00:00Ooh, the Houston Rockets.
00:01It was a good, bad, ugly, everything kind of day to some degree.
00:07Actually, I don't know what the ugly would be.
00:08Well, I guess.
00:09Well, the ugly was a call.
00:10Yeah.
00:11Yeah.
00:11Man, that was a lot like the Aggie game the night before.
00:13Wasn't it?
00:14If you're asking, what are these guys talking about?
00:17Last night, the Rockets started their mini baseball series in Portland
00:22versus the Trailblazers.
00:24They had the game last night.
00:25They'll play again in Portland tomorrow evening.
00:29And so, like I said, a little mini baseball series, too, in the same town.
00:33It came down a moment where the Rockets were looking for KD to make a little
00:38magic again, not more than a week, I guess,
00:41from him making a little magic last time with a game winner.
00:45And he had a game winner earlier this week, didn't he?
00:47He does that now, doesn't he?
00:49And that was the expectation is that he would do that.
00:51Missed Tari Eason with a putback tip that looked like he had silenced
00:56the Moda Center crowd after review, unfortunately, just on his fingertips.
01:01And so, instead of it being a 104-103 victory, it's a 103-102 loss for the Rockets
01:06on a night where they just couldn't buy a three.
01:09No, they could not.
01:10And I referenced, you know, it was a lot like the Aggie.
01:12The Auburn did the very same thing, although it was a deep three.
01:15The ball was just on their fingertips.
01:18Everybody rushed the floor.
01:19And after the review, it was like, nope, not going to happen.
01:23Yeah, sometimes it feels like being a sports fan is just the dumbest idea
01:27in the world.
01:27Because it is.
01:28Like, why did I sign up for this?
01:29No, it is.
01:30I was up at, what, 12-something that night.
01:32Mm-hmm.
01:33And with the excitement of the moment for it to be stripped away because the
01:38slightest bit of skin on his fingertip did not disconnect with the basketball.
01:42That was a very—
01:44We're all dumb.
01:45Yes, we are.
01:46But at least we're dumb together, right?
01:47It's the friends that we make along the way.
01:50That is what it's—
01:52That's the little, whatever we call it, you know, the saving grace.
01:57Yeah, it's the silver lining within all this is that we make friends along the
02:00way.
02:01But one of the friends that we have here with the Rockets is Jabari Smith Jr.
02:05And in watching this game, there was a number of things that occurred to me,
02:10you know, passing thoughts, if you will.
02:12One of them was—
02:13I'm going to sue me, but don't actually.
02:17I don't have money for a lawyer right now.
02:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:19One of them was that, oh, that's right.
02:22The Rockets have intentionally gotten a little bit older, and they're not always going to
02:27be the fastest and most athletic team on the court.
02:30And the trailblazers absolutely looked like that.
02:32But what really occurred to me to some degree was, oh, they're attacking Jabari Smith Jr.
02:38in a way that feels uncomfortable.
02:39Because Jabari's supposed to be one of those young, athletic dudes that can score, that
02:43can defend.
02:44And the question occurred to me, do we need to have a Jabari Smith Jr. conversation?
02:49Because he's a starter that another team felt more than comfortable going at, when that's
02:55supposed to be one of the things that he has in his bag.
02:56Is this a bigger issue, though?
02:58Does this sort of trickle down from, number one, you don't have Alpen Shingun, but not
03:04only that, you know, you've lost some guys in the middle.
03:08We've talked about this since before the season began, just how they're going to rotate,
03:13how they're going to guard defensively some of these bigs, how they're going to stretch,
03:17and teams are going to attack them.
03:19And do we need to have a Jabari Smith conversation?
03:23The answer would be yes, but I think it's bigger than that.
03:26You know, I think because he's the spot, the target, so to speak, that they had last
03:32night.
03:32But I think there's a lot of issues.
03:33I mean, they had a dominant rebounding game, the Rockets did.
03:38Well, how dominant did it end up?
03:40Because in the course of it, they were leading, but I knew that Donovan Klingin, who was their
03:43big offensive rebounder, it's so weird, as I press pause on the statement that I was actually
03:48going to be making.
03:49It's so weird to come into a game, and I know that I'm sicko because of this, and I go,
03:53oh man, this is all between Klingin and Steven Adams.
03:57Oh yeah, let's go.
03:58But yeah, it's, you know.
04:01What was the total?
04:02I thought, it felt from what I was looking at, and I didn't stay up, I watched mostly,
04:06you know, highlights and such this morning, but it felt like they were controlling.
04:12Yeah, they definitely had a lead at one point.
04:14And I don't know what it ended up with, because at a certain point, I was more paying attention
04:19and favoring what the flow of the game was.
04:23But the Rockets ended up with 57 rebounds to the Trail Blazers, if my computer actually
04:29wants to comply here, which it doesn't.
04:30Don't you love when that happens?
04:31Right when you need to get it to the 38, to the, so yeah, they did.
04:36That's a big time.
04:37They won it big time, which makes it even more frustrating that you shot so poorly, you had
04:42an opportunity, but you couldn't get there.
04:43The reason why I brought it to Jabari Smith Jr. in particular was, you compare him to
04:48Tari Eason, I feel like they are two guys that give you similar things, some outside
04:53shooting, some defense, obviously, and you, you know, an ability to score in some moments.
05:00Jabari's supposed to be more of that, and it feels like you get, you're getting more of
05:05that consistently with Tari when he's healthy.
05:07It feels that way, because I think you are.
05:08Yeah, I think you are.
05:10You know what's interesting also, length on the perimeter shouldn't really bother this
05:16team as much, because when healthy, it's, it's, it's, it's better, you know, it's long,
05:20and it's got the ability to defend the perimeter with other bigs, but last night, they were
05:25getting exposed, but what's that, Avija, Avija?
