On this edition of the H-Town Hoops podcast, Brandon Scott and Adam Spolane dive into what's happened to the Rockets on both ends of the floor in the last month or so.
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00:30Houston, we have a podcast. You're listening to the Premiere Rockets podcast. It's H-Town
00:40Hoops, hosted by Brandon Scott and Adam Spolane. It is the H-Town Hoops podcast. I am Brandon
00:48Scott here with Adam Spolane. Austin Mendez is producing this thing for us. And we are
00:54here at a time where the Rockets are reeling and other teams in the Western Conference
01:01are starting to pick things up. And look, the Rockets have, you know, lost a handful
01:06of games here, not playing their best basketball. And the big thing for me right now, when we
01:12talk about this team, Adam, is that, you know, we can look at their injury issues and how
01:20we'll talk about this later, how the rotations have been, you know, wonky and how the lineups
01:27have been sort of inconsistent at times because of who's been available to them. But the big
01:33issue with this team right now is that the defense is no longer, or at least hasn't been
01:40as of late, a reliable part of their team identity, a reliable part of what they do. I
01:47think that the Tuesday night game against the Indiana Pacers was just a horrible example
01:56of what the Rockets want to be. And I think they should be embarrassed by the defensive
02:00performance that they put out there. Now, you can credit the Pacers for how they played
02:03in that game. I think they created a lot of the easy shots that they got. But also the
02:08Rockets did a really poor job of defending. And this is a real shocking part about the
02:13team to me right now, Adam, that even without Fred VanVleet, I don't feel like that is
02:19a good enough excuse for them to be playing the type of defense that they're playing on
02:24a night-in and night-out basis. And it's not like it's like this every night, but it's
02:27hard to predict when they're going to bring it on the defensive end of the floor.
02:32Yeah, the Pacers are not a fun team to play on the second night of a back-to-back just
02:36because of just the style of play and just how good they are offensively. But the Rockets
02:40also sat a bunch of guys the first game. So there really isn't much of an excuse for
02:44playing the way that they did defensively. I mean, give up 67 points in the first half.
02:50That's the sort of stuff that can't happen. And that just shows a lack of focus, a lack
02:53of energy. And when you're not playing well and you're playing against good teams, that's
02:58going to beat you. And so you dig yourself the type of hole that they dug themselves
03:02last night. It's just going to be really hard to win games, even the Oklahoma City game.
03:06And I know they had a million guys out that night, but they didn't defend in that game.
03:11They are, they're just, they are playing poorly at this point. And it feels like they're searching
03:18for things. It feels like they've hit a wall. That's going to happen over the course of
03:22an 82 game season. It happened last year. And that was why they weren't in the playoffs
03:26last year was because they hit a wall, I guess, January and February. They were able to get
03:31it back in March and that's what they need now. Like they need to find some sort of a
03:35second win from somewhere. And it just hasn't been there. They were, they were second in
03:41the West because they played harder than their opponents. And far too often right now, it's
03:46been the other way. It's been the opponent playing harder than them. Maybe, maybe some
03:50of that has to do with, they were second in the West and all these other teams were trying
03:54to, you know, play their way into the playoff mix in the Western conference. So maybe they're,
03:59you know, you're playing against some teams that are playing with some desperation. Whereas,
04:02you know, you're sitting in a spot where, you know, you're not quite as desperate, but
04:06they need to start playing desperate now soon because this lead is whittling down and you
04:12look right now, they're only four up. Actually, they're, they're only three games up on Minnesota
04:16for the seven seat. And if you're the Rockets, you don't want to go on the play in when you're
04:21going to maybe have to deal with the Clippers in Sacramento, a team that you haven't been
04:24able to beat this year. And then there's, you know, Phoenix with their star power looming.
04:28They need to get this together pretty quickly. Otherwise things start to get a little tenuous.
04:34So we were having a conversation on the drive earlier today and the, and this is even before
04:41I got on the show, they, they, I think even opened the show or their first Rockets conversation was,
04:47Hey, is it time to adjust the expectations? Is it time to adjust the expectations for what you had,
04:54what the Rockets could be. And the way I looked at that was more so in a manner of readjusting
05:02the expectation. Cause I think a lot of it is tied to, you know, a difference in the expectation
05:08that you had preseason and the expectation that you might've had once they got onto the start
05:13that they had, right. Once they got onto being the number two seed, you'd be like, okay, well,
05:17actually this is a team that could host a playoff series. This is a team that perhaps could win a
05:22playoff series. And now you're starting to readjust a little bit to say, you know what the
05:27regressing to the mean is actually happening. And honestly, Adam, this team is somewhere around what
05:36I think we thought they were going to be, which is something like the sixth or seventh or eighth
05:40best team in the Western conference. The thing that I'm struggling right now with is, Hey,
05:45they're the fifth seed. And I don't think that they're better than the four teams that are ahead
05:50of them. And I got some serious questions about whether they're better than the two teams that are
05:54directly behind them. Right. Golden state, Minnesota is a team that's proven it in the
05:59playoffs, at least far more so than the Rockets have. Right. And then, you know, you mentioned
06:04Phoenix, there are other teams that are out there. And so it's like, okay, the expectation is sort of
06:10readjusted back to what it was originally that, Hey, this might actually be the sixth or seventh
06:16or eighth best team in the Western conference. But I also feel like from a competitive standpoint,
06:21that that's not good enough. Like I feel like it's not good enough to, and I'm not saying
06:27anybody's doing this, but I want to caution against this. When we start readjusting the
06:31expectation, I don't think it's acceptable to just punt on the idea that you could be a fifth
06:37or fourth seed. Like I feel like the Rockets should still be competing in a way that's chasing
06:43one of those top four seeds, right? They're the fifth seed right now, you know, a game or so
06:48a couple of games within the four seed, they should still be trying to get that.
06:52They should at the very least be trying to not relinquish the fifth seed, despite the fact that
06:58they're probably not the fifth best team in the Western conference. I don't know if you think
07:02that's fair. Like when I, when I spell it out that way, it sounds like I've put kind of an unfair
07:08burden or unfair expectation on a team that I don't think is actually the fifth best team in
07:13the, in the Western conference. But when you get this late in the season, less than 20 games to go
07:18or whatever it is at this point, I don't like, I don't feel like as a competitor or from a
07:22competitive standpoint, that it's acceptable to just kind of concede that, Oh, you know what?
