final
eleven games of the season. Theywould lose the tiebreaker to Golden State,
but keep in mind they do havea head to head beating still left.
It'll be next Thursday, April fourth, in Houston. Also, as mentioned,
don't forget about the Lakers. Whilethe Warriors are technically the closest team

(02:13):
to the Rockets right now, theLakers are only a game or two ahead
of Golden State, and Houston actuallywould own the tiebreaker against the Lakers.
Now, we should note that theschedule is about to get more difficult for
the Rockets, and there's a reasonBasketball Reference still has Houston's postseason odds below
thirty percent, even when factoring inthis recent surge. Tankton ranks the remaining

(02:35):
schedule for the Rockets as the seventhmost difficult in the NBA, while the
Lakers and Warriors are among the teneasiest. Now, as we've explained in
recent pods, I don't think youshould take that as gospel. Predicting schedule
strength gets really tricky late the seasonbecause you don't know when teams may rest
guys, I e. The Clipperson the last day of the year.
That's when the Rockets draw them inLA, and I would be stunned if

(02:55):
they ask much, if anything,of their veterans like Kawhi and James Harden
on the week the playoffs will begin. But even with all those caveats,
things are going to get way moredifficult than they have been. Five of
the last seven wins for the Rocketshave come against the Spurs, the Jazz,
the Trailblazers and the Wizards twice.All of those are tanking teams at
this point. And now, ifyou want to get this win streak to

(03:17):
ten games, which the Rockets,by the way, have not done as
a franchise since that epic sixty fiveone year in twenty eighteen, well to
get to ten, you've got towin at Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And the Thunder have the second bestrecord in the West. So I know
the Rockets have momentum, and theyhave one five straight on the road,
but they're going to be punching ina higher weight class there even so let's

(03:38):
table those concerns for just a fewminutes and start off by recognizing just how
far they've come. This is agroup that was nine hunder five hundred and
late February we talked about the difficultschedule they had out of the All Star
Break. Three against the Sauns,two against the Thunder, one against the
Pelicans, four on the road.They've had brutal injury news this entire month,

(03:58):
Tarry Eason, all Shoon, KimWhitmore one after the other, Tari
out for the year, all forin Shangoon likely is even though they made
some tactical tweaks at the All Starbreak. We've talked in recent pods about
the emphasis on playing with even morepace, shooting more threes, getting the
math advantage, getting more spacing,which clearly is a priority now in the

(04:19):
post sgoon era. Even with thosetactical changes, it would have been so
easy for them to sort of succumbto the record or the fact that so
many of their rotation players were lostdue to injuries, and yet ima Udoka
kept these guys bought in, theykept the process the same. And now

(04:40):
as the schedule has evened up alittle bit in March and they've played some
lighter opponents, they had the toughdraw in late February, they've had a
bit of an easier run the lastcouple of weeks, and you bring that
same process and now there's better outcomes. And that happens over eighty two games,
And so kudos to im Udoka forkeeping them very focused day by day
and not getting bogged down by theweight of all those losses the nine to

(05:03):
eighteen stretch. Going into the AllStar Break, it would have been very
easy for those guys to go toCancun mode. A little early, and
that simply did not happen. Andin this recent stretch, let's be honest,
they're not just consistently winning games.They are annihilating these bad teams,
and that in and of itself isa win. Look, the Wizards are
three and oh since their last gameagainst the Rockets. The Jazz were much

(05:26):
closer to beating several playoff teams.I went and looked it up. They
played the Thunder, the Timberwolves,the MAVs in the last couple of weeks.
All of those were closer games thanthe beatdown they took on Saturday night
in Houston. Portland had lost itslast two games to the Nuggets and Clippers
by single digits. Those teams arestill playing hard, and so for the
Rockets to win those games convincingly,I mean that says something in and of

(05:47):
itself. On last week's pod,we said we'd be okay with the Rockets
going three and one in the upcomingweek, and they went four to oh
and none of those games were evendecided by single digits. In fact,
in the entire streak, only twogames have been close, the King's game
in Sacramento where Shin Gooon got hurtand winning by eight against a playoff team.

(06:08):
I mean that's a clear win.And then that somewhat disjointed game in
San Antonio right after the Shingoon injury, when the Rockets were still trying to
figure out what the post Shinggoon offensewould look like. Every game other than
that in this streak it's been bydouble digits, and so for a young
team to excel at that level,all while dealing with suddenly these higher stakes,

(06:29):
the pressure of the play and race, that's a huge deal. And
with Jalen in particular, who's drivingthis. Look, We've said this plenty
of times. We were never worriedabout the highs he's done that. It's
about the consistency bringing it night afternight. And now, as the undisputed
top guy on the scouting report ofevery opposing team, now that there's no
Shingon Hollow, I know you goingto jump in on that point. Yeah,

(06:53):
as someone to mention the fund.It just made about the consistency and
we've seen the highs and lows.Right to me last game at the time
of recording, the last game againstthe Blazers, the game that did not
start well for Kaylan a game whereperhaps if you looked at the past,
he you know, either not finishthe game out or just become complacent going

(07:15):
forward. This was one of thebest defensive games of Keilen Queen's career.
I mean, you could obviously lookat the steels and block numbers, but
just for me, he was makingpositive plays on defense consistently. He was
shutting guys down when they were guarding. I argue he was one of the
top two defenders on the team inthat and in this game. And then
he did what you expect your shootingguard to do right. The typical shooting

(07:40):
guard is no longer that that relevantof an archetype. In the NBA.
You have a few of them.You have Events and the Edwards. You
have. You have Devin Booker,who is kind of more of a point
guard now he does you know,he's more of a convow guard. What
you expect out of out of yourout of your typical too, is for
them to play defense right, tobe great defenders, to move off the

(08:01):
ball, and to win necessary eithertake over games and bring them wide up.
And after really tough first half,you look at Killen Greens, you
know, second quarter and beginning ofthe third and he scored two for seven,
nine eleven fourteen seventeen points in thisstretch and in a ten minute stretch

(08:24):
from the middle of the of thethird quarter to halfway through the fourth,
and what you saw was the gamethat was very touch ino. Whether Rockets
weren't playing well, another thing thatyou can highlight as they were shooting thirty
percent from three as a team,wasn't just stale. Kilan had helped keep
the team afloat defensively that far andthen carry them offensively and carry them over

(08:48):
the hump. Because yes, theBlazers are not a good team, but
Rockets have lost to them in thepast, and Rogets have lost to these
teams that aren't really more talented thanthem. But that makes the game really
tough. The Grizzlies come to mind. I think the Boisers. We lost
the Boysers this year as well theJersey Grand game where he hit they the
buzzer. Yeah, exactly. SoJalen made sure, you know, after

(09:13):
a fairly poor offensive first half,he made sure that this game wasn't close,
and he made it so we didn'thave to struggle all the way down
the stretch where we know that wearen't the best team in the court.
He has been hot from three fora and from and from basically everything.
He's hitting mediates as well for youknow, a pretty big stretch during this

(09:33):
winning streak. This game was different. You look at the percentages, you
look at the box card, itdoesn't look pretty. You watch the game
and you see, okay, let'sstar level play. That he needed you,
and you took it upon yourself andyou carry them across the finish line.
Yeah, I completely agree, Andthat's the point I was getting to.
I actually felt more fulfilled by thePortland game than I did the Utah

(09:54):
game because the eighty five points inthe first half one hundred and forty seven,
where I think Fred and Jalen canbuy him for seventy points, shot
nearly seventy percent from the field.Rockets made twenty seven threes as a team,
better than fifty percent shooting seventeen andthe twenty seven from Fred and Jalen.
Look, every team in the NBA, even the bad Ones, have
a few games where they just shootthe lights out. It happens over eighty

(10:16):
two, and the Jazz felt somewhatchecked out after the Rockets hit him with
that early blitz. Don't get mewrong, it was fun to watch in
terms of the ascetics of the game. Were beautiful to watch if you're a
Rockets fan, but there wasn't alot to take out of it. The
vibes were great, they weren't reallychallenged, and so it was just hoping
for Fred and Jalen to set somenew career highs and unfortunately they didn't get

(10:39):
to. Well. I guess Freddid tie the all time Rockets record for
threes in a game, but itwas so lopsided they didn't get to set
new career highs because of course theydidn't play much at all in the fourth
quarter. Given how insanely lopsided thatgame was what I've wondered about through this
stretch. They've been so good,but what's going to happen when they get
punched in the mouth and Portland Saywhat you will, those guys were playing
hard. I also think with noJabari Smith Junior, on top of not

