As season winds down, Rockets have key milestones in sight

In a loaded Western Conference, the goal of advancing to the 2024 postseason proved to be too ambitious for the young and improving Houston Rockets (39-40). Yet, with three games left to play, a more attainable goal of a .500 or better season is still on the table — and that’s a clear point of emphasis for head coach Ime Udoka.

With that in mind, Wednesday’s podcast explores the significance of Houston potentially recording a non-losing season for the first time in four years. Our Ben DuBose and Paulo Alves also break down recent improvements by Dillon Brooks and Jabari Smith Jr. while analyzing how it could translate alongside Alperen Sengun (currently out due to injury) during the upcoming 2024-25 campaign.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Cheers, Rockets fans, Welcome tothe lagger 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, Oh

(00:22):
Red Nation. Get Ready, Ready, Get Ready. The lagger Line starts
now. Welcome aboard, Welcome backto another new episode of The logger Line.
Again serve to you courtesy of ClutchCity, logger of Carback Brewing.

(00:45):
I'm your host, benju Blows,editor of USA Today's Rockets Wire and contributor
to Sports Talk seven ninety, theofficial flagship radio station of your Houston Rockets.
I'm joined by my co host,good friend and producer out of Portugal,
Pallo Alves, who you can followon Twitter slash act at Palo Alves
NBA me. I'm at Ben Dubo'sso as we chat. The second week
of April. It's been at besta mixed bag for the Rockets since our

(01:08):
last recording. They've lost three orfour games since that recording date. At
one point, they actually had afive game losing streak overall, which dated
back to the previous week, andthe Rockets were officially eliminated from postseason contention
after that stunning collapse on Sunday inDallas, And we don't need to get
into particulars, but I can't helpit because that was so frustrating. The

(01:29):
Rockets had that game would have beenone of their best wins all season on
the road against a loaded team withLuca and Kyrie, and somehow it all
slipped away when fred n Flee,Javaris Smith Junior missed a combined three or
four free throws in the final thirtyseconds, Reggie Bullock and explicably chose not
to foul up three in time runningout, even after Hemate Udoka has made

(01:51):
a clear time after time that that'swhat he wants the Rockets to do in
that situation. Then of all people, it's Rockets legend Dante hex Some burying
the tying three time expires. Dallasrode that momentum and won the game in
overtime, and the Rockets were officiallyeliminated. And in the moment, it
felt like an absolute gut punch hashtagHouston Sports, especially when you consider that

(02:12):
the Rockets had also lost to theMAVs a week before that, and in
between they were blown out by theWarriors in the game that we had all
hyped up for weeks, so atthe time it felt awful. And the
terrible officiating in that Dallas game,which you called out on your timeline,
pallow largely tilted towards the MAVs thatcertainly did not help matters. But with
all that set, what I foundas the days have progressed and Powlo,

(02:38):
I'm curious if you feel the sameway. Is that when I take off
the emotional fan hat and put onthe let's call it a logical analyst cap,
When I make that change and Izoom out, actually don't feel that
bad about any of it, especiallyif the Rockets can finish the season strong
and hopefully get to a five hundredrecord or even a winning record if they

(03:00):
win all three games at this upcomingroad trip to finish the season. Here's
how I'm contextualizing everything. So withthose five straight losses coming off the eleven
game winning streak, I think you'vegot to toss out the Miami game last
Friday, second night of back toback, right after the Warriors game that
they'd put their heart and souls into. That was the most obvious schedule loss

(03:21):
you'll ever see. They also didn'thave him in Thompson that game minor ankle
injury. And that's on top ofbeing without all Perinchian Goon and Tari Easton,
which I know those have been bakedin for weeks or months, but
they're still quite relevant. And thenyou combine that with an insanely disciplined superstructure
team like Miami led by Jimmy ButlerEric Spolstra. They're fighting to lock up
the playoffs seed. This is theresult you get. So if you exclude

(03:45):
the Miami game, and again I'mholding off discussion of Golden State for just
a minute, you had three othergames out of those five, all against
Western Conference contenders. You basically hada home and home series with Dallas and
a Roada Minesota. You were withinone in Minnesota with a minute left.
You had that Dallas road game onebefore the ridiculous collapse that we were just

(04:08):
describing. Now, the Dallas homegame was not nearly as closed. But
as we discussed last week, ifLuca and their shooters are all going to
be that on fire simultaneously, there'spretty much nothing that anybody can do.
There's a reason why the Mapage wonby nearly forty in Sacramento less than a
week before that. When they're onto that extent, you just sort of
have to tip your cap. Andso the reason I bring all that up

(04:30):
is to say that for the mostpart, even when the Rockets were losing
those games, I feel like theprocess was pretty good. They were playing
hard, they were executing, theywere disciplined, they were engaged. It
wasn't like they just fell off acliff from the form they had when they
were winning eleven straight. They justhad some corn flip games finally go against
them, which that sucks, butit happens from time to time, and
even more so with young teams.It's not at all like that fraudulent seven

(04:55):
game Gary Bird streak from a coupleof years ago, where as soon as
it ended it was pretty obvious,so they were right back to where they
always were and that it was fluky. This time. They were still good
in the aftermath of the streak.They just got beat in close games by
other good teams in a tough partof the schedule. It happens now.
The one exception is that Golden Stategame. I will acknowledge that he may

(05:16):
lit into the Rockets afterward, hecalled them softer scares, so they look
like you're in the headlights to startoff, and I think it was all
deserved. But and we've made thispoint plenty in recent weeks, this is
exactly why it was so important forthe Rockets to get to a game like
that this season. The intensity ishigher, especially when you're going up against,
in this case, a four timechampionship team and also in the god

(05:39):
the most predictable development of all time, Klay Thompson, for like the sixty
ninth time, managed to somehow turnToyota Center into his personal fountain of youth.
Again, that's getting absolutely ridiculous.But even aside from that angle,
I will acknowledge disappointing game from aHouston perspective, but that does happen for
young teams when it's their first crackat playoff contention. This is not the

(05:59):
first time, it won't be thelast, and it's especially the case if
you're going up against one of themost experienced, battle tested teams in the
entire NBA. The point of this, and we've said it all year,
is that you learn from that experience, even if it goes poorly. Because
now you know what to expect whenthat situation comes up again in future years.
If we're right back in this samespot in March in April twenty twenty

(06:21):
five, it won't be all new. That was always the point of having
this season be meaningful into April,which it was. And also, in
fairness to the Rockets, there werea lot of things they did wrong,
but let's be clear, it's notlike the Warriors are just beating up on
them. They've won eight of ninegames now. The only loss was by

(06:42):
two in Dallas on night two ofa road back to back. They crushed
the Lakers in LA. The othernight with Lebron playing, they won both
ends of the back to back inMiami and Orlando, which, as we
said last week, we knew thatwas pretty much the fatal blow when it
came to any realistic scenario for theRockets to make a postseason push. Yes,
the Warriors are still technically the numberten seed, but give me a

(07:02):
break. That's just a product ofa historically loaded Western Conference. They've already
got forty four wins going into thisclosing three game stretch to compare to the
East, Milwaukee is the number twoseed, and they have forty eight wins.
So I mentioned all that context tosay that for me, when you
strip away the emotional fan components,I get why a young and still somewhat

(07:26):
shorthanded Rockets team would lose those gamesin those settings. Now, that doesn't
mean they can check out on theseason. To circle back to something I
said a couple of minutes ago,that's where this final week comes into play.
They got off to a good startTuesday by beating a good Orlando team
which still ranks in the top fourof the East, and that puts the
Rockets now at thirty nine and fortyentering this three game road trip. Win