05:27Oh yeah, Denny Avdia?
05:28Avdia, yeah.
05:29Two, I might have to have a, a mea culpa to some degree with Denny Avdia, because if
05:35you were a little, a week or two ago when B. Scott was in for John, I was mentioning
05:39that the all-star numbers, and the returns still look like this, have Denny Avdia with
05:44more votes than both Kevin Durant and Alperin Shangun, and I was like, there's no way that
05:48should be the case.
05:49Now, more of that was based off of, this is a city of how many umpteen million people,
05:53and then you have the international flair of the Turkish folks that I imagine should be
05:57voting for Alper Shangun, they should be hitting harder than Portland fans, however, Denny Avdia
06:02put 41 on your head top.
06:0341.
06:04And some of that was attacking Jabari Smith Jr.
06:07That's what I'm saying, length shouldn't really bother this team on the perimeter.
06:09Well, I don't think it was the, I think it was the speed.
06:11But I'm saying he's 6'8 with speed, and he knows where he's going, and so to be able
06:15to be tall enough to take that one step or whatever it is, drive, and still get up, I
06:20think that's what's hurting them, but we'll see.
06:23Clearly, it hasn't been the best right now for Jabari.
06:25Can I give you an interesting number that I saw with Jabari?
06:27Because it feels like, this was one of those things where, this is a feeling, but let me
06:30see if the numbers back this up.
06:32In wins, Jabari Smith Jr., 127 offensive rating, 103 defensive rating, so his net rating is
06:40a plus 24, basically.
06:42He's showing up big time for you, you know, just generally, offense, defensively, when
06:47you get wins.
06:48When you lose, a 112 offensive rating, and a defensive rating of 123, a negative 11 there
06:56abouts, offense, or, you know, net rating.
06:59When you are losing games, Jabari Smith Jr. is very, very, is like, he's negative.
07:05Is that him, or is that matchup?
07:07And that's a good question.
07:07I don't have, this is not going to be telling.
07:09This is just a overarching broad strokes.
07:12Because I thought the matchup was overwhelming for him.
07:13I agree, it points to something, and maybe it doesn't.
07:17Maybe I'm reaching here, and this is too much when it comes to Jabari, but it does feel
07:20like Jabari, not quite a bellwether, but he should be a guy that makes an impact, especially
07:25when you're missing an Alper and Shangoon, where you go, I should expect Jabari, especially
07:29as he's doing a little bit of cosplay of trying to be Kevin Durant, I should be able to lean
07:33on you a little bit more to give me a buck in and away, you know, even maybe manufacture
07:37a few of them for yourself, but then also give me a little bit more on defense.
07:41And it feels like, or at least wins and losses is not an easy thing, because, you know, obviously
07:46the loss dictates that you did not play as well as you would have, or otherwise you would
07:50have won.
07:50But that clear disparity shows that for him, when you lose the game, it's in part because
07:57he did not show up nearly in the same way as he shows up when he wins.
08:00And it should not be that big of a disparity for a dude who's supposed to be integral to
08:03what you're doing.
08:04It does make me wonder about, you know, just the defensive mindset that he has.
08:10You know, is it viral?
08:12You know, is it viral?
08:13I don't know how much it's a mindset.
08:15And that's the thing.
08:15That's also a little scary is just why, and maybe that's something I need to do some level
08:20of research on, a little study to see if I could find out.
08:23But, because that is important.
08:24But for me, the idea that you have such a big variety, or variation is the word I was
08:30thinking for.
08:31In his performance, it's problematic if he's going to be a starter that has a lot of minutes,
08:36especially when you're looking at someone like Tari, who now that he's stepping up into
08:39a starting role, you're getting more consistency out of him.
08:42He was a split second away from winning you this basketball game.
08:45There haven't been enough of those moments for Jabari Smith Jr.
08:48I keep going back to, you know, is this, it's not physical.
08:53We know that.
08:55No.
08:55In fact, he had a 15-game stretch of looking like, oh, okay, here it is.
09:01This is what we were waiting for when you drafted him number three overall.
09:03And maybe it's just, he needs to find the consistency of it, but it's been a number
09:09of years now as well.
09:11It has been.
09:12And how do you play it though from here?
09:14Because you can't, you can't not play him.
09:17And that's what I'm wondering about, like how they use, how they use him on the perimeter.
09:21Yeah.
09:21It's a good question.
09:22I don't, maybe, maybe this is a conversation of, does he need to start?
09:25Does this need to shift a little bit there?
09:27And a text came in when we started the segment, funny enough, from the 713.
09:31I think we need to have an Emeo-Doka conversation.
09:33There's far too much talent for the offense to look as bad as it does.
09:37He needs to find an offensive coordinator.
09:39Yeah.
09:39Like, you know.
09:40We talked about that last season, to be honest.
09:42And there's some, there's some of the things where you're limited by not having the initiator
09:48offensively.
09:49Yeah.
09:49Portland also did a thing that, to some degree, that the Suns did, which is getting into passing
09:53lanes and creating turnovers.
09:54That was, that's something that I think is a book on this team.
09:57And I don't know how you get out of that.
09:59But yeah, I think that there's some offensive things that are there for you that you need
10:02to be able to, that you need to be able to make it easier for some of these guys' talents
10:05to show up.
10:06Yeah.
10:06But even the Jabari thing, this is also Emeo.
10:09Emeo is going to have to show just how good of a coach he is.
10:12And we believe him to be a very good one.
10:13So I think I have confidence that he finds it.
10:16But he's going to have to demonstrate how good of a coach he is because this disparity for Jabari
10:20isn't a good one.
10:21I think that's, that's a secondary conversation that, as Figgy said, you know, we've been having.
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