07:27Maybe they're just not that good. No, you've been this good up until this point. And you did it by
07:32playing a certain brand of basketball by playing a certain way. Maybe you're not the number two
07:38seed that you would have shown yourself to be earlier on in the season, but you should absolutely
07:42be better than what you've been. Yeah. I don't think that that's a stretch at all. I remember
07:48when the season started, I, I wasn't even going to guarantee that they were going to be in the
07:52play. And obviously some teams, they played really well and some teams in the West have fallen off.
07:57They're going to at least be in the play in, but when you are 60 games in and you're sitting in
08:02the five seat, then yeah, your expectation is we're not, we're, we're not dropping out of the
08:07top five. If anything, we're trying to get back in, back up into the top four. That should be
08:12their goal here. You know, they shouldn't just concede being fifth or sixth or seventh or whatever,
08:16or just being happy getting there. Their expectations, I believe changed when at the halfway
08:23point, they were on pace to win 57 games and they were second in the list. Like they, they even said
08:28that our expectations and our goals are different today than they were at the start of the year,
08:32based on how we started the season. Obviously they weren't quite as good as the team that
08:37we saw in the first half. And some of that is self-inflicted. Some of that is just
08:42kind of the nature of how a season goes, but they are, to me, they are still a playoff team.
08:49To me, they are still a team that has a chance to get back into that top four.
08:55They're only, what, a game and a half out of that top four. And right now they're chasing Memphis.
08:59The Grizzlies are playing Oklahoma City, so they'll probably pick up some ground here on the
09:03Grizzlies. They already have the tiebreaker with Memphis, but yeah, they just have, they have to
09:06play better basketball. And, you know, it starts tomorrow in, in New Orleans. They've got a couple
09:12of games against the Pelicans. That's a team that they should be able to handle. So you can,
09:17the thing that they have done really poorly here is that not only, they haven't really played well
09:22against the good teams, but they also aren't taking care of business against the bad teams.
09:27And, you know, you're losing games to Sacramento, you're losing two games to Brooklyn. There was
09:32another bad loss that was, that has been in this mix as well. It's like, you have to be able to,
09:38to take advantage of the, of the winnable games on your, on your schedule and they're not doing that.
09:42And, you know, we, we started this by talking about the defense and the defense has absolutely
09:48fallen off. You look, going back to February 1st, they're middle of the pack in defensive
09:52efficiency. This was a team that was second in defensive efficiency, you know, for the start
09:56of the year. But the offense has really become a disaster since Fred VanVleet got hurt. They're
10:02bottom five in offense. You know, that, that's just, that, that can't happen. They, they aren't
10:08good enough to, it doesn't matter how well you defend, like you're not winning anything if
10:13you're bottom five in offensive efficiency. And this is a long stretch of games where they've
10:17been bottom five in offensive efficiency. So that's got to get better. And it feels like it's
10:22been tough here because there's been a lack of continuity because there are seemingly guys in
10:27and out of the lineup every single night, but they've got to figure that side of the floor out.
10:32I think defensively, there'll be okay. There's some things that they've got to clean up.
10:36We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but, you know, teams are shooting 70%
10:40against them at the rim. Teams are shooting 62% against them at the rim earlier in the year.
10:45Like they've got to be able to defend the rim a little bit better. So I don't, you know,
10:52to me thinking that they were going to finish the season second and defense was probably far-fetched.
10:56They were top 10 at one point in offense that obviously, like we said, has fallen off,
11:01but it's, it's, they've got to figure out both ends of the floor right now. It's not like,
11:05it's, it's not like it's a thing with Orlando where, you know, Orlando's defense has kind of,
11:10you know, remained where it's been all year. And just the offense is horrific. No, it's
11:14right now, the Rockets are just bad on both ends or their average on defense and
11:17just really bad on offense. Yeah. So I'm glad you mentioned it. Cause look, obviously the,
11:23we talked about the defense and, and I think I live with that, but just because that's been
11:28the hallmark of the team, it's been their calling card, but I, and honestly, I think the frustrating
11:34part about it is just not really being able to understand it. Like, and we'll get to the
11:38offense in just a second, but the offense, I feel like you've had your excuses built in
11:43with Fred VanVleet being out to in and out of his lineup and mostly out of it.
11:47You know, Jabari Smith jr being injured for as long as he was and, and just the,
11:53the mix and match and the personnel issues that they had, but I don't feel like it's been good
11:58enough or a good enough excuse for what they've been defensively. And I just don't understand it.
12:04How, when you have your best defensive players out there house, and sometimes it is good either.
12:09And I guess that's why they're middle of the pack because sometimes they really bring it in.
12:12Sometimes they don't, and it's just hard to predict when they will and when they won't,
12:17but on the offensive side, man, well, let me get to the defense really quick.
12:21Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. The style that they play defense is very high energy.
12:26It is very getting your face. It's a, you know, and it doesn't seem like they've been able to
12:32replicate that here. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to get at. So let's, let's get to that real quick.
12:37What is that? Is it, is it, is it fatigue? Is it boredom? Is it like, I don't get how,
12:45especially when, you know, and cause we're going to talk about the offense.
12:49When you know, and I got a tough time believing that the Rockets don't understand this about
12:53themselves, but you're not one of the elite offenses in basketball. Like they, they,
12:58they know that they're not great offensively. And a lot of what makes them good. What makes
13:03them a dangerous team is what they do on the defensive side. How do you go away from that
13:10part of your identity when it's worked for you to the degree that it had up until this point?
13:15I think you said it. I think it's both fatigue. I think there's probably a little bit of boredom
13:19in there also. It's, it's a very long season and it's really especially they played so many
13:25back-to-backs and that's not an excuse, but they've had to play. So it's just hard to me.
13:32It is hard to play with that sort of energy and with that sort of effort night in and night out.
13:37And that's how they were beating teams. You know, they were getting after you. They were
13:40getting after your ass on that end of the floor. And it's just, it's hard to me. It's probably hard
13:45to do that for 82 games, especially when you've got guys in and out of the lineup
13:49that certainly hasn't helped, you know, they don't have a true like rim protector.