(07:46):
two of the three, you finishat five hundred, and if you win
all three, you finished with awinning record. As I said before,
I do think there are some preceiegebenefits to finishing at five hundred or better.
The NBA is a perception driven league, and if they're a true superstar
that hits the trade market this summer, of course, the Rockets will do
their due diligence, and they dohave some solid trade assets between the young
core in place and their future draftassets from Brooklyn. I don't know if

(08:09):
this summer will be the right timefor that type of blockbuster trade. I
don't know if the right guy willbe available, but it's certainly not implausible.
And if you go from a teamthat's basically been last place in the
West for three straight years at roughlytwenty wins per season to more than doubling
that and being a winning team allin year one for Emai Udoka, I

(08:30):
do think that superficially, that resumemight pop a little bit more relative to
finishing at thirty nine and forty threeor forty and forty two. And if
the Rockets are a winning team,then they're not that far away if you
add a true superstar from legitimate contention, if you want to talk about the
merits of such a move, althoughI think we'll talk about that more the
next few weeks when we get intomore off season planning conversations. But even

(08:52):
so, that's a more macro sideof things, and that's just my gut
feel. I can't fully quantify it, and let's be on and it's it's
not like the season becomes a quoteunquote failure if they finish forty to forty
two, But it's the microview whereI do think there's something a little more
quantifiable because how they finish this year, in my opinion, it's going to
go a long way towards either validatingthat eleven game winning streak or conversely,

(09:16):
that five game losing streak. Here'swhat I mean by that. If you
take three or four out of thesefinal four games and they've already got the
one against the Magic the home finale, it makes it all the easier to
make the case that I did afew moments ago, that is it's the
five game losing streak that was theoutlier. You can frame it as though
it was a tough scheduling stretch.You had some bad breaks, and then

(09:39):
as soon as the schedule got morereasonable, they got right back to winning.
Through that lens the thirteen and twoMarch with the eleven game winning streak,
that looks like the better representation ofwho the Rockets currently are and thus
what we can expect them to benext year. And with that, your
young guys can head into the offseason with some extra pep in their step
and whatever confidence and swagger that comesfrom feeling like a consistent winning team over

(10:01):
the final two months. They canalso point to the fact that they were
twenty seven and fourteen at home,that's fifth best in the West. What
held them back for the season asa whole was the road record. Well,
if you win three or four toclose out the year, you would
win ten or nine of your finaltwelve road games overall, and so it
would sort of feel like that you'vesolved that issue as well. On the

(10:24):
flip side, if you lose atleast two of these three games on the
road trip and that puts you atseven or eight losses in your final nine
games, the framing of the narrativegets a lot tougher. It's not that
the winning street goes away, butas opposed to feeling like they figured things
out, it looks a lot morevolatile. It also might look like that
the road struggles are still there,because when you look specifically at these final

(10:48):
three games Utah on Thursday, Portlandon Friday, and the Clippers Sunday,
when they'll probably be resting everyone becausethey're basically locked into the four seed,
the Rockets are going to be favoredin all of those games. Let's not
to say that any one loss isa monumental failure. In particular that Portland
game worries me a little bit becauseit's night too or road back to back,
They'll probably get to their hotel atthree or four am local time.

(11:09):
It's tougher than it looks. Butif you lose two or three, then
in the micro the final week ofthe season to me feels like an extension
of last week that h to fiveweek, and then at that point it
does take at least a little bitof the shine off of what was an
incredible month of March. It alsoputs the doubt back into the equation when
it comes to can they win onthe road consistently, which I think is

(11:30):
something that Emay is going to bestressing throughout the off season and when they
begin training camp in late September.So that's why these final three games,
even though the Rockets have been eliminated, still have a lot of meaning for
me personally. Pallo, what areyour general thoughts as far as what we've
learned over the past week at ateam level as well as what's still to
be learned from these final three gamesupcoming? Yeah, I think the so

(11:54):
it was expected that eventually the pendone was going to swing the other way.
The Timberwolves game to me just screams, you know, Jalen Green took
you home or or you know,helped you across the finish fine in so
many games closing out during the industry, eventually he was eventually he was bound
to not be able to do that. That that's me that what happened in
the tiam Or Rolls game, theWarriors game, You're not going to beat

(12:16):
the Warriors is the shoot for theeight percent from three. It's just not
I mean, I agree with you, I don't didn't think the team ends
you was there, But at thesame time, it's hard to play them
when when Clay and Steph are onfire and the entire teams on fire sleating
for the eight percent from three.So you know, I was really first
laughs at that one because that one, as as it is for most Rockets
fans, was personal. But youknow his life. The first Mavericks game,

(12:39):
they were also shuty closed to fiftypercent from three. Luca was hitting
basically everything in the face of theearth. You can blame some of that
on the defensive scheme and and switchingJocko and a lot time so frequently that
that one kind of is on Udokafor me, but yeah, then you
go on to the Heat game andsaid second half of back to back that
to me, this game was orwinnable. But then you know eventually you're

(13:03):
not gonna win all of the winnablegames. And the second Mavericks game was
just one of the most frustrating lossesof the season. You need to make
one of three free throws. Youhave an eighty percent at the line and
I and close to ninety percent atthe line and thread, and then you
can't make a single one. Thenyou can pound on that by not fouling,
and you can pound on that bythe guy that missed the last two
three throws for some reason playing likeat the time, you know they double

(13:30):
Luca, he's they double wont passedaway, which is not great, but
it's because it's Suka and Jivar isway too late on help. What is
Jabari doing? You know? Yeah? Why I see defending Maxi Kleber or
whoever it is at the rim whenthe two doesn't win the game. I'm
not even that mad that. Butabout not fouling. And while I do

(13:50):
agree that most any teams should befouling and they don't, and the Rockets
most occasions should be found and theydon't. This is also a very empty
team. And as we say,oh we had let's come off of three
straight. Mister the free throw line. Depending on the gy that gets fouled,
you may like you only need tomiss one free throw in what in
eight seconds of game time, canprobably get what two or three reps of

(14:11):
you know, going back and forward, not maybe not three pup two?
And are you are you that confidentthat the team was going to go for
or for in those three throws,because if they don't, then two ties
the game and at that point it'snot really worth it. Oh, in
this case, the maps were outof timeouts, so oh they were.
That's what tilted it more towards foulingfor me. But I get your point

(14:33):
is that when you're struggling from thefree throw line, that does make you
a little bit nervous about playing thefouling game. I get it. I
think it's more just who was Ithink it was Andrew Soukup that made the
point on Twitter that Reggie Bullock hadfive fouls and he ended up fouling out
in overtime, And I think alot in hindsight, of course, Yeah,
well, yeah, the way theofficials were in that game, good

(14:54):
lord. But my guess is thatas well as he was playing, he
wasn't sure if he wanted to takehimself out of that game. Now,
the counter to that, and it'syou know, hindsight's twenty twenty when you're
saying this, you know, afterthe fact is if you in the game
right then and there, it doesn'tmatter that you fouled out. The game
is over. But I just thinkthe instinct right there when a player has
five fouls is to err on theside of letting someone else do it.