(11:01):
having Tarry Easton and Cam Whitmore,due to the injuries, Rockets not nearly
as deep, long, or athleticas they normally are, and some of
those Portland guys, even if they'rein season. Look, they do have
the cumulative length and athleticism to causethe Rockets and problems. Felt like there
were some tired legs on the Rockets. They've had a lot of games of
late, and they've had this playoffpressure, and for a number of reasons,

(11:22):
it just felt like the energy wasn'tthere for the Rockets, didn't have
alternative options they could go to.Perhaps being shorthanded factored into those tired legs
as well, because you had tolean really heavily on the guys you did
have your perimeter guys, Fred,Jalen and Dylan couldn't make a shot to
save their lives. In the firstthirty game minutes. So many things were

(11:43):
going wrong, and I found itreally taling because so much of this recent
stretch, I mean, it's beengoing so well that we haven't gotten to
see what's going to happen when thingsdon't go well, when the vibes aren't
great, And for the Rockets,and especially for Jalen, that's always been
the big question and so for meto see him on a dime and Imai
Udoka noted this post game to beable to turn it around mid game on

(12:09):
the fly. That's something that hehasn't always been able to do in the
past, and that's something that thegreat scorers have to have, that short
memory. And we've seen at timesfrom Jalen this season when a game isn't
going his way, he gets alittle passive. You can see the body
language suffer, and sometimes it takesa toll on his defense as well,
in this case, after a badshooting half, to keep growing, certainly,

(12:33):
as Emay said, it's a signof development and growth. And then
so many of those points that youtalked about Paolo came in which he made
a defensive play to set up theoffense. That big dunk that he had
which shaved the Rockets the lead forgood. It came after he jumped a
passing lane and got a steal.Later in the third he had a key
block and I think that sequence resultedin a three. So he was turning

(12:56):
defense into offense. And it feltlike when Chris Paul was in Hue.
I used to have this catchphrase thatI would bust out on Twitter of Chris
Paul has no interest in losing thisbasketball game. And with Chris, the
reason it felt like that because hewas in his thirties. You could see
that he's not going to go allout for the entirety of the thirty to
thirty five minutes that he would playper night. But when the game was

(13:20):
really in the balance, you couldsee Chris Paul kick it into a higher
gear when his team really needed it. And I know it's just one game,
but it felt like that's what JalenGreen did against the Trailblazers when that
game was there for the taking.In the third quarter, when the Rockets
fell behind by nine and the vibesand tyders were not great, people were

(13:43):
getting impatient, it felt like hejust put his foot down and said,
I'm the best player, I'm themost talented guy on this basketball floor.
I'm not going to let us loseto this nineteen and fifty two Trailblazer team
or whatever their record is or was. And that's some that we have not
seen from Jalen in the past,and I think it's worth calling out because
with Jalen again, it's never beenabout the highest We've seen that before,

(14:07):
we've seen them deliver against big timeopponents. What you want to see from
the Rockets, and especially from Jalenis can they win in different ways.
Can they win without their best stuffwhen the vibes aren't great, when the
three point shot isn't falling. Canthey find a way to grind? Can
they do the little things that's somethingthey haven't always done in the past.
Especially Jalen in this stretch where itfeels like he's turning over a new leaf.

(14:28):
I think it's it's so fitting thathe is the driving force in a
game like that where even down ninethey through the second half they still end
up wanning by eighteen and taking careof business. And that's what really stood
out to me. And so wecan talk about the upcoming games in a
few minutes, but I wanted tolead off by talking about what's been going
on over the past week, overthis nine game winning streak that's just been

(14:54):
incredible, because we need to givecredit where credits due. At this point,
the Rockets are basically guaranteed to alreadybe playing meaningful basketball into April,
and that in and of itself,it's a massive win for the franchise in
the development of these young core prospects, certainly Jalen, but beyond and that's
going to be the case regardless ofwhat the final outcome is with the play

(15:16):
and race. If they get intothe postseason, great, If they don't,
well, there's things to learn simplyfrom being in these high stakes,
high pressure games, and so Ithink a lot of people are going to
frame these tougher games coming up asbeing the true referendum of oh, is
this streak valid or is it partiallybecause they played some weaker opponents in that

(15:39):
span. I don't think that's entirelyfair. I think this streak and this
eleven and one start to March bestof any NBA team, should show everyone
that the Rockets are legitimate. TheRockets go into next season assuming no catastrophic
injuries with the young core for therest of this season, knock on wood
or anything crazy in the offseason,as I think a bare minimum a five

(16:03):
hundred type team going in. Andthat's before we even talk about getting guys
like Terry Easton back and any productionfrom Steven Adams. Imi Ujoka had that
thirds analogy at the All Star breakin terms of dividing up the season,
or they closer to the fifteen andtwelve that started the year through Christmas or
this nine and eighteen that limped intothe All Star Break. At this point,
I think it's clear, barring somethinginsane like an zero to eleven finish

(16:26):
or one to ten, and that'snot going to happen. The Rockets are
closer to that first third. Thisis a good team that is already quite
relevant in the West, regardless ofif they get into the postseason. And
when you zoom out, when youtake the thirty thousand foot few and you
look at where we were going intothis season, our expectations for this group,

(16:47):
and they're I guess upward trajectory intoyou know, first, you got
to crawl before you can walk.You want to get to the play in
range before a couple of years fromnow. You hope that you're where the
Thunder are now in terms of legitimatelybeing a contender, the Rockets are ahead
of schedule, and I think thisstreak proves it, regardless of what happens
in these games coming up. Sothat's what I want to focus on first.

(17:08):
We'll talk about what's going to happenin a few minutes, but for
me, what this recent stretch solidifiesis that regardless of how they finished the
season, it's not a referendum,or at least it's not the referendum we
were talking about. The referendum wewere talking about has already been answered.
Yes, they are that good.This is a capable basketball team, and

(17:30):
let's celebrate that now. I guessyou can consider what's coming up a new
referendum. Are they even a levelabove what we hoped they would be at
in terms of relevance this year beingin the play in conversation, and perhaps
that's what we'll find out starting Wednesdayagainst the Thunder, But for me,
I don't want to frame what's comingup as though the Rockets have to validate

(17:52):
what they've done the last few weeks. To me, what they've done has
already validated what our expectations and ourhopes were, you know, even the
best case hopes in my opinion goinginto this season. They have already done
a lot. So for me,that's what I take out of these last
nine games. And before we lookahead, I want to look back because
to me, these last night gamesare just massive when it comes to everything
the Rockets have tried to do andare trying to do with this particular twenty

(18:15):
twenty three to twenty twenty four group. Yeah, man, I think and
it's really it really helps us.It's like a mood booster, I think,
both on the locker room and withthe fan base because we get a
glimpse of what this could to looklike and we don't even have Shingun Cam
or thirtieson right, and I knowyou plugging those guys back. Besides the

(18:37):
reason, who I think is justflug and play on any team in the
league. Those guys will bring adventitiesand these advantagies. But I think both
of them, both Lagoon and Camare clear positives in the long run and
right now for Shanoon and if theycan build on it and turn it into
a play in game. I justand I said this last spot, having
a game that big and if youwin the two games that day, and

(19:02):
if we win both of those games, a playoff series this early into these
guys careers is so massive. Talkingabout you know, specifically the last few
games, I thought something that thatwas really important since you went down was
with the man playing the dunker spoton offense, he was getting you know,

(19:22):
plays weren't designed for him, buthe was getting shots and he was
you know, creating extra possessions byhimself. And that's something that I think
played a key role in the Blazersgame to begin the second quarter, and
it had been fading for a littlebit. If you look at the offensive
rebounding number, then I think theBaxtus as well. You know, there
better have been a few games sincethe Kings game where you felt like Amn

(19:45):
Thompson was, you know, findingways to contribute even though he's not exactly
the best half court player possible rightnow because it doesn't have a shot because
the end was shaky. And thenyou look at the and the caaz game,
he had one offensive rebound if I'mnot mistaken, the Bulls game,
I can double the check right now, but he had he had four points,
he had one offensive rebound, andthen you look at twelve plays of

(20:07):
the game and he had six AndI think, you know, a man
is a pretty big part of whythis is working. And having him come
back to finding ways to be tobe to affect the game when you know
when plays are not designed for him. I think it's a big deal.
And I think perhaps the perhaps ithappened because or perhaps it stopped. It