13:53So that doesn't help your defense either. That's why I think they were probably there. They're not
13:59quite as good as the team that was second in the West, just because they are missing a really
14:03important aspect of defense being a rim protector. They're not, they're not rebounding on the
14:07defensive end of the floor at a high enough level. They're, they're, they're the best offensive
14:11rebounding team in the league. They are middle of the pack when it comes to defensive rebounding.
14:16So that makes you have to defend even longer. So they're not finishing possessions. Well,
14:20so it's, it's a lot of things to me. It just, they seem tired. It just seems like to me,
14:26they've hit a wall during this stretch and they've got to try and find that second wind.
14:33So we talked about the offense, so we were kind of getting here at the offense, man,
14:38the defense, as I mentioned, no longer reliable, but the offensive identity is a problem. The
14:45offensive production is really the main problem before we even get to the philosophical identity
14:50stuff. Let's, let's look at how bad the offense is. Okay. Or how bad the offense has been. You
14:57were, you were getting on it just a minute ago, but since February 1st, Adam, February 1st,
15:04the Rockets are third worse in field goal percentage. Only the Brooklyn Nets and the
15:12Charlotte Hornets are worse. They are. And it's the same as the case for their effective field
15:18goal percentage. They are also at the bottom of the league. Only the Hornets are worse from two
15:24since February 1st inside the arc, only the Charlotte Hornets are shooting worse than the
15:31Rockets from two. And they're not very good for, they're more close. They're closer to the middle
15:35of the pack from three over that, over that stretch, which surprises me, but really closer
15:40to the bottom, like middle of the pack is being generous there. So they're not good. They're
15:45awful from two, not good from three, one of the worst field goal percentages in the league over
15:50the last couple of months over the last month and change here. And then, like I mentioned,
15:55the offensive identity is a problem, man. What, what are you seeing? Like, I'm, I'm seeing a bunch
16:02of, of either they're either they're struggling to get good shots. And even when they are getting
16:09good shots, they're not nailing some of these good shots. And then just, if we just go to their
16:15most recent game, the Pacers game is an example, man, they can't even hit their damn free throws.
16:21So like they're missing shots there. The, the, the offense looks, looks disjointed at times
16:28or unsure of itself, I think is a better way to put it. And then when they do get the freebies
16:34and we talk about this all the time, I'm like, Hey man, Grayling green needs to get to the foul
16:37line and, and, and, you know, force the issue and get some easy buckets. They're not getting,
16:44they're not even hitting those. So it is just, I say all of that to say that it's just an
16:49all around miss offensively for the Rockets right now.
16:53They have been very inefficient. And obviously when you're bottom five and offensive efficiency,
16:58it is very easy to say that the culprits though, it's pretty simple. Jalen green is shooting 43,
17:05less than 43% from the field since February 1st. He's not getting to the free throw line very often,
17:11just, you know, less than four attempts a game. But when he's getting there, he's shooting 67%
17:15Alperin Shingoon since February 1st, less than 50% from the floor. And that's with an uptick,
17:21you know, over these last couple of games, he's been a lot better. And let me,
17:24um, from the, for the month of February Alperin Shingoon, and of course this
17:29screws up, um, and the month of February Alperin Shingoon, uh, from the floor was 46%.
17:36That's not going to work. And he's 67% from the free throw line. And again,
17:40he's been a little bit more efficient here the last couple of games, but he's turned the ball
17:44over the last couple of games, 10 turnovers in the last two games that he's played. So he's got
17:48to be better. Like your two best players right now that are healthy Shingoon and green simply
17:55have to be better. I don't think it gets any more simple than that. Um, you know, Alperin Shingoon
18:01people, people get mad whenever you criticize Shingoon because I don't know why, but he's,
18:06he's an all-star and he has to play like an all-star. And when you're missing your point
18:11guard, you need guys to step up. Jalen green has to step up and be better. Alperin Shingoon has to
18:16step up and be better. You know, he, he had the game against Sacramento. He was very efficient
18:21offensively. It was one of his more efficient offensive nights of the season, but then he
18:24turns the ball over six times and he plays poor defense last night, did not play good defense.
18:29He was efficient from the floor, but like he's got to be, he's got to give you an all-around
18:33game and he's not doing that right now. So both to me, it's him and green have not been good enough
18:38during this stretch without Van Vliet. And you're asking other guys to do stuff that they probably
18:44aren't quite ready to do a men. Thompson's been okay. Uh, he hasn't been, I think that he's had
18:50to play a lot of minutes. I think that that's worn on him a little bit. Uh, I, there was the
18:55stretch from when Jabari got hurt to when Jabari came back where he was second in the league in
18:59minutes. Like that, that's asking him to do a lot at this point of his career. Plus he's having to
19:04have the ball in his hands a lot. So that, that is, so it's not like you're, it's not like you're
19:08playing Tobias Harris minutes where you're just kind of running to one corner and hoping the ball
19:11comes, you know, you're having to do a lot on both ends of the floor, having to guard the opponent's
19:16best player, having to run the offense. So that's taken a toll on him. The turnovers again, they've
19:20been out of control here recently. It's like, these are little things that they have to work on.
19:25And again, people asked about the knee. Why do they need Fred Van Vliet? Why is he never the
19:32guy who gets benched? They're paying him too much. They need to let him go in the off season. Well,
19:37listen, guy's going to wind up probably getting an extent. The guy's probably gonna get a max
19:41extension now after, after the way that they have played in, in the time that he's been out.
19:45Like that's, I think if I'm Rafael Stone and I'm Ime Udoka watching this team try to play
19:52the last month, five weeks or so without Fred Van Vliet has to be pretty disappointing.
19:59Yeah. I hadn't thought about that. How their poor offensive play has probably made Fred Van Vliet a
20:05lot more money. Not that Fred Van Vliet is hurting for money or needs any more money or that I'm even
20:09in his pockets. But I thought about that. As you said, it was like, man, you see the value in this
20:15guy or at least having somebody like him and they don't, you know, it'd be one thing if they had a
20:20decent backup option, you'd be like, oh, well, Fred, what is he that valuable anyway? This guy
20:24can go in there and do basically the same thing. They don't have that. So it shows you the value
20:30of him. I hadn't thought about it that much. I want to get to the mid Thompson in a minute, but
20:34I do want to make a point here about this, these offensive struggles and everything that you
20:39mentioned about Alfred Shangoon and Jalen Green struggling for for however long now. I was having
20:45this conversation with a friend of ours, Big Sar. We were talking on the phone about this earlier.