(15:16):
And unfortunately, you know, theyset the right screen. Gamary didn't come
out and help, and so bythe time the screen was set, nobody
after Reggie had a chance to doit. My guess is that he was
hoping with five fouls someone else woulddo the deed, and just as it
turned out, no one was inplace to do that. And the rest
is history. Yeah, and itwas just a complete joke club by Lebarrie
right at the very least, likewe should be demanding that he made the

(15:39):
free throws, but at the veryleast get them across front rim like none
of those had anything. Yeah,they weren't closed. That was disappointing.
Yeah, it's to his credit.He played really really well. We'll talk
about him later on. He playedreally really well against the Magic. I
know he gets fired up a littlebit against Polo, but as depressing as
that was and a little bit reminiscentof the Golden or no excuse me,

(16:02):
the San Antonio game at the startof the year, he bounced back the
next game with a strong one againstthe Warriors and had to run after that.
I know it's a limited silver liningbecause the game really sucked, but
at least he sort of channels itin the right way after the fact.
At least that's what I feel like. Oh yeah, for sure, it's
not an it's not a it's notsomething to hold against Lapari for the future.
It's just frustrating at the time.And so we're talking about a five

(16:23):
game losing the five game, losingstream at the time, it's done really
badly. I also suspect that someof it may be that a younger team
is disproportionately harmed when there's no timeout, because and we can sit here
and say in hindsight that, yeah, Jabari should have realized that they were
up three, not up to butunlike a typical situation where you have the

(16:47):
coaching staff drilling the time and scoreinto their ears for three minutes before the
game rezumes, because there was notime out by Dallas, they were out
of them and it all happened onthe fly. My gut tells me that
there was some indecision by Jabari.I mean he didn't fully realize the score
and that yeah, a two pointeris completely inconsequential. Not saying that it's

(17:10):
not a mistake, because it is. It's just one that I think happens
more with young players if there's nota timeout, Yeah, for sure,
I think. And then to closeit out on on on on these last
few games, and what if I'mon the record might mean I'm not.
I'm not too convinced. It camejust that much in terms of perception,

(17:30):
although I will say, like asa fan and for of the players,
it should be something that they takepride in that they, you know,
at least won as many games asthey lost, if not, you know,
better than better than that having awinning record the games that they have
remaining. I mean, the Plazersare thanking, and I mean I can
double check real quick if they arestill in the risk. Yeah, if

(17:51):
the Spurs win a game, theycan still tie the players for you know,
the last spot in the West,which obviously has implications when it comes
to the draft odds. So theBlizzards will probably be incentivized to lose that
game, and the Jazz, youknow, I don't think it can go
up or down. Let me compareit with the Eastern They basically can't go

(18:12):
up or down. So they mayjust play that game for the win.
They may say a bunch of guys. I don't know what it will be,
but I think the Rockets will bemore incentivized to win because I think
that's a way that you is probablytelling the guys like, let's at least
get a five hundred record, whichwould be probably we should be pride full
of that. But I'm not surehow much it impacts just the perception of

(18:33):
the team. I think the winningstreak already did that, and maybe I
think and I think you should.One of the biggest takeaways is if the
standings were cross conference, Ructus wouldbe in the play and they'd be the
nine seat outright with three or fourgames of advantage. If they were in
the in the East, and Idon't even want to see, you know,
the winteral I think didn't we faceplayoff teams that were five hundred in

(18:56):
the West in the game so yearsor A might tripping on that. Oh,
I think you're right. The Westwas generally stronger, but the discrepancy
was not nearly to what it isnow. And oh and we also then
we also know rockelays. You know, the Rockets were a five hundred team
themselves that final year of Dwight Howardwhen everything went wrong in twenty sixteen,

(19:18):
they were five hundred team forty oneand forty one going against the top seeded
Warriors. That was actually what costthe Rockets a shot at Kevin Durant is
that they were so bad the previousyear they couldn't even get a meeting despite
hardening KD being so close. Soyeah, that's perfect example. The Rockets
were a five hundred and eight seedthemselves in twenty sixteen. So yeah,
I mean, compare to the personnelon that team versus the personnel on this
team as far as eighteen experience,and you get, you get whatever you

(19:42):
want to get. So I'm justI think that they should go through.
You know, I think the lastClipper same, they'll just rest people unless
untle as they're saying they have somethingto fight for. Even if they do,
the Clippers are not the tigger nowthat they had looked like like fifteen
games ago. And I think itit would be something as a fan that
that'd be really proud of. Andit's it shows how much different improvement that

(20:04):
is wint it has reflected into winning. It's not a moral victory, and
we and we hear learning the seasonsaid hey, this year there's no moral
victories, and you know that's thetruth. And then they have delivered and
right, and the record if theyget the five hundred won't be a moral
victory. It will be something thatthey can that they can hold themselves to
and they can look to build ongoing into next year. As far as

(20:27):
individuals go, it's it's kind ofsad that Leland Green is regressed back in
the shooting, but I think theprocessing is still better. I think,
yeah, for sure, Yeah,it's not like a regression from earlier this
season. He's still making an impactin other ways. Yeah, I agree,
but looking for him to bounce back. And yeah, as far as
the last few games. It's youknow, it gives us something to care

(20:49):
for that we are at least closeto five hundred. And if you look
at the odds to begin the season, we've cleared or over a wild back,
and I wonder what they'll set areover at ninety year considering if we
took it to five hundred. Yeah, that's a good question, and of
course a lot of it's going todepend on what happens around the Western Conference
this offseason. While I don't thinkthere's anyone poised for an immediate regression,

(21:12):
at the same time, some ofthose more veteran laden teams you mentioned,
the Clippers with obviously Kawhi Leunderdon andPaul George, Lakers with Lebron Sons with
KD, those are situations where itwould not take much, be it an
injury, a retirement, a tradedemand, for them to fall off a
map and perhaps be in the sameposition the Rockets were in twenty twenty with
James Harden. So even if there'snot clearly a team that the Rockets can

(21:36):
pass at the moment, it wouldnot take much to change that calculus,
and that will go into their offseasonodds as well. Because of course that
the Rockets want to be well abovewhere they are right now, they probably
need to pass someone in the West. The question is who that's likely to
be. We'll dive into that morein our upcoming episodes when the season ends
and we can take a more holisticlook at what we learned from this season
and what the landscape looks like movingforward. As far as individuals, one

(22:00):
guy that I wanted to discuss ontoday's pod is Dylan Brooks. We talked
about Jalen a lot in recent podsbecause, of course his jump since the
All Star break, and especially sincelosing all for in Shangoon has been a
big part of the story, notsaying that it's complete by any means or
has been a bit of a shootingregression. That's also the question going into
next year of can you get bothJalen and Shangoon in peak form? At

(22:22):
the same time, I think alot of that narrative is overdone, But
at the same time, until theyconsistently do it, there's reasons why they
have not, But until they actuallydo it, then it's fair to wonder.
And that's going to be a storylinethroughout the off season and leading into
training camp in the fall. Butwe've discussed that plenty, and to some
extent, it's almost a boring discussionbecause it just we got to wait and
see what happens when we're hopefully fortunateenough to see both of these guys healthy

(22:45):
on the same court at the sametime in the fall. In terms of
what's been going on in the microthe last week, Dylan Brooks is someone
who in recent pods we've discussed ina very negative way. Last week we
actually talked about is he guaranteed tohave a starting spot next year should he
return, when you consider there's alternativeoptions like Charry Easton and a Men Thompson

(23:07):
as currently constructed. Since then,perhaps Dylan listened to us and took some
fuel from it. Now I know, I'm just getting a big head with
that comment. Dylan made the improvementsthrough his own play. He does work
very hard and to his credit overthe last three games. But was it
not for Pemilton highlights? Oh god, no convent anyway, last three games

(23:33):
nearly twenty one points per game,fifty one percent, shooting sixty five percent
from three on high volume in nearlysixty threes per game. Now of course,
the sixty five percent three point clipis not sustainable. I understand that,
but the point is it's gotten hisseason long average back up to nearly
thirty seven when he was at hisbest to start this season, when the

(23:56):
Rockets got off to that great fifteenand twelve start through Christmas, he was
shooting over forty percent from three.And now we're starting to see some signs
of a bounce back. And it'sjust been striking to me how quickly that
has correlated with an upturn for theoffense as a whole. And when you
take a step back, it makesperfect sense because what's happened in recent weeks.