(20:30):
stopped happening because the games weren't exactlythat close. I mean the Polls game
was a ten was a ten pointgame heading into the fourth quarter, and
and the Jazz game was obviously ablowout after the first quarter. And so
maybe those plays didn't exactly, youknow, the state of the game didn't
exactly lead to those plays needed tohappen. But I thought I thought it
was a pretty big deal that hewent back to that. Another friend that

(20:53):
I'm keeping tabs on, Leff Greenis on fire on basically every you know,
you've got the second one. Yeah, And I mean, are we
going to have I are we goingto have to have a conversation about alpron
Chenguin being a system quarterback and linethat was doing I'm joking, nobody equipped

(21:17):
that out of context. Okay,I people to way too seriously young Line
as they usually do. The man, it's it's incredible that he went from
a guy that was actually unplayable too. He know, he kept us in
the game during the first half.He was the only guy out that that
was efficient. So without him,and he's not you know, he's not

(21:41):
playing the stickman center role where hegets blocked and he gets dunk. No,
he has a little bit of aphoto game. He has a little
bit of a mid rain. Hecan hit some trees, you know,
he's show and he can he canrun, dribble, hand off, he
can hit some you know, someof the backdoor cut passes that he someone
sometimes hits as well. It's yousee the vision of what Stone in the

(22:03):
front office saw when they were goingto get him. And he's also a
pretty huge part of why losing Uppermtangunhasn't heard as much as it possibly could.
So those are you know, myfavorite trends of players that have been
playing well. Obviously Fredan Liet hasyou know, been reborn efficiency wise,
even though when the drill game.Yeah, yeah, so that plays a

(22:27):
role as well. But I thinkthose three are really the biggest and the
key factors. And I don't knowif you have anything else on the past,
but if you want to move ontothe fuse, yeah, well,
I've got a couple of things thatI want to note. First off,
we may have to start like aRockets fight club or something because this recent
strike. So you had Jabari suspendedafter a scuffle with Chris Dodd, who

(22:49):
got a two game. You hadDerozen and Dylan Brooks, with Dylan stepping
up for what was just an absolutecheap shot that Derozen took on Jalen.
Obviously, you had Cam Whitmore andDevin Booker at the start of this streak.
You had a couple of months agoe May and Lebron back in LA.
This is I think the vision ofwhat im Udoka wants this team to

(23:14):
be. And so we can jokeabout, you know, the fights and
it has been sort of humorous,but the fact that the Rockets don't back
down it sort of ties back inwith what I was saying earlier. This
team never checked out, and thatin and of itself is just such a
huge one for ima Udoka and thisstaff. Not going to say that everything
has been perfect all season long froma coaching perspective, but the collective buy
in, even with all those lossesbefore the al Shrub break, it never

(23:37):
wavered in. I just think that'sprobably the highest compliment you can give to
a coaching staff, especially with thecoaching staff that has so many young guys,
because these are the exact type ofguys that we've seen the last couple
of years check out a little bitearly, the bad habits under Stephen Silas,
we have not seen any of thatthis year. So I don't know
if we necessarily need a fight club, but I do think on some level

(23:57):
it speaks to the culture that emhas put in place. And then a
more serious observation that I wanted toget your take on. So there's been
a lot written in NBA media thelast few weeks about how officiating has changed
since about the end of January,and we've seen scores plummet around the league.
And the idea is that the NBAwants its officials to call games a

(24:21):
little looser because the rules have beentilted towards the offense for so long that
the scoring was just getting out ofhand. It was impossible to play defense.
There were a lot of complaints aboutthe game becoming just less authentically pleasing
to watch because it's so hard todefend at a high level. And so
scoring has definitely dipped over the lastsix weeks or so. I'm wondering if

(24:42):
that plays some role in this resurgencewe've seen from the Rockets defense. Now
some of it. You know,they got healthier over the All Star break,
they got their second win. Alot of these veterans that we talked
about earlier, for example, withJeff Green, and certainly I think it
applies to Dylan and Fred as well. They talked about that in recent pods.
They also can't help but wonder lookthis stretch of the All Star break

(25:03):
when it seemed like the Rockets gottheir second wind. And that's probably some
of it. But it also comesat a time in which the NBA is
letting defenses play a bit more physical, and for a team like the Rockets,
especially in the post Shangoon era wherethey are a little lighter, they
are a bit undersized. Other thanthe Landale minutes, they don't really have
a traditional center. And even Landale, while these tallest beutritional center, it's

(25:25):
not like he's super athletic. Whenyou have a team that's like what the
Rockets are at the moment, theway to overcome some of those physical limitations
is to be rough around the edges, to bump and grab and try and
set a tone with your physicality.And I'm sure some will listen to this

(25:47):
and say, well, are yousaying that they're fouling? Yeah, But
what I'm saying is that if that'sgoing on more around the league, if
defenders everywhere are getting a bit moreleeway. Does it not stand to reason
the Rockets as a team that's alittle of the small side, doesn't have
a traditional center, and wants toplay very physically anyway under Emai Ujoka.

(26:10):
You know, freden Vliet's a smallpoint guard, but he does play very
physically. He's got great hands.Does it not stand the reason that this
officiating emphasis could benefit a team likeHouston disproportionately because it sort of feels like
that the Rockets were surgents on defense, which really started around you know,
early to mid February, is timedpretty conveniently with this change in the officiaing

(26:32):
emphasis. Does that make sense toyou? Yeah, so I've definitely noticed
around the NBA and in other gamesthan that, you know, people are
the rest recalling less files as freethrows. I'm not too sure how that
impacts our games, because I wastrying to recall this and then I went
in Tich, we're still getting youknow, we are still getting in giving

(26:53):
up. I mean exception to thepart of the game in which we gave
fifteen in the Cleveland game, wegive up, you know, something close
to it. We're still giving upand getting twenty to twenty five to sometimes.
I mean the Chazz game, theygot thirty three three throws a game,
so but I do at the sametime agree. So keep in mind
that the pace is up a tech, especially for starters, for sure,

(27:17):
But I do agree that they're allowingmore physicality, and I do agree that
that helps us. And isn't itinteresting that while they are allowing more physicality,
Jyalen Green is somehow finishing better atthe rim. But that doesn't make
any sense because he's supposed to beafraid of physicality, and I think he
is. I think that was avery valid observation. But then how do

(27:40):
you correlate that with you know,he's doing better at the room, but
guys are allowed to, you know, bump you more. It's an interesting
trend. But as a concept,I do agree that a team that already
played the physicality having having you know, west Files being calledly helps. Yeah.
And with Jabori at the five andswitching everything than we know in a
switch ivy scheme, you're going totry and get certain advantages with holding when

(28:04):
you can, and that just sortof accompanies that playing style, and so
I think it was going to benefita team like the Rockets anyway, and
now with Shoudoon out and going tojust all out switching, well, I
shouldn't say all out because it's notlike they do it every single time,
but even more aggressively than they werebefore. Then, Yeah, I think

(28:26):
that sort of plays a role inthe Rockets are surgeon. It's not trying
to take anything away from those guysbecause they are playing better, they are
playing harder than they were going intothe All Star break. But I do
think that this disproportionately helps them.And to your point on Jalen, yeah,
I mean he's doing all of thiseven with a whistle that in theory
should work against him. He's finishingat the rim better, and he's getting

(28:48):
more free throws, even in atime on the NBA calendar where these are
getting called less and less. So, if anything, the current dynamics,
the current stats might be understid Jalena little bit in terms of the true
extent of how his game has changedover the last few weeks. By the
way, one thing, and wedon't have to get into this today.