20:49So I want to shout him out because he's the one that kind of made me think about this offensive
20:53identity problem sort of topic. And this is my spin. This is not his spin on it. This is my
20:59spin on it, but it just feels like we know what their offensive identity is or can be or what
21:10their offensive options are, right? It's some peck and order of Shangoon, Jalen Green. And of course,
21:17a mid Thompson has emerged over the last couple of months or so, you know, whenever Jabari Smith
21:22went down, he is a merge. It's like a third option. And sometimes maybe even better than that,
21:27you know, somebody that they've designed plays for at the end, at the end of games.
21:31And like you mentioned, someone who's had the ball in his hands a lot more with Fred VanVleet being
21:36out and just somebody that they've required a lot more of and asked a lot more of. So some
21:42peck and order of Shangoon, Jalen Green, and then of course, the emergence of a mid Thompson.
21:50And then of course, when they're playing, when they're playing well defensively, which has not
21:54been something that they can run again, something that they have not been able to rely on as
21:58consistently as they were able to before. These are the ways that they generate offense. This is
22:03how their offense comes to be, but I'm starting to accept this reality of none of that is actually
22:13high level enough or reliable enough to like, hang your hat on as an offensive identity, like
22:22running the offense through Shangoon, running the offense through Jalen Green, running the offense
22:28through a mid Thompson. Like this is not a disrespect to any of those players. They're
22:32all very, very good players and players that I understand wanting to build around and viewing
22:37as your future and all of those sorts of things, but they are not good enough options to hang your
22:44hat on as the identity of the offense. And it sounds like a real cruel thing to say about
22:51a year where it becomes an all-star and then Jalen Green by and large,
22:57probably having his best season. So like these guys have improved and, and they are the rightful
23:07like offensive leaders of the team, but the, the fundamental question of how good is that?
23:15What does that get you? It's a question that's rearing his ugly head for me right now with the
23:20rockets. Cause it's like, yeah, okay. Run this offense through Shangoon. Okay. Well, is that
23:24going to be high level enough of offense? Do you have the shooters around him to actually really
23:30rely on that? Okay. Run this offense through Jalen Green who on any given night can be the very best
23:35player on the floor, but that's on any given night. That's not necessarily night in and night
23:41out. I don't know what they have that is just like airtight and reliable in terms of an offensive
23:47right. Here we are. They're middle of the pack for the entire season. And for the last five weeks,
23:55they're in the bottom five. And so I think, I think at times those two guys have shown that
24:03they can be a guy and they can be a high level option for you, but they aren't doing it right
24:10now. And maybe that's, you know, Jalen Green has been banged up this whole season, but he plays
24:16every single night, but maybe that's, maybe he needs to sit down, you know, maybe, you know,
24:20Shangoon, we've talked about Shangoon and he's been dealing with the back here recently. Maybe
24:23he needs to sit down. I don't know what it is, but green, green flashes and you see it. It can
24:32be so, so good. Yeah. But then you get into this last five weeks where they really needed him and
24:38he hasn't been good enough. This says to me, Shangoon was much better last year. Shangoon
24:44just has not been nearly as good this season as he was last year. Hasn't been as efficient.
24:48Hasn't been quite as impactful. Why is that? I don't know why, why that's been the case this
24:55season, but. You know what Shangoon I'm looking for, Adam? The version of Shangoon that I'm
25:00looking for. You remember that night last year and I know it was a rookie version of Wimby,
25:05but we were, we were there together at Toyota center. Yeah. When he scored the 41.
25:09When he scored that 41 on Wimby, that, that was the night where I was like, okay, the Shangoon
25:15thing is real. It's not just like niche or, you know, niche fans who like are trying to
25:22gravitate to a particular player. Like when I, that was the night I remember saying, okay,
25:27the Rockets are cooking with grease here with a, with a central figure with a star player.
25:34And it just has not, I'm not saying he hasn't had really good games or hasn't had a good season at
25:37all, but I have not felt that way about it. I know he got hurt not long after that. Right.
25:44But I have not felt that way about him or watching him since that game that, that Shangoon
25:52that basically undressed a rookie with Victor Wimby Nyama at the Toyota center last year
25:57is the, is the version of Shangoon that I've been looking for ever since.
26:01He's been fine this year. I think that he has been perfectly fine. He has been really good
26:07at times. There have been some other times where he has not been quite as good. And for me, for me,
26:13it's just been the efficiency. It's been your center shooting less than 50% from the field.
26:18Like that, that, that wasn't happening last year. I want to go in and make sure I have the numbers
26:22right for him this season. You know, 49.2% from the field overall, the season last year, he was
26:30at 50. He was almost at 54% last year. The free throw shooting has not improved the way I think
26:38they thought it would. He's, he's right at the same number that he was at last year with exactly
26:43the same number of attempts to three point shooting has actually the worst of his entire
26:47career. So there's just, there just hasn't been an efficiency with him that you need from that
26:52position to go from 54% to 49%. It's just, it doesn't work. It doesn't work for that position.
27:00And there are, there are, there have just been too many games where I'll look up and he's,
27:03you know, three for eight from the field, or he's one for five, you know,
27:07just, he's not starting games well enough. And so he, he's their all-star and they need him to play
27:15like he's the, like he's an all-star. And until he does, it puts them in a, in a really tough spot.
27:21So whether it be him, whether it be green for these last 20 or so games, however many games
27:26they have left, they need those guys to just simply be better. It's not about Jabari Smith.
27:31It's not about Dylan Brooks. He's having probably the best year of his career. It's about your stars.
27:36It's about the guys that you gave all the money to before the season started. Those guys have to be
27:41better. They have flashed. They put, they just haven't been able to do it enough this season
27:46and do it at a high enough level this season. Yeah. And that, that is a, a narrative that is,
27:53that is real and something that we've been talking about and something that I think is important,
27:59you know, just the, the larger Rockets conversation is what are the stars ultimately?