(24:21):
As Jalen has taken off, thendefenses have committed more resources to him
and that's been part of his scoringgoing down to touch. The last few
games. He's seeing more traps,he's seeing more double teams against the Magic.
They were also trapping and double teamingFred van Vleet after he had a
season high thirty seven points. Andso that creates these four and three scenarios
where the defense is going to funnelthe ball in many of these occasions to

(24:47):
what they view as the biggest liabilityand when the Rockets were really struggling offensively.
Go back to the first MAVs gameand the Minnesota game. Dylan couldn't
throw it in the ocean. Thosetwo games, he was one of eleven
from three and he had just fivecombined points, and it felt like,
you know, in these four andthree scenarios, they're at a disadvantage.

(25:07):
But as long as there's some rimprotection, which the MAVs had with Gafford
and the Timberwolves did with Gobert,then you can prevent an all out rim
attack. And then in terms ofthe shooting the midrange game, just funnel
it to the guy that you viewas the biggest liability, and that was
Dylan Brooks. As soon as hestarted perking back up against the heat in

(25:27):
the second MAVs game where he wasoutstanding season high twenty nine points and follow
it up with fifty percent shooting threeor four from three in that twelve point
win over the Mansion, all ofa sudden, the offense looks completely different.
And I think that's sort of thenatural evolution of what we've been looking
for from the Rockets this year,Because to start this season, I think

(25:49):
everyone knew going in that Fred wasgoing to be a good point guard,
a clear positive as an offensive player, not a superstar, but a very
good player, but that you werehoping for some of your young guys to
take that leap, and while not, at the same time, they have
all perin. Shongoon became a guythat commanded double teams and got you advantage

(26:11):
scenarios with the way he played overthe first sixty plus games. Now over
the last twenty years, sold Jalenhas evolved into one of those guys as
well. And when you combine thatwith Fred, you've got guys that can
generate advantages. You've got guys thatstrike fear in the hearts of opposing defenses
in a way that you didn't knowyou had going into this season. You

(26:33):
were hopeful you would have it,but you didn't know. Now you do.
And so with defenses adjusting, sincethe Rockets actually do have offensive players
that puts some fear into opposing coacheswhen they're putting together their game plans,
then that makes it all the moreimportant for you not to have a clear
liability somewhere else. And the othertwo spots are Dylan Brooks and Jabari Smith

(26:56):
Junior, and I focus on DylanMoore because for the most part, even
though he's had certain stretches where hedoesn't shoot the ball well, I feel
like generally he's respected as a shooter. Dylan, it's a little more hit
or miss in terms of how he'splaying over the preceding few games as to
how I feel like opposing defenses viewhim. And there's also historically the issues

(27:19):
that Dylan has with shot selection,where you can potentially bait him into doing
some dumb things in a way thatfor the most part, teams haven't been
able to do with Jabbari. Andso that's why I think Dylan in particular
has sort of been an X factor, a key variable. And it's not
just Dylan, I mean, it'shis role. The same could be said.
I think if you threw Tarry Easoninto that slot or a Men Thompson,

(27:41):
whoever, it would happen to begoing into next season. The point
is the next evolution. Now thatShingoon and Jalen have consistently been able to
generate these advantages to bring help defendersto get traps and doubles on occasion,
we know what Fred can do.He's established, so that puts a lot
more pressure on those other two spots, and Dylan in particular to hold up

(28:06):
their weight to not be a liability. So I've got some theories about how
you can unlock Dylan specifically, butI just think it's sort of a holistic
level. What these last few gameshave really underscored for me is just how
important it is not to have anoffensive zero with that spot. With the

(28:26):
way the Rockets are currently constructed.Now, maybe that changes a little bit
if you have two clear advantage generatorsat the same time, i e.
Both Jalen and Shinoon. Hopefully we'relucky enough to see that play out in
the fall, But for now,what these past few games, I guess
the bad of a couple of weeksago when Dylan was dreadful and now a
good At the last three games,what it's really hit home for me is

(28:48):
that that role is really important tothem offensively, when you're getting may threes
out of that position and confident rimattacks out of closeouts and the Rockets are
humming offensively. When they're not,it gets ugly because defenses just leave that
guy to shoot and far away,and if he misses, it gets sticky.

(29:08):
And now you can't get the spacefor Jalen to operate either. So
before we get into Zillan specifically,I guess the angle I want to attack.
Does it make sense to you thatwith where the rockets are now and
there's their rebuilding cycle, the developmentof these young prospects, that those non
creation positions, that's what I'm goingto call it, with Dylan and Jabari

(29:29):
are the really important ones when itcomes to the upside of the offense.
Does that make sense to you,I see what you're trying to say.
I think the I think or thanthe creators are not consistent enough yet,
although maybe that is I mean,you know, basketball is a zero some
game. Maybe that is. Maybethey're not as consistent because the other pieces
are not drawing enough attemption to makeit easier for them to create the advantages

(29:52):
because it's not you know, youcreate it and it's not the cycle is
no, it is a cycle.It's not a it's not a t separate
things so one one impacts the other. But I mean, the thing with
Dylan is that he's actually so youget ups and downs, right, but
he's actually a fairly gifted offensive playeras far as what he can do at

(30:17):
his speak versus what he can versuswhat he can't do when he's you know,
playing playing badly offensively. So it'snot a Robert cutting that situation where
you pretty much know what to expect, right, and it's more consistent when
Dylan's firing on all Cinle winners.He can drive, he can finish through
contact, he can you know,he can hit the three. He can
he can sometimes step back from three. He can hits some mid drink shots,

(30:38):
right. So when yeah, whenhe's playing well, he's not just
a role player. When Robert Covington'splaying well, he might hit seven and
make six of them right and impactthe game. But it's it's different.
So Dylan's more of a shooting guardtype in his offensive game. Now,
obviously that that impacts the team alot, but to me, it's more,

(31:02):
not only did we lose offensively whathe was bringing earlier in the season,
defensively, we became less greedy ofa team because he wasn't able to
defend the way he was defending leaderskins. To me, earlier in the season,
he was one of the best defendersin the NBA, And right now
I'm not I'm not even here he'saverage. So to me, the more
important thing is can he bring thedefensive side of the you know, of

(31:27):
his brilliance back rather than the offensivethe offense, because I think if I
think, the gap between what hewas defensively to begin the season what he's
defensively now is even regardless of thelast three games, what he was to
begin the season versus what he isnow is larger on defense than don't know
what it is on offense. Ithink, yes, he was you know,

(31:49):
on fire from three and he was, you know, one of the
most efficient players in the league fora few months. But he you know,
he regressed, but he was stillyou know, half decent. And
I think on on defense, nowhe's fouling more, he's falling asleep on
rotations more, he gets getting beatoff the dribble by guys that he should

(32:10):
not be getting beat off the dribbleby. And I'm not even talking about
stars. I'm talking about you know, Joe Engles types and judge kiddie types
that should really have no chance toscore against them. So to me,
it will be more important to getback to Dylan that we have as a
defender, and maybe the weak injuryplays into it. That's the whole But
I guess your point. Yeah,yeah, because as a communicator, that's

(32:35):
that's really important. And and andas a non ball defender, and as
someone who makes up for the mentallapses that some of our players have,
even if they're good defenders or evenif they're playing good defense, Was was
you know, being a connected defensively, was being was really important for our
success defensively early on. Offensively Listen, if if if he can bring that