(29:08):
We can save this for I thinkan off season pod. When we look
at the post Shinggoon era of theRockets, both the advantages and the disadvantages.
I think people are under selling thechange in pace. I've seen a
lot made of Well, the paceisn't really that different. Well, no,
what's happened is that the bench unitsare a touch slower because now you're

(29:29):
having to play with the men inthe starting lineup and Reggie Bullock now back
into the rotation. Really interesting,Yeah, like the Rockets are playing at
a similar pace overall, but Ido think by the eye test, they're
playing at a faster pace offensively withthe men in place of Shingun. What's
happened is that the bitch units,which were youber fast for most of this

(29:52):
season, especially with a men Thompsonand Cam Whitmore, now you don't have
either of those two with the menin the starting lineup and Cam hurt,
and so the starting lineup is upa little bit, the bench is down
a little bit, and so youend up with the net pace the net
possessions per game being about the same. However, I feel pretty confident that
if you dig deeper and you lookjust at the starting lineup, then this

(30:17):
post she goon Era with Jabari atthe five and men at a forward spot
is playing a little bit faster,and perhaps that plays a role in Jalin's
success. Don't want to get dothat too much yet because it's still early,
and again we can evaluate that atthe end of the season we have
a larger sample, that will bea better time for macro discussions. I
think this part want to keep atmicro because Rockets are in a postseason push

(30:38):
at this point. They very muchhave a path to the play in tournament
in the West. And so withthat, let's transition to the games ahead.
Because as easy as the last fewgames have been mentioned that five of
their last seven wins have come againstteams that are clearly tanking. When you
look at this next week, they'vegot a home of City Wednesday night,

(31:00):
you have Utah on Friday. That'sthe one easy game, but easy and
quotes because it's never easy to winat Salt Lake City. Then you've got
Dallas at home on Sunday, andMinnesota on the road Tuesday. So three
to four on the road, yourone home is against Dallas, a very
good team. So I want tospotlight these four because what's after those four

(31:23):
games is that big game at homeon April fourth against the Golden State Warriors,
and I feel like everyone has thatcircled on their calendars. For the
obvious reason, we want that tobe like a de facto playoff game at
Sweeter Center. If the Rockets couldbeat the Warriors with Steph Curry and Raymond
Green with those kinds of stakes,for this fan base in particular, it

(31:45):
would feel so fulfilling. But forthat game to be as meaningful as we
want it to be, the Rockets, in my opinion, can't go certainly
at zero to four, but Iwouldn't even say one in three over the
next week. They need to stayat least at five hundred, because,
let's be on honest, as ofour recording time, at least the Rockets
need to make up multiple games againsteither the Lakers or the Warriors as the

(32:07):
things stand. Because the Rockets losethe tiebreaker to Golden State, it's not
just the one game that they trailin the lost column. You'd also need
to clear the Warriors. So whenyou're having to make up multiple games over
the final eleven, your margin forerror, while not nothing, it's also
not great. So I think youwant to be five hundred at a minimum.

(32:30):
Now, we should note that theschedule for the Warriors is not easy.
They've bet it back to back inFlorida, HEATD Tonight, Magic tomorrow.
That's losable. Let's see who dothey have after that? At Charlotte
h that's probably a layup. AtSan Antonio could be layup, but the
Spurs have been five year of late. Then they've got the MAVs and then
that huge Rockets game on the fourth. So I think it's reasonable to find

(32:53):
a couple of losses for the Warriorsin there. I don't think it's reasonable
to expect them to go so onein four, zero and five something crazy
like that. Keep in mind theother night while they lost to the Timberwolves,
they were on the road against thetop team in the West, and
they were right at it until thefinal seconds. It's not like the Warriors

(33:13):
are playing bad ball. The Lakers, let's see. I mean they play
at Milwaukee tonight, at Memphis,at Indiana. Those aren't gimme games.
The one at Indiana is particularly losable. So again you can look at their
schedule coming up. Then games atBrooklyn at Toronto those are probably layups,

(33:36):
although Brooklyn did win the other night, Although that puts Rockets fans in sort
of a conundrum of you know,yeah, you want to cheer for Brooklyn,
but it does potentially hurt your draftstock a little bit in terms of
that Brooklyn lottery pick that you're goingto own this year. The point is,
for me, looking at the Lakersand Warriors, I think it's reasonable
to expect a couple losses in there. I don't think it's reasonable to expect

(33:59):
either to fall off the map inthe next week. So because of that,
as the schedule stiffens, the Rocketscan't fall off the map themselves.
I don't think they have to,you know, stay on the winning streak.
They do have some buffer in regardsto you know, a two and
two week would not be fatal byany stretch. And then you know,
you look at the final week ofthe season. I think that final road

(34:21):
trip against the Jazz and the Blazers, who are both likely to be in
full on tank mode by that point, and then finale against the Clippers,
who are likely to be sitting everyone. Rockets can makeup games down the stretch
of the season. They also havea stretch from April fourth through the ninth
with three or four at home wherethey've been so great all year, so
the Rockets do have some upward mobilitylater on. They just need to hang

(34:45):
on over the next week and getto that April fourth game at two in
or Sero, which kicks off thathome stretch, and of course with a
matchup against the Warriors is going tomean so much with regards to the play
and odds. So for me,as I look at this week, the
cleanest route to two and two thatGa at Utah. I know it's never
easy to win on the road,but find a way you're the better team.
We know what the Rockets did againstthe Jazz in Houston last weekend,

(35:07):
and then one of the other threeI feel like Thunder on the road,
MAVs at home at Minnesota. Oneof those three games, the three point
variants should go your way and justfind a way to grind it out and
if you get to two and two, I think the schedules for the Warriors
and Lakers, while not murderers rowby any stretch, they're challenging enough to

(35:31):
where you can at least maintain thestatus quo entering. I would say the
closing kick which starts April fourth againstthe Warriors, and that's sort of my
goal, Like, if the Rocketsmake up more ground over the next week,
I would be thrilled, but I'mnot expecting it. My hope over
the next week is sort of juststay where you are now within a game

(35:52):
or two, and then the finalten days of the season, that closing
stretch starting April fourth against the Warriors, with that head to head opportunity.
Unfortunately, the Rockets do not havea game left against the Lakers. They're
the tiebreaker, no direct games inwhich they can make up a game simply
by beating the team they're chasing.That's the one advantage of the Warriors Lakers
advantages the tiebreaker. But yeah,for me, it's just find a way

(36:15):
to tread water over the next weekand then that closing stretch starting the fourth
I think that's where the Rockets reallyhave their best potential path to getting a
play in spot over the Warriors orthe Lakers. That's sort of how I'm
looking at this schedule holistically. Powell, what are your thoughts as far as
the schedules and how they shake outfor the Rockets and these other teams.

(36:37):
Yeah, I think you made aton of really good points. I had
a couple of things that I've sprungto mind. The Thunder game is actually
the second half of a back toback. Yep. For that. There
are New Orleans tonight, so theyhave travel in between. Yeah, and
New Orleans is a really physical team. They're going to wear you down.
Volunteers is a really physical player.Alvarado's going to force it run. What's

(37:00):
the volunteer in this is obviously didI mention him Morzion before I meant both
of them? You know what Imean? And so, and they are
coming off of a loss the lastgame, so they might go all in
to win this game, and theymay or may not rest some guys in
the second half of them to buyit. And that's and that's one of
those things where the strength of schedulemetrics, it goes back to what we

(37:21):
said earlier are not productive because eventhough a team like New Orleans or a
team like Oklahoma State excuse me,I went't look, they typically have not
rested guys on back to backs thisseason. At the same time, that
calculus might shift now that during thefinal two weeks of the season, actually
getting close to play in time,that's when some of these teams do get
more conservative. And so that's why, again you have to take these strength

(37:42):
of schedule metrics with a grain ofsalt, because some of these really good
teams are going to be a bitmore conservative this time of year. Yeah,
and I also wanted to mention thatI'm abthletely like dinner, really non
impressed with the Warriors just watching themplay. I mean, I'm going to
be fair, I'm going to agreewith you. I just think the game
against Minnesota was a little more urging. But longer term, yes, the
thing is the game against Minnesota,Anthony Edwards was not having a game up

(38:06):
to his potential. There they don'thave Karl Anthony Towns, and so you
look at that team. Defensively they'regood, but then offensively you're looking at
you know, and and then youhave Colbert who's not an offensive player,
but Kenos is okay off ball Mikelike thirty six year old Mike Conley.
It's there's not them much leyre andthen that game, Klay Thompson was playing

(38:30):
pretty well as well, and theydon't get that a lot, although Comingo
was was struggling, but they don'tget that a lot. And so I'm
just confused they don't seem to begoing full thoral for the play. And
how was Steph Curry playing twenty nineminutes a game unless he's actually hurt over
the last I think ten games,he's playing twenty nine minutes a game.
How is the team that's making youput for the play in just letting that

(38:53):
happen. There's you told you onthe Lakers playing the Nets and perhaps rooting
for the Nets even though the picklisten just an update on the pick right,
It's like it's not going up ordown. The Nets have four more
wins that the Raptors have. TheRaptors have gone full bone thanking now that
Scotty Barns is hurt and the Hawksare five games four and a half games,