28:05And what do you get out of them? And that's been something that's followed these two guys
28:09ever since it became clear, you know, basically since they got here, when it became clear that,
28:13Hey, these might be the guys. Okay. When do they actually become the guys? And I think that they
28:19have, but now that they have, you're requiring me like heavy is the head that wears the crown,
28:24right? Like you say, Shingun is the all-star Jalen. Green is not an all-star, but it's played
28:29at a level that I think everybody is on notice and understands what he has to offer out there
28:34when he's on the floor. So again, heavy is the head that wears the crown. And now that you have
28:39been crowned those guys, you have to step up and show some level of consistency and actually being
28:46that guy. And they just haven't done that. I want to ask you, since you brought it up
28:51about a mint Thompson and, you know, him having more responsibility on the ball.
28:57And I think that there's been some, some improvement there, like with him on the ball,
29:03but I feel like they've lost some things with him having to have more on his plate, right? Like
29:09they're not necessarily utilizing them in the way that he was earlier on when they were a little bit
29:14more healthier, when it was just Jabari Smith and they still had Fred VanVleet. Now he's kind
29:19of having to feel a little bit of that role. How have you felt about Jabari? I'm sorry,
29:26how have you felt about a mint Thompson with the ball in his hands a lot more and what his
29:31progression has looked like throughout the season or at least over the last few weeks?
29:34I just think he looks tired. I don't think that he has played the same defensively,
29:40really since, since he became a full-time starter. And if you look, he moved into, you know,
29:48Jabari Smith got hurt while he was suspended for, for body slamming Tyler Hero. First, first 32
29:54games of the year, which is in, so this is game one to when he body slammed Tyler Hero, a mint
30:00Thompson's averaging 28 minutes a game. Since then he's averaged 38 minutes a game. Like that's a
30:06huge increase in minutes like that. And it's not like, like I said earlier, it's not like they've
30:10been easy minutes. It's not like he just gets to sit in the corner on, on offense or they hide
30:16them defensively on, on a bad player. No, like he's in the middle of everything. He's guarding
30:20the other team's best player or second best player. He's bringing the ball up and having
30:24to initiate off. It's like, that takes a toll on you. So having to play, having to do that
30:29and play 10 more minutes and you've, then you've had to play on an, in an NBA schedule.
30:33To me, that's taken toll. And I don't think that he is guarded nearly at the same level
30:40as he did before the suspension. And again, the team's defensive numbers bear that out.
30:44Like the team is not defending nearly as well as it did earlier in the year. And it's not all
30:49mint Thompson's fault, but I do think that him having to take on the load that he's had to take
30:53on here the last couple of months has hurt him. Yeah. I think that it's hurt him in the short
31:00term and that we're going to look on it eventually. And this is probably a pie in the sky,
31:06overly optimistic. And I think we can use this on this episode because there is a lot of negative
31:13here. So allow me to just dream with me here, Adam and the audience y'all dream with me for
31:18a little bit. I suspect that this is going to help him in the long run. And this is valuable
31:25experience that he's getting not terribly dissimilar to the valuable experience that
31:30the guys that are just a couple of years ahead of him. We're getting a couple of years ago when
31:35operation goon and Jalen green were playing all the minutes that they were playing the
31:39put your bar Smith in the same mix. They're like having to just kind of play through some of those
31:45struggles, whether it be fatigue or the league, figuring you out a little bit, you figuring out
31:51yourself and what your adjustment is to the adjustment. Like these are with a mint Thompson
31:58specifically, like we just isolate to him. These are the growing pains that I'm actually
32:03okay with. And I think can actually be a positive for him in the long run, but we're not in the
32:10long run yet. The difference between a mint Thompson's development or read Shepherd's
32:16development is that it's coming at a time where the team is actually trying to be competitive.
32:21It's coming at a time when they've actually kind of up the ante a little bit in terms of
32:26what the stakes are. And so you don't necessarily have the same level of time and patience for it.
32:33It's like, Hey man, a mint Thompson is like, we were having a discussion a couple of months ago
32:37about how quickly will he become their best player if he's not already their best player?
32:43All right. Well, once we start talking about you like that, we expect you to also show a certain
32:49level of consistency or at least play to a certain standard. And he hasn't always necessarily
32:55been able to do that, but I would use a similar comment with him that you use with Alpern Shagoon.
33:01Like I think all things considered, he's also been fine. Like when you consider what the
33:06limitations are in his game and what it is that he actually brings to the table,
33:11I feel like he's been fine as well. If there's a disappointing part about it or about how the
33:16experience has sort of materialized over the last several weeks or so, it's the part that
33:20you talk about, about like with the defense, not, and that's the team overall, not just the mint
33:25Thompson, but the team overall. And then him specifically. Okay. That's the one thing like
33:33the shooting's not necessarily there. He's still developing as a creator and as a ball handler and
33:39all these other types of things. And you're, you're willing to be, or should at least be
33:44willing to be as patient as possible with that. But the thing that you expect to be consistent
33:49and to have on a night in and night out basis is a mint Thompson elite level defender.
33:55And it hasn't necessarily been that I still rather have him out there than not. And you're
34:00still going to give him the toughest assignment because I think he's even in a dry, in a dry spell
34:07is probably your best defensive player, uh, particularly on the perimeter, but it just,
34:12it just has not, it has not necessarily looked like that as a late, well, just think about this
34:18thing earlier in the year, they would play four games. They would, they play four games in a week.
34:23All right. He's playing, you know, he, and now he, and so he's playing four games in a week
34:30back in December. Now he's playing four games in a week here in March or February, and he's
34:36playing 10 more minutes of games. So that's an extra 40 minutes that he's having to play in a
34:40given week. That's like playing. That's like playing a fifth game in seven nights, essentially.
34:45So you can talk and he talked about this a few weeks ago. Like, yeah, he stays in great shape.
34:51Obviously he gets his sleep and all that stuff, but you don't know what it's like to play 40
34:57minutes a night on an M in an NBA schedule with the grind of all the back-to-backs and the travel
35:02and everything that comes with it until your body actually goes through it. It's the same thing in
35:07baseball. Like you don't know what it takes to throw 200 innings until you actually throw 200
35:12innings. And you don't know how your arm is going to react to that when you do it the first time.