(33:00):
I that back obviously that's that's great. But regardless, I think going into
the off season, I'm not sayingyou should trade him, but I think
he is you know, with FredVentley playing as well as he is and
being hard to move and was,he is for a star uh And I
know we won't get into this thisthis episode, but he is the guy
that's easier to move if you're seekingan upgrade. Because the Rockets rotation has

(33:24):
six guys locked into it, whichare the six young guys. Has atleet
that seven guys, Dylan is theeighth guy that's going to get real minutes.
And amongst this group, he isnot really the old man out because
he's good, right, But theeasier one to upgrade without sacrificing future upsides.
So if you wanted to pack placeinternally, if you're doing a package,

(33:45):
yeah, yeah. So if youwant to trade for someone or if
you're in rockets, have an assetthat they'll have to make a decision on
whether they like it or not.In the Brooklyn pick, the one that
makes more sense to you know,explore will probably the one. Plus that,
and obviously you know he has thelonger contract. Rufflestone has has said

(34:05):
most of the times that he's bigon optionality. He is the guy that
has the least optionality from a movestandpoint. Yeah, and his salary in
the twenties other than Fred, whoI think they want to keep for a
number of reasons, that's the onlysalary they currently have above fifteen millions.
So if you're trying to make abig trade, you almost have to have
him be viewed as positive trade value. As we were discussing, I believe
last week, that's so important tothem because otherwise it's really difficult to make

(34:30):
the math work a little easier theoff season where you can aggregate five six
guys because I expanded rosters and whatnot. But yeah, you probably need Dylan
for math reasons and because he's moreeasy to replace internally, it would just
make sense for him to be inthose trades. But again, we can
talk more about that in future pods. For now, I want to focus
on the scenario where he comes back, because I do think it's been a

(34:53):
big part of their story over thepast week, this offensive resurgence that we've
seen, even against an Orlando teamthat's pretty good defensively, when you have
the good Dylan offensively, it transformswhat you can do, and it's been
refreshing. I mentioned, you know, we talk about his value now that
he's shooting above forty three percent overall, thirty seven percent on threes, all

(35:15):
of a sudden, he looks alot more palatable to other teams around the
league this offseason. Potentially again,we'll table that for now, but even
in the very micro he is helpingthem win games. He was a turnaround
against Orlando, and he's honestly thebiggest reason why they should have won at
Dallas, not his fault that theycouldn't get that foul and friend Shibari missed
the free throws. We don't needto go into that again as far as

(35:37):
the reasons why, besides the obviousof he's making more shots, there have
been a couple of interesting comments tome that were made first by Dylan and
then by ime Udoka. So afterthat Dallas game, he mentioned that he
wanted to get back to what hecalled his old style of playing defense paraphrasing

(35:57):
here, but he thinks he changeda bit when he to Houston because the
NBA was watching him in terms ofthe extracurriculars, the fouls, the fines,
the suspensions. And he said thatafter the Dallas game because while the
defense by and large has regressed eversince the oblique injury, I do think
he was better on Sunday. Now, he did get into foul trouble against

(36:19):
the MAVs, but I think alot of that was that the whistle was
just comically biased in Dallas his favor. I think he took that Luca assignment
personally and that helped him be alot more dial than He didn't have the
lapses that he often has, especiallyoff the ball in recent weeks. And
so I asked imy Ujoka about thosecomments in the context of what we've seen
from Dylan lately and predictably I Maydid not touch on the league aspect because

(36:45):
I just don't think he may wantsto put his player in a bad position
with the league by saying, oh, we think the league is biased against
it none. Even if that's true, and I think there is some truth
in that, I don't think theRockets it's not to their advantage to play
up that angle. However, hedid touch on what he thinks Dylan meant
by getting back to who he wasin Memphis, and the distinction that he

(37:06):
made Drew was that in Memphis,Dylan was primarily a matchup defender in that
he would often get tasked with guardingthe opposing team's best perimeter player, on
occasion, the best post player,and that was his guy. And even
if there were screens set, thenit was his job to navigate those go
over the top power through them.Whatever it may be. He was responsible

(37:29):
for Lebron James or whoever it mightbe, and we've seen that at times
this season. He did a goodjob against Wemby the two Rocket Spurs matchups,
even though he was undersized from alength perspective, made up for it
with his strong physical presence his activehands. We saw him do a pretty
good job, especially off ball againstLuca on Sunday. I was impressed by

(37:50):
what he did there. Basically tookLuca out of the game in the fourth
quarter and made it a Kyrie show. Unfortunately, Kyrie did take advantage,
but Dylan did what he did inthe Luca matchup, and I think he
feeds off of that. Unfortunately,as Emay said, the Rockets prioritize switching
in their scheme, and it makessense because the Rockets would healthy do have
a lot more capable defenders who alsohave guys like Tory Easton, like Jabari

(38:13):
Smith Junior, like Aman Thompson whoare capable of holding their own when there
are these switches. So, especiallyin this period with all parching goon out,
it doesn't make sense to ask oneguy to fight through everything to stick
with his matchup. The Rockets havemultiple guys capable of defending top scorers,
top playmakers on the perimeter, sothey want to take advantage of that and

(38:36):
not put themselves in a disadvantaged positionwhen the primary guy is trying to recover
from having a screen set on it. And so, while Imay did not
explicitly spell it out, what eMay is hitting at there is that Dylan
can get a little disengaged when he'snot responsible for his man. Another good
example I mentioned Wemby and Luca alsothe the Chicago game against Jamar DeRozan before

(39:01):
both were rejected. That was agame where Dylan did a really good job
against Damar, who's unquestionably the topperimeter guy on Chicago. And what's interesting
about these games, it's not justthat Dylan's defense was improved, which I
think it was, but these werealso games where he played well offensively as
well. It reminds me a littlebit of in baseball. You'll see these

(39:23):
splits where certain players, for whateverreason, and this was the case with
jan Or Diaz at the Aspers lastyear, hit way better when they're in
the lineup defensively than they do asa DH. And that's completely counter to
what you would think, because itmakes sense that if a player can just
focus on hitting, then it shouldmake it even easier for them to do

(39:45):
that job. But what many playerswill tell you, and I think Diaz
alluded to this a couple of times, is that it's easier for him to
hit when he's catching because he feelsmore engaged. He's more in the game.
There's not all that time off.And so with Dylan when I see
him have these games and Chicago againstde Rozen before he got thrown out,

(40:05):
that was one of the games wherehe shot really well. We saw what
he did against the MAVs on Sunday. Not only is Dylan defending at a
higher level, it also seems tobring out a better version of him offensively.
He just seems to have his competitivefireback, so he may acknowledge that.
At the conclusion of his comments,he said that maybe something we revisit
in the off season, because obviouslyyou're not going to change your defensive principles

(40:28):
on the fly in regards to howmuch do you switch? Are their exceptions
to that switching rule and so onand so forth. No, if you're
gonna do something like that, it'sin the off season. You don't do
that. But just a few gamesleft to play, as you're playing out
the string, that could be anoption. Another option I've thought about,
and it doesn't necessarily have to bebenched Dylan. Maybe it can just be
reducing his minutes from I believe he'saveraging thirty one minutes per game. Now,
maybe you lower him to twenty fivenext year, even if he's still

(40:52):
starting. And that way, ifyou're not asking to play thirty plus minutes,
then the fouls are less of abig deal because he's not going to
get himself into foul trouble or he'sless likely to get himself in a foul
trouble if he's playing for your minutes. So maybe that helps him play more
aggressively. Maybe even if you're stilldoing the switching with Dylan, he can
tie. He can sort of feellike the old Dylan if you give him
more freedom to play aggressively, toplay physically. But I guess what I'm
struck by with this improvement, I'mcurious your perspective, Pallow. What it