(39:16):
quaer, so it's wait five anda half games, it's even it's
even better than I expected the Nets. I'm just not gonna watch Nets games
anymore. I mean, they're badenough as it is. It's not it's
not a please, it's not apleasing game to what But yeah, just
just root for the Nets to winagainst the Lakers, because there's just no

(39:37):
guest that because up or down.Unless I miss someone in the Western Conference,
I guess there's the Jazz who couldsurpass them, but or that they
could surpass. But for the mostpart, I think it's it's not that
big of a difference. Uh.And then as far as our games are
concerned, I think the Jazz game, if you if you, if you

(40:00):
have playing hopes, the class gamehas to be a lay up. They've
been giving up enormous amounts of points, specially every single leak, even though
fowls are getting caught less and less. And then the maps are a really
interesting case because they're an noful defensiveteam, which usually puts well for the
Rockets because the easier you make theoffense, the better for us, because
we got the defense sticking care of. But then you're in a shootout against

(40:23):
the team that has carry Irving andlook at ams, which is not that
great. And the other thing thatworries me is not that we're playing small
ball, even though she Engun hadproblems with this as well. The Jazz
run a pick and roll offense forthe most part, Daniel Gafford, and
they're quietly are you know, they'reQuinn Capella's and they get eternal lobs,

(40:43):
and so I'm scared about how theymay punish us in the pick and roll
game with the lobs they I thinkGaffert is coming off of a twenty four
point game against the Jazz where hejust done like seven or eight times.
So that's what I'm looking, youknow, towards. And then we will
catch a Timoroles team that is somewhatweakened by not having you know, Karl

(41:05):
Anthony Towns and you're really just coinflipping with them. Is going to have
a you know, a game wherehe just crushes you the entire game or
are you going to be able tokeep him in check and then you have
a real start at winning. Yeah, And I guess the glass half full
way of contextualizing that Warriors Timberwolves gamefrom Sunday is that, well, maybe
if you buy in and I thinkyour points are valid that some of it

(41:28):
was just the Timberwolves having a toughnight with ant not being on and talent's
not being available, then if someof it's the Timberwolves not playing well themselves
or a lot of it, thenshouldn't the Rockets have the same benefit potentially
when they visit Minnesota next week.Time will tell, obviously, We'll see
how Anthony Edwards plays in that game, but at least there's a roadmap to
it, so I think that's atleast a glass half full way that you

(41:49):
can frame this and then as faras ease, I think this is not
gonna surprising by it, because I'vemade this point in recent pods. But
the return of Javarispa Junior. Iknow he missed just one game due to
the suspension for the fighting with ChrisDunn, but it really felt like in
the first two and a half quartersof that Portland game, the Rockets really

(42:12):
missed Jabbari because on a game inwhich none of the perimeter guys were making
shots spread Jalen and Dylan in particular, it felt like with that starting unit
there wasn't really an alternative for themto turn to. I mean, they
had to be rescued by Jock Landaleof all people. As you said,
with Jabari, it's not that youwant to rely on him heavily offensively.

(42:34):
I don't think he's there yet inyear two, but he's at least an
option a guy who, if you'renot shooting well from three, can hit
a couple of mid range shots andbuy you time against the schedule coming up.
I don't think the Rockets can winmost of these games, the Jazz
being probably the exception if they're notshooting well from three. But where I
think Jabari is useful is in sortof keeping you in striking distance and buying

(42:58):
time until the eventually fall Because evenagainst the Trailblazers, I mean, the
Rockets could have fallen behind by amuch more problematic amount than nine if not
for Landale rescuing them in the firstquarter of that game. And I don't
think that's something you want to dependon every single game, even though Landale
has played much better of late.So Jabari is someone that this month we've

(43:20):
talked about it has sort of perkedback up from three point range. He's
at thirty seven percent on threes inMarch, which is really encouraging after he
dipped to just above thirty percent inFebruary. So the three point shot is
getting better. His overall field goalpercentage at dipped to thirty eight point six
in February, it's back up toforty five nearly forty six in March.

(43:42):
So for me, Jabari has arelease valve and someone that can just buy
them time, not saying it needsto be super high usage or anything crazy.
But I just think that game lastnight showed you the limitations of the
post Shing Goon model and that yeah, they're going to put up a lot
of threes, and most nights theyhave the shooters to make that work.
But in a game where it getssticky or they get into foul trouble,

(44:02):
then there's not a clear secondary option, and Jabari is probably the best they've
got, especially with Kim Whitmore stillsidelined by the needs where he sounds like
he's getting closer, but he's stillruled out for Ondesday at Oklahoma City,
so his return not eminent. Sowith that in mind, I worry a
little bit about what do you dooffensively? It's tonight where you're not making
threes and maybe Jalen's a little bitcold and needs time to find his rhythm.

(44:25):
Jabbari has the release valve. Ithink it's the best option they've got.
So for me, that's sort ofthe key that I'm highlighting HOLLO from
a you know, a player ora tactical standpoint, anything that you're looking
at over these x few games asfar as something that's going to be a
key variable for the Rockets. Yeahto me. To me, it bowls
down to Jalen. I think that'sthe low hanging fruit. But true,

(44:46):
yeah, it's it's I mean,but it's the truth, right, we
need Jailen to win games. It'sI think he is by far the most
important player on the team. Hehas been and he will continue to be
because without al branching gun, there'snobody on the team that created that can
create adventagies by himself. You know, even Jalum is not as reliable as
Shlon was, but you know Fredmvleet'snot at that point in his career,

(45:08):
and Clavari Smith may get there.There's games where maybe there's a game where
he sat it's tough. Dylan Brookscan get there by making you really tough
shots, but he's not really anattentive creator. So Eman Thompson's obviously not
not it hasn't got the handle atthis point to do it. So yeah,
it's just I think it just exacerbateshow how important Jalen's going to be

(45:31):
too. You know this going forward, and I know we want to touch
on this. I don't know ifhave anything else about the next few games.
But it's a it's a perfect transitionto one random thing. I was
looking up Chabari splits when I wasmentioning his uptick in March for some reason,
and games played on Wednesday, theRockets have had fifteen of those most

(45:53):
of any day of the week.Schabari is shooting forty one percent from three.
Have no idea why that is.I'll be so it's totally random,
but Wednesday to Oklahoma City would bea hell of a time for Jabari to
have another one of those Wednesday gameswhere he goes off and gives the Rockets
more of a relief out. Anyway, Well, ESPN has some crazy splits.
I was looking up, like Isaid, to look at the gap

(46:15):
from February to March and the improvement, and then they also have splits by
day of the week, and Iwas like, holy shit, Jabari actually
does play really well on Wednesdays.Of course that's totally random, but whatever,
we'll take it. And he typicallyhas played well against Oklahoma City as
well. I remember he had acouple of good games late in February when
the Rockets had two losses, sothose games were competitive. Now we should

(46:37):
note by the way. After thePortland game, Jalen was asked about those
and Jalen said, the Rockets areplaying a very different style of basketball right
now, and so I thought thatwas telling. We don't need to get
into that today because we've gone onlong enough already. But I do think
that sort of hints at some ofthe underlying dynamics that we were referencing earlier
in terms of the way this teamhas shifted since losing Shangoon, and perhaps

(46:59):
that's to the betterment Jalen Green.We'll have to see how the season finishes,
and then we can pick up thatconversation in the off season when it's
more of a time to look atmacro level Rockets and what we learn from
this season. Anyway, finishing upthis pot, let's go back to Jalen
because he is the central piece foreverything going on with the Houston Rockets right

(47:19):
now. And yet, even withall the positives, there was a storyline
that, at least from a Rocketsperspective, was not entirely positive this week.
That's Sean Serania giving a megaphone tothe report that previously was just out
of Brooklyn alleging that Jalen Green wasa part of the trade talks for McHale
Bridges before the trade deadline. Nets, of course, for whatever reason or

(47:44):
acting like McHale as a superstar anduntouchable, they want to build around him,
YadA YadA. Weird situation reports outof Brooklyn indicating the Rockets included Jalen
with those Brooklyn picks, which,as we've referenced so many times in the
past, should be disproportionately valuable tothe Nets. That's why the Rockets reached
out to them, wanting to seeif there was a fit in regards to