35:15Same thing with your body when you're trying to play as much basketball as he's had to play here
35:20lately. So I do think that it is a good thing that he's having to go through this now, but I do think
35:25that it is also taking its toll and that will help him moving forward. He goes into, he will go into
35:32next season knowing exactly what it's going to feel like. And his body will be better prepared
35:37for that whenever next season starts. That's, that's the hard part about relying on young
35:42players because they're going through so many things for the first time. They're playing 82
35:46games. A lot of times for the first time they are playing, you know, an NBA game is eight minutes
35:52longer than a college game. It's what 16 minutes longer than a high school game you're playing
35:57in college. You play two games a week. Usually in high school, you play two games a week in the NBA.
36:02He might play five games in the stretch of seven days. Like it is in the season is obviously much,
36:07much, much longer. So you have a guy in Thompson and there are other guys, obviously on this roster
36:13that are going through it. It's hard. It's hard to go through this when you've never had to go
36:17through it before. So to me, I think you would love for him to be able to defend at a high level
36:23every single night, but also man, it's hard. It's hard to do that in the NBA. It's just not one of
36:28those things that's really, really tough to do. Where do you think the Rockets finish this season?
36:35Like just as a thought exercise, like they're the fifth seed right now. They've been as high as the
36:42two seed. I said earlier in the show here that I think they're probably something like the sixth or
36:49seventh best team in the West, even though I don't think that's an acceptable way to look at it in
36:55terms of what the goals should be and how they should finish given how the season started. Like
37:01I don't think being the sixth or seventh best team in the West is a good enough excuse right now for
37:06them to actually finish with the sixth or seventh seed. But I'm trying to wrap my head around this,
37:11like what my answer to my own question is, where do they actually finish in the Western
37:17Conference right now, playing the way that they're playing, understanding what's around
37:22them in the Western Conference, that somehow the Lakers got Luka Doncic, and that's a little bit of
37:30a game changer in what's going on in the Western Conference. Golden State's playing pretty good
37:35basketball. Minnesota's behind you, and they've got Anthony Edwards, and we've seen the receipts
37:41and what that looks like based off of what they did last year. So you got two teams behind you,
37:47at the very least, two teams behind you that could hawk you, and you're probably not better
37:51than the four teams ahead of you. I don't want to say it's a team without a country, but I don't
37:56have a good sense right now for what my answer would be to this question. I'm curious what yours
38:01is. Where do the Rockets finish at the end of the season? The schedule eases up, and I'll just run
38:08through because they're in New Orleans tomorrow, Thursday, and then they play one, two, three, four,
38:13five, six. Hang on, let me count again. One, two, three, four, five, six straight at home,
38:19and all six of these games they should win. Let's just be honest. So this next stretch should be a
38:27time where they can pile up wins at New Orleans, home New Orleans, home Orlando, home Phoenix,
38:32home Dallas, home Chicago, home Philadelphia, at Orlando, at Miami. If you are a real playoff team
38:41in the Western Conference, you should win what? All nine of those games? Is that asking? Listen,
38:46they're not going to go 9-0, but you should be able to put a dent in your schedule right there
38:54just based off of those nine games. And then if you can do that, then you're sitting in pretty
38:58good shape for these last 11 games of the year. Yeah, man. I'm not going to go 9-0. I mean,
39:06they're not, and that would be, like, I would be dishonest if I tried to predict that,
39:11but I mean, how bad? I'm trying to find this. I had this written down.
39:18They've lost 11 of the last 16 games, man. No, and there's some bad losses in there,
39:22without a doubt. I'm just saying, you got to figure out a way to flip that script, man. Like,
39:28if it's not nine in a row, it's got to be seven or nine or six or nine or something. Like,
39:33you need to go on a run here. Like, I'm stating the obvious, but if it ain't nine in a row,
39:38damn, it does need to be close, don't you think? Well, I mean, if they don't, then they have more
39:43serious issues than what we're talking about. But if you can't have a really good six-game
39:48homestand against a bunch of either fringy playoff teams or teams that are going to be in the lottery,
39:55then there's no point to this. I mean, they have two games against New Orleans. New Orleans is
39:59right now in the running for most ping pong balls. Orlando may be a playoff team, maybe at
40:05this point in the Eastern Conference, but they've been disappointing. Obviously, we all know Phoenix
40:09is trying to get their way back into the play-in. Dallas is finished. Chicago is fighting for 10th
40:15place in the East. Philly, I don't know what Philly wants to do right now at this point.
40:20And then Orlando and Miami, again, those are two more games, even though they're on the road,
40:25those are two games that you should win. So if you can't do a dent, if you can't turn it around
40:31during this nine-game stretch, then it's just not going to happen. And then you're just kind
40:36of looking at hanging in for the play-in at this point. So the last thing I want to talk about is
40:42the Rockets' rotations. I'm trying to give Emma Udoka the benefit of the doubt because I don't
40:50think he's had necessarily the greatest of options with Fred VanVleet being out, and it's just
40:56that offensively, they're weird. They're weird without him offensively. But it feels to me like
41:05they haven't been able to find a groove of rotation of who's going to play on a night-in
41:13and night-out basis. Maybe that has a lot to do with who's available to them,
41:17who's healthy. They got some guys that can't play back-to-backs. There's some nuance into
41:22what I'm talking about here. But it just feels wonky to me, man. I don't know if I'm overreacting
41:29to that. And I thought that Jabari Smith coming back would help solidify their rotation or help
41:36them feel better about what they got going. And I'm not sure if that has exactly been the case.
41:43I will give them credit for, in the Indiana game, how they go on the double-big lineup
41:49and they fought a little bit of fire with fire. I know that Indiana had gone zone on them.
41:55They go zone on Indiana, and they go with the double-big lineup. They fight back. They get
42:00back into the game. They even take the lead briefly. And then they go cold in the fourth
42:05quarter and can't knock down a shot. But I want to give M.A. Udoge his credit for recognizing a
42:13rotation or a lineup that worked for them that given night. But nightly, I just don't feel like
42:22I know who either is going to play or who should play. It just feels like a weird mix of players
42:29right now, which is a weird thing to say, given how well they were all playing together at one
42:34point. Well, it's been hard since Jabari has come back because he's come back during this stretch
42:40where it just seems like everything's a back-to-back. And what's happening in these back-to-backs is
42:44that Tarheesan is not playing both games. And so when that happens, it's really hard to find
42:49continuity. When the starting lineup changes night after night after night, and when your
42:54first guy off the bench is always changing, you just don't have any cohesion at this point.