(41:15):
feels like Emy is hinting at isthat the Rockets know that, and I
think this is what Dylan's saying aswell, that they get the best out
of Dylan on both ends when hefeels the freedom that he had for most
of his time in Memphis that wentaway towards the end of the Grizzlies tenure
with all the extracurricular stuff we sawit at times this year, but between

(41:37):
Houston having different defensive principles and thenthe oblique injury, and then a number
of mouths to feed. For whateverreason, it felt like Dylan got away
from that. He wants to getback to it. The question is how
can the Rockets blend that with whatmakes the most sense for them as a
team. So, I guess myquestions for you, Paolo, do you

(42:00):
buy the potential correlation that if youlet Dylan be Dylan so to speak?
You know, I think of letRoss by Ross, which is what all
the Westbrook stands said for years.Let's in this case say let Dylan be
Dylan. Do you buy there's acorrelation that that might help him also be
better offensively? And if so,what is sort of a realistic compromise that

(42:20):
you can do when you're mapping outhow to potentially use him next season to
best tie into that potentially? Right, Well, we've seen weirder things in
sports. It's if it gets himinto a state of mind when he's more
locked in and he needs that toget into it. We've seen weirder things
in sports, right. I dobelieve that that may have an impact,

(42:42):
if nothing else, just inside hishead, and then that translates onto the
court. I mean, I thinkthat the better question is is he worth
a community accommodating that? Considering therocket current personality you said, which has
a lot of lengthy that are ideallyswitching, I think without branching and perhaps
it's worth it. I think withoutI'll be perhaps it's not. It depends

(43:08):
on on if you can achieve.You know, if you have a five
that can defend better to riom andswitch better, then perhaps it's more worth
it to play switching scheme and youcan freely switch across all five positions are
close to it, and perhaps they'rethat the reward for having Dylan do what

(43:29):
Dylan does is less appealing. Now, I think that's you know, I
think, as I said, itbecomes an even tougher decision because of Dylan's
status in the packing order as faras how useful he is to the team
now and going forward, and howyou know, there's so many guys ahead
of him that he may get traded. I think, if you know,

(43:51):
if if I, like micau Bridge, just doesn't have or doesn't need that
type of incentive defensively to play welloffensively, maybe it really makes sense.
But I think for now it shouldbetter, you know, aligne you know,
just going with the status quo withopportunately in the lineup. I think
it's worth it to let Dylan havethe best mactep and you take it away

(44:14):
if you see that it's not payingoff or that he's having an offline offensively
anyways, and you you know,you do have a game plan, and
you want to stick to the gameplan, but you want to be flexible
enough because you have so many gooddefenders on the roster. If if I'm
in Thomson's playing, even more soif both of them in entirely are playing,
you can have a little bit ofa longer leash or of a shorter

(44:34):
leash with Dylan as as to hey, initially we're going to put you on
Lebron games, or initially initially you'regoing to put you on look at danswage.
But if it starts to go proarably, either you can't card them effectively
enough or offensively, you're not deliveringthe results that you say you should be
able to because you're you're getting toguard the best guy. Then you came

(44:55):
to approach. But as I said, I don't think as a the biggest
part that I don't think till chiefjust starting line up going to next season,
I think they will rule hold onTwitter at least for the start,
So assuming that that's going to happen, you can have both a shorter leash
from a game to game basis andwithin a game. So for my game
to game basis in the starting lineupand within the game with who you have

(45:17):
got in the primary guy. Andthe other thing that you can do is
you can play them less minutes.Ultimately that may that may happen anyway,
because you got to find minutes forChari, you got to find more minutes
for a men Thompson. And canwhat more so beyond the incentive to get
more on Dylan by letting him playmore physically, can't be well, it's
harder to be in foul trouble ifyou're playing mid twenties as opposed to low

(45:37):
thirties. It also benefits the Rocketsin other way. So perhaps it's something
that was already happening and this justhappens to be an additional benefit of it.
Yeah, and besides that, youcan also probably point to do a
men Thompson. You can you canprobably stagger him an amend them most as
you can, so that you haveone of them on the Florida at all
times to guard the best player.And I say a meno vertari not because

(45:59):
the man is necessarily better defender.I think they're actually pretty close to each
other on the on ball, butbecause of also the shooting that you know,
shooting concerns that come with them,and you'd rather probably sim Stillon is
a questionable shooter, You'll probably you'dprobably rather have Tarty next to him if
you if you're just having a mannext to him or Torry next to him

(46:19):
in the same lineup. But besidesthat, I mean, if that's not
enough or that's not working, asI said, he's the least hard guide
to trade out of the steam.Good point. All right, The last
guy I want to get to beforewe wrap up today's pod. So,
as mentioned, Dylan is the biggestX factor when it comes to the team

(46:44):
as it's constructed going into next season, because while not consistent, you have
seen much more consistent relative to thepast flashes of both Shogoon and Jalen being
guys that can create advantages for theirteammates and bad. I don't want to
say he consistently generates that, buthe's a very good player on a regular

(47:05):
basis. He is who he is, and so there are fewer questions when
it comes to the offensive foundation ofthis team than there were eighty games ago.
That's my biggest takeaway. And sonow that you're getting more clarity with
your upper echelon scoring and playmaking slots, then that puts more pressure as they
draw more attention on these other spots. These other guys to not be liabilities

(47:30):
because they're much more likely to getopen shots and get advantage scenarios at the
attention drawn from guys like Jalen greenAll, Princh and Goon and Fred Van
Fleet. So amongst your starters,we've covered Dylan. Another guy that I
think is very interesting right now,and he's the one starter we haven't talked
about a lot on today's show isJabari Smith Junior. As mentioned, I
don't think he's quite the variable thatDylan is, simply because he doesn't have

(47:53):
quite the same dimension to his offensivegame, at least not yet that Dylan
does when he's right. He alsodoesn't have the bad shot selection game,
if you will, so his lowsaren't as low. But at the same
time, he's one of those twoother guys that oftentimes does get advantage scenarios
based in the attention drawn from histeammates, and the good news is that

(48:15):
Jabari has generally been taking advantage ofthose. Over the fourteen games since all
perishin gun went down and Jabari slidto center, he's averaging more than sixteen
points per game on nearly forty ninepercent shooting and forty one percent from three.
That's terrific. Now, the reboundinghas gone down a tick, and
there absolutely have been matchups the Warriorsin particular, where his liabilities as a

(48:38):
rebounder as a run protector make itvery difficult to run him at the five
for an extended basis. That's true, but we already knew that. The
Jabari at the five lineup it's notsomething the Rockets ever planned on leaning into
just full time over eighty two games. It's something that's meant for small doses,

(49:00):
smaller version of what the Rockets orwhat the Warriors did, excuse me
with Draymond Green and their death lineupsover the years. It's something you're going
to be able to strategically deploy incertain matchups in certain situations. It's not
something that you can realistically expect himto take on the wear and tear,
the pounding that it takes from askinga six ten, two hundred and twenty
something pound second year players still justtwenty years old, to take on against

(49:22):
NBA centers. And there have beengames during this recent swoon, the five
straight losses a week or so ago, where we saw Jabari get taken advantage
of, most notably the Golden Stategame against their stable of bigs including Draymond
Green. With that said, offensively, there have been certain advantages and if
you could deploy that on a smallerscale, especially next season where you're going

(49:45):
to have all per etionon Goon andSteven Adams available to soak up more minutes
at center, then there are somereal advantages to that lineup. You have
to deploy it at the right timeand place. But assuming you do that,
then I don't think you can denythese numbers. And it's getting better
and better. Over the last eightgames. He scored in double figures in
all of them, averaging nearly nineteenper game on screw shooting a better than

(50:07):
sixty three percent, So at leaston the offensive end of the court,
it seems to be flowing really wellfor him. There's also more space for
him to drive against guys who oftenaren't the most fleet of foot. We
actually saw against the Magic Jabari hada really nifty move where he attacked to
close out and then had a eurostep on his way to the basket that
I didn't realize he had in hisbag. That was really impressive. But
the one question I have when itcomes to next season, how much of

(50:30):
this is just growth from Jabari asa player. He is year two,
he is twenty years old, he'snumber three overall pick from a year ago.
He should be getting better. Andhow much of it is the situation
and that you were using him offensivelyat the five, so he has these
certain advantages. That to me isan interesting question and going into the off
season because for the most part nextyear, I think you're going to want

(50:52):
to use him at the four becausethe vast majority of your minutes at center,
assuming you run it back, andI think that's the odds unlikely are
going to be covered by all perIn Shangoon and Steven Adams, And I'm
wondering if that takes a toll onwhat we've seen from him over the last
fifteen games or so, and beyondjust the overall, they're being less space

(51:13):
when you have a traditional big man. I'll give you another example of how
it could impact Jabbari specifically. Oneway that he's been very useful to them
the last few weeks is in bustingthe zones. You've seen more teams try
to pack the paint with these zonedefenses. As Shalen has gotten better at
attacking the rim at passing out ofthose advantages, then you're seeing teams go

(51:35):
to his zone to make it tougherfor him to get to the rim.
Well. The way the rockets arebusting that many times they're getting Jabari to
the free throw line extended area,and he's buried a number of those jumpers,
and it makes the defense hesitate tocommit as aggressively to that zone.
If you have all for in Shangoonon the floor, he's typically operating in
that area as sort of a midpost hub to either create a shot for

(52:00):
himself or for one of his teammates. And you're seeing Jabbari either in the
corner or on the wing more asa shooter as opposed to someone that's sort
of flashing to the middle of thecourt, and you're asking to be more
aggressive searching for his shot. SoI'm not going to say that everything that
Jabari has done well offensively is dueto him being used primarily as a five.

(52:22):
I do think there's some element tohim just simply developing and playing better,
which should happen at his age,But I do worry a little bit
that it might not be a seamlessfit when you shift him back to the
role he had for most of thisseason. Powell, where are you at
when it comes to those dynamics?I how much of this improved play because

(52:44):
we can't deny Javari the end ofthe Dallas game excluded, is definitely playing
better ball. This is really encouraging. How much of it is the way
he's being used, which definitely hassome limitations defensively that are not sustainable over
a super long sample, And howmuch of it is just he's playing better
and that should translate even if he'sat the four. I'll give it a

(53:05):
ninety tenspoint, agreeing with you.I think ninety percent of it is just
a completely different rule. I thinkwe're seeing him run more pick and pop,
which I barely remember seeing at allwhen Chenguin was around. I think
he gets more opportunities for second tenspoints as a result of not having someone
else you know, be there foroffensive rebounds. I think he gets more

(53:27):
you know, just there's more situationswhere for some reason, he has a
little bit of extra space even ifhe's not at the rim, he's you
know, three, four or fivefeet from it, and he just gets
the ball and it happens to havea much smaller defender on him as a
result of a bunch of switches andwhatever chaos happens in the offense, and
he gets you know, more repsfrom there. I also think that the

(53:50):
Rockets have you know, lower qualityoffensive possessions as far as creating an advantage
to reliably sincethingram was being got outof it. That's how I'll take it
off. And as a result,as a six and six to eleven guy
who can shoot over everybody is goingto have more reps just as a you
know, I'm missing the layer.I'm not the way I'm missing the expression,
but as a guy that can justget a shot and that shot is

(54:14):
likely going like a contested jot fromJapari is likely going to be a better
shot than a contested shot from acontestant shot from anybody else. It's it's
not it's it has something to dowith cork or something. It's it's it's
about you know, as a releasefilve. Let's call it that. I
cant believe I just said it hasto do with cork whatever. So I

(54:36):
think he gets more shots as aresult of that, and just as a
result of having one less of andbesides all those specific circumstances, just having
one less offensive created around the floorleads to more leads to those reps being
distributed equally, not equally, butto some extent across the rest of the
members of the team. The guythat will plays shagunism and Thompson, who

(54:58):
you know, has some possessions rollingget some offensive rebounds, but for the
most part, not initiating. It'snot being you know, trusted with much
creation on the ball, you know, outside of those other extra possessions that
it does generate or the opportunity isrolling to the room, and so Jabari
gets more shots because of it.The ten percent is yes, I think
he's shooting better than we were shootingearlier in the season. Some of that

(55:20):
comes from rhythm as well. Someof that comes from him just you know,
becoming a better player, and withJabari, the development has been fairly
linear offensively, even though defensively,you know, sometimes he just has those
games, but he's all over theplace in a bad way. Offensively,
I think it's been a pretty steadygrowth. He finished last season with that

(55:42):
stretch that was you know, reallyhot, and he's been getting better earlier
this season. He has never beeninefficient, and now he keeps climbing and
now he's being tremendously efficient. Butit doesn't feel like it's completely unsustainable the
way Dylan Brooks is, you know, extreme efficiency compared to standards feels like
because it feels like Javari is goodenough that he could at some point to

(56:05):
fifty forty ninety for maybe the ninetyparts a tougher one, but he could
shoot fifty forty ninety at some pointin his career, especially if he's plaint
the five, and then the fieldgoalpen is getting you know bumped up from
all of the lips, the xRA lips that will get compared to that
that plays the four. So yeah, I think most of it comes from
the offensive role that he's playing ratherthan just you know, a steady growth

(56:29):
that I've been talking that I havebeen talking about, and you could next
off season, you know, makeit a point to run more pig and
pop. It's hard to do thatwith Lehn if he doesn't have a clump
shot, you could make it up. And I think Javari is much of
a movement shooter. You know,pick and pop is one thing. He's

(56:49):
moving, but he's facing the basket. He can you know, he can
set up for the shot before hidbefore he getses the ball. It's one
thing movement shooting coming off a screenright when he's running sideways, and to
square up and hit the chart inlike in one full movement. To me,
I think if I struggles with hisjump chart is still weirdly inconsistent,
not from a percentage standpoint, butfrom where the missus goes standpoint right.

(57:14):
It feels like sometimes it's just completelyoff, and then he'll make two in
a row, so it's it's notlike he's constantly missing by a little bit,
and then they start to go in, so it's it's a weird case.
I think the as I think mostof the extra represent is getting come
you know this is a forbidden wordorganically from the happy one year Steven Silas

(57:37):
dismissal anniversary. Then, wasn't thatthe biggest move of the biggest move of
the off season, And for really, I think that's not what we're trying
to discuss. I think it's biggerthan It's bigger than a man or Cam
and it's bigger than than Dylan Brooksfor sure, and it's bigger than any
of the internal development that that thathas been even though EMA obviously it con
stupid. Yeah, by the wayI thought it was telling Jalen in his

(58:00):
postgame interview after the home finale,referenced the bad habits that needed to break.
He wasn't explositly throwing Steven under theboss, but it wasn't a strong
endorsement either. Let's put it thatway. I mean it's I think everybody,
you know, I think that's ifthere's only one person in the world

(58:21):
that doesn't believe that the problem waslargely Steven Salaz, that the talent was
there, and I mean the theplayers have win over time really transparent about
how bad it was when it comesto bad habits in the first two years
and Jalen improving and if he canbuild on it into next season, consistently

(58:44):
improving is as big of a say, has as big of a say on
what Salem Salas was doing as anybodycould ever do, because he was the
guy that was the most exposed tothe coaching. He was the guy that
was the most exposed to having onball reps whilst also here and just getting
to do whatever it was. SoI don't want to, I don't want

(59:05):
to, you know, to sumup with to sum up with Jabari,
because I think our views are largelyin alignment here. It's not that there's
no growth. There is some growth. He is getting better. Tip your
hat. But just as there arequestions with Jalen and Shangoon, there's gonna
have to be some blending of theirgames, there's also going to have to
be some blending, some tweaks thatoccur to sustain this version of Jabari if

(59:29):
you put him back at power forwardand play him next to all for in
Shangoon and Steven Adams to look atthe data, by the way, looking
at Basketball Reference, they track Jabariat eighty eight percent power forward, twelve
percent center his rookie year. Thisyear at sixty eight percent power forward thirty
two percent. Center obviously tilted alot based on the last month, and
so it's not to say that thegrowth isn't real. It is. It's

(59:50):
just that he's being used in acertain way and to have that sustainable and
a different configuration, ie next toShangoon or Steven Adams, then you may
need to tweak some things in termsof your offensive schemes to play to his
strengths and the other part of ittoo. It's not to say that that
there's no benefit to him showing youthat he can do it when used this

(01:00:14):
way. You can also hunt certainmatchups over an NBA season where you think,
hey, this is a good spotfor Jabari at the five, where
we can really benefit from his increasedoffense without being punished by the fact that
he's not much of a rem protectoror big time rebounder. That's something that
over the last month you sort ofhad to take the good with the bad,

(01:00:37):
and that because there's not really anyother option at center other than Jock
Landale. It feels like he's captainedabout twenty five minutes per game for obvious
reasons, you sort of had thissink or swim, even if the matchup
wasn't good, Whereas in the futureyou sort of have this in your back
pocket, knowing, okay, youcan get this version of Jabari, but
we just want to be in amatchup where he's not going to get he's
not going to get harmed that muchdefensively that you're not going to get up

(01:01:00):
on defense what you're gaining on offense, and so there's some value to that
as well, right, Yeah,and a personatility is huge moving forward if
clip can become a viable option atthe five, even if you don't do
it. If you don't do it, you know full time. We've seen
when we were in the playoffs howvaluable it was, how valuable it is
to have players to you know,switch up defensive schemes and you know,

(01:01:22):
if you can't handle a guy likeGobear, or if you can't handle a
guy like you know what he canhandle, but you can try to rather
than play the opponent's gain, youcan try to leverage, change your scheme
and leverage just different strengths and hopethat your strength overpowers the opponents. So

(01:01:43):
it's definitely a good thing. AndI think people may have looked at the
segment and said, all these guysare suggesting that possibly Clipari could replace Chenguan
as the five. I actually don'tthink so at all. Think is pretty
far away from being a reliable five, even in the switching scheme. And
it's good. Yeah, it's honestlytowards being one eventually, but I think

(01:02:06):
we're pretty far away from it.Yeah, what I was trying to get
at, and I think we're largelyin alignment. It's more of a cautionary
tale that I don't think you shouldextrapolate what's happened over the last fifteen games
and say this is one hundred percentof who he is now. Even if
you drop him back to power forwardin the same role he was in earlier

(01:02:27):
this year, it's not automatically goingto translate at the same level. Now.
With that said, there are tweaksthat you can make offensively to your
schemes to play into that more.You mentioned the increased pick and pop.
There's also the ability to roll withthis Jabari at the five lineup on select
occasions when it might not be asmuch of a liability in terms of your
bulk around the basket, your rimprotection. If you will. For me,

(01:02:52):
the point of the segment was morejust a cautionary tale. It's say,
hey, like Jamari has improved,this is great, but just keep
in mind going into next season thatjust as there are questions with Okay Jalen
Green was used in this way afterShingoon went out, how is this exactly
going to translate and everybody's healthy,then there's also questions to a lesser extent

(01:03:12):
with Jabari as well. Now theseare good questions because these are very talented
players, and you'd much rather havetoo many talented players that you're trying to
all fit together and blend their gamesthan the alternative. It's just these are
just little questions that I think emUdoka and his staff are gonna have to
ask themselves over the offseason. Rightthat that's basically the way that I'm framing

(01:03:32):
this. Oh, I'm one hundredpercent, you know. I just wanted
to make it clear because there's athing. Yeah, I don't think by
saying that this is the reason Laverariis playing better, I'm not saying it's
worth it for the team to moveinto a Jabari at the five full time
scheme. Yeah, exactly, Andthat's why I'm trying to say both Shingoon

(01:03:54):
and Steven Adams nothing at Shangoon's styleof play specifically. It's about the concept
of a traditional big man anyway,and how Jabbari's current game blends with that
on the court, with the currentRockets and some of the limitations. Again,
All French and Goon could not beon the floor. You could put
Steven Adams on there instead, andyou would still have many of the same
issues. And so yeah, it'snot a shinguon faction, but I totally

(01:04:16):
understand your point. There is asegment of at least on social media,
the Rockets fan base, that willtake anything as a perceived slight to All
French and Goon. That's not whatthis is. This is more talking about
the cecific improvements in Jabari Smith Junior'sgame and how the Rockets can unlock more
of those heading into next season.All right, that's where we'll put a
bow on this episode. I havegone on long enough, so we'll be

(01:04:38):
back next week after the season isconcluded. That's when we'll go into I
think much more of a macro discussiontalking about the roster that the Rockets have
going into the offseason any potential changesbig or small. Rockets are also gonna
most likely have a top ten draftpick headed their way from Brooklyn. We'll
see where that ends up in thedraft order once the Nets finish their season
as well on Sunday, we'll startdoing some draft coverage in the coming weeks.

(01:04:59):
If the Rockets end up keeping thatpick, although I'm sure they will
at least explore trades on the trademarket, this is not a situation where
the Rockets really want to wait along time. They're definitely in a win
now place. If as is,you're already at fortyish wins and you have
a young core that's continuing to getbetter, and conceivable you could add a
big piece externally. Yeah, thisthing could accelerate really, really quickly.
So it's definitely going to be anoff season where I'm not going to promise

(01:05:23):
that the big deal is made,but the Rockets will definitely leave no stone
unturned pardon the Rofelstone pun there asthey look to upgrade the roster and perhaps
accelerate this timetable even more. BecauseI don't think we necessarily expected to be
where the Rockets are going into thisseason. I don't think we would have
expected five hundred this late, butthat's where they are despite the over under
total being thirty one and a half, so perhaps they can expect the timeline

(01:05:47):
even more this offseason with a Marqueemove. Stay tuned. Whatever happens,
we'll have it covered right here atthe logger line for now. This is
where we will return. If youwant more content before our next episode,
which will take place after the regularlyand finale, the best place to get
it is on Twitter or x.I'm on there at Bendubo's, Polow's on
there at Polo Alf's NBA, andthe show is on their logger line at

(01:06:09):
the logger line where if you goto that handle or Twitter dot com,
slash the logger line and click onthe link tree and the bio, you
can find links to our partners,friends, sponsors, Carbuck Brewing, Sports
Talk seven ninety USA, Today's Rocketswere consume their content that would help us
stay on good terms with them.But also you can find links to our
distributors Apple, Google, Spotify.If you're not already subscribe to the program,

(01:06:29):
please do leave us positive review.You get the benefit of episodes as
soon as they come out and weget the review with your subscription and hopefully
your happy review of looking good tothose aforementioned friends, partners and sponsors.
As one of the most active podcastsand hopefully one of the better podcasts covering
Houston Rockets basketball. All right,with the plugs complete, This will do
it for today for Polo. I'mBen, thanks as always for listening,
and let's go out and win thesefinal three games. Go Rockets.