(48:04):
a deal involving Bridges or anything else. Bridges being the best player, obviously
that makes the most sense, andthe Nets shut it down. The Rockets
perspective, as we've said on thepod before, is that it never got
to the point of identifying names oranything super concrete with the talks. It
was a very abstract question of doyou want to explore something involving mckail Bridges,

(48:29):
who the Rockets do, like,say what you will about McHale right
now, he's sort of miscast inthis star role or the closest thing the
Nets have to that if you puthim in something more analogous to the role
he had in Phoenix when he wasplaying alongside Devin Brooker and Chris Pall.
He's a very good player on agreat contract, and so I can see

(48:52):
why the Rockets have some intrigue andthe Rockets position, as has been articulated
to me, I've said it podin the past and to some of the
national guys. Michael Scotto of HoopsHypees reported the same thing is that talks
never got to the stage of exchangingnames. Then that's just simply made it
clear that Bridges was not going tobe moved, and that's that to this

(49:15):
point, they don't seem to wantto bottom out, even though they're sort
of doing that anyway. As Powellreferenced earlier, But this report from Schams,
which I strongly suspect is sourced fromthe Brooklyn side of things, is
indicating that Jalen Green was potentially apart of those conversations in late January or
early February before the deadline, whichI believe was on the eighth. And

(49:38):
so even with Jalen and the Rocketsplaying so well, that's led to some
on Twitter wondering about the long termfit. Do the Rockets really believe in
Jalen. It's led others to wonderabout the front office. Does for Felstone
know what he's doing. We've hadthose conversations at nauseum the last couple of
years. It's exhausting, but somehowa lot of people have to find new

(50:00):
angles to it. And it feelslike even the stretch for so many things
are going great for Jalen and theRockets on the basketball floor, at least
on social media chams, you know, giving a bit more credence to the
idea that maybe Jalen was in thosetalks reignited some of that this week.
For me, however, I'm justI'm exhausted by the storyline and I think

(50:22):
it's largely pointless, and I wantto explain it from a couple of different
perspectives. First, and this isobvious. It doesn't matter whether Jalen was
or wasn't in the talks in lateJanuary or early February. The Rockets have
new information now, and so whenit comes to the matter of Jalen's future
with the team, what's going tohappen this offseason? Does he get a

(50:44):
contract extension? How committed are theRockets to him in the longer term blueprint.
The Rockets this offseason are not goingto be only focusing on things from
the first two and a half yearsof his career. They are also going
to include what's happened over the lastfew weeks, and as mentioned leaning off
the Pod, it's been strongly correlatedwith winning, So I don't see the

(51:08):
need to obsess over what may ormay not have happened a few weeks ago.
Look, we've learned new things.Jalen Green is playing at an incredibly
high level. Now be thankful forthat. And yes, the Rockets notice
that as much as anyone, andthey will factor that in to their analysis
this off season of his long termvalue to the team and where he fits

(51:28):
in. So to some extent,it doesn't even matter because the Rockets are
learning new things just as we are. And while I think everyone around the
Rockets, certainly me and you Powell, we were pretty down on Jalen as
recently as the All Star break,just lot over a month ago, our
view on him has evolved. AndI think that's the case too with the
Rockets coaches and front office. Theseguys, these young prospects, they're still

(51:52):
developing and there may be rapid swingsfor better or for worse. This is
a rapid swing in a good direction. And so when it comes time to
think bigger picture of the off seasonand think strategically about what the fit's going
to be, the Rockets are goingto have new information that they did not
have in January or February. SoI think on some level it doesn't matter.

(52:12):
I also think beyond that angle,some will say, well, should
Raffelstone have known? Does this provethat he's incompetent folks? Forfelstone is not
the only GM in the NBA thathad a negative impression of Jalen Green.
There were lots of reports in Decemberand January about Jalen's potential trade value that

(52:34):
were sourced from talking to people aroundthe NBA. It was not great.
People around the league noticed what wasgoing on in Houston the problems the same
way that we did. So no, this is not just a urfell Stone
problem. People around the league werebearish on Green's value based on his production
before the trade deadline and really allthe way until the All Star break.

(52:57):
Now I think that's changing in abig way now. Credit Jalen I didn't
think he could turn it this fast. He's proved me wrong. He's been
spectacular. But if your view isthat, well, the Rockets should have
seen this coming, and if theydidn't, then this just proves they're incompetent.
Well, number one, it's notjust the Rockets. A lot of
people were down on Jalen Green's value. Your head has been in the sand
if you have not seen that.And beyond that, even within the Rockets,

(53:20):
rafel Stone is not the only guywho was skeptical of Jalen Green.
There's a reason I may Udoka almostbenched the guy at the Alstro break.
Now, credit to Imy for notdoing that. He stayed the course and
he has been rewarded in a bigway. Kudos to I may That could
be really a franchise altering decision.It looks like he made the right one,
but he very easily could have madea different one, and he made

(53:44):
it clear that he was considering it. And so I know it's become easy
for some on social media to youknow, anytime something goes wrong, it's
Orfelstone's fault, and anytime something goesright, it's I may Udoka's responsibility.
Because he has the halo around him, so many things have gone right since
he may took the job. Andyou know, I get it because em
has had a great year. Butin this case, imy Udoka was clearly

(54:07):
questioning Jalen Green as well. Soif your view is, oh, how
could the Rockets have considered moving Jalenfor a non star like Mikhale Bridges,
a good but not great player,Well, if that's your view, it's
not just for Felstone, It's it'simy Udoka, and really it's beyond the
Rockets. I mean, it's lotsof guys around the league were skeptical on

(54:28):
what Jalen could bring, and atthe time, I think the thought was
that the Rockets had a lot ofhigh upside guys already. When you look
at Shingoon, you look at AmenThompson, you look at Jabari Smith,
Junior, Tari East and Cam Whitmore, what if you got a little more
certainty, I think there's a caseyou can make that perhaps you sacrifice a

(54:49):
little bit of high end upside forthe higher floor. If it looks like
the high end upside probably is notgoing to pan out. Now that it
looks like the high end up sidevery well could pan out for Jalen Green.
The calculus changes you incorporate that newinformation. So I think it's much
ado about nothing. I think therockets will adjust to this new information.
And if you're upset at them fornot predicting this correctly, well don't be

(55:12):
just upset about Rafael Stone, beupset about ima Udoka, be upset about
everybody, because again Rathel was farfar from alone in that view. If
in fact that's the view that hehad, which I certainly can't confirm.
The last part of this equation thatI want to get to, and that's
the report itself. And I wantto preface this by saying I am not

(55:32):
trying to question schams erania. Heis bigger and better than I will ever
be. He is one of thetwo titans of NBA journalism at the moment,
right alongside Woje when it comes tobreaking news. However, I think
a lot of people, at leastin my timeline, have gone too far
in making these guys infallible. AndI think where this comes from. So

(55:58):
guys like Scham's and woj in anyof the top newsbreakers, they do bat
nearly a thousand when it comes totheir reports on trade and free agency agreements.
When they're getting news, for example, that the Rockets are going to
sign Fred Vanfleet, although that leakthrough WOJE. More on that in just

(56:19):
a second. When those reports comeout, they're typically from some combination of
a front office member of one ofthe teams or an influential agent, many
times both, and if it turnsout that that source is misleading or lying
to a guy like Sham's or WOJE, it becomes evident very very quickly,

(56:42):
and that the signing or the tradedoesn't happen. That's going to create an
adversarial relationship between that team or thatagency and one of the top two news
breakers in the business, guys withtens of millions of followers across social media
and their various website platforms. Ishould not have to explain why it's a

(57:05):
terrible idea for an NBA team oragent to create an adversarial relationship with Wools
or Shams. It shouldn't happen.It doesn't happen, and so because of
that, when someone leaks to thoseguys that a deal is happening, that
is usually one hundred percent or veryclose to it. I mean, sometimes
crazy things happen. For the mostpart, those things do happen, and

(57:30):
they bat a very high percentage.That's why they get the big bucks by
their respective employers, Adrian Wacharowski aESPN and Shamsherania of the Athletic. Of
course, there's some guys beneath themas well, but they are the heads
of their respective media agencies when itcomes to the NBA. Now, when
we're talking about trade talks and discussions, which is what we're talking about in

(57:52):
this hypothetical of did the Rockets includeJalen Green in talks for McHale Bridges and
of course Schamps started up on oneof his streaming platforms as sort of just
to buy the bye because Jalen Greenhas taken off in recent weeks with the
Rockets, and now people around theleague are wondering, well, do the
Nets make a huge blunder and turningdown Jalen Green, which it sort of