43:00And when they were playing really well at the start of the year for the first two and a half
43:04months, they were remarkably healthy. We talked about that. They were remarkably healthy at the
43:09start of the year. And the way the NBA works is you're not going to stay remarkably healthy the
43:14entire season. And that's what they're dealing with right now. They have certainly had some
43:18trouble trying to figure out just trying to juggle the rotation. I mean, when you have four starters
43:23out in Oklahoma City the other day, it becomes difficult. A lot of times you're grasping at
43:31straws. They closed the game before the all-star break with all bench guys. It's Nate Williams
43:37was with that closing group against the Warriors. So it's tough when you just have no consistency
43:43with who's playing night in and night out. And so I think that when Jabari Smith came back,
43:49and when Fred VanVleet came back on Saturday, there was a feeling of, okay, we got everybody
43:53back. Now, here we go. The season, we can officially kind of restart the season. And
43:59then what happens? Very first play of that Sacramento game, Fred VanVleet steps on J.B.
44:03DeRosa's foot, and now he's missing another week. And it seemed like the whole team was on the
44:09injury report going into that Oklahoma City game. So this is a team that has had their full allotment
44:15of players once since the middle of December. And I don't know when the next time is going to be
44:21where they have all their guys together at this point. Yeah, it's a weird mix and a weird vibe.
44:28I will say since you mentioned Oklahoma City game, the Reed Shepard minutes, you could call
44:34those garbage time minutes because he played as much as he did because of what the health
44:38situation was. But off the strength of how he played in that game, I thought he earned himself
44:43some minutes in the Indiana game. I don't feel like Reed Shepard is developed enough to where
44:50he either is going to be playing or should be playing once the games or the more meaningful
44:57the games become and the more meaningful the minutes become and they're pretty damn meaningful
45:01right now as is. But I do feel like there's some kind of positive in that. We talked about
45:08Reed Shepard, how he needs to play and needs to gain his confidence and needs to be more,
45:14excuse me, be more aggressive. And I feel like we're starting to see a little bit of that.
45:19I don't know if too little too late is the right way to characterize it, but
45:23you know, kind of similar to a man, but a man is just a much more important player for them right
45:28now. But they don't really have time to like develop him or to wait on him to figure things
45:34out. And I kind of wish that they did in some ways, but I do feel like you saw some positives
45:41in the fact that Reed Shepard was able to have his best game against the best team in the league
45:46is certainly the best team in the Western Conference. Like I do think that that is a
45:50bit of a silver lining, even if, even if I'm being honest, you know, Reed Shepard shouldn't
45:56be out there playing that much. It's hard to develop players to give young players minutes
46:01on good teams. It's really, really difficult to do. And, you know, you wonder how things would
46:08be different for him if he joined the Rockets three years ago, instead of this year, you know,
46:12like he would have had the opportunity to work all this stuff out on the fly in kind of a note,
46:18you know, even though the lights were on, it still was a no pressure situation for
46:22Jalen Green and Alperen Shingun. There were no stakes. There are stakes now. And so that's
46:28just going to impact the minutes. And you have a head coach who wants to make the playoffs
46:32and you're just not going to hand Reed Shepard minutes unless he, until he earns them.
46:36And I think for a lot of people, that's what is great about Imei Yudoka. Like that was,
46:40you know, Imei Yudoka saying, no, if you, if you want to play, you're going to have to earn it.
46:44That's good. It's not necessarily great for a rookie, but Hey, that's life. That's life in the
46:49NBA. If he, you know, he, he was given an opportunity early in the season and he didn't
46:54play well enough. And because of that, he wound up getting taken out of the rotation. I, for me,
47:00personally, I thought what they did on Monday is something that they probably should have done a
47:03while ago. Like just throw them out there. Just say, Hey, here's eight minutes in the first half,
47:09eight minutes in the second half, let's see what you got. And that's something that I would
47:12probably do with him a little more often, but again, they're, they're in a, they're in a
47:17situation now, especially as they've kind of lost a bunch of games here lately where every minute
47:22matters, every possession matters. And you're trying to make the playoffs. You're trying to
47:25do damage in the playoffs. And, you know, one possession could be the difference between
47:29playing game one at home or playing game one in LA. You never know. So like, I get, I get where
47:34they're coming from with this. I, you know, Yudoka said back in January, after they sent Shepard down
47:41that he thought that Shepard would be, would factor into their rotation at some point this
47:45season. I don't think that's going to wind up being the case, but the good news is that he
47:50showed you something on Monday. And I think that there were a lot of people who were starting to
47:54question if whether or not that was a bad pick. The fact that he did show you something Monday was
47:59good. And that's something that he can build on maybe not for the rest of this season,
48:03but maybe going into the off season. It's just so weird to be in a space of
48:08the rockets have in a lot of ways, overachieved and outperformed expectations this season,
48:16but even still with their young players, let's put them in Thompson to the side for a second,
48:23but think about everybody else. And I'm talking about core guys, right? Yeah. I know
48:29Alpern Shangoon, Jalen Green, still young players. I think it's fair, fair enough to say
48:33between Alpern Shangoon, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, and let's just throw Reed Shepard out
48:41there. I'll put a man Thompson to the side. I think Tari Eason, of course is fine in his role
48:46camp with more, let's put to the side as well, but those main guys draft picks Alpern Shangoon,
48:55Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, Jr. And Reed Shepard, all four of those guys. And this is not to be
49:04overly critical of on them, but just to hear what I'm saying, they're all in like a, what if type
49:10of space, you know, it's like, what if Alpern Shangoon, let's just go to each one. What if
49:16Alpern Shangoon was as good this year as he was last year to your earlier point, how he just hasn't
49:21been quite as good. He's been fine, but not quite as good. What if he was, what if Alpern Shangoon
49:27was giving you the Shangoon that he gave you last year? What if Jalen Green played to his full
49:35potential? You know, like we're talking about a completely different basketball team. What if
49:40Jabari Smith didn't break his hand in a, in a freak injury and they had him through, you know,
49:45throughout the course of this season, what if Reed Shepard was ready to play the way you
49:51expect a number three overall pick to at least be ready to play? Like, think about it. Jabari
49:57Smith jr. Hasn't necessarily played up to the level of like, you know, star or what you expect
50:02out of a number three overall pick, but has always been ready to play. Like, you know, for the most
50:07part been available and for the most part also, I think useful, you know, outside of like the very,
50:14very beginning of his career, all of these key guys have a, what if type of scenario or what
50:21if type of question that you could associate with them and their game and their development.