(58:13):
looks like if that was the casethat they did. And conversely, people
in Houston are wondering, well,where the Rockets saved from themselves by the
Nets turning that down? It couldbe the case, however, as stated
earlier. I know that's not comingfrom the Rockets, as I and others
have reported. The Rockets position isthat names were never exchanged, that it

(58:34):
was simply an exploratory feeler put out. The nets shut it down, and
that was that. Now Brooklyn isclearly leaking something else, because before the
Shalm's report, I mean, therewere just whispers from a couple of I
think the New York Post was oneof them, but outlets from the New
York area indicating that Jalen was apart of those talks. And here's where

(58:55):
it gets messy. As compared toa trade or agency agreement, where you're
going to quickly have confirmation as towhether it's true or not, because either
the deal is gonna happen or itdoesn't. With something like this, when
we're talking about just discussions, it'simpossible to prove that someone is lying to

(59:17):
you. These phones are not wiretapped, and trust me that NBA executives are
not going to put sensitive information intexts that can be screenshotted. These are
quick phone conversations, sometimes face toface. These are not situations where even
Woes or Schams truly knows what's goingon. It's one person's word against another,

(59:44):
and sometimes I mean that maybe threeor four steps of words. If
an agency is in the mix,maybe it's a three team trade situation,
that sort of thing. And becausethe deal didn't happen, it's impossible to
prove what an offer was or wasn't. It's not like the threat that comes
from lying to WOJE about a dealthat's at the finish line and then if

(01:00:06):
it doesn't happen, then there's anobvious adversarial relationship because the most powerful guy
in the NBA feels like you liedto him. In this case, no,
we can't prove that the nets arelying. So because of this,
the accuracy when we're talking about discussionsis much less than when we're talking about
trade agreements. A lot of timespeople just sort of conflate everything together,

(01:00:29):
these WOJE bombs or whatever the funhashtag is, I'm blanking at it now,
Sham's wow or whatever it is.People sort of throw it all in
the same bucket. But again,agreements and discussions are very different. I
think it's clear and it honestly wasbefore this that Brooklyn was leaking that Jalen

(01:00:49):
Green was a part of those talks. Me personally, however, I just
don't believe it. I've seen plentyof evidence that Brooklyn, in my opinion,
is overinflating the value of their players. We've seen other reports like they
had five first run picks offered formckill bridges, two for dory On Finney
Smith and none of these deals getto the finish line. Some of these,
to me, they're difficult to believe, I think for various reasons,

(01:01:13):
perhaps to inflate the value of thoseplayers around the league, perhaps to improve
their relationship with those players, butsaying look how much we value you,
value you, we turned down soand so. There could be any number
of reasons. But the point isthere's a long track record, at least
this season a Brooklyn leaking some thingsthat at least to me appear somewhat outlandish.

(01:01:35):
And so when I look at theRockets side of the story and I
look at the Brooklyn side of thestory, I tend to believe the Rockets,
especially when their version, which isthat the Nets shut down discussions before
they could even get into particulars,sort of meshes with what we've heard at
a macro level most of the seasonabout the nets, which is that they
have no interest in dealing with thekill bridges, that they want to try

(01:01:58):
to make some bigger swings this summer, and so on and so forth.
So to tie this all together,this is not me trying to throw shade
at Shamsherania, because as soon asI try to make this point in social
media, people saying, oh,so you think Sham Shrani as fake news,
you don't believe him. No,it's not that. It's that when
you're talking about a story that isnot a concrete agreement, but we're talking

(01:02:20):
about just discussions and it can't beproven wrong. The sources involved in this
case, the front office members knowthey have a lot more liberties. They
can be misleading, they can tryand push an agenda because it's not like
they're going to be clearly proven wrong. And in my opinion, just my
opinion, that's what's happening here.Shams seems to believe Brooklyn for whatever reason.

(01:02:44):
That's his opinion, and that's fine, but we shouldn't conflate these scoops
he gets of actual transactions. Withhis analysis of this, the hit rate
even for guys like Sham's or woeswhen it comes to trade discussions are a
lot lower because it's just one person'sword against another. They are not on
the phone with these guys. Theydo not have screenshots of the text messages

(01:03:05):
because for the most part, therearen't any, at least not at a
substance of level. The hit rate, even for guys like Shams or WOJ,
is a lot lower when we're talkingabout something like this. So that's
what I really want to emphasize.Another angle, by the way, when
it comes to Shams, so mostNBA teams have a go to when it

(01:03:27):
comes to breaking news, and forthe Rockets, I don't know how,
when or why this came to be, but the Rockets are an ESPN organization,
and of course that starts with WOJ. And if you notice the Shangoon
MRI a couple of weeks ago,WOJ was the guy who got that leak
and broke that story. Bredmand Fleetthat's signing last summer the flagship of Rockets
twenty twenty three free agency. WOJhad that first. The Rockets are an

(01:03:52):
ESPN organization. I've been told thistime and time again. They are not
from the Shams tree. Some otherteams are. Again, I don't know
exactly how or why that comes tobe, but generally speaking, most teams
around the league have a designated guythat they will run through, and of
course it's somewhat of a mutually beneficialrelationship. And for the Rockets that guy

(01:04:15):
is Adrian wor Sharowski, and tosomewhat lesser extent to McMahon, generally the
ESPN tree let's call it. Inthis case, I think it's pretty clear
that the Rockets' perspective is not beingweighted enough in what Sham's is saying.
And it's not just based on this. Let's go back a week before the
deadline, Sham Sharana and Sam Amickof The Athletic put out that big story

(01:04:41):
that got twittered all a buzz aboutthe Rockets wanting to expedite the timeline and
wanting to make a playoff push thisyear under Eme Udoka, and everyone wondered,
why are they being so impatient?Blah blah blah. The only move
they made over that following week wasto trade for Steven Adams, guy who's
not even gonna play until next season. They did the complete opposite of that

(01:05:04):
article. Now that's not me sayingthat Cham's is bad at a job.
No, there's a lot of sourcesaround the NBA, and there's a lot
of narratives that are true. Thereare others that are fault And it's not
that the Rockets will never take aphone call from the Athletic. Let's not
make it out to be like that. It's not like there's a vendetta.

(01:05:27):
But what I will say is thatgenerally speaking, Sham's and the Athletic at
a high level, they are notas plugged in with the Rockets thinking as
certain others, and especially ESPN andwoj SO. I think we're starting to
see a trend where some of theseangles in the shams stories about the Rockets

(01:05:48):
are fed from other sources. Andmaybe you believe those other sources. That's
fine, But that's really what Iwant to hit home is that this is
not like a transaction where either ithappens or it doesn't, and it's right
or it's wrong. This is alot more nebulous in this case. I

(01:06:09):
understand where Sham's coming from, andhe's clearly not on an island with this.
Other people tied to the nets havesaid the same thing. Should also
know by the way that with theNets being in New York City, Schamps
probably sees therefore an office members alot more than he does or fell Snowe
and his staff in Houston. That'sjust sort of the media landscape these days.
Perhaps that plays a role as wellin terms of who he believes the

(01:06:30):
bottom line, I think it's prettyclear that the Nets are pushing that story.
However, I do not take itas gospel that it's true, because,
again, the Rockets have a verydifferent story, and based on the
track records of Brooklyn inflating their guysin many other scenarios, I'm inclined to
believe that that's what's happening here aswell. And that's not me saying anything

(01:06:53):
negative about Sean Straney. He's agreat reporter. It's just even great reporters
have limitations within the current NBA mediaecosystem or whatever you want to call it,
and I don't think the Rockets arefully being represented in some of these
reports. Now, maybe you believeShamps, that's fine. All I'm saying
is that there is a different sideof this story. And this is not

(01:07:14):
like when Schams reports a trade andif you dispute that, well, you're
just being silly. No, that'sconcrete information this because you can't clearly prove
it wrong. A team like theNets or the Rockets for that matter,
has a lot more They have alot more liberties to potentially, you know,
push the agenda a little bit,not be entirely truthful. And my

(01:07:36):
opinion could be wrong with my opinionis that's what the Nets have done here.
But what that said, even ifthe Rockets did include Jalen, which
I have not heard myself, Ithink it's defensible and I don't think it's
that alarming because even if that wasthe case, then whatever, there's new
information now and the Rockets can calibratethat into their thought processes this offseason.

(01:07:56):
They obviously could not in February becauseit had not happened yet, and most
people around the NBA have been stunnedby how quickly this has turned around.
Again, it's not just the Rockets. Everybody is donned by this. So
I know I've been a little bitlong winded there, but I wanted to
cover it just as a journalist that'scovered the league for a number of years.
I wanted to share my perspective onthis because some of it is that
I think it's largely irrelevant. Butthe other part, I don't even agree

(01:08:20):
that it's necessarily true in the firstplace, simply because Schams said it.
I feel like a lot of mytimeline at least just took it as gospel.
The second it came out of Shams'smouth on that streaming show just took
it as well. That's got tobe true because it's Cham's and on a
subject like this, that's not necessarilythe case. So that's my thoughts on

(01:08:41):
that. Hopefully we can close thebook on it, because with Jalen playing
like this, I do not thinkthe Rockets will look or at least I
don't think they should at moving Jalenfor mckill this offseason. Powlo, did
you want to get anything in onthat front, because I know you had
some thoughts on your timeline as well. Yeah, I think I think you
said out of what I wanted tosay, I'll add that you can't get

(01:09:04):
too stuck in the verbiage used inthese reports, and I think, as
we know in in twenty twenty fourmedia, words get twisted to tell different
narratives. The same story can betold to different ways, and if the

(01:09:26):
rockets broke the nets and say,hey, we'd like to discuss a trade
around the Calbridge is Kiln isn't untouchableand we have, you know, some
pig set that are obviously yours.No, let's discuss something. The lets
can take that and say, hey, we discussed a trade with the US.
The rockets around the Rockets wanted todiscuss a trade round call Bridges that
involved KILLNR and multiple vershun picks.And they're not lying. But that's not

(01:09:51):
happened. You see the way Itwisted it just really easily and I'm not
even native. It's not that hard. And so do I have doubts that
they did discuss perhaps the trade thatinvolved Kalen, Yes, or do I
have done? Probably not. Butif you think back at the time,

(01:10:13):
I think eighty percent of rockets twitterruld have done a trade that were kail
and green for Mcallbridge is straight up, or Kaialen in a pig for McGall
Bridges, for example, because kalenstock was really really down. And then
besides that, I don't think wecan be results based for some things and
process spaceed for others. I'm sorry, So why is everybody saying, oh,

(01:10:39):
roff Elstone almost traded Killen Green asopposed to oh rafe Elstone was one
of the last people that ultimately believedin kill and Green because he didn't trade
them when the most common, youknow, the most common outcome was,
or the most common opinion on Twitterwas for people to want him to be
traded. Well, and beyond that, why if you're saying or Felstone almost

(01:11:00):
traded Jalen Green, why aren't yousaying that email almost bench Jalen Green,
and then that that only goes toshow how how it can up driven it
is. And I mean, I'msaying this really seriously. If three years
from young Print is a superstar,you can paint a picture both ways.
You can say, oh my god, they almost traded Kalen Green, or

(01:11:21):
you can say, oh my god, they believed in kill and Green until
the last season of his career whenhe didn't show enough to warrant that.
I think both are valid narratives orways to put it. But at the
end of the day, what countsfor RFL's career is what it was ultimately
done. And what was ultimately doneis he held on to Kail and Green.

(01:11:43):
So whatever the process was that's whathappened. That's what you need to
need him to be tooched done,not what could have potentially happened. So
yeah, I think I think there'sthere's two. We have a thing in
Portuguese. Then I can't really transflitdoesn't really make sense. But we have
you know, two ways as fromweights two that we're using two discuss different

(01:12:12):
moves in you know, different ways. So before you know, during the
first three years of the rebuild,a lot of people said a lot of
these decisions make sense or makes senseat the time, but what happens is
what the result was. And thennow it's oh, we didn't try jail

(01:12:33):
then, but what matters that wealmost did. And and this is assuming
that the almost is factual when wedon't even know if that's the case.
So it's just it's just more ofthe same thing of people want to pin
the good things on Stone and thebad the good things on me you talk,

(01:12:55):
and the bad things on Stone.And at the end of the day,
I'd also like to mention that you'renot going to get Daryl Morey again.
Daryl Morey is not the same guyhe was when he came into the
rockets across the league. The qualityof the mean has raised. There's less
and less past players or old legends, leading for NOFIC judging it by the
eye test that you can take offendedly, because that's what Daryl Moury did.

(01:13:19):
He took offented fifth guys that werethere because there were big names in whatever
in whatever franchises they were, andhave their incompetence. In a more competent
league, it's harder to have themassive swings. And the fact that Stone
has done as well as he's done, I think it's commendable and I think
you can't say that, as we'vesaid this before, you can say you

(01:13:40):
like all of the core sis,especially not the children, explaining well,
you can't say that you like allof the course sixs. You can't say
that tilln Blandale and for them,which were good veteran acquisitions that managed to
let the rest of the team shinewithout taking the full stage away from them,
and at the same time they ruffleStonstead a bat club because as you
thought the picts were obvious, oryou thought that he shouldn't, which I

(01:14:03):
agree with, but hindsight twenty twenty, you can't have the expectation that a
phronoficis is going to be perfect,because it's not. It's not a game
where you're playing games not against NBCs, you're playing against real people. Other
people have to win sometimes too.You're not going to win any single move.
You're not going to be perfect.And when you look back at great

(01:14:27):
ms of the past, if theyconsider it great now, it's because their
successes outweigh their failures and that whenthat happens, people forget their failures.
Yeah. So yeah, that's that'smy main Yeah, bottom line for me.
You may Joka deserves credit for sayingthe course of Jalen even when there
were clear reasons to consider a change, and he definitely considered those. And

(01:14:48):
by that same token, the fellStone deserves credit for sticking with Jalen Green
even though many people around certainly thefan base but around the NBA wonder if
the or Rockets would move on,because after two and a half years there
had not been a lot of progress. Now we are seeing that progress and
I think that will be reflected inthe Rockets' analysis this off season. Now

(01:15:11):
if it's not, if you starthearing reports that even after this stretch,
the Rockets aren't fully bought in onJalen and that's coming from credible reporters with
ties to the Rockets, then okay, at that point there's conversations to be
had. But I just don't seethe point in wasting much mental energy on

(01:15:32):
this hypothetical from months ago that obviouslynever came close to fruition. Way too
much is made of this story.It's way too speculative, it's way too
old. It just does not matter. Be thankful for the product you have,
and as far as how things fitlong term, the Rockets will figure
that out this off season with informationfrom the past month that they obviously did

(01:15:55):
not have in January, when theseconversations may or may not have taken place,
depending on who you believe. Anyway, we've gone on long enough for
one episode. But boy, whenyou try to combine both the Micro team
winning nine straight games eleven and onein March with a little bit of Macro.
As far as Michailbridge's trade Jalen Greenand what that means for Rafelstone,
it feels like there's a new refeltalking point every week. I don't know
how some of these people do it. Whatever, it all leads to a

(01:16:17):
long episode, and that's what wenaturally do here at the logger line more
often than not, so I guessthis is fitting anyway for today, we'll
bring it to a close, andif you want more content, but for
our next episode, the best placeto get it is on Twitter slash x
follows on there at Palo Als NBA, and I'm on there at Benjubo's and
this show the logger line. Ifyou go to that handle or Twitter dot
com slash the logger line and youhit up the link tree and the bio,

(01:16:40):
you can find obviously our friends,partners and sponsors USA Today's Rockets are
Carbock Brewing Sports Talk seven to ninetyofficial flagship with the team. You can
access all of their content and ofcourse you support our friends, partners and
sponsors supporting us as well, butyou can also find links to our distributors,
Apple, Google, Spotify, Subscribeto the show, leave it a
five star review if you have notall ready, and that can help us

(01:17:01):
well. You get the benefit ofepisodes as soon as they're released, before
I can even post them to oneof those blogs, and we get the
benefit with hopefully your happy reviewer subscriptionof Looking Good to our friends, partners,
and sponsors and keeping this program running. Is one of the most active
podcasts covering Houston Rockets basketball. Allright, with those plugs complete, we
will adjourn again for Paolo. I'mBen. Thanks as always to all of
you for listening, and please comeback soon for another new episode of the

(01:17:24):
logger Line, Go Rockets.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Jalen Green’s star rises as Rockets win nine straight

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

All Episodes

Jalen Green’s star rises as Rockets win nine straight

Stuff You Should Know