50:28And the answer to the, what if needs to be a positive one, obviously for them to get anywhere
50:33close to where they're trying to go this year. Like, you know, it's a young team that has some
50:39veteran leadership on it, but they're only going to go as far as, you know, starting with Alfred
50:44Shangoon and Jalen Green, but really like the totality of it, like they're only going to go
50:49as far as these young guys take them. So I say all that to say, they got to brush off some of
50:55this, what if, and start answering the question and start answering the bill kind of to your
50:59earlier point, like you need your stars a hundred percent to step up in moments like this, the more
51:04the games matter, heavier is the head that wears the ground. Yeah. And they've got 20 games here
51:10to try and figure things out. And I think for the main two guys, like how far they go, whether or
51:16not they make the playoffs or they win a playoff round, I think it's going to come down to those
51:21two. It's going to come down to Jalen Green. It's going to come down to Alfred Shangoon.
51:25Yeah. A hundred percent. Now you were just getting at this. Let's look at this schedule,
51:29man. You were talking about this earlier in the show. Schedule's about to lighten up.
51:33All right. They got home and home with the Pelicans. I don't want to get ahead of myself.
51:39Like if they could just take care of the two game series against the Pelicans, sweep the Pelicans,
51:44start there. You want to get back on the winning track? Rockets. You could start right there by
51:49not embarrassing yourself either at home or on the road against the Pelicans in these next two
51:55games. So Thursday night against the Pelicans in New Orleans and Saturday night against the
52:00Pelicans at home. You need to win both of those games. To me, those are non-negotiables. I don't
52:05even want to talk about what if you lose or how you can lose. You can't lose those games to the
52:09Pelicans. Just flat out. Not if you're serious. Not if you're dead set on or hell-bent on being a
52:16serious outfit, you're not losing those games. The magic after that next Monday at home, the magic
52:23earlier on in the season kind of was similar. Maybe you might say a similar trajectory with
52:28the Rockets, like a young team that's emerging that might make some noise in the Eastern Conference.
52:33No, it turns out that that's not the case. They have a chance to be a playoff team,
52:38but they're not a very good team. They're below 500 team. You should beat the magic at home.
52:43You got the Suns. You handle business against the Suns a few weeks ago, right before the all-star
52:47break. You and I were both around for that. We know that the Suns are a bit of a disaster,
52:51even though they do have talent. You need to be able to take care of that game. I know you said
52:55they should go nine and oh, but I'm going through some of these, man. I just gave you two, three.
53:02All right, there are two, three, four. There's the Pelicans twice, the Magic, the Suns,
53:08got the Mavericks at home after that. Okay, Dallas, we understand it has become a disaster
53:14with their trade slash injury situation. This should be like a get right type of week, right?
53:22I just rattled off five or six games that should be winnable without even getting ahead of ourselves.
53:29It is, I think goes without saying, but I'm just going to say it anyway. It is time to take care
53:33of business. Absolutely right. Against these teams that we're talking about, these inferior
53:37outfits, they're going to be doing this. Yeah. If you're serious, these are games that you win.
53:41And it doesn't mean that, you know, the games can't be closer. You know, you might not play
53:47your best, but you should still be able to win these games, especially the home games. I mean,
53:51there are too many, there are too many teams during this stretch that either aren't competitive
53:56or aren't necessarily trying to be competitive. Yeah. Let's, let's revisit after that Magic game.
54:02So they play the Magic at home, March 10th, Monday, March 10th. And then they have a day
54:08off on Tuesday before they pick things back up at home on Monday. I'm sorry, on Wednesday against
54:14the Phoenix Suns. We can talk Tuesday and see where we are at that point. At that point, they
54:19will have played three games, right? The two games against the Pelicans and the one game against the
54:23Magic, maybe we're singing a different tune. Maybe they are closer to playing their brand of
54:29basketball and starting to look like a serious playoff team, or at least one that like, I would
54:34like for the Rockets to at least go back to being, I don't think that they're this right now based on
54:40how they're playing based off of how they're playing. I don't think they're this right now,
54:44but I'd like for them to go back to being, if not like a team that is threatening to host a
54:52playoff series, at the very least be the team that the other ones don't want to face, right?
54:58Like it didn't, it didn't seem like at some point, like wherever the Rockets fail, they were frisky
55:03enough to where like, man, I don't know. I got, I'm still picking OKC or I'm still picking Denver,
55:10or I'm still picking the Lakers or like whoever it is that they end up matching up with. Maybe
55:14you're still picking the other teams. You're like, man, the Rockets are going to make that series
55:19really interesting. They defend well enough to where they can be really frisky. They got enough
55:25talent. So where like, even if they don't know what the hell they're doing at times,
55:30the talent of a Jalen Green and Alfred Shingun, Jabari Smith, and all these guys,
55:34and then Thompson, all these guys, the talent of them alone is threatening for anybody.
55:39Like you don't feel that way about this Rockets team right now. And I need them to get back to
55:46that kind of time. And look, these next couple of games against the Pelicans and of course,
55:52they got the magic after that. We'll talk on Tuesday and we'll see if they look anything
55:55closer to that now. All right, man. This is the H-Town Hoops podcast. I'm Brandon Scott.
56:03That's Adam Spillane. Austin Mendez is producing this thing for us. Make sure that you subscribe,
56:09rate, review, tell people about the H-Town Hoops podcast. We do this every week. We also appear,
56:14I should mention this, I never talk about this on a podcast. We also appear on this little radio
56:19station that they got called Sports Radio 610. You can catch Adam every week on Wednesdays
56:25within the loop. You do that at 1040, right? You're at 1040 in the loop on Wednesdays. I am
56:33Tuesdays at 11 on in the loop. And I do a Rockets report with the drive on Wednesdays as well at
56:401040. So make sure you check us out on the radio throughout the week. And of course,
56:45show all the love to the podcast that you possibly can. We're going to do this again
56:50next week, circle back and see if the Rockets have made any improvement in the next three games.
56:55But until next time, for Adam Spillane, for Austin Mendez, I am Brandon Scott.
56:59This has been the H-Town Hoops podcast. And y'all